Has anyone managed to dual- or multi-boot any of the BSDs with one another? reddit / BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fusion809 · 2018-11-13 02:53 Hi, I was curious as to whether anyone in this group has managed to dual or multi-boot any of the BSDs with one another. Like FreeBSD with OpenBSD, or DragonFly BSD with NetBSD, *etc.* To be clear, I do not mean dual/multi-boot with non-BSDs, I mean dual/multi-booting two or more distinct BSDs with one another. I was wanting to set up a dual-boot between NetBSD and FreeBSD, but I experienced an issue wherein the NetBSD installer didn't recognize my FreeBSD on ZFS install and wanted to overwrite it. I looked for manual install instructions for NetBSD (i.e. without an installer) so I could do things manually and, hopefully, not overwrite my FreeBSD install, but I couldn't find it. When I created the partition using gpart (used the netbsd-ffs type) on FreeBSD (as I wanted to point the installer to it, instead of letting it set up the partition) I found NetBSD's installer didn't allow me to install to it (when I moved the cursor down in the partition table shown, it skipped the netbsd-ffs partition). I'm mentioning my experience to explain why I'm curious as to your experiences with it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kernigh · 2018-11-13 06:23 My old PowerBook G4 has partitions with OpenBSD/macppc and Mac OS X 10.4 (where OS X is BSD plus Apple stuff). I used Apple's installer to make 2 Mac partitions and install OS X on one partition, then OpenBSD's installer to change the type of the other partition. I tried NetBSD/macppc years ago, but probably never had NetBSD and OpenBSD on the disk at the same time. I type `boot hd:,ofwboot` in Open Firmware to boot OpenBSD, and would type a different command to boot NetBSD. NetBSD has a difficult installer. Try to get a shell (might be [Utility menu → Run /bin/sh](https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD- 8.0/macppc/INSTALL.html)), then run one of NetBSD's partitioning tools to change your partition to a NetBSD partition. (That tool would be [pdisk(8)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?pdisk) in macppc, but something else in other ports. [dkctl(8)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi- bin/man-cgi?dkctl+8)? fdisk(8)? gpt(8)?) Then run the installer but [tell it to use the existing partitions](https://mail- index.netbsd.org/port-macppc/2017/07/07/msg002425.html). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- poshpotdllr · 2018-11-13 06:42 this is harder than it should be but if you know how boot loaders work and how disks are organized and the different boot types (UEFI vs legacy) and all that you should be fine. it depends on your machine and requirements and the filesystem compatibility of the operating systems in question. there is no magic solution to the problem. this used to be a lot easier. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- icantthinkofone · 2018-11-13 11:47 I used to dual boot FreeBSD with something else, don't recall, many years ago. I often read about people who dual boot FreeBSD with something else. fwiw. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fusion809 · 2018-11-13 14:10 Yeah mate, I know people can dual/multi-boot the BSDs with non-BSD operating systems, I've done that several times before, the question is whether you've dual/multi-booted more than one distinct BSD at a time on the same PC, e.g. dual-booting FreeBSD with OpenBSD, or MidnightBSD with TrueOS, or triple booting DragonFly BSD with NetBSD and OpenBSD, *etc.* To be clear, I'm not attacking you, I realize you're trying to help, so thank you for that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wezm · 2018-11-13 19:32 At one point I had Arch Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Void Linux, and Windows all installed on my XPS 15. I used rEFInd as boot manager. I don’t recall doing anything special to make it work (aside from installed rEFInd). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fusion809 · 2018-11-14 03:29 What filesystems did you use for FreeBSD and OpenBSD? And by nothing special I'm guessing you left FreeBSD and OpenBSD's installer to install them and didn't install them manually? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wezm · 2018-11-14 03:33 Yes I initially just used UFS/FFS for the file systems. Later I did try a FreeBSD ZFS on root install following a guide I found online. That required doing it all by hand (which was extremely tedious with the tiny text on the 4K display). Somewhere along the line I missed a step and that didn’t end up working properly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cmason37 · 2018-11-15 17:20 I did at 1 point. It's really simple, no different than dual booting anything else than anything else, just more operating systems. If you're on BIOS use GRUB, if on UEFI use rEFInd & make sure no .efi files get lost/overwritten. Run into troubles with installers, just don't use them.