I can't get any BSD to work

Hello, this is my first time here.


I've been using Linux constantly for about a month now and I've grown to dislike the newbie distros. I really enjoy Slack because it gives me a challenge but I really kind of wanted to try out a BSD.

I've installed both FreeBSD and NetBSD with the same results. What happens is say I install something like SuSE and grow tired of it, I decide to install NetBSD everything works just fine but when I boot up the computer it still tries to shoot me into a SuSE bootloader. I choose "Linux" for my option (thinking the label didn't change or something, hoping for the best) and it naturally gives me a kernel panic.

NetBSD is there yet it will not boot to it. I have told Net and Free in both installs to write over the MBR so I don't know what's going on. It's starting to really get me angry now, I have never used Unix before so could this only be a command line for a BSD? I thought FreeBSD had a desktop though... Could someone explain why this isn't working correctly? Thanks for any help, I hope I will meet some pros to Linux and make some friends along the way.

I'm not familiar with NetBSD, so I'll ask about Free. What option did you select when it asked about the bootloader in the install?

Ack, I can't remember. I'll try to muster up enough patience and try the install again tonight. I'll be back to tell you what I choose. With Free .. eh I believe I chose the MBR but I could be wrong.


I really kind of wanted FreeBSD anyway, I just wanted to try NetBSD because I couldn't get Free up yet Net does the same thing. Heh, I'm slow sometimes - I'll get that info for you and I'll be back.

::slams head on desk::

I chose "Install FreeBSD boot manager" and nothing works ... still. Yet things are much worse now.

For some reason I decided to put back on Fedora this puts on Grub and doesn't let you choose Lilo. Grub sucks. You touch Grub once and it boots you into a Grub command line instead of a bootloader. So now I can't access a thing until I install something that will give me a normal bootloader. I have no idea what's going on here, I'm doing everything right, the installation even tells me that! I chose the MBR, so why will it not boot?! AH!

Does FreeBSD even have a graphical desktop or do I have to do everything from a command line? Even if I had to do stuff from a command line it should still say a FreeBSD command line - not Grub or anything else. Deeply angered so I'll just watch a movie and put Slack back on.

By selecting FreeBSD boot manager it should overwrite GRUB and/or Lilo. And yes, you can have any desktop environment or window manager in FreeBSD you want.

What about creating a "/boot" partition? This would only be my fourth time installing it but I'm willing to. Do you think the /boot partition would work? I've been doing the automatic partitioning so that could be it..

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Originally Posted by George Harrison

What about creating a "/boot" partition? This would only be my fourth time installing it but I'm willing to. Do you think the /boot partition would work? I've been doing the automatic partitioning so that could be it..

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If you're using the "A" option for automatic partitioning, you shouldn't be running into this problem. Let me get this clear: you're running another Linux distro(s) on the same machine as FreeBSD? If this is the case, it's best not to use the FreeBSD boot manager anyways. Just use Lilo or GRUB. Google for tutorials on how to set up Lilo or GRUB to boot FreeBSD.

Here's a GRUB howto on FreeBSD/Redhat/OpenBSD:
http://geodsoft.com/howto/dualboot/grub.htm

Here's a Lilo howto of the same sort:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+FreeBSD-4.html

Or just Google for other tutorials.