Hi,

I installed freebsd 5.2.1 in the first partition of the the disk and
SUSE linux on the second partition.
I configured grub in SUSE with the following content in the file menu.lst:
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8

title FreeBSD 5.2
root (hd0,0,a)
kernel /boot/loader
title linux
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 vga=773
title failsafe
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz.shipped root=/dev/hda2 ide=nodma apm=off
acpi=off vga=normal nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 3

fdisk /dev/hda shown that:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 3824 30716248+ a5 FreeBSD
/dev/hda2 * 3825 3890 530145 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 3891 3956 530145 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda4 3957 4865 7301542+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 3957 4087 1052226 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 4088 4479 3148708+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 4480 4610 1052226 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 4611 4865 2048256 83 Linux

after executed grub-install /dev/hda and rebooting the system,I selected
FreeBSD 5.2 to boot off, then there is error comes up:

root(hd0,0,a)
Error 5: Partition table invalid or corrupt

I think the first partition of the FreeBSD is get corrupted when install
SUSE Linux. If this is a very bad sign, should I reinstall FreeBSD on
the first partition (without selecting the boot manager from FreeBSD's
installation page)?
Or how can I change the grub configuration file so that it can boot off
FreeBSD 5.2.1?

Thanks
w

wonder wrote:

[..]
>
> I think the first partition of the FreeBSD is get corrupted when install
> SUSE Linux. If this is a very bad sign, should I reinstall FreeBSD on
> the first partition (without selecting the boot manager from FreeBSD's
> installation page)?
> Or how can I change the grub configuration file so that it can boot off
> FreeBSD 5.2.1?
>
> Thanks
> w

After changed the grub config file to use chainloader +1, it shown the
following error:

rootnoverify (hda0, 0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

Invalid label
No /boot/loader

FreeBSD/i386 boot
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/kernel
boot:

The grub config file is:
title FreeBSD 5.2
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive
title linux
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 vga=773
title failsafe
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz.shipped root=/dev/hda2 ide=nodma apm=off
acpi=off vga=normal nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 3

Thanks

wonder wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I installed freebsd 5.2.1 in the first partition of the the disk and
> SUSE linux on the second partition.
> I configured grub in SUSE with the following content in the file menu.lst:
> gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
> color white/blue black/light-gray
> default 0
> timeout 8
>
> title FreeBSD 5.2
> root (hd0,0,a)
> kernel /boot/loader
> title linux

<snip>

> root(hd0,0,a)
> Error 5: Partition table invalid or corrupt
>
> I think the first partition of the FreeBSD is get corrupted when install
> SUSE Linux. If this is a very bad sign, should I reinstall FreeBSD on
<snip>

that's because Linux cannot read UFS2 file systems (default with 5.x)
correctly. you need to specify a "chainloader" line in grub instead of
"kernel /boot/loader".
you will not be able to mount the UFS2 partition properly under linux
either.

james <at> hal-pc.org wrote:

> wonder wrote:
>>
> <snip>
>> <snip>
>
> that's because Linux cannot read UFS2 file systems (default with 5.x)
> correctly. you need to specify a "chainloader" line in grub instead of
> "kernel /boot/loader".
I used the following "chainloader" codes, but still failed:
title FreeBSD 5.2
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

It does display the boot prompt of FreeBSD boot manager:
FreeBSD/i386 boot
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/kernel
boot:

when typing "kernel /boot/loader" at the "boot:" prompt shown the
following eror:
No /boot/loader.

Do I need to reinstall 5.2.1 on the same partition?

thanks

wonder wrote:
> I used the following "chainloader" codes, but still failed:
> title FreeBSD 5.2
> rootnoverify (hd0,0)
> chainloader +1
> makeactive
>
> It does display the boot prompt of FreeBSD boot manager:
> FreeBSD/i386 boot
> Default: 0:ad(0,a)/kernel
> boot:
>
> when typing "kernel /boot/loader" at the "boot:" prompt shown the
> following eror:
> No /boot/loader.
>
> Do I need to reinstall 5.2.1 on the same partition?
>
> thanks

i had the exact problem with a SuSE install on my laptop but have since
whiped it out. as i recal, i had the slice wrong in grub.
try:
rootnoverify (hda0,1)
or 2, or 3, etc. i don't think a reinstall will be required. the best
way i've found to do this is to use a different boot manager
(http://gag.sourceforge.net for example) and Lilo on the superblock of
the Linux partition set to only boot the linux distro of choice. try
different slices in the "rootnoverify" line first though. if not then
you may want to look into using Lilo as specified.

wonder <dreams>:
> I installed freebsd 5.2.1 in the first partition of the the disk and
> SUSE linux on the second partition.

> I think the first partition of the FreeBSD is get corrupted when
> install SUSE Linux. If this is a very bad sign, should I reinstall

It would be safer to install the linux partition before the freebsd
partition if possible. There is an explanation for this in the
Linux+FreeBSD HOWTO (http://tldp.org/HOWTO/).

Section 2.2 "Drive and partition labelling in Linux and FreeBSD"
explains that it is possible to run into problems with partition naming
depending on whether or not UFS support (module?) is available in linux.

Jeff