Re: Boot loaders for Linux that can also boot FreeBSD

[Kelly Clowers <kelly.clowers@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 5:58 AM, Ralf Mardorf
<ralf.mardorf@alice-dsl.net> wrote:
> Hi :)
>
> my apologies for cross-posting this to several Linux mailing lists.
>
> I need a boot loader for Linux, that is comfortable to use for my needs,
> a Linux multi-boot with
> trillions of Linux installs,
> trillions ^ 2 kernels and
> (trillions ^ 2) * 1024 entries with different boot options, so something
> as GRUB 2 is unusable for my needs.

Why is Grub unsuitable?

> On a FreeBSD mailing list somebody wrote:
>> You might want to try a chainloader boot from grub.  The following is a
>> chainloader rule that I have used, as well as a normal loader boot.  I
>> use the loader boot, but I also tested the chainloader boot.  You will
>> need a ufs2_stage1_5 file in your grub directory for a loader boot, and
>> linux grub might not have it available.
>>
>> title           FreeBSD, sda3 (oak) chainloader
>> root            (hd1,2)
>> chainloader     +1
>> boot
>>
>> title           FreeBSD, sda3 (oak) /boot/loader
>> root            (hd1,2,a)
>> kernel          /boot/loader
>> boot
>
> Yes, ufs2_stage1_5 is missing, so when I tested
>
> #title FreeBSD
> #root   (hd0,a)
> #kernel /boot/loader
>
> title FreeBSD
> rootnoverify (hd0,1)
> chainloader +1
> boot
>
> there was no error, but nothing happened, without the chainloader an
> error 17, cannot mount selected partition appeared.

Maybe needs the BSD slice listed? or maybe needs "insmod ufs2"? And
probably should be "set root=" instead of "rootnoverify"

http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=5918

Cheers,
Kelly Clowers