On 10/7/07, stan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have a new laptop that I would like to set up to have 4 different OS's > on. The OS's I would like to install are: > > OpenBSD > FreeBSD > Linux > Windows (XP r Vista) > > Is it possible to do this on the one disk. I do have enough space, my > concern is about portions. If it is possible can anyone give me an idea how > best to approach this? Or a pointer to some docs? > > Ate the moment the machine has the Vista part-ion, and it's recovery partition > (which I figure I don;t need), and a Linux partition on it. I can boot Linux, > or Vista using Grub.
Well all the OSes you listed can just boot directly from the MBR (see biosboot(8) and FAQ #4 http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html), and as luck would have it 4 is the exact maximum number of primary partitions that a DOS/MBR-based system can boot. What you should do is run fdisk(8) (linux's or freebsd's or openbsd's) to divy up your disk into the four partitions. If you run "fdisk wd0" you can see the four available. You should use the unix fdisk because it allows you to do more than Windows' restrictive one. Then when yo ugo to install, install Windows first. It's installer is flakey and likes to mess with partitions, sometimes even not how you tell it to (it depends on certain things like what Partition Type ID code you use for each, and such), so do that first and make it work. Once that's good, you can safely install the other OSes without worry of them stomping on each other (so long as you, you know, make sure to install to the correct partition). Then just set up a bootloader (NTLDR <http://www.tburke.net/info/ntldr/ntldr_hacking_guide.htm>, GRUB, or whatever) to boot your OSes. -Nick
