YAMF22

1 files changed, 70 insertions, 7 deletions

diff --git a/usr.sbin/sysinstall/help/drives.hlp b/usr.sbin/sysinstall/help/drives.hlp
index 27e2e75..946a1b2 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/sysinstall/help/drives.hlp
+++ b/usr.sbin/sysinstall/help/drives.hlp
@@ -1,10 +1,49 @@
+Boot Manager Selection:
+-----------------------
+
+If you wish to switch between multiple operating systems on your
+machine, or if you are trying to install FreeBSD on a drive other than
+your 1st drive, then you must install a boot manager.  In the case
+where you wish to boot off an alternate drive, it should also be noted
+that you still need to install a boot manager on the FIRST drive!
+Even if you do not intend to create a FreeBSD partition on that drive
+(e.g. it's being wholly used by something else), the boot manager
+still needs to reside on the first disk in order to function as a
+"redirector" for the boot process.
+
+To do this, simply select your 1st drive in the drive selection menu
+and when the partition editor comes up, don't make any changes - just
+(Q)uit.  At the boot manager menu which follows, select the first
+option (install a boot manager) and then proceed to setup the other
+drive(s) for FreeBSD as normal.
+
+It should also be noted that "operating systems" such as Windows 95
+will completely overwrite your boot manager without so much as a
+polite "may I please destroy your boot manager?" prompt if you make
+the mistake of installing them second.  If this happens to you after
+FreeBSD is already installed, all is not lost!  Simply revisit your
+FreeBSD distribution directory and look for a tools/ subdirectory, in
+which you'll find "bootinst.exe" and "boot.bin".  To reinstall, simply
+say "bootinst boot.bin" while in the tools/ subdirectory.
+
+
+If you see the boot manager displaying ``F?'' when you try to come up
+for the first time and it refuses to change, no matter how often you
+whap on the function key assigned to FreeBSD, then you have a geometry
+mismatch problem and you should read the next section for important
+information on how to prevent that exact problem from happening!
+
+
+Geometry Translation / Sharing the disk(s) with another OS:
+----------------------------------------------------------
+
 If you are going to actually install some portion of FreeBSD on a
 drive then PLEASE BE VERY CERTAIN that the Geometry reported in the
 Partition Editor is the correct one for your drive and controller
 combination!
 
 IDE drives often have a certain geometry set during the PC BIOS setup,
-or (in the case of larger IDE drives) have their geometry "remapped"
+or (in the case of larger IDE drives) have their geometry "translated"
 by either the IDE controller or a special boot-sector translation
 utility such as that by OnTrack Systems.  In these cases, knowing the
 correct geometry gets even more complicated as it's not something you
@@ -21,9 +60,33 @@ very small DOS partition first, before installing FreeBSD.  Once
 FreeBSD is installed you can always delete it again if you need the
 space.
 
-It's actually not a bad idea (believe it or not) to have a small bootable
-DOS partition on your FreeBSD machine anyway: Should the machine become
-unstable or exhibit strange behavior at some point in the future (which
-is not uncommon behavior for PC hardware!) you can then at least use
-DOS for installing and running one of the commercially available system
-diagnostic utilities.
+It's actually not a bad idea (believe it or not) to have a small
+bootable DOS partition on your FreeBSD machine anyway: Should the
+machine become unstable or exhibit strange behavior at some point in
+the future (which is not uncommon behavior for PC hardware!) you can
+then at least use DOS for installing and running one of the
+commercially available system diagnostic utilities.
+
+IMPORTANT NOTE:
+
+Any root partition you try to boot from must also reside below the
+1024th cylinder.  If you're using a translated geometry then this is
+probably not a problem, but if you are using a native disk geometry
+which exceeds 1024 cylinders then you could have a failure to boot if
+you end up installing a root partition (or even just the kernel file
+in a root partition) out past cylinder 1024.  If you are trying to
+share your first disk with FreeBSD and another OS which was installed
+previously, you are particularly susceptible to this problem and should
+check your disk addresses very carefully.
+
+If you find that you have insufficient space below cylinder 1024 to
+make a root partition for FreeBSD (and again, this ONLY applies to the
+root partition - once FreeBSD's kernel is loaded, it doesn't care
+about the geometry issues) then you will probably need to install on a
+completely different disk (see the boot manager section above) or
+resize your existing partitions so that both operating systems can
+have boot partitions below cylinder 1024.
+
+You may blame IBM for the limitations of a 10 bit cylinder address.
+"No one will have a disk with more than 1024 cylinders." I'm sure
+someone said.