# Help to Dual Boot FreeBSD 13.1 and Ubuntu 22.04



## neilms (Jun 2, 2022)

There are many threads here about dual booting though i cannot find the information that i need. I apologize in advance for another thread on this topic. In the past i have successfully set up a dual boot system - though each operating system shared the same hard disc. I would like to do something slightly different this time.

I have a laptop with two discs. Disc a is a ssd with 128GB. Disc b is a traditional hard drive with 1TB. My laptop has 4GB ram. To ensure that both systems boot up quickly, i was thinking of partitioning the ssd like this: 75GB for FreeBSD and 50GB for ubuntu system files plus /home on all of disc b for my ubuntu install. I would like :

1. FreeBSD to 'understand' the filesystem of disc b and to be able to read and write to it. What filesystem should i install on disc b to do this? What partitions would i need to create for the FreeBSD install?

2. I would like to install refind as my boot manager - and to get the option of starting either FreeBSD or Ubuntu.

3. Both installs must be securely encrypted. I have tried and failed to get this working. On my first attempt, I installed FreeBSD  and set an password to enter the system. When the computer boots, Geli asks for the password - this is before any customization scripts are run. I believe that because this is the first script the keyboard has not yet been configured to my preference and the characters that i think are being entered are probably different. Consequently, it would not accept my password (which i was careful to note down beforehand). Geli also displays it's text in a tiny font. Is there a way that i can work around this? 

I am a little confused over the partitions that i need to create to get the above setup. I'm just used to an 'automatic' install where the installer creates all partitions. I just dont know where to begin - how big would i need to make the MBR, swap partitions and other system partitions? I would like to keep the partitioning scheme as simple as possible.

Which operating system should be installed first to make the process easier? I would appreciate any help you can give me.


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## T-Daemon (Jun 2, 2022)

neilms said:


> 1. FreeBSD to 'understand' the filesystem of disc b and to be able to read and write to it. What filesystem should i install on disc b to do this? What partitions would i need to create for the FreeBSD install?


If


neilms said:


> /home on all of disc b for my ubuntu install.


is, then if should be a file system Ubuntu supports native.

To access the ext4 file system, assuming it is created ext4, there is a kernel module, ext2fs(5) (which I can't recommend with good conscience from my experience. It trashed once a ext4 partition of a LinuxMint partition on my system)  and some third party programs from ports.



neilms said:


> 3. Both installs must be securely encrypted.


I suggest to start installing FreeBSD first to make sure it boots fine alone and with rEFInd, then Linux.

Do you want the encrypted FreeBSD system ZFS or UFS2? Some say ZFS and 4GB ram is low to run the system performant, but I have since years a desktop system running with 4GB just fine.



neilms said:


> Geli also displays it's text in a tiny font. Is there a way that i can work around this?


Does the UEFI (BIOS) a setting to change the screen resolution?



neilms said:


> how big would i need to make the MBR



Use GPT, and it doesn't need a size set.


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## Deleted member 70435 (Jun 2, 2022)

I suggest you start by reading, the rifind documentation, so that everything goes well, and you have the functionality you need so much.


			The rEFInd Boot Manager: Installing and Uninstalling rEFInd


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## neilms (Jun 2, 2022)

Update- I've been trying to do the dual install and given up. I think I will simply install ubuntu and install freebsd and run it via virtual box. I should be able to get the exact same functionality as running it on the metal. Thanks for reading.


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## chessguy64 (Jun 2, 2022)

I think you should install FreeBSD and Ubuntu on separate hard drives, then set in UEFI/BIOS to boot first on the OS you use the most. And then you can hit FN-key on boot to select boot device to boot into the secondary OS. This way you have added protection of the boot loaders not getting corrupted. And then you can "mount" the filesystems while inside the OS to read/write to the disks.


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