# Installing side by side with Linux



## user0 (Mar 11, 2014)

Can FreeBSD 10 coexist with Linux on another hard drive?
I installed onto a SATA HDD while having my Linux HDD disconnected, and FreeBSD alone worked fine. But when I re-connected the Linux HDD, FreeBSD went into some sort of recovery mode after not being able to mount root FS. I disconnected the Linux HDD just to ensure that I did not mistakenly screw it up. Next time I'll install FreeBSD, what steps do I need to take to ensure that it only writes to its own HDD and works? Although there is GRUB2 on the Linux HDD, I do not want to add FreeBSD to its menu as using BIOS boot menu is much more convenient when using entire hard drives for separate OSs.

Thank you for all suggestions!


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## wblock@ (Mar 11, 2014)

Adding new drives renumbers them, but /etc/fstab is still referring to the old drive number.  Assign GPT or filesystem labels to the partitions, and use those in etc/fstab.

Example for GPT:
`# gpart modify -i 2 -l gprootfs ada0p2`

/etc/fstab

```
# Device                Mountpoint      FStype  Options         Dump    Pass#
/dev/gpt/gprootfs       /               ufs     rw              1       1
...
```


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## user0 (Mar 11, 2014)

Does that mean that I need to choose manual partitioning at install?
Ah, got it! Guess I can do that after install..


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## user0 (Mar 25, 2014)

never mind


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