# Linux and FreeBSD Dual-Booting Partitioning



## Cinolt (Feb 25, 2011)

Hello, I have Arch Linux installed on my i386 desktop and I want to setup dual-booting with FreeBSD. There are a few questions I want to ask just to be certain I won't screw this up.

I have one 80GB hard disk that I want to partition for both operating systems. My current partioning is as follows:


```
/dev/sda1 /boot 107MB
/dev/sda2 swap 271MB
/dev/sda3 / 7872MB
/dev/sda4 /home 71807MB
```

Would I be correct in saying that I would have to remove one of the current partitions, probably /boot, create an extended partition and have FreeBSD installed there with logical partitions? The result being:


```
/dev/sda1 ext
/dev/sda2 swap 271MB
/dev/sda3 / 7872MB
/dev/sda4 /home 50000MB
/dev/sda5 / 1000MB
/dev/sda6 swap 271MB
/dev/sda7 /usr (the rest)
```

Also, would I be correct in assuming that when running FreeBSD manually mounting /dev/sda4 to a directory other than /home would enable access to its files?


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## SirDice (Feb 25, 2011)

You cannot install FreeBSD on an extended partition. It has to be a primary partition.


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## Cinolt (Feb 25, 2011)

I'm new to the process; could you please elaborate? Should I switch it so the Linux partitions would be /dev/sda5 through /dev/sda7 and the FreeBSD partitions would be /dev/sda2 through /dev/sda4?


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## SirDice (Feb 25, 2011)

I have no idea how Linux numbers partitions. Note that PC style partitions are called slices in FreeBSD, partitions are created inside slices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_partition#PC_partition_types


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## aragon (Feb 25, 2011)

Cinolt said:
			
		

> I'm new to the process; could you please elaborate? Should I switch it so the Linux partitions would be /dev/sda5 through /dev/sda7 and the FreeBSD partitions would be /dev/sda2 through /dev/sda4 ?


Yes.  Except with FreeBSD, you only need one partition (/dev/sda2).  FreeBSD has a "sub" partition system called BSD labels, so the one partition you give FreeBSD will get further subdivided by using a BSD label.  If you enable BSD label support in your linux kernel, these will probably appear after your extended partitions (sda8, sda9, etc.).


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