# How to dual boot FreeBSD and Linux for Newbies with BSD Boot Loader and no grub



## Spartrekus (Jul 4, 2019)

Hello,

How to dual boot FreeBSD and Linux for Newbies with BSD Boot Loader and no grub?

I destroyed the 500 GB with gpart. gpart destroy -F ada0.
I created with gpart the first partition of 250GB, and I copied the boot loader to get BTX loader.
I did add the two areas, and I formatted with newfs to prepare the disk for unpacking the FreeBSD base system.
So now I have ada0s1a and ada0s2a ready, with gpart, and I copied with the console on ada0s1a the kernel, base, ... files from /usr/freebsd-dist
I restart the machine. BTX Loader works, I fix the entropy bug by adding few libs into /lib to fix the bug of BSD.
I add ath0 and wpa wifi config to get wifi. I restart to check that all is working well at reboot.
Fine. Wifi works.
pkg works now. Ready to install. So, first gcc.
Now I install the machine with more packages. I installed icewm, my favourite, and xterm with xinit. I don't use slim or sddm. Just xinitrc is fine. Firefox for the web. Now all working, let's make a second partition to get KDE Linux running.

I have created a second partition with linux-data with gpart.

How now to bring Linux the dual boot?
I will debootstrap devuan on the linux-data / ada0s2 after once I can boot the vmlinuz and initrd using the BTX BSD loader,... how?

I wish to have something nicer or more UNIX freedom than Grub. So BTX like tweak would be welcome or other alternatives.

thank you and looking forward to hearing you.
Best regards,
SP

ref
https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=loader.conf&sektion=5
http://index-of.co.uk/SISTEMAS-OPERATIVOS/Handbook-FreeBSD-ingles-2014.pdf


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