# Dual Boot FreeBSD & XP



## JoeyR (Sep 6, 2012)

Hello, I know this topic is everywhere but I can't find a solution to my particular problem.

My machine (Thinkpad) was set up to dual boot with XP on the first partition and FreeBSD-amd-8.3 on the second. The partitions were created with GParted, installations went well, I enabled the FreeBSD boot manager. Whichever OS I choose boots fine.

I had originally posted my problem in the GNOME forum because GNOME was misbehaving when used in a user-account (basic applications don't start, freezing) but seemed to work fine when used by root.

I then thought I'd just re-install FreeBSD as the only OS on the system. In this case, GNOME works perfectly in all (user and root) accounts.

I then re-installed XP and FreeBSD as a dual-boot again - GNOME in user-accounts misbehaves as before.

I'm guessing maybe the GNOME problem might have something to do with my dual-boot setup. I followed the install instructions which seemed straightforward enough, but maybe I'm doing something wrong or leaving something out? Anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks.


----------



## SirDice (Sep 6, 2012)

JoeyR said:
			
		

> I'm guessing maybe the GNOME problem might have something to do with my dual-boot setup.


I seriously doubt that. There's no way XP could interfere once FreeBSD is booted.


----------



## kr651129 (Sep 13, 2012)

Are you installing the binary package or compiling gnome?  I'm thinking if you compiled it from the ports tree then maybe some of the configuration settings you selected aren't playing well together?


----------



## JoeyR (Sep 16, 2012)

I have tried it both ways:

I have tried installing the GNOME package from the ports collection (which was installed at the time FreeBSD was installed) using


```
# cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome2
# make install clean
```

I only tried that once but I do not recall making any configuration settings.

I have mostly tried installing the GNOME package from the network using


```
# pkg_add -r gnome2
```

It's the same in either case.


----------

