# Operation not supported by device



## Prison (Feb 9, 2019)

Hello, I've encountered problems while trying install freebsd on an old laptop
Type: Asus K42F
Partition as following 
Partition 1 ada0s1*recovery default*
Partition 2 ada0s2 NTFS Default win 7
Partition 3 ada0s3 NTFS, files 
Partition 4 ada0s4 Ext3, debian 7 
I was trying to wipe out s4 and install bsd on top of it, but an error msg pops "error mounting partition /mnt: mount:  /dev/ada0s4: operation not supported by device", is it because the previous ext3 not clean completely? 
or something else,,,, pretty new with BSD that can't find any suggestions online , thanks


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## k.jacker (Feb 9, 2019)

First, it's not called bsd or BSD, but FreeBSD. There are several BSDs and FreeBSD is one of them.

If you want to wipe the Debian partition, just remove it and the FreeBSD installer will pick up the free space.
`gpart delete -i4 ada0`
FreeBSD wouldn't be able to use /dev/ada0s4, if you only removed it's contents. A dedicated partition of type _freebsd_, that contains a _BSD_ scheme is needed.

Sadly you'll run into another problem immediately... you need a _freebsd-boot_ partition. This partition must be placed as the first partition on the disk, when MBR scheme is used, but there is no room.


It should be doable, but I have zero experience with dual booting. You can search for "dual boot", using the forum's search function. You'll get some hits, but I guess it's not an easy task.

The easy way is, to just connect an external 2,5" harddrive via USB and install FreeBSD on it. Another plus of doing so, you can test and learn FreeBSD as long as you want, and when your satisfied, just swap the harddrive and say goodbye to Windows


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## Prison (Feb 11, 2019)

k.jacker said:


> _freebsd-boot_ partition. This partition must be placed as the first partition on the disk, when MBR scheme is used, but there is no room.


Thanks for details , just one more question, is that mean the recovery disk on  s1 or the first os system installed ??


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## k.jacker (Feb 11, 2019)

Yes, that would be /dev/ada0s1.
Then you'll be able to boot FreeBSD, but no longer Windows I guess. I'm not sure how Windows handles the booting process.


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## SirDice (Feb 12, 2019)

The freebsd-boot partition only exists on GPT disks. The disk of the OP is MBR (you can tell by the slices). MBR disks have slices ad0s1, ad0s2, etc. GPT disks have partitions ad0p1, ad0p2, etc.

Slices require bsdlabel(8). But the installer should be able to figure this out. Just remove the old ada0s4 slice before running the installer.


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## hmazuji (Feb 22, 2019)

Prison said:


> an error msg pops "error mounting partition /mnt: mount:  /dev/ada0s4: operation not supported by device", is it because the previous ext3 not clean completely?
> or something else,,,, pretty new with BSD that can't find any suggestions online , thanks


i'm having the same exact problem, but because i previously tried to install knoppix, which set up a linux-swap partition and another partition requiring an obscure file system, i think xfs, but don't hold me to that.
anyway, the knoppix install didn't work, my logitech trackball wouldn't work, so i restored my mbr, leaving the linux partitions alone.
well, you'd think freeusb would take the swap and knoppix partition and run with it, but it wouldn't.  it killed my mbr, the install failed, and i had to use a recovery cd to get back to this point.
i want to install freeusb on one partition, and multiboot with xp.  does anyone have a tip or walkthrough they can point me to


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