hi.... this how my the partition of my hard drive look like.... Name(label): ad0s1 | ad0s2 | ad0s3 | ad0s4 | - Desc : ext2fs | ext2fs | linux_swap | NFTS | unused subtype : 131 | 131 | 130 | 7 | 0 size : 500MB | 30G | 1G | 25G | 59G As you can see i already had my Linux and win2k pro installed... now i try to install freebsd 5.1.... however when i "create slice" the label should be ad0s5, but somehow it turn out to be "X"... and when i install it give me a msg "unable to find device node for dev/x form dev/..." according to the freebsd expert it take up to 4 partion for the fdisk.... (useless fdisk) so now my problem is how can i still install my freebsd? Thanks

Is it literaly the letter "X" or is it another number? Or is the label _listeraly_ just the one letter "X"?

Are you using /stand/sysinstall, cfdisk or disklabel to create your slices?

i''m using the sysinstall from the CD ISO installtion........

Is the label ''X'', just X that''s all.......

Is the partition primary or extended? what does your partition table look like in linux?

all primary

[edited by - johnc82 on March 6, 2004 12:44:18 PM]

quote: Original post by johnc82
all primary

[edited by - johnc82 on March 6, 2004 12:44:18 PM]

So let me try to understand...all your partions are primary. By my count you have 4 partitions (linux,linux,swap,windows). How exactly where you planning on adding another partition when you''ve already made 4 primaries?

It occurs to me that maybe you honestly don''t know what you are trying to do (even though you''ve obviously installed Linux somehow and are trying to install BSD). Imagine you have a house. This house has four electrical outlets. You cannot add more, its a limitation of the house (or in this case because of certain designs made a very long time ago that can''t be changed because it would break a lot of stuff). You already have four appliances plugged in. You have bought a fifth and are now confused because it won''t turn on. The reason of course is that you don''t have enough outlets. To solve this you would unplug one of the existing applicances (remove a partition, normally the last one) and plug in a power bar in its place (the power bar is called an extended partition). The powerbar will then have several plugs (logical partitions) that you can attach applicances to. Keep in mind that certain things might not like running on a logical parition (I''m not sure if you can boot windows from one). You''ll probably need to backup most of your drive and recreate the paritions to make it all work.

I have always had problems installing FreeBSD in logical partition. Windows will install and run (it''ll grumble and eventually break [in a dual boot situation at least], but you can do it). I know you can install FreeBSD in a logical partition but well whatever.

Anyways, you''re going to have to back up your important files (if you actually haven''t done so yet), delete some partitions- either your last two or all of them. Then you should put windows as the first primary partition, create another primary for BSD, and create an extended partition where all your linux partitions will reside.

In hopefully more clear words:

1.)Primary NTFS 25GB
2.)Primary UFS 59GB
3.)Extended
e1.) ext2fs 500MB
e2.) ext2fs 30GB
e3.) swap 1GB

Change sizes and physical cylinder locations as you see fit, of course.

Some more info:
You can have 4 Primary partitions on one drive. An extended partition acts like an extended partition but with the ability to hold 24 logical drives.

I''d say, if you have access to something like Partition Magic, use it to move your linux and linux swap partitions to an extended partition, thus freeing up one primary slot.

Or, upgrade to linux 2.6, and use a swap file rather than a partition. 2.6 will do this with no problem. Then you''d have the swap one you could use for fbsd.