Re: nextboot(8)

[Freddie Cash <fjwcash@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 4:29 AM, Francis GUDIN <fgudin@droog.sdf-eu.org> wrote:

Three quick questions regarding nextboot(8):
- by default, fdisk(8) uses /boot/mbr and boot0cfg(8) uses /boot/boot0
 (which differ, cmp tells me). Which one should be installed to enjoy
 nextboot(8) ?
- does nextboot(8) handle the 'serno' enhancements ? just in case the
 manpage lags a bit behind actual functionality…
- almost off-topic, but the knowledgeable people here might save my
 time: would another slice (Linux) be still bootable after nextboot(8)
 configuration, given that for now the host uses GRUB ? anyone kind
 enough to give pointers as to which file to include in nextboot's
 bootstring for that Linux slice ?

The idea is to have two OS+pkg slices: one production config + an
alternative one to lower risks on upgrades (à la «Linux from scratch»).
The server is remote, and I don't have any KVM, so disasters would be
painful to recover from…

Unless things have vastly diverged in the way DFly boots compared to FBSD, nextboot doesn't have anything to do with which partitions are booted from.  All it does is tell the loader which kernel to use.  Mainly used for testing a kernel, since a reboot will load the normal kernel.

Have a look at boot.config(5), which is a file that you can use to tell the loader and the kernel which partition to use as the root filesystem.

Or, look into using a boot manager.  DFly comes with a simple one that will list each bootable partition.  Or you can install a simple one like GAG.  Or you can use GRUB, since you already have it installed on the Linux partition.

-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash@gmail.com