Quoting Robert Elz (19-May-01 09:11:32):

>     Date:        19 May 2001 9:51:38 +0100
>     From:        "Georges Heinesch" <geohei-ml@geohei.lu>
>     Message-ID:  <1448.539T1933T5914041geohei9@attglobal.net>

>   | When I boot now, The bootmenu appears:
>   | 
>   | F1 WinNT
>   | F2 NetBSD
>   | 
>   | When I press F1 (or no entry, defualt set to F1 with timout 5
>  | seconds), WinNT starts. When I press F2, nothing happens. I have
>  | to reboot.
>   | 
>   | What goes wrong here?

> F2 selects the second partition on the first drive, you don't have
> anything bootable installed there (and so telling the bootselector
> that you did when you installed it was wrong, but won't do any
> harm).

Ok.

>   | > You'll be able to access the second disk with F5
>   | > (or F6, I don't remember).
>   | 
>   | Don't know what you mean here.
>   | 
>   | Where shall I use F5 (or F6) to access the second disk?

> When it gives you the F1 F2 prompt, hit F5 (or F6, whichever it is,
> I don't recall either), then it will boot from wd1 instead.  There's
> no prompt for that - you just have to "know" it (no space in the
> bootselector to add the extra prompt - or I guess more accurately,
> to work out when it is reasonable to add that prompt, and when it
> isn't).

> And if you have the bootselector installed there, it will most
> likely prompt you again.  This time you'd want F1 assuming NetBSD is
> the first partition on wd1 (the strings printed in the prompts are
> just whatever you told the bootselector to print - and don't have
> any direct relationship to what actually gets booted - the mapping
> is from F1..F4 to the first to fourth MBR partition, whatever is
> there (and then F5 F6 to restart with a different drive number).

> You don't have to delete bootselector from wd1, but doing so might
> just save some time when you are booting.

My setup:

    Disk 1: Partition 1 - WinNT primary partition (boot)
            Partition 2 - WinNT extended partition
    Disk 2: Partition 1 - WinNT extended partition
            Partition 2 - NetBSD partition (boot)

After some wild and very extensive experimenting, I came up with the
following (comments, corrections or add-ons are welcome !):

1. A bootselector has to be installed on the first drive [disk 0]
   (if there's only one drive, it's that drive). The first disk is the
   one which is scanned for a bootselector. The second drive isn't if
   not specifically told so by the bootselector on the first drive.

2. In my case, the bootselector on disk 0 is set up to boot WinNT
   with F1 (Partition 1). Timout 5 and default option 0 (=F1).
   The bootselector on disk 1 is set up to boot NetBSD with F2
   (Partition 2). Timeout 5 and default option 1 (=F2).

3. When booting, the bootselector from disk 0 appears. If NetBSD
   should be started, the bootselector from disk 1 has to be
   activated. This can be done by pressing F6 (F5 starts bootselector
   disk 0, F6 disk 1, F7 disk 2, ..., F10 disk 5). Since every
   bootselector defaults to the active partition (my configuration -
   see above) of the current disk (disk 0 to WinNT and disk 1 to
   NetBSD), leaving the bootselector without input boots the
   respectice active partition.

4. It's important to notice that the bootselector from one disk
   cannot boot an active partition from another disk. The best, which
   can be done is starting the bootselector of the other disk (by F5,
   F6, ..., F10).

IMHO, this setup maximizes the possibilities with the minimum of
inputs.

BTW, someone should make a FAQ about this.

-- 
Cu  Georges Heinesch, Luxembourg
    geohei@geohei.lu
    http://www.geohei.lu
    PGP RSA & DH/DSS public key on request and on public servers

... all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal ...