Pasha
ptPortuguêsenEnglish

Triple boot: FreeBSD alongside Windows 11 and Arch Linux

June 27, 2026

Triple boot: FreeBSD alongside Windows 11 and Arch Linux

This guide explains how to install FreeBSD 14 on a machine that already runs Windows 11 and Arch Linux, using a single boot manager — the systemd-boot installed on the Arch Linux EFI partition.

Reference setup

This procedure was developed on the following hardware and disk layout:

ComponentDetail
CPUIntel Core Ultra 9 285K (Arrow Lake)
RAM64 GiB
GPUNVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti
FirmwareUEFI 2.90, Secure Boot disabled
nvme0n1932 GB — Windows 11
nvme1n1932 GB — Arch Linux (LVM) + EFI (3 GB)
code
nvme0n1  932G
├─p1      16M   Microsoft Reserved Partition
├─p2    930.8G  NTFS   Windows 11
└─p3     761M   NTFS   Windows Recovery

nvme1n1  932G
├─p1       3G   vfat   /boot  ← EFI System Partition (ESP)
└─p2     929G   LVM
  ├─ arch-root  90G   ext4   /
  ├─ swap        4G   swap
  └─ arch-home 834G   ext4   /home

systemd-boot is installed on the ESP at nvme1n1p1 and already manages booting both Arch and Windows 11. FreeBSD will be added as a third entry on that same ESP.

Strategy

  1. Shrink the Windows 11 partition (nvme0n1p2) to free up space.
  2. Install FreeBSD in the partitions created in the freed space.
  3. Copy FreeBSD's EFI bootloader to the Arch ESP.
  4. Create a systemd-boot entry for FreeBSD.

FreeBSD will live on nvme0n1 alongside Windows, without touching the Arch disk.

1. Backup

Before repartitioning any disk, back up anything that matters. Resizing partitions is a non-undoable operation.

2. Shrink the Windows 11 partition

Windows includes a built-in disk management tool that can resize NTFS partitions without reformatting.

In Windows, open Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) or Storage Manager, right-click nvme0n1p2, and select Shrink Volume.

Enter how much space to free. For a functional FreeBSD system with ZFS:

Intended useSuggested space
Testing and learning60 GB
Desktop with ports120 GB
Server or workstation200 GB or more

The wizard calculates the maximum shrink amount automatically. If it is smaller than desired, run disk defragmentation first and disable the hibernation file:

powershell
# PowerShell as administrator
powercfg -h off

After shrinking, reboot Windows once so it can run a filesystem check.

3. Download FreeBSD

On Arch Linux, download the amd64 installation image:

bash
curl -L -o ~/Downloads/FreeBSD-14.2-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso \
  https://download.freebsd.org/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/14.2/FreeBSD-14.2-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso

Verify integrity against the published checksum:

bash
curl -L -o ~/Downloads/CHECKSUM.SHA512 \
  https://download.freebsd.org/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/14.2/CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-14.2-RELEASE-amd64

sha512sum --check --ignore-missing ~/Downloads/CHECKSUM.SHA512

4. Write the installation USB drive

Identify the USB device:

bash
lsblk

Write the image (replace /dev/sdX with the correct device):

bash
sudo dd if=~/Downloads/FreeBSD-14.2-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso \
  of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

5. Boot from the USB drive

Reboot and enter the firmware boot menu (typically F11, F12, or Del during POST). Select the USB drive. If the BIOS only shows the Arch systemd-boot menu, press F or use Reboot into Firmware from within systemd-boot to access UEFI settings and temporarily change the boot order.

6. Install FreeBSD

The FreeBSD installer is text-based (bsdinstall). The main flow:

Welcome

Select Install.

Keymap

Choose the keyboard layout matching your hardware.

Set Hostname

Enter a hostname, for example freebsd.

Distribution Select

Select at least:

  • kernel
  • lib32
  • ports (recommended for compiling software)
  • src (system base source code)

Partitioning — Auto (ZFS)

Select Auto (ZFS). FreeBSD with ZFS provides snapshots, checksums, and error recovery.

On the ZFS configuration screen:

  • Pool type: stripe (single disk, no RAID)
  • Encrypt: your choice
  • Pool name: zroot (default)

Select Select Disks and mark nvme0n1.

Warning: The installer will show the full nvme0n1 disk. Select only that disk. FreeBSD will use the unallocated space created by shrinking the Windows partition. Do not select nvme1n1, which contains Arch Linux.

Confirm formatting only the free space. If the installer warns about existing partitions on nvme0n1, verify it is operating only on unallocated space and not overwriting nvme0n1p1, nvme0n1p2, or nvme0n1p3.

The FreeBSD installer will automatically create a small EFI partition on nvme0n1. It will be used to copy the bootloader later — do not use it as the system's primary ESP.

Network configuration

The installer will detect network interfaces. For Intel I225/I226 (Ethernet), the interface is typically named igc0. Configure DHCP for immediate connectivity or set it up manually.

To configure Wi-Fi during installation, select the wireless interface and provide the SSID and passphrase when prompted.

Root password

Set a strong password for the root user.

Time zone

Select America → your region.

Services at boot

Enable at least:

  • sshd (remote access)
  • ntpd (time synchronization)
  • moused (mouse support in the terminal)
  • dumpdev (crash dump capture)

Additional user

Create a regular user and add them to the wheel group to be able to use sudo.

Finish

Select Exit to complete the installation. When prompted, choose No to skip opening a shell before rebooting. Remove the USB drive and reboot.

7. Boot into FreeBSD to verify

After installation, FreeBSD will have written its own EFI bootloader to nvme0n1 (in the small EFI partition created by the installer). The firmware may boot directly into FreeBSD — this is expected.

Verify that FreeBSD boots correctly. Once confirmed, proceed to integrate it with systemd-boot.

8. Integrate FreeBSD into systemd-boot

The goal is to have systemd-boot (installed on the Arch ESP at nvme1n1p1) as the only boot manager, with entries for all three systems.

systemd-boot supports chainloading other EFI bootloaders. When FreeBSD is selected from the menu, systemd-boot hands control to the FreeBSD bootloader, which then loads the kernel.

8.1. Mount the FreeBSD EFI partition

On Arch Linux, after rebooting, identify the EFI partition created by FreeBSD on nvme0n1:

bash
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,FSTYPE,LABEL nvme0n1

FreeBSD creates a vfat (EFI) partition, typically around 260 MB. In this layout it may appear as nvme0n1p4 (after the three Windows partitions).

Mount it temporarily:

bash
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/freebsd-efi
sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p4 /mnt/freebsd-efi

Locate the FreeBSD EFI bootloader:

bash
find /mnt/freebsd-efi -name "*.efi"

The main file is typically at:

text
/mnt/freebsd-efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI

or

text
/mnt/freebsd-efi/EFI/freebsd/loader.efi

8.2. Copy the bootloader to the Arch ESP

The Arch ESP is mounted at /boot. Create a directory for FreeBSD:

bash
sudo mkdir -p /boot/EFI/freebsd

Copy the FreeBSD EFI file:

bash
sudo cp /mnt/freebsd-efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI /boot/EFI/freebsd/loader.efi

If the installer placed loader.efi directly:

bash
sudo cp /mnt/freebsd-efi/EFI/freebsd/loader.efi /boot/EFI/freebsd/loader.efi

Unmount the FreeBSD partition:

bash
sudo umount /mnt/freebsd-efi

8.3. Create the systemd-boot entry

Create the entry file:

bash
sudo nano /boot/loader/entries/freebsd.conf

Contents:

text
title   FreeBSD 14
efi     /EFI/freebsd/loader.efi

Check the existing entries to confirm the format:

bash
ls /boot/loader/entries/

8.4. Verify the menu

bash
bootctl list

FreeBSD should appear among the available entries. Reboot and confirm all three options appear in the menu.

9. FreeBSD post-install configuration

Initialize pkg

On first boot into FreeBSD:

bash
pkg update

The system will ask if you want to install the package manager. Confirm.

Install sudo

bash
pkg install sudo

Edit the sudoers file to allow the wheel group:

bash
visudo

Uncomment the line:

text
%wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

NVIDIA drivers

FreeBSD supports NVIDIA GPUs through the nvidia-driver package:

bash
pkg install nvidia-driver

Load the module:

bash
kldload nvidia

To load it automatically at boot, add to /etc/rc.conf:

bash
sysrc kld_list+="nvidia"

Check driver version compatibility with the RTX 5060 Ti (GB206) before installing. Support for the 50xx series may require a newer driver version than what is available in binary packages. Refer to the FreeBSD Handbook section on video drivers and the x11/nvidia-driver port page.

Desktop environment (optional)

To install a minimal desktop with KDE Plasma:

bash
pkg install xorg kde5 sddm
sysrc dbus_enable="YES"
sysrc sddm_enable="YES"

To install Wayland with GNOME:

bash
pkg install gnome wayland
sysrc dbus_enable="YES"
sysrc gdm_enable="YES"

Networking

Check interfaces:

bash
ifconfig

To configure DHCP on an interface (e.g. igc0):

bash
sysrc ifconfig_igc0="DHCP"
service netif restart

10. Maintenance

Update the system base

bash
freebsd-update fetch install

Update packages

bash
pkg upgrade

ZFS snapshots

bash
# Create a snapshot
zfs snapshot zroot/ROOT/default@before-update

# List snapshots
zfs list -t snapshot

# Roll back
zfs rollback zroot/ROOT/default@before-update

Update the EFI bootloader after FreeBSD updates

After a freebsd-update that updates the bootloader, repeat the steps from section 8 to copy the new loader.efi to the Arch ESP:

bash
sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p4 /mnt/freebsd-efi
sudo cp /mnt/freebsd-efi/EFI/freebsd/loader.efi /boot/EFI/freebsd/loader.efi
sudo umount /mnt/freebsd-efi

11. Troubleshooting

FreeBSD does not appear in the systemd-boot menu

Check the entry file:

bash
cat /boot/loader/entries/freebsd.conf
bootctl list

Confirm that loader.efi exists at the expected path:

bash
ls -lh /boot/EFI/freebsd/loader.efi

Windows disappeared from the menu after installing FreeBSD

FreeBSD may have registered its own bootloader as the firmware default in NVRAM. Restore systemd-boot as default:

bash
sudo bootctl install

Check the entries:

bash
bootctl list

The Windows entry is typically detected automatically by systemd-boot through EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi on the ESP.

Error mounting the FreeBSD EFI partition

Confirm which partition is the FreeBSD EFI:

bash
sudo fdisk -l /dev/nvme0n1

The partition of type EFI System with ~260 MB is the one created by the FreeBSD installer.

ZFS does not initialize

If FreeBSD hangs at boot with a ZFS error, access the FreeBSD loader menu (press any key in the first few seconds) and try:

text
OK set zfs_be_root=zroot
OK boot

Once inside FreeBSD, check the pool:

bash
zpool status
zfs list

References