Solved BSDInstall undocumented feature

M

mefizto

Greetings all,

I have been testing installation of FreeBSD 11.1 and have found that in the "ZFS Configuration" screen is an option "Partition Scheme". Apart of the rather confusing name, the option not only lists a partition scheme, i.e., GPT or MBR, the option also lists in parenthesis a boot scheme, i.e., UEFI or BIOS, either alone or in different combinations:

GPT (BIOS)
GPT (UEFI)
GPT (BIOS + UEFI)
MBR (BIOS)
GPT + Active (BIOS)
GPT + Lenovo Fix (BIOS)

1. I cannot find any description what do these options mean. Anyone can provide explanation/link?
2. The hardware, Dell 6410 is UEFI based, and allows to boot from both UEFI and BIOS. Which of the Partition Scheme options should I use? Since the UEFI appears to be the future, is it reliable enough to be used?

Kindest regards,

M
 
I think this chunk of NanoBSD script explains it better than I could:

Code: 
case ${NANO_LAYOUT} in
std-embedded)
        NANO_SLICE_FAT=s1
        NANO_SLICE_CFG=s2
        NANO_SLICE_ROOT=s3
        NANO_SLICE_ALTROOT=s4
        NANO_ROOT=${NANO_SLICE_ROOT}a
        NANO_ALTROOT=${NANO_SLICE_ALTROOT}a
        ;;
std-x86)
        NANO_SLICE_CFG=s1
        NANO_SLICE_ROOT=s2
        NANO_SLICE_ALTROOT=s3
        NANO_ROOT=${NANO_SLICE_ROOT}a
        NANO_ALTROOT=${NANO_SLICE_ALTROOT}a
        ;;
powerpc64-ibm)
        NANO_SLICE_PPCBOOT=s1
        NANO_SLICE_CFG=s2
        NANO_SLICE_ROOT=s3
        NANO_SLICE_ALTROOT=s4
        NANO_ROOT=${NANO_SLICE_ROOT}a
        NANO_ALTROOT=${NANO_SLICE_ALTROOT}a
        ;;
powerpc64-apple)
        echo Not yet
        exit 1
        ;;
std-uefi)
        NANO_SLICE_UEFI=s1
        NANO_SLICE_CFG=s2
        NANO_SLICE_ROOT=s3
        NANO_SLICE_ALTROOT=s4
        NANO_ROOT=${NANO_SLICE_ROOT}
        NANO_ALTROOT=${NANO_SLICE_ALTROOT}
        ;;
std-uefi-bios)
        NANO_DISK_SCHEME=gpt
        NANO_SLICE_UEFI=p1
        NANO_SLICE_BOOT=p2
        NANO_SLICE_CFG=p3
        NANO_SLICE_ROOT=p4
        NANO_SLICE_ALTROOT=p5
        NANO_ROOT=${NANO_SLICE_ROOT}
        NANO_ALTROOT=${NANO_SLICE_ALTROOT}
        ;;
*)

Basically its all about partitioning schemes.
GPT uses a /boot partition, MBR doesn't
Active=boot drive
UEFI adds another partition, So /boot and /efi
 
Use UEFI boot unless it's not supported by your hardware, use GPT unless it's not supported by your hardware.
 
Hi SirDice,

thank you for the confirmation of my conclusion. I have first installed with the option GPT (BIOS + UEFI) and then changed the boot option in the EFI to confirm that I can boot both through BIOS and through UEFI. Why is the firmware called BIOS?

Once satisfied that both worked, I have re-installed with the GPT (UEFI) option.

Kindest regards,

M
 
Hi SirDice,

I do understand the difference, it is just confusing for us simpletons when the documentation says BIOS, but it turns out to be firmware.

Kindest regards,

M
 
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