I'm wondering if it's possible to install FreeBSD 12.0 on a GPT disk but on a server whose firmware is not UEFI. I found
this thread that says it's possible. Can you confirm this or even add more details?
Yes it's possible. I have been using GPT disks on machines that only have legacy BIOS without any problems.
You will need a GPT partition of type
freebsd-boot that holds either
/boot/gptboot or
/boot/gptzfsboot depending on whether you will be using UFS or ZFS for your root partition to boot from. According to
gpart(8), the freebsd-boot partition should be smaller than 545 KB. I would also advise to create a GPT partition of type
freebsd-swap for use as swapspace. The data partition where FreeBSD gets installed either is of type
freebsd-ufs or
freebsd-zfs repectively. It's probably a good idea to also create a GPT partition of type
efi as the first partition on the disk, even though a BIOS system will not make use of it, but it saves you the hassle should you later upgrade to a UEFI capable mainboard.
An example disk layout for ZFS could look something like this:
Code:
1 efi (256M)
2 freebsd-boot (512K)
3 freebsd-swap (8G)
4 freebsd-zfs (remainder)