How to install 440B MBR

[balanga]

Is it possible to use FreeBSD's dd() to install a 440B MBR on a USB stick? My attempts so far have resulted in

dd: /dev/da0: Invalid argument

This works fine with Linux's dd.

 

[Alain De Vos]

If have not tried it, but first anything need to be destroyed with gpart destroy da0.
da0 should be a character device.

 

[aragats]

Is it possible to use FreeBSD's dd() to install a 440B MBR on a USB stick? My attempts so far have resulted in dd: /dev/da0: Invalid argument
This works fine with Linux's dd.

BSD's dd() uses 512-byte blocks when working with block devices. However, you can easily do that:
1) Back up your first block:

dd if=/dev/da0 of=first512.img count=1

2) Copy MBR to that file without destroying the partition table etc (using 1-byte blocks):

dd if=mbr of=first512.img bs=1 conv=notrunc

3) Now copy that 512-byte block back to your device:

dd if=first512.img of=/dev/da0