How to resolve GEOM error 19 after source upgrade from 8.x->9.0?

I've found several messages on the forum referring to the problem I've got, but none of them seem to provide a useful solution.

I have a FreeBSD 8.2 amd64 system that has mirrored disks that were set up with GEOM, using the procedure documented in the Handbook. That procedure now has a big red warning on it stating that it's incompatible with FreeBSD 9.0's GPT support, but for those of us who assumed the Handbook wouldn't lead us down the wrong road, there's no hint as to how to proceed. I'm left with a system that fails to mount my root mirror with error 19 when I try to boot from the FreeBSD 9.0 kernel.

I'm trying to upgrade from source using buildworld, not a fresh reinstall using the new installer. I don't wish to use GPT at this time. I'm not seeing any clear instructions on how to tell FreeBSD 9.0 to ignore the GPT stuff and keep on using MBR, the way it always has. Surely there's some backward compatibility here? Alternatively, if there is a quick and nondestructive way to convert to GPT without having to reformat my drives, that would be okay too.

I've seen recommendations of adding
Code:
kern.geom.part.check_integrity=0
to sysctl.conf, but I haven't seen a clear statement on the safety and efficacy of that approach.

I'm really disappointed that there doesn't seem to be any clear warning about this issue in /usr/src/UPDATING or the release notes.
 
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