Mounting USB-Stick for powerpc install for edit from PC

I am trying to mount an USB-Stick with https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/re...reeBSD-11.2-RELEASE-powerpc-mini-memstick.img using an i386 https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/re...MAGES/11.2/FreeBSD-11.2-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso but am failing.
When I insert the stick, /dev/da0 is added in the file system, but the expected entries for the partions /dev/da0sX are not.

Background: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/...-via-ssh-how-to-autostart-live-os-sshd.67115/

fdisk /dev/da0 reports 4 partitons, first (boot?) of type Free/Net/...BSD, the three partitions 2-4 just "<UNUSED>"

gpart reports "no such geom /dev/da0".

With Ubuntu, gparted reports 4 partitions, first "unknown", second "hfs" - labeled "FreeBSD Bootstrap", third "ufs" (260 MB), forth "unallocated".
I can mount that partition with "sudo mount -t ufs -o ufstype=ufs2 /dev/sdb3 tmp/" - sadly debian derivates seemingly have write support for ufs disabled in their default kernels (and using a small *BSD is even advertised as a workaround somewhere ...).

I reobtained the image and recreated the stick without changes one time.

As far as I understand, ufs is a well established file system for *BSD and should work out of the box. Am I missing something? Should there be a problem mounting a powerpc installation stick (did not occur with i386 version) in a i386 live system?
 
So I got curious and decided to download the images for both i386 and powerpc to see what this would get me. I think I discovered the problem:

Code:
peter@zefiris:/home/peter $ gpart show /dev/md?
=>     1  610192  md0  MBR  (298M)
       1  610192    1  freebsd  [active]  (298M)

gpart: No such geom: /dev/md1.

root@zefiris:/home/peter # file -s /dev/md1
/dev/md1: Apple Driver Map, blocksize 512, blockcount 534532, devtype 0, devid 0, driver count 0, contains[@0x200]: Apple Partition Map, map block count 3, start block 1, block count 3, name Apple, type Apple_partition_map, contains[@0x400]: Apple Partition Map, map block count 3, start block 4, block count 1600, type Apple_Bootstrap, contains[@0x600]: Apple Partition Map, map block count 3, start block 1604, block count 532928, name FreeBSD_Install, type FreeBSD-UFS
As it turns out the image uses a completely different partitioning scheme, one which isn't easily accessed by the PC version. So I think that's most likely also your problem.
 
  • Thanks
Reactions: axm
Thanks, did not think about the partition table at all. What do you mean by "not easy"? Since this feels like it might be the last in a series of blocks and I do not have the option of using a powerpc instead I am willing to invest some work. Any pointers?
 
If you don't have the option to use a powerpc (Apple) then why bother with that memorystick image in the first place?
 
Sorry, this is only mentioned in the linked thread as background: I am trying to build a Live system for a headless device to test if FreeBSD will actually run on it (it is _not_ an apple device) - that one is my only powerpc.
 
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