There is some strange issue with bsdinstall (and with gpart, maybe).

O

Oleg_NYC

I successfully installed freebsd FreeBSD 9 when I entered the shell mode in bsdinstall and followed this approach: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html (the "Old Standard Way" approach). However, since I like testing things and have one spare hard drive that I use for testing purposes, I decided to install freebsd FreeBSD 9-RC2 on it. This time, I didn't enter the shell mode, but let bsdinstall partition the hard drive. My BIOS can't boot it no matter what partition table bsdinstall puts on it (GPT or MBR). My guess is that bsdinstall uses gpart to create either one of those partition tables. Just for testing purposes, I installed linux on that hard drive and BIOS successfully booted it. According to gpart's info output, linux installed bios-boot and efi partitions on it.

So, to conclude, the shell mode approach works for me when I install freebsd FreeBSD 9, and all of the other approaches don't.
 
It would probably be helpful to show the output of gpart show from the working Linux disk. Is this a relatively new computer or motherboard?
 
The model of my computer is Gateway GT5620. I think I bought it in 2008. Gpart displays this output for the linux disk:
Code: 
=>        34  3907029101  ada2  GPT  (1.8T)
          34        2014        - free -  (1M)
        2048        2048     1  bios-boot  (1.0M)
        4096     1024000     2  efi  (500M)
     1028096     8257536     3  linux-swap  (4G)
     9285632   104857600     4  linux-data  (50G)
   114143232  3792885760     5  linux-data  (1.8T)
  3907028992         143        - free -  (71k)
 
if you don't mind testing, you could retry the FreeBSD install on that drive again (same way as you did it when it didn't work). But this time, go to shell (liveCD or what it is called) before you reboot, and do a # gpart show on the drive. Perhaps we can figure out what the problem is.
 
Here it is:
# gpart show /dev/ada2
Code: 
=>        34  3907029101  ada2  GPT  (1.8T)
          34           6        - free -  (3.0k)
          40         128     1  freebsd-boot  (64k)
         168  3898605432     2  freebsd-ufs  (1.8T)
  3898605600     8388608     3  freebsd-swap  (4.0G)
  3906994208       34927        - free -  (17M)
 
oleglelchuk said:
The model of my computer is Gateway GT5620. I think I bought it in 2008. Gpart displays this output for the linux disk:
Code: 
=>        34  3907029101  ada2  GPT  (1.8T)
          34        2014        - free -  (1M)
        2048        2048     1  bios-boot  (1.0M)
        4096     1024000     2  efi  (500M)
     1028096     8257536     3  linux-swap  (4G)
     9285632   104857600     4  linux-data  (50G)
   114143232  3792885760     5  linux-data  (1.8T)
  3907028992         143        - free -  (71k)
Click to expand...

It might need that efi partition, or at least expect to find it on a GPT disk. Put a 512K freebsd-boot partition starting at 34, delete the bios-boot partition, leave the efi partition, and replace the partitions following it with freebsd-ufs and freebsd-swap.
 
To be honest, I don't know how to do it correctly on command line or in bsdinstall. When I tried to do it in bsdinstall, it didn't create the freebsd-boot partition at number 34, but below it. On the command line, I typed: [cmd=]gpart add -t freebsd-boot -s 512K -b 34 /dev/ada2[/cmd], and got the message:
Code: 
ada2p1 added, but partition is not aligned on 4096 bytes
 
It doesn't have to start at 34, it should just be the first partition. Use -b 40 to start at 5*4k. Add -a 4k to the command and gpart(8) will align to the nearest 4K. I'm not sure whether gpart will let you create a new partition before existing ones, haven't tried that.
 
Well, if I use bsdinstall to create a 512K freebsd-boot partition, 500MB efi partition, freebsd-swap partition, and freebsd-ufs partition, and then install the base system and the kernel on it, the BIOS can't boot it.
 
It probably expects there to be something in that efi partition as well.
Herer is another thing you can try:
  1. install Linux (like you did before), verify that it boots.
  2. boot the FreeBSD liveCD, and verify that the partitions looks like the output in post #3.
  3. delete all partitions, except for 'bios-boot' and 'efi'
  4. install FreeBSD.
 
Okay, this is what I found out. The efi partition that linux installed contained a root filesystem with the linux kernel. I deleted every single partition from the drive without destroying the GPT table on it and ran the command [cmd=]gpart add -t freebsd-boot -s 512K -a 4k ada2[/cmd] Then I typed [cmd=]gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 ada2[/cmd] Then I rebooted with the FreeBSD LiveCD, and in bsdinstall, I entered the manual mode for partitioning, added freebsd-swap and freebsd-ufs partitions to the drive, answered "no" to the question "This partition scheme requires a boot partition for the disk to be bootable. Would you like to make one now?" I installed the base system/kernel to the disk, and when I rebooted, the BIOS successfully booted that drive. This is what the output from [cmd=]gpart show[/cmd] displays:
Code: 
gpart show /dev/ada2
=>        34  3907029101  ada2  GPT  (1.8T)
          34           6        - free -  (3.0k)
          40        1024     1  freebsd-boot  (512k)
        1064     8388608     2  freebsd-swap  (4.0G)
     8389672  3898605568     3  freebsd-ufs  (1.8T)
  3906995240       33895        - free -  (16M)

So, please tell me what it is that bsdinstall does wrong unless I ignore its default options.
 
Can you compare what fdisk(8) says about the working and non working partitionings? This could be a problem with the protective MBR (/boot/pmbr) where the MBR partition that covers (protects) the GPT area is not marked as active and some BIOSes refuse to boot when there is no active MBR partition on the disk.
 
Okay, this is the output from [cmd=]fdisk /dev/ada2[/cmd] about the working partitioning scheme:

Code: 
The data for partition 1 is:
sysid 238 (0xee),(EFI GPT)
    start 1, size 3907029167 (1907729 Meg), flag 80 (active)
        beg: cyl 0/ head 0/ sector 1;
        end: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63

After you told me to check its output for the partitioning scheme that the BIOS is unable to boot, I ran [cmd=]gpart destroy -F /dev/ada2[/cmd] rebooted with the LiveCD in the CD drive, used all the default options that bsdinstall offered me for installing FreeBSD, and now this is what [cmd=]fdisk /dev/ada2[/cmd] says about this unbootable scheme:

Code: 
  The data for partition 1 is:
sysid 238 (0xee),(EFI GPT)
    start 1, size 3907029167 (1907729 Meg), flag 80 (active)
        beg: cyl 0/ head 0/ sector 2;
        end: cyl 1023/ head 255/ sector 63

So, I see two differences: in the first case, it was
Code: 
sector 1
and
Code: 
head 254
and in the second case, it was
Code: 
sector 2
and
Code: 
head 255
 
But that's what I did. I made sure that the drive on which linux was installed was bootable and deleted every single partition from it without destroying the GPT table itself. I explained it in post #12. In that post, I also mentioned what I did after that and I mentioned that I was able to boot that drive with a working FreeBSD system on it. But then kpa asked me to use fdisk to compare the info about the bootable system with the info about the unbootable one, and that's what I did. What should I do now?
 
No, I mean after the Linux install creates the partitions, create a freebsd-boot partition at the beginning and replace the linux partitions after it with freebsd-ufs and freebsd-swap. See post #7.
 
oleglelchuk said:
answered "no" to the question "This partition scheme requires a boot partition for the disk to be bootable..."
Click to expand...

When you first installed FreeBSD (and it didn't work), did you also answer "no" to this question? That would explain things.
 
tingo, no, if I use the standard approach for installing FreeBSD, that question never gets asked.
wblock, if I delete the linux-swap and linux-data partitions, delete the bios-boot partition and replace it with the freebsd-boot partition, leave the efi partition untouched, and add the freebsd-swap and freebsd-ufs partitions, that drive will still load the grub boot-manager and boot the linux kernel. If I delete the efi partition and boot that drive, the grub rescue prompt will appear. If I execute the command
Code: 
gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 ada2
the grub boot manager will be destroyed and replaced with the FreeBSD boot manager. I will get the message "Not ufs" if I boot that drive with the empty freebsd-ufs partition that I created before, or the FreeBSD OS will be successfully loaded if I use bsdinstall to put the base system/kernel on that freebsd-ufs partition.

By the way, I want to explain more what happens when the BIOS can't boot the drive. If I use the standard approach for installing FreeBSD, the computer will just keep displaying the messages
Code: 
<F2> Enter BIOS menu
and
Code: 
<F10>Choose the drive from which to boot
and nothing will happen if I press on those keys. So, at this point, I will be forced to disconnect the data cable from the drive, reboot, and reconnect the cable before the kernel on my other drive starts booting.
 
oleglelchuk said:
wblock, if I delete the linux-swap and linux-data partitions, delete the bios-boot partition and replace it with the freebsd-boot partition, leave the efi partition untouched, and add the freebsd-swap and freebsd-ufs partitions, that drive will still load the grub boot-manager and boot the linux kernel. If I delete the efi partition and boot that drive, the grub rescue prompt will appear. If I execute the command
Code: 
gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 ada2
, the grub boot manager will be destroyed and replaced with the freebsd boot manager.
Click to expand...

Yes, but if a freebsd-boot partition is larger than 512K, it will not boot. The blank space at the start of that drive and the bios-boot partition are both 1M. I think it will work to add the freebsd-boot partition in the blank space:
# gpart add -t freebsd-boot -a 4k -b 40 -s 512K ada2

Then put the bootcode on it as above. AFAIK gptboot will try to boot the first UFS partition it finds.

I will get the message "Not ufs" if I boot that drive with the empty freebsd-ufs partition that I created before,
Click to expand...

Sure, there has to be a filesystem there. Creating the partition doesn't automatically create the filesystem or populate it.

or the FreeBSD OS will be successfully loaded if I use bsdinstall to put the base system/kernel on that freebsd-ufs partition.
Click to expand...

Um... that sounds like it works.
 
wblock@ said:
Yes, but if a freebsd-boot partition is larger than 512K, it will not boot
Click to expand...

Yes, I created a 512K freebsd-boot partition, though I never tried putting it in the blank space above the bios-boot partition.

But what I would like to know is why I have the problems that I described if I simply follow the default and standard approach for installing FreeBSD 9. If my BIOS is buggy, then why was I able to install linux without having those problems? If bsdinstall and gpart are buggy, then why am I the only person on this board who had the problems I described?
 
It's really hard to say. Linux might have a special workaround for that computer. Or maybe there's a BIOS bug that only affects FreeBSD. But it sounds like that EFI partition is needed when a GPT partition scheme is used. Please post the model of computer, something may be known about it. That might also help future searchers with the same model.
 
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