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Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 22:37:21 -0600 (MDT)
From: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>
To: Steven Friedrich <steven.e.friedrich@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Installing FreeBSD 10.0 to GPT volume
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On Tue, 25 Mar 2014, Steven Friedrich wrote:

> I have tried everything that I can gleen from the gpart, gptboot, boot0cfg
> man pages as well as the handbook.

boot0cfg should not be used with GPT, it's for plain MBR.

> Does bsdinstall write boot code to gpt partitions?

Yes, it writes the GPT bootcode into the freebsd-boot partition.

> I have tried to install several times, even using gpart to write boot code
> to the GPT partition as well as a freebsd-boot partition.  I've installed a
> protective mbr.  Nothing appears to work.

What happens?  Are there any messages?

> The drive is a 3TB Toshiba USB 3.0 external drive.  The computer is a
> Samsung series 7 CHRONOS with Pheonix BIOS with UEFI support.  I have tried
> UEFI enabled and disabled.

Legacy boot has to be enabled.  But some UEFI BIOS implementations are 
very touchy about standards, and will only boot if the single PMBR 
partition is set inactive.  Likewise, some BIOS implementations are 
strict and will not boot unless the single PMBR partition is marked 
active: https://forums.freebsd.org/viewtopic.php?t=42781

Additionally, some implementations of either type make stupid 
assumptions, like assuming that GPT partitions always mean a UEFI disk.
If that is the case, a BIOS update can help.  Otherwise, it may be 
necessary to use MBR paritioning.