From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Sep 7 23:16:07 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5D548106566B for ; Fri, 7 Sep 2012 23:16:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1AE208FC12 for ; Fri, 7 Sep 2012 23:16:06 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-63-5.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.63.5]) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 953F927CF0; Sat, 8 Sep 2012 01:16:04 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id q87NG3SC002982; Sat, 8 Sep 2012 01:16:04 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2012 01:16:03 +0200 From: Polytropon To: markham breitbach Message-Id: <20120908011603.e75c852d.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <504A7C88.3090201@ssimicro.com> References: <504A4A0B.10908@ssimicro.com> <504A7C88.3090201@ssimicro.com> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: gpart and mbr give "no operating system" message at boot. X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:16:07 -0000 On Fri, 07 Sep 2012 17:00:24 -0600, markham breitbach wrote: > I was always under the impression that partition 3 was not to be touched as the "raw" > partition, so figured it was best left alone. No, that is regarding traditional partitioning. But it's not the 3rd partition, it's the 'c' partition, which means nothing more or less than "the whole device" or "the whole slice". In today's FreeBSD /dev representation, the 'c' is left out, e. g. /dev/ad0c = /dev/ad0, and /dev/da3s2c = /dev/da3s2. For GPT partitions, that doesn't matter. It's only relevant for the kind of partitions disklabel (bsdlabel) creates inside a slice or directly on the device. Reserved names (or those with special purpose) are 'a' for a bootable partition, 'b' for a swap partition and 'c' for "the whole slice or disk". I think even 'd' has had a special meaning, but I didn't encounter it yet, even though I'm using FreeBSD since 4.0. :-) Partitions created with the gpart / gpt tools usually use e. g. /dev/ad0p1 and so on for partitioning, if I remember correctly. Additionally, I typically point to http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html to encourage the use of labels, because that lets you leave devices names alone. More information can be found here: http://www.daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=2666 http://www.freebsdonline.com/content/view/731/506/ http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/disks.html And also http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/geom-glabel.html regarding labels (GEOM labels, UFS labels, UFSIDs). > I was mostly concerned with installing MBR so it would still be compatible with > sysinstall, although I can't really think of a terribly good reason not to go GPT. Maybe that is significant only on older hardware where you intendedly want to preserve the "traditional" approach of MBR partitioning, maybe to keep compatibility with other systems that have trouble with GPT layouts. > Installing the bootcode gets me a step closer, but is now puking at the loader. I'm not > sure if this is because the bootcode is coming from and 8.1 install, but at this point I'm > pretty much out of time and out of patience for this, since it is something of a bandaid > situation anyway. The version number should not be the problem. It's only important that the boot elements installed refer to the layout that is present on disk correctly. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...