From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 9 00:25:35 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8382D1065674 for ; Sun, 9 Oct 2011 00:25:35 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from matt.thyer@gmail.com) Received: from mail-wy0-f182.google.com (mail-wy0-f182.google.com [74.125.82.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D4EB08FC0A for ; Sun, 9 Oct 2011 00:25:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wyj26 with SMTP id 26so6949353wyj.13 for ; Sat, 08 Oct 2011 17:25:33 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; bh=n22bA/eu/W5wiArcjqq3O12FkrDCKFyvxDLTwlzVUuU=; b=V/uz8SzNxV7XLcVnv00KMX9D97bYrUID/toSw7hL5tGDcXYoDjPepm933KM7hr7iw5 3nclh4Hf4/BI5oGin1oXD+Kdo8DsP+DtANgCVO5YNMRo3sCmqWbjbIFsfh3h+U0u9jmY bhEOoKTAq3SBiQsAyAngERMGRrc/jobI+CqJE= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.216.163.194 with SMTP id a44mr4283366wel.1.1318119933654; Sat, 08 Oct 2011 17:25:33 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.216.36.18 with HTTP; Sat, 8 Oct 2011 17:25:33 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.216.36.18 with HTTP; Sat, 8 Oct 2011 17:25:33 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <20111008155252.GA24223.edited@vs2.gothschlampen.com> <4E90B4B1.7000009@FreeBSD.org> <4E90C801.4060108@FreeBSD.org> Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2011 10:55:33 +1030 Message-ID: From: Matt Thyer To: Warren Block Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: Garrett Cooper , Glen Barber , freebsd-current@freebsd.org, "Thomas K." Subject: Re: Memstick image differences between 8.x and 9.x X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:25:35 -0000 On Oct 9, 2011 8:52 AM, "Warren Block" wrote: > > On Sat, 8 Oct 2011, Glen Barber wrote: > >> On 10/8/11 5:40 PM, Warren Block wrote: >>> >>> On Sat, 8 Oct 2011, Glen Barber wrote: >>> >>>> On 10/8/11 2:21 PM, Garrett Cooper wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> Are there any general structural differences between FreeBSD 8 and 9 >>>>>> memstick >>>>>> images which could be at fault here? >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> The new memstick image uses GPT instead of MBR partitioning. >>>> >>>> >>>> GPT should have no impact on booting from the memory stick, as far as I >>>> am aware. >>> >>> >>> Memory stick should not be a problem, but some of the Lenovo notebooks >>> hate GPT, even with a PMBR: >>> http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=26304 >>> http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=26759 >>> >> >> Ugh, that's annoying. I'm half-tempted to note this in the new >> installer chapter, but I don't like the idea of such edge cases as these >> to effectively turn that page into a pseudo-HCL. > > > There are already a couple of notes about having to use MBR with XP and other older operating systems. But instead of updating them, I'd rather see somebody with one of the affected systems contact somebody with influence at Lenovo and say "hey, the FreeBSD guys are talking about making your broken GPT support famous" followed quickly by a BIOS update. > I believe this is actually a case of the memstick image being an improperly formatted GPT as there is no backup partition table at the end of the volume. The only sensible answer is to not use GPT for the memstick image. I not said this,loud enough yet but this is a show stopper for 9.0-RELEASE and must be fixed. We can't have a major release that modern systems cannot install with one of now most popular install methods. As a first step, Andriy Gapon has provided a quick patch for makefs(8) so it can create filesystems with UFS labels (as bsdinstall relys on labels). If you want to fix your memstick, create a copy of the partition table at the end of the volume and it should boot.