On Sep 1, 2022, at 19:10, paul beard <paulbeard@gmail.com>= wrote:

Thanks! That worked just fine but the = mirrored/cloned disk has issues.

Which you didn't describe at all.

And with no way to get 11.x source,

Uh, = what?

http://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/old-releases= /amd64/11.2-RELEASE/

Or use = git:

https://freebsdfoundation.org/updating-freebsd-from-git/

Or just try freebsd-update = ids

I think I have some = decisions to make about this system: upgrade and somehow move = all the services across or just quit pretending I understand any of = this stuff.

Without = knowing how your system is damaged I can't help this, but if you've been = doing things in a mostly freebsd-stable way, most of what you need = should be in /etc, /usr/local/etc, and /var.

-Dan

Thanks again for the help=E2=80=A6

On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 5:52 PM Dan Mahoney <freebsd@gushi.org> = wrote:
I = haven't used recoverdisk. If you're going to mirror, use one of = the other things I mentioned. gmirror is low-impact and easy = enough to use and supported by the various boot loaders.

If you're just cloning = disk to similar disk with rsync, you should not need to do this more = than once, unless maybe if you upgrade your system. Normal = freebsd-update upgrades do not generally touch the boot blocks. = The best advice I can give is "test this BEFORE you need it". Rip = your primary drive out and see if you still boot.

For a lightweight = system, even zfs mirroring is okay, but it does use some ram for caching = and the like, so I wouldn't try it with a tiny embedded box.

-Dan

On Sep 1, 2022, at 17:47, paul = beard <paulbeard@gmail.com> wrote:

yeah, I was pretty sure I was = using the wrong tool=E2=80=A6thanks for this.

So a further Q=E2=80=A6if I continue to use recoverdisk from = ports to mirror my boot disk to a copy, is it best practice to do this = on the mirror after the mirroring is completed? For all I know there is = a far better way to do that but this is a FreeBSD 11 system (!) that has = just been doing its thing for some years. So it worked (more or less) = when it was set up. A backup you can't use isn't much use, as I have = learned (again, I expect).

On Thu, Sep 1, = 2022 at 5:20 PM Dan Mahoney <freebsd@gushi.org> wrote:
>
> Fdisk is for old-school partitions = (where disks had only 1-4 primary partitions, and then subdivided those = partitions into "slices" (bsdlabel).
>
>= I'm pretty sure the command you're looking for is:
>
> gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 = ada1
>
> In english, this says:
>
> * Stick the "protective master boot = record" on the root of the disk (/boot/pmbr)
> * Write = a partition boot label from the file specified...
> * = to this indexed partition (-i 1)
> * ...on ada1
>
> =46rom there, you may need to tell = the stage 0 loader where to find your next bootable partition on the = next boot() prompt.
>
> -Dan
>
>
> > On Sep 1, = 2022, at 16:44, Dan Mahoney <freebsd@gushi.org> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >> On Sep 1, 2022, at 16:41, paul beard <paulbeard@gmail.com> wrote:
> = >>
> >> I have been mirroring the virtual = disk in a FreeBSD vm for a couple of years and the main disk got = corrupted. The mirrored disk doesn't boot, says it can't find a kernel, = so I think I missed out on an additional step, writing an MBR or boot = sector, perhaps.
> >>
> >> = The files are all there if I mount them from a VM with FreeBSD.I assume = there is a way to make a mountable disk bootable. fdisk and gpart = are available but it's been a long time since I messed around with = those.
> >
> > Let's start with = the obvious: Can you post your disk layout? Mirrored how? = Gmirror/ZFS/Hardware raid/etc? MBR or Gpart?
> = >
> > What commands have you tried thusfar?
> >
> > What does the boot so far = look like (i.e. are you hitting the stage 0 boot loader, and getting the = loader prompt?)
> >
> > More = info required, please, but this sounds very fixable.
> = >
> > -Dan
>

--
Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/

--
Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/

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