From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 28 12:06:57 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AB0611065692; Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:06:57 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rnoland@FreeBSD.org) Received: from gizmo.2hip.net (gizmo.2hip.net [64.74.207.195]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6A64A8FC13; Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:06:57 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [192.168.1.4] (adsl-149-142-141.bna.bellsouth.net [70.149.142.141]) (authenticated bits=0) by gizmo.2hip.net (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id o0SC6p9S039711 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:06:52 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from rnoland@FreeBSD.org) From: Robert Noland To: Brooks Davis In-Reply-To: <20100128022349.GB46919@lor.one-eyed-alien.net> References: <201001271627.37955.jhb@freebsd.org> <4B60CBFA.4050601@andric.com> <20100128022349.GB46919@lor.one-eyed-alien.net> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: FreeBSD Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:06:46 -0600 Message-Id: <1264680406.2869.72.camel@balrog.2hip.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.26.3 FreeBSD GNOME Team Port Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL, BAYES_00, FH_DATE_PAST_20XX, RCVD_IN_PBL,RDNS_DYNAMIC,SPF_SOFTFAIL,SUBJECT_FUZZY_TION autolearn=no version=3.2.5 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on gizmo.2hip.net Cc: Dan Naumov , Dimitry Andric , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, John Baldwin Subject: Re: booting off GPT partitions X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:06:57 -0000 On Wed, 2010-01-27 at 20:23 -0600, Brooks Davis wrote: > On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 12:27:54AM +0100, Dimitry Andric wrote: > > On 2010-01-27 22:27, John Baldwin wrote: > >> GPT was defined along with EFI, so many folks assume that you have to use EFI > >> to boot a GPT-labelled disk. However, FreeBSD has its own BIOS-based > >> bootstrap that can handle GPT-labelled disks. I doubt the SuperMicro tech is > >> familiar with that case. I thought I heard that some folks had added GPT > >> support to grub as well. > > > > However, this won't boot disks larger than 2TiB, right? At least not > > without BIOS support... > > You won't be able to boot from a partition more than 2TiB in, but you > should still be able to boot as long as you boot from the front part of > the disk. John or Marcel can correct me, but I don't think that this is an issue. The bootstrap is located in the pmbr in sector 0 and the GPT headers and tables are in sectors 1 - 34. The bootstrap code knows how to read the GPT tables and can deal with > 2 tb lba's. So, as long as you can successfully load the bootstrap code from sector 0, all *should* be good. robert. > -- Brook -- Robert Noland FreeBSD