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Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2016 11:15:20 -0700 (MST)
From: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>
To: David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com>
cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: FreeBSD-10.2-RELEASE-amd64-memstick -- fresh install not booting
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On Mon, 29 Feb 2016, David Christensen wrote:

> I assume the FreeBSD installer put a protective MBR partition table on the 
> disk.  Note that fdisk reports that the boot bit is not set on the first and 
> only partition.

That is standard for GPT and the PMBR.  Do not use MBR utilities on GPT 
disks.  The PMBR is there so a GPT disk will boot on a BIOS system, and 
modifying it with MBR utilities probably won't help but can definitely 
hurt.

There are several reasons a UEFI system might not boot.  Make sure you 
have the latest UEFI firmware for the motherboard.  Turn off Secure 
Boot.  For BIOS-based systems, several notable manufacturers like 
IBM/Lenovo and HP have mis-used certain partition types for their own 
purposes, breaking GPT compatibility.

For hopelessly broken UEFI or BIOS systems, using the old MBR format is 
necessary.