From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Feb 8 16:25:57 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8F6191065670 for ; Mon, 8 Feb 2010 16:25:57 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from psteele@maxiscale.com) Received: from server505.appriver.com (server505b.appriver.com [98.129.35.5]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 57A388FC1F for ; Mon, 8 Feb 2010 16:25:56 +0000 (UTC) X-Policy: GLOBAL - maxiscale.com X-Primary: psteele@maxiscale.com X-Note: This Email was scanned by AppRiver SecureTide X-ALLOW: psteele@maxiscale.com ALLOWED X-Virus-Scan: V- X-Note: Spam Tests Failed: X-Country-Path: UNITED STATES->UNITED STATES->UNITED STATES X-Note-Sending-IP: 98.129.23.15 X-Note-Reverse-DNS: ht02.exg5.exghost.com X-Note-WHTLIST: psteele@maxiscale.com X-Note: User Rule Hits: X-Note: Global Rule Hits: G173 G174 G175 G176 G180 G181 G192 G279 X-Note: Encrypt Rule Hits: X-Note: Mail Class: ALLOWEDSENDER X-Note: Headers Injected Received: from [98.129.23.15] (HELO ht02.exg5.exghost.com) by server505.appriver.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 5.3.2) with ESMTPS id 22977067 for freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org; Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:25:55 -0600 Received: from mbx03.exg5.exghost.com ([169.254.1.200]) by ht02.exg5.exghost.com ([98.129.23.15]) with mapi; Mon, 8 Feb 2010 10:25:55 -0600 From: Peter Steele To: "freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org" Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2010 10:25:54 -0600 Thread-Topic: How can I force boot from alternate drive with boot.config? Thread-Index: Acqo22L7q5/YRyUHSNqycmP3yXxeJA== Message-ID: <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB383B2699@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Subject: How can I force boot from alternate drive with boot.config? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:25:57 -0000 I've asked this on the -questions list but haven't had any feedback. I have= a system configured with multiple identical drives each loaded with FreeBS= D. When I was using MBR partitioning, I could create a boot.config to force= the system to boot from a specific drive. For example, if I wanted to boot= from the second drive, I'd create a boot.config with: 1:ad(1,a)/boot/loader We've switched to GPT partitioning and I can't seem to find a way to do thi= s same trick. The boot loader only seems to recognize MBR partitions when i= t comes to this feature. I looked at the boot.c source code and there doesn= 't seem to be anything specifically related to GPT partitioning. I cannot f= or example say something like: 1:ad(1,p3)/boot/loader where p3 is the root partition in my GPT partitioned drives. So I'm puzzled= : If I have a two drive system with BSD loaded on both drives and the drive= s are configured with GPT partitions, how can I force the system to boot fr= om the second drive using boot.config?