From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG  Wed Jan 20 04:03:03 2010
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG>
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 15FB0106566C
	for <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>; Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:03:03 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from mandrews@bit0.com)
Received: from magnum.bit0.com (magnum.bit0.com [207.246.88.226])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E09568FC13
	for <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>; Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:03:02 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from millenniumforce.int.bit0.com (nat.bit0.com [207.246.88.210])
	(using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits))
	(No client certificate requested)
	by magnum.bit0.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id E59D8E0D2
	for <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>; Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:03:01 -0500 (EST)
Message-ID: <4B568074.4020909@bit0.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:03:00 -0500
From: Mike Andrews <mandrews@bit0.com>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US;
	rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091204 Thunderbird/3.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
References: <cf9b1ee01001190911r52e51f1dn46bdeda4e15c1c97@mail.gmail.com>	<4B55FF44.4040308@icyb.net.ua>
	<cf9b1ee01001191309u66492d80rd1500329deceb6d1@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <cf9b1ee01001191309u66492d80rd1500329deceb6d1@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Subject: Re: 8.0-RELEASE / gpart / GPT / marking a partition as "active"
X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code <freebsd-stable.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-stable-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-stable-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable>,
	<mailto:freebsd-stable-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:03:03 -0000

On 1/19/10 4:09 PM, Dan Naumov wrote:
> On 1/19/2010 12:11 PM, Dan Naumov wrote:
>> It seems that quite a few BIOSes have serious issues booting off disks
>> using GPT partitioning when no partition present is marked as
>> "active". See http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=115406&cat=bin
>> for a prime example.
>>
>> In 8.0-RELEASE, using gpart, setting a slice as "active" in MBR
>> partitioning mode is trivial, ie:
>>
>> gpart set -a active -i 1 DISKNAME
>>
>> However, trying to do the same thing with GPT partitioning yields no results:
>>
>> gpart set -a active -i 1 DISKNAME
>> gpart: attrib 'active': Device not configured
>>
>> As a result of this issue, I can configure and make a succesfull
>> install using GPT in 8.0, but I cannot boot off it using my Intel
>> D945GCLF2 board.
>>
>> I have found this discussion from about a month ago:
>> http://www.mail-archive.com/freebsd-stable@freebsd.org/msg106918.html
>> where Robert mentions that "gpart set -a active -i 1" is no longer
>> needed in 8-STABLE, because the pmbr will be marked as active during
>> the installation of the bootcode. Is there anything I can do to
>> archieve the same result in 8.0-RELEASE or is installing from a
>> snapshop of 8-STABLE my only option?
>
>> After using gpart to create the GPT (and thus the PMBR and its
>> bootcode), why not simply use "fdisk -a -1 DISKNAME" to set the PMBR
>> partition active?
>
> According to the fdisk output, the partition flag did change from 0 to
> 80. Can the "fdisk: Class not found" error showing up at the very end
> of the procedure of doing "fdisk -a -1 DISKNAME" be safely ignored?

Yes, just ignore it.