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Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2016 16:49:40 -0700 (MST)
From: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>
To: "Brandon J. Wandersee" <brandon.wandersee@gmail.com>
cc: Baho Utot <baho-utot@columbus.rr.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Ok How do I boot this monster?
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On Thu, 17 Nov 2016, Brandon J. Wandersee wrote:

> I would recommend just using gpart(8) to install the correct bootcode
> (/boot/gptzfsboot) as Warren suggested. The trouble, though, is
> that---unless I'm mistaken---that bootcode requires a dedicated
> partition.

It does, but there was a freebsd-boot partition on each of the ZFS 
disks.  512K, even, so more than large enough for the current version of 
gptzfsboot.

> Configuring the system to boot would require 128k partitions
> to be created at the start of each disk to hold the bootcode, and that
> would mean either manually partitioning the drives (which is the typical
> way of installing to a custom ZFS setup) or writing more code into your
> custom bsdinstall.

We might have been looking at different disks in that gpart output. 
Incidentally, while the boot partition is usually first, I'm fairly sure 
that it does not have to be first and can be in any position.