From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Sep 27 18:41:36 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B2EC31065673; Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:41:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from nwhitehorn@freebsd.org) Received: from argol.doit.wisc.edu (argol.doit.wisc.edu [144.92.197.212]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 853E68FC1B; Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:41:36 +0000 (UTC) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII; format=flowed Received: from avs-daemon.smtpauth3.wiscmail.wisc.edu by smtpauth3.wiscmail.wisc.edu (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 7u2-7.05 32bit (built Jul 30 2009)) id <0LS7002062LBXX00@smtpauth3.wiscmail.wisc.edu>; Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:41:35 -0500 (CDT) Received: from wanderer.tachypleus.net (i3-user-nat.icecube.wisc.edu [128.104.255.12]) by smtpauth3.wiscmail.wisc.edu (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 7u2-7.05 32bit (built Jul 30 2009)) with ESMTPSA id <0LS700GDN2L7CH30@smtpauth3.wiscmail.wisc.edu>; Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:41:32 -0500 (CDT) Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:41:31 -0500 From: Nathan Whitehorn In-reply-to: To: Matt Thyer Message-id: <4E8218DB.7030507@freebsd.org> X-Spam-Report: AuthenticatedSender=yes, SenderIP=128.104.255.12 X-Spam-PmxInfo: Server=avs-14, Version=5.6.1.2065439, Antispam-Engine: 2.7.2.376379, Antispam-Data: 2011.9.27.183314, SenderIP=128.104.255.12 References: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:6.0.2) Gecko/20110917 Thunderbird/6.0.2 Cc: Adrian Chadd , freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD 9.0-BETA2 memstick USB image hangs my BIOS X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:41:36 -0000 On 09/27/11 08:24, Matt Thyer wrote: > On Sep 26, 2011 2:33 PM, "Adrian Chadd" wrote: >> >> On 26 September 2011 12:56, Kevin Oberman wrote: >> >>> I suspect that the thumb drive is the issue, not FreeBSD. >> >> I've booted the drive successfully on an older Via C3 board. >> >> I'm now watching it boot successfully on a Gigabyte GA-8I915PC Duo board. >> >> I'm going to try dumping a Linux distro on this USB disk after I get >> PCBSD 9.0-BETA2 installed. That way I can try to eliminate the USB >> disk as being "funny". >> (Although it's quite possible the USB disk is doing other funny things.) >> >> I really do think that this BIOS of mine dislikes a GPT partition >> inside an MBR/DOS setup. If this is the case, I wonder how many other >> motherboard/BIOSes have this problem. >> >> >> >> Adrian > > I believe this would be due to the improper GPT partition table on the > FreeBSD memstick (as there is no backup partition table at the end of the > volume). > > This was discussed earlier and now that makefs has patches for UFS label > support there should be no need to continue to use GPT partitioning for the > memstick image. > > The background is that bsdinstall relys on labels (a good thing) and GPT > partition labels were being used but as there's no way to predict the size > of your memstick, the resulting GPT partition table was not valid (for > strict UEFI systems). > > The fix was to go back to traditional MS-DOS partitioning (MBR) but this > couldn't be done until makefs supported UFS labels. Someone came up with > patches so 9.0 should be able to have an MBR memstick and bsdinstall. > > I'm not sure how far this has progressed. I don't believe these patches were ever committed. Could you provide a pointer to them? -Nathan