Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2020 22:14:00 +0200 From: Christian Barthel <bch@online.de> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Convert to EFI boot loader Message-ID: <87v9mmrkaf.fsf@barthel.ch>
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Hello
I'd like to convert an existing FreeBSD 12.1 installation (that
is using GPT / freebsd-boot / encrypted ZFS) to EFI (the reason
for this is that I want to plug the disk into a ThinkPad X230
instead of a ThinkPad X201).
The former layout on the X201 notebook using the legacy
freebsd-boot partition looks like:
40 7814037088 ada0 GPT (3.6T)
40 1024 1 freebsd-boot (512K)
1064 984 - free - (492K)
2048 16777216 2 freebsd-swap (8.0G)
16779264 7797256192 3 freebsd-zfs (3.6T)
7814035456 1672 - free - (836K)
I then adapted this layout with the commands:
gpart delete -i 1 ada0
gpart delete -i 2 ada0
gpart add -b 40 -s 409600 -t efi ada0
gpart add -b 409640 -s 1024 -t freebsd-boot ada0
gpart add -b 411648 -s 7G -t freebsd-swap ada0
The current layout looks like this:
$ sudo gpart show /dev/ada0
=> 40 7814037088 ada0 GPT (3.6T)
40 409600 1 efi (200M)
409640 1024 2 freebsd-boot (512K)
410664 984 - free - (492K)
411648 16777216 3 freebsd-swap (8.0G)
17188864 7796846592 4 freebsd-zfs (3.6T)
7814035456 1672 - free - (836K)
I then did the above commands to install the bootloader:
gpart bootcode -p /boot/boot1.efifat -i 1 ada0 (*)
gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 2 ada0
I can mount ada0p1 and see the efi/boot/BOOTx64.efi loader. But
when I am trying to start the system on the X230, it's not
working: pressing <f12> on the Lenovo X230 and selecting the disk
does not boot the system. It tries a different source
afterwards. Am I missing something?
Additional observations:
Interestingly enough, the disk still boots on the X201 (maybe due
to the legacy freebsd-boot loader at index 2?).
The X230 BIOS option is set to "UEFI Only". I tested "Legacy"
and "Both" as well. With the "Legacy" option being selected, I
get the message that "No gptzfsboot loader found" (or something
similar to this).
Instead of using the above (*) gpart(1) command, I also tried
dd if=/boot/boot1.efifat of=/devada0p1
but there was no visible change to the gpart(1) command.
I discovered a similar article at [1] and the author is doing
almost the same.
[1] https://ashish.blog/2018/06/freebsd-uefi-boot/
--
Christian Barthel <bch@online.de>
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