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Date:      Mon, 20 Jun 2022 23:24:44 -0700
From:      David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com>
To:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: BIOS/MBR drive enumeration order, FreeBSD dev nodes, GELI ZFS root, and ZFS boot
Message-ID:  <8341d336-4115-f1a6-9591-412f14aef7ea@holgerdanske.com>
In-Reply-To: <20220621053741.3dbb0d2e.freebsd.ed.lists@sumeritec.com>
References:  <ebcf14da-016f-3906-34be-2a24a1b71aa5@holgerdanske.com> <20220621053741.3dbb0d2e.freebsd.ed.lists@sumeritec.com>

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> On Mon, 20 Jun 2022 11:35:01 -0700 David Christensen wrote:
> 
>> freebsd-questions:
>>
>>
>> I have a desktop computer:


>> When I boot the machine, I see a prompt:
>>
>>       GELI Passphrase:
>>
>>
>> If I enter the correct passphrase, boot succeeds.
>>
>>
>> If I enter an incorrect passphrase, I see another prompt later in
>> boot:
>>
>>       Enter passphrase for ada0s1d:
>>
>>
>> Note that "ada0" corresponds to the device node name of the SSD when
>> FreeBSD was installed.
>>
>>
>> If I enter the correct passphrase, boot continues and succeeds.
>>
>>
>> I would now like to use the computer to examine an EIDE HDD.
>>
>>
>> I have installed a HBA:
>>
>>       Promise Technology Ultra 133 TX2
>>
>>
>> Connected the HDD to the HBA:
>>
>>       Maxtor 6L200P0
>>
>>
>> And set the CMOS Setup boot order so that the SSD is before the HDD.
>>
>>
>> When I boot the machine I see the first prompt:
>>
>>       GELI Passphrase:
>>
>>
>> No matter what passphrase I enter, I always see the second prompt:
>>
>>       Enter passphrase for ada1s1d:
>>
>>
>> Note that "ada1" no longer corresponds to the device node name of the
>> SSD when FreeBSD was installed.  (I suspect the HDD is "ada0".)
>>
>>
>> No matter what passphrase I enter at the second prompt, it is always
>> rejected.  FreeBSD will not boot.


On 6/20/22 22:37, Erich Dollansky wrote:
 > Hi,
 >
 > allow me a general answer on top: FreeBSD has support for labels. Just
 > give each partition a name and use the partitions via their names. This
 > works then even if you move the devices to other machines.


Thank you for the reply.


I have several older machines in my SOHO network.  BIOS/MBR is the 
lowest common denominator, so that is what I use.  AIUI MBR does not 
support partition labels, only GPT.


I seem to recall that it is possible to slice/ partition the boot/ root 
drive with a hybrid MBR/ GPT scheme such that BIOS thinks the drive is 
MBR but the FreeBSD boot loader switches to GPT at some point (?).  Can 
this be achieved with the FreeBSD installer per "Guided Partitioning 
Using Root-on-ZFS"?

https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/bsdinstall/#bsdinstall-partitioning


David



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