From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 27 17:09:49 2010 Return-Path: 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 5BCA0106568B; Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:09:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from vince@unsane.co.uk) Received: from unsane.co.uk (unsane-pt.tunnel.tserv5.lon1.ipv6.he.net [IPv6:2001:470:1f08:110::2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 82EB88FC24; Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:09:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vhoffman.lon.namesco.net (43.78-246-213.ippool.namesco.net [213.246.78.43]) (authenticated bits=0) by unsane.co.uk (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id o0RH9iWs052108 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:09:46 GMT (envelope-from vince@unsane.co.uk) Message-ID: <4B607357.7050707@unsane.co.uk> Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:09:43 +0000 From: Vincent Hoffman User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (Macintosh/20090812) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Dan Naumov References: In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 0.96.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD-STABLE Mailing List , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: booting off GPT partitions X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:09:49 -0000 GPT booting is I believe only natively supported using an EFI BIOS. However if you wish to use GPT booting with FreeBSD its not too hard, you just cant install using sysinstall. The Examples section of the gpart manpage is what i used to configure the disk for my home server, a zotac ion atom based board (dont have any production servers at work using it at the moment.) Then i just installed using the files on the usb image. >From what I understand gpart installs the pmbr file as a basic bootstrap in the protective MBR present in the GPT partition scheme, this is bootable by a standard bios and is able to understand enough GPT to look for a freebsd boot partition, load the bootcode in that, which loads the kernel etc. So no they arent completely misguided, but its certainly possible to use a GPT scheme without an EFI BIOS. What I would like is an efi bootloader for i386 so I can get my powerbook to run FreeBSD again as it has got an efi bios and bootcamp wont boot freebsd for me at the moment :( Vince Dan Naumov wrote: > Hey > > I was under the impression that everyone and their dog is using GPT > partitioning in FreeBSD these days, including for boot drives and that > I was just being unlucky with my current NAS motherboard (Intel > D945GCLF2) having supposedly shaky support for GPT boot. But right now > I am having an email exchange with Supermicro support (whom I > contacted since I am pondering their X7SPA-H board for a new system), > who are telling me that booting off GPT requires UEFI BIOS, which is > supposedly a very new thing and that for example NONE of their current > motherboards have support for this. > > Am I misunderstanding something or is the Supermicro support tech misguided? > > > - Sincerely, > Dan Naumov > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >