From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 22 03:57:24 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 59831106566B; Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:57:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dan.naumov@gmail.com) Received: from mail-yw0-f194.google.com (mail-yw0-f194.google.com [209.85.211.194]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 068FF8FC14; Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:57:23 +0000 (UTC) Received: by ywh32 with SMTP id 32so676973ywh.14 for ; Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:57:23 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:date:message-id:subject :from:to:content-type; bh=IbSzMq+ZGDcROzUbveKlhcUwAxsGGTFw5WScPJr5UYo=; b=BhLht2RpBEnwCqK1QS09Kn2++5e4jUmodYUhTTViDZXN9mwTHuNFBmaW7ExawRpXyM hRXNPsmR6dKJ43OuvbLWefzhX0scRa+lLzV710eJZOC8t4Y63IJRo5i0d7k9UsiPuLGo Q/GN5Zv40L05n1PjIGjzURjzColERBXJVlp7I= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; b=nwM+BEBO1NLvFG0tGLU4BYTn1Dzn2aEnIg9ytXPgLOORsRd8UHf6nPPpky2AS5iqZ+ u0c17INow/erG8OkIZLpAmkWr+Z8M51B0jCt34DFXFIvxGVRyGPlNiCc20cuhu/nVoqb D3YuuzHmfeqe1lC3DQl9bHhIYUp5o4t11Yr28= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.101.34.8 with SMTP id m8mr3119683anj.211.1264132643379; Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:57:23 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:57:23 +0200 Message-ID: From: Dan Naumov To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, FreeBSD-STABLE Mailing List Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: Subject: Loader, MBR and the boot process X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:57:24 -0000 I recently found a nifty "FreeBSD ZFS root installation script" and been reworking it a bit to suit my needs better, including changing it from GPT to MBR partitioning. However, I was stumped, even though I had done everything right (or so I thought), the system would get stuck at Loader and refuse to go anywhere. After trying over a dozen different things, it downed on me to change the partition order inside the slice, I had 1) swap 2) freebsd-zfs and for the test, I got rid of swap altogether and gave the entire slice to the freebsd-zfs partition. Suddenly, my problem went away and the system booted just fine. So it seems that Loader requires that the partition containing the files vital to the boot is the first partition on the slice and that "swap first, then the rest" doesn't work. The thing is, I am absolutely positive that in the past, I've had sysinstall created installs using MBR partitioning and that I had swap as my first partition inside the slice and that it all worked dandy. Has this changed at some point? Oh, and for the curious the installation script is here: http://jago.pp.fi/zfsmbrv1-works.sh - Sincerely, Dan Naumov