From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 19 19:49:37 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 359481065670 for ; Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:49:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mandrews@bit0.com) Received: from magnum.bit0.com (magnum.bit0.com [207.246.88.226]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0CAB18FC1D for ; Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:49:36 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [172.27.0.11] (nat.bit0.com [207.246.88.210]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by magnum.bit0.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id CD257E072 for ; Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:49:35 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <4B560D2D.30404@bit0.com> Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:51:09 -0500 From: Mike Andrews User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091204 Thunderbird/3.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: 8.0-RELEASE / gpart / GPT / marking a partition as "active" 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: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:49:37 -0000 On 1/19/2010 12:11 PM, Dan Naumov wrote: > It seems that quite a few BIOSes have serious issues booting off disks > using GPT partitioning when no partition present is marked as > "active". See http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=115406&cat=bin > for a prime example. > > In 8.0-RELEASE, using gpart, setting a slice as "active" in MBR > partitioning mode is trivial, ie: > > gpart set -a active -i 1 DISKNAME > > However, trying to do the same thing with GPT partitioning yields no results: > > gpart set -a active -i 1 DISKNAME > gpart: attrib 'active': Device not configured > > As a result of this issue, I can configure and make a succesfull > install using GPT in 8.0, but I cannot boot off it using my Intel > D945GCLF2 board. > > I have found this discussion from about a month ago: > http://www.mail-archive.com/freebsd-stable@freebsd.org/msg106918.html > where Robert mentions that "gpart set -a active -i 1" is no longer > needed in 8-STABLE, because the pmbr will be marked as active during > the installation of the bootcode. Is there anything I can do to > archieve the same result in 8.0-RELEASE or is installing from a > snapshop of 8-STABLE my only option? After using gpart to create the GPT (and thus the PMBR and its bootcode), why not simply use "fdisk -a -1 DISKNAME" to set the PMBR partition active?