From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 20 11:46:01 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 D2B011065679; Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:46:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rnoland@FreeBSD.org) Received: from gizmo.2hip.net (gizmo.2hip.net [64.74.207.195]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 80FF78FC27; Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:46:01 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [192.168.1.4] (adsl-1-207-120.bna.bellsouth.net [65.1.207.120]) (authenticated bits=0) by gizmo.2hip.net (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id o0KBjwkL034427 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:45:59 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from rnoland@FreeBSD.org) From: Robert Noland To: Dan Naumov In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain Organization: FreeBSD Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:45:53 -0600 Message-Id: <1263987953.48755.4.camel@balrog.2hip.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.26.3 FreeBSD GNOME Team Port Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.3 required=5.0 tests=AWL, BAYES_00, FH_DATE_PAST_20XX, RCVD_IN_PBL, RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL, RDNS_DYNAMIC, SPF_SOFTFAIL, SUBJECT_FUZZY_TION autolearn=no version=3.2.5 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on gizmo.2hip.net Cc: FreeBSD-STABLE Mailing List , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-geom@freebsd.org 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: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:46:01 -0000 On Tue, 2010-01-19 at 19:11 +0200, 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 the same 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? Prior to fixing gpart to take care of this, I used fdisk to set the active partition. gpart knows the disk is GPT and GPT doesn't have an "active" parameter, so the above command doesn't (perhaps never) worked. Basically, an "fdisk -a /dev/devX" is what you want... robert. > Thanks. > > - Sincerely, > Dan Naumov -- Robert Noland FreeBSD