Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2017 21:26:06 -0700 From: David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Is it possible to install FreeBSD on a single MBR slice with ZFS ? Message-ID: <1ec7dbd0-1c25-71d2-7685-a82dea193ba0@holgerdanske.com> In-Reply-To: <VI1PR02MB120024156110981D6A3B4C80F6060@VI1PR02MB1200.eurprd02.prod.outlook.com> References: <VI1PR02MB12004B1D8A87B3E247FC1A66F6040@VI1PR02MB1200.eurprd02.prod.outlook.com> <e2f76fb0-05e0-5a53-1730-a5a64291c407@holgerdanske.com> <VI1PR02MB120024156110981D6A3B4C80F6060@VI1PR02MB1200.eurprd02.prod.outlook.com>
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On 04/17/2017 06:45 AM, Manish Jain wrote:
>>> AFAIK, the FreeBSD 11.0 installer wants the whole disk <<
>
> Hi David,
>
> That appears to be my impression too : it simply is not possible to
> install FreeBSD on an MBR disk (unless one is willing to use the
> entire disk).
Using the FreeBSD 11.0 i386 installer and choosing "Partitioning" ->
"Auto (ZFS)", I was able to obtain an MBR partition table with one
primary partition (BSD slice). I then used Debian GNU/Linux to move the
entire system image from the 16 GB SSD to an 80 GB HDD:
root@p43400e:~ # gpart show
=> 63 156355521 ada0 MBR (75G)
63 1 - free - (512B)
64 31277160 1 freebsd [active] (15G)
31277224 125078360 - free - (60G)
=> 0 31277160 ada0s1 BSD (15G)
0 4194304 1 freebsd-zfs (2.0G)
4194304 4194304 2 freebsd-swap (2.0G)
8388608 22888544 4 freebsd-zfs (11G)
31277152 8 - free - (4.0K)
> That is a fairly serious inconvenience : I hate the idea of having to
> use GPT on my disk because I cannot use the Boot Easy manager
> (boot0cfg) under GPT. Plus GPT inevitably leads to reckless
> partitioning.
>
> For disks under and upto 2 TB, MBR is supremely better.
>
> I did manage to get ZFS though, courtesy a spare slice available on
> my disk.
>
> I installed FreeBSD using UFS on ada0s2 and migrated the setup to a
> ZFS tank under ada0s3 using the rsync strategy brilliantly detailed
> at :
>
> https://imil.net/blog/2016/04/28/Migrate-FreeBSD-root-on-UFS-to-ZFS/
>
> But following the migration, I have made a serious error. I used
> Windows (ada0s1) to delete ada0s2 : Windows has rearranged the MBR
> table to make ada0s3 -> ada0s2. I am now struggling to fix the MBR
> table. If you have any tips, that shall be wonderful
I tried multi-boot years ago -- it was a PITA. I have invested in extra
system drives and mobile docks. Each of my system drives has exactly
one operating system image:
https://www.startech.com/HDD/Mobile-Racks/35in-Trayless-Hot-Swap-SATA-Mobile-Rack-for-Dual-25in-Hard-Drives~HSB225SATBK
https://www.startech.com/HDD/Mobile-Racks/Black-Serial-ATA-Drive-Drawer-with-Shock-Absorbers-Professional-Series~DRW115SATBK
David
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