amd64/160801: zfsboot on 8.2-RELEASE fails to boot from root-on-zfs in MBR slice

[John Baldwin]

On Sunday, September 18, 2011 9:01:11 am Camillo SXrs wrote:
> 
> >Number:         160801
> >Category:       amd64
> >Synopsis:       zfsboot on 8.2-RELEASE fails to boot from root-on-zfs in 
MBR slice
> >Confidential:   no
> >Severity:       serious
> >Priority:       low
> >Responsible:    freebsd-amd64
> >State:          open
> >Quarter:        
> >Keywords:       
> >Date-Required:
> >Class:          sw-bug
> >Submitter-Id:   current-users
> >Arrival-Date:   Sun Sep 18 13:10:07 UTC 2011
> >Closed-Date:
> >Last-Modified:
> >Originator:     Camillo Särs
> >Release:        8.2-RELEASE
> >Organization:
> >Environment:
> FreeBSD free 8.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE #0: Thu Feb 17 02:41:51 UTC 
2011     root at mason.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  amd64
> 
> >Description:
> /boot/zfsboot when installed fails to boot from root-on-zfs in MBR slice, 
set up according to this:
> 
> <http://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/ZFSBootPartition>
> 
> I upgraded from 8.1 to 8.2-RELEASE, and consequently upgraded my zfs root 
pool to version 15.  Upgraded the bootloader in Fixit prompt to allow booting 
from v15 pool.  After this, the system fails to boot, and freezes after the 
"Boot:  F1" prompt with "-" on the screen.  See this thread for example 
screenshot:
> 
> <http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=22105>
> 
> MBR is used because of BIOS incompatibility with GPT as installed by 
FreeBSD.
> >How-To-Repeat:
> Set up root-on-ZFS in MBR slice on 8.2-RELEASE according to:
> 
> <http://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/ZFSBootPartition>
> 
> Reboot - system halts on "-".
> >Fix:
> Install zfsboot from 9.0-BETA2, where the problem is fixed.

Can you test 8.2-stable?  The various fixes made to zfsboot in 9 were merged 
to 8 after 8.2-release.

-- 
John Baldwin