FreeBSD/amd64 on ASUS Transformer T100 kconvertible tablet?

[Alexander Shendi (Web.de)]

Hi all,

On 25.04.2014 14:48, Matthias Apitz wrote:
> El día Friday, April 25, 2014 a las 12:49:23PM +0200, Alexander.Shendi escribió:
>
> I would start this project with preparing a -CURRENT USB boot key with a
> complete system on it; if you have not done this in the past, I could
> help you with this and could send you a complete howto.
>
> 	matthias
>
>
I have downloaded 
FreeBSD-11.0-CURRENT-amd64-VT-20140423-r264794-memstick.img
from ftp.freebsd.org and copied it to an USB memory stick with dd(1).
As expected the machine did not boot.

I then examined the memory stick:

Script started on Sa 26 Apr 2014 14:04:21 CEST
root at alex-T100TA: ~root at alex-T100TA:~# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
This disk has both DOS and BSD magic.
Give the 'b' command to go to BSD mode.

Disk /dev/sdb: 1010 MB, 1010826752 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 122 cylinders, total 1974271 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x90909090

    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb4   *           0       49999       25000   a5  FreeBSD
root at alex-T100TA: ~root at alex-T100TA:~# gdik
root at alex-T100TA: ~root at alex-T100TA:~# gdisk /dev/sdb
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.8

Partition table scan:
   MBR: MBR only
   BSD: present
   APM: not present
   GPT: not present


***************************************************************
Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format
in memory. THIS OPERATION IS POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE! Exit by
typing 'q' if you don't want to convert your MBR partitions
to GPT format!
***************************************************************

Warning! Main partition table overlaps the first partition by 34 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.

Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 1974271 sectors, 964.0 MiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): C096CAD9-9FDB-4978-AB1D-071C774593BE
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1974237
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 1924238 sectors (939.6 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name

Command (? for help): q
root at alex-T100TA: ~root at alex-T100TA:~# lexit
exit

Script done on Sa 26 Apr 2014 14:06:14 CEST

So to summarize:
* The memory stick is not a GPT but an MBR disk.
* Besides it contains only a single UFS partition
* an MSDOS FAT parition with an "EFI" subdirectory is missing.

So it is clear why the disk won't boot as the machine has no legacy BIOS
which could boot an MBR disk.

So I have two more questions:
* I know (by googleing) that a project to support UEFI Firmware boot 
FreeBSD exists.
   Can anyone point me to a ftp site or other resources.
* Can anyone enlighten me how to mount the memory stick, so I can extract
    the FreeBSD kernel (under Linux)? I tried:
    - mount -r -t ufs -o ufstype=old
    - mount -r -t ufs -o ufstype=sun
    - mount -r -t ufs -o ufstype=sunx86
    - mount -r -t ufs -o ufstype=bsd44

Many thanks in advance.

Best regards,

Alexander Shendi