FreeBSD 9.0 - GPT boot problems?

[Kevin Oberman]

On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 2:11 PM, Torfinn Ingolfsen
<torfinn.ingolfsen at broadpark.no> wrote:
> On Sat, 24 Mar 2012 17:26:03 +0100
> Torfinn Ingolfsen <torfinn.ingolfsen at getmail.no> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> I just installed FreeBSD 9.0-release / amd64 on a new machine (Acer Aspire X1470).
>> I installed from a usb memory stick (the default amd64 image), which I booted by pressing "F12" and selecting it from the boot menu on the machine.
>> I installed on a SSD (which replaced the hard drive originally in the machine), using the default scheme for 9.0 (GPT).
>> The installation was painless (many thanks to all who made it that way), but when I try to boot the machine from the SSD afterwards, I just get this message from the BIOS:
>> "ERROR: No boot disk has been detected or the disk has failed."
>> I tried selecting the SSD from the boot menu (via F12) instead (it shows up as "EFI: M4-CT128M4SSD2"), but got the same message.
>> I upgraded the BIOS from version P01-A3 to version P01-A4 (the newest available), still no dice.
>
> Just an update:
> today I connected another disk to the machine (I used a sata-to-usb adapter, but I think that doesn't matter), this disk is MBR-partitioned,
> and the machine boots from this with no problems using the boot menu (via F12).
> root at kg-vm2# gpart show -p da1
> =>       63  117210177    da1  MBR  (55G)
>         63   29350692  da1s1  freebsd  (14G)
>   29350755   29360079  da1s2  freebsd  [active]  (14G)
>   58710834   58499406         - free -  (27G)
>
> The non-working disk looks like this:
> root at kg-vm2# gpart show -p ada0
> =>       34  250069613    ada0  GPT  (119G)
>         34        128  ada0p1  freebsd-boot  (64k)
>        162  119537664  ada0p2  freebsd-ufs  (57G)
>  119537826    8388608  ada0p3  freebsd-swap  (4.0G)
>  127926434  121634816  ada0p4  freebsd-ufs  (58G)
>  249561250     508397          - free -  (248M)

Just for reference, my GPT disk boots fine on my ThinkPad with the following:
> gpart show /dev/ada1
=>        34  1465149101  ada1  GPT  (698G)
          34           6        - free -  (3.0k)
          40         128     1  freebsd-boot  (64k)
         168     2097152     2  freebsd-ufs  (1.0G)
     2097320     8388608     3  freebsd-swap  (4.0G)
    10485928    10217472     4  freebsd-ufs  (4.9G)
    20703400     1048576     5  freebsd-ufs  (512M)
    21751976   124539712     6  freebsd-ufs  (59G)
   146291688    31134928        - free -  (14G)
   177426616  1287722512     7  freebsd-ufs  (614G)
  1465149128           7        - free -  (3.5k)

The disk has native 4K sectors, so the partitions are aligned
accordingly. That is why the free chunk at the beginning. the second
free chunk is due to my error which I'll get around to adding to p6
some day. I use traditional partitions (root, tmp, var, bin, and home)
and the home partition is GELI encrypted. (I I had hardware crypto
support, I'd encrypt everything.)

The disk does have the protective MBR installed, though it's not
really part of the GPT. (See the "GUID Partition Table" article on
Wikipedia for more information.)
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
E-mail: kob6558 at gmail.com