[Bug 221674] Installer can't back up when it finds MBR

[bugzilla-noreply at freebsd.org]

https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=221674

Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn at FreeBSD.org> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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                 CC|                            |nwhitehorn at FreeBSD.org
             Status|New                         |Open

--- Comment #1 from Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn at FreeBSD.org> ---
There is actually no way around this problem in the installer: FreeBSD can't
boot EFI systems from MBR disks, so, as far as the installer is concerned, the
system is unbootable without reformatting the disk as GPT.

There are two workarounds available:

1. Booting the installer using CSM (BIOS compatibility mode). It decides what
is and is not bootable based on how it was booted (an EFI-booted system can
surely be booted by EFI and a BIOS-booted system can surely be booted with the
BIOS). If you start the system this way, you can install onto an existing MBR
disk and get the right boot loaders.

2. Set up partitions by hand using the manual editor. The installer will
complain that the resulting result will be unbootable since it doesn't know if
the system supports CSM booting, but it will let you do it if you press OK.

We should add choice (1) to the documentation and improve the error message.

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