https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=294338
Bug ID: 294338
Summary: FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE Release Notes: Upgrading from
Previous Releases of FreeBSD misses several boot
loader usecases
Product: Documentation
Version: Latest
Hardware: Any
OS: Any
Status: New
Severity: Affects Some People
Priority: ---
Component: Website
Assignee: [email protected]
Reporter: [email protected]
I have upgraded several servers from 13 to 14 via /usr/src and wanted to
install new boot loaders as recommended by the release notes. Made several
observations where the documentation is lacking and/or problematic and needs to
be updated.
Constellations:
* ZFS + BIOS boot
* UFS + UEFI boot
ZFS + BIOS boot:
> root@deblndw014x:~
> # zpool status zroot
> pool: zroot
> state: ONLINE
> status: Some supported and requested features are not enabled on the pool.
> The pool can still be used, but some features are unavailable.
> action: Enable all features using 'zpool upgrade'. Once this is done,
> the pool may no longer be accessible by software that does not support
> the features. See zpool-features(7) for details.
> config:
>
> NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
> zroot ONLINE 0 0 0
> mirror-0 ONLINE 0 0 0
> gpt/zfs0 ONLINE 0 0 0
> gpt/zfs1 ONLINE 0 0 0
>
> errors: No known data errors
> root@deblndw014x:~
> # gpart show
> => 40 585937424 da11 GPT (279G)
> 40 1024 1 freebsd-boot (512K)
> 1064 984 - free - (492K)
> 2048 33554432 2 freebsd-swap (16G)
> 33556480 552380416 3 freebsd-zfs (263G)
> 585936896 568 - free - (284K)
>
> => 40 585937424 da3 GPT (279G)
> 40 1024 1 freebsd-boot (512K)
> 1064 984 - free - (492K)
> 2048 33554432 2 freebsd-swap (16G)
> 33556480 552380416 3 freebsd-zfs (263G)
> 585936896 568 - free - (284K)
>
> root@deblndw014x:~
> # gpart show -l
> => 40 585937424 da11 GPT (279G)
> 40 1024 1 gptboot0 (512K)
> 1064 984 - free - (492K)
> 2048 33554432 2 swap0 (16G)
> 33556480 552380416 3 zfs0 (263G)
> 585936896 568 - free - (284K)
>
> => 40 585937424 da3 GPT (279G)
> 40 1024 1 gptboot1 (512K)
> 1064 984 - free - (492K)
> 2048 33554432 2 swap1 (16G)
> 33556480 552380416 3 zfs1 (263G)
> 585936896 568 - free - (284K)
The notes do NOT tell that I have to update the boot code on all drives in the
ZFS mirror, for novices likely not obvious because ZFS seems like magic to
many.
This would of course apply to ZFS + UEFI in a mirror as well.
UFS + UEFI boot:
I have mounted the ESP to /mnt to update the default loader BOOTX64.efi and
FREEBSD/loader.efi, but constantly received errors from cp(1) with broken
files. Started digging...
> root@deblndw011x:~
> # gpart show da0
> => 40 585871888 da0 GPT (279G)
> 40 409600 1 efi (200M)
> 409640 4194304 2 freebsd-ufs (2.0G)
> 4603944 16777216 3 freebsd-swap (8.0G)
> 21381160 8388608 4 freebsd-ufs (4.0G)
> 29769768 8388608 5 freebsd-ufs (4.0G)
> 38158376 16777216 6 freebsd-ufs (8.0G)
> 54935592 25165824 7 freebsd-ufs (12G)
> 80101416 505413632 8 freebsd-vinum (241G)
> 585515048 356880 - free - (174M)
>
> root@deblndw011x:~
> # mount -t msdosfs /dev/da0p1 /mnt/
> root@deblndw011x:~
> # df
> Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Avail
> Capacity Mounted on
> ...
> /dev/da0p1 778 385 393 50%
> /mnt
> root@deblndw011x:~
> # df /mnt/
> Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
> /dev/da0p1 778 385 393 50% /mnt
> root@deblndw011x:~
> # file -s /dev/da0p1
> /dev/da0p1: DOS/MBR boot sector, code offset 0x3c+2, OEM-ID "BSD4.4 ", root
> entries 512, sectors 1600 (volumes <=32 MB), sectors/FAT 5, sectors/track 63,
> heads 1, serial number 0xbd4111ee, label: "EFISYS ", FAT (12 bit),
> followed by FAT
> root@deblndw011x:~
> # tree -D /mnt/
> [Dec 31 1979] /mnt/
> └── [Apr 16 2018] efi
> └── [Apr 16 2018] boot
> ├── [Apr 16 2018] BOOTx64.efi
> └── [Apr 16 2018] startup.nsh
>
> 3 directories, 2 files
This does not make any sense, but explains why I was not able to fix
/boot/loader.efi twice onto the ESP.
It turned out that there was a period where the FAT12 image of the ESP was
copied via dd on to the 200 MiB ESP. This was "fixed" in
db8b56134506840832bec2d1ce07b9e00d4d6d71.
The notes MUST put such systems into consideration when recommending adding
both loader images into this tiny FS. I was sweating blood and tears because it
didn't add up and I thought I messed up with the ESP leaving the system
unbootable.
Loader before upgrade:
> # ll /mnt/efi/boot/BOOTx64.efi
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 393216 2018-04-16 10:12 /mnt/efi/boot/BOOTx64.efi*
Loader after upgrade:
> # ll /mnt/efi/boot/BOOTx64.efi
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 662528 2026-04-08 13:01 /mnt/efi/boot/BOOTx64.efi*
As a cherry on top maybe a paragraph could describe how to convert this fauly
partition into a real FAT32 ESP with 200 MiB size.
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