Hi Martin,
first, let's have a look at this quote from the prologue section of fdisk(8)
man page:
In order for the BIOS to boot the kernel, certain conventions must be adhered
to.
Sector 0 of the disk must contain boot code, a slice table, and a magic number.
BIOS slices can be used to break the disk up into several pieces. The BIOS
brings
in sector 0 and verifies the magic number. The sector 0 boot code then searches
the
slice table to determine which slice is marked ``active''.*This boot code then
brings in the bootstrap from the active slice* and, if marked bootable, runs
it.
so, your first step
fdisk -iB /dev/da0 # initialize sector 0 of the disk and install the MBR
is correct; namely initializing sector 0 with the mbr bootcode from /boot/mbr.
your second step
# [...] I marked da0s1 as active.
is also correct.
now, the partition table is where you did a mistake, i guess. to my
understanding
the first partition of the active slice should contain the bootstrap (/boot)
mentioned by the fdisk(8) quote to start your system. it is also done like that
in the example from the handbook [1]. this is missing in your partition layout.
so, maybe change this
disklabel64 -e da0s1
a: 50G * HAMMER # the root partition b: 8G * swap d: *
* HAMMER # the /home partition
to this instead
disklabel64 -e da0s1
a: 1G * 4.2BSD # the /boot partition (format as UFS) b:
8G * swap d: 50G * HAMMER # the / partition e: * * HAMMER # the /home
partition
you can find further instructions on formatting the partitions afterwards as
well
as copying the system data and editing the /boot/loader.conf and /etc/fstab
files
under [1].
i hope i did understand everything correctly and this is of any help to you.
[1] https://www.dragonflybsd.org/docs/handbook/Installation/#index3h1
--
best regards,
Tobi
