freebsd stable - Feb 2021 - FreeBSD 13/stable and zpool upgrade

Hi!
> We can't do that. gptzfsboot is for something else that we can't
get rid
> of: BIOS/CMS booting. It's never been used for EFI booting at all.
There's
> no way to for EFI to use it, nor is there anyway for us to build it to just
> work. You have to copy BOOTx64.efi to your ESP. What we could do, but
don't
> currently, is automate this process.
We do not need it automated. We need it to be described in enough detail
that we can write that BOOTx64.efi to the proper place. If there are some
steps to find out where to write it etc., fine. Describe those steps.

But mentioning a vague solution without more details lets far
more unexperienced people try to fix complex issues, which will
end in desasters.
> That's been bogged down in
> implementation details. It's easy if there's only one, but if you
have a
> USB stick installed, you don't want that to accidentally be upgraded,
for
> example... and I have test boxes with a dozen ESPs to test different boot
> scenarios... And multiboot systems also can be screwed up by automatically
> copying things into the ESP...
Then, before automating it, give us enough details so that we
can at least do it manually.

-- 
pi at FreeBSD.org         +49 171 3101372                  Now what ?

On Fri, Feb 19, 2021 at 10:26:15PM +0100 I heard the voice of
Kurt Jaeger, and lo! it spake thus:
> 
> We do not need it automated. We need it to be described in enough
> detail that we can write that BOOTx64.efi to the proper place. If
> there are some steps to find out where to write it etc., fine.
> Describe those steps.
As a data point, years ago I started dropping a rewrite-bootcode.sh
script in /boot on all my systems, 'cuz I could never offhand remember
how to do it so I kept putting it off.  And I updated a variant of it
for EFI.

e.g., on one system BIOS-booting system, /boot/rewrite-bootcode.sh:

----------------------------------
#!/bin/sh -x
for i in /dev/nda0 /dev/nda1; do
	gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ${i}
done
----------------------------------


And on an EFI system,

----------------------------------
#!/bin/sh -ex
bd="/mnt/EFI/BOOT"

for i in gpt/efi0 gpt/efi1; do
	mount -t msdosfs /dev/${i} /mnt
	cp /boot/boot1.efi ${bd}/BOOTX64.EFI
	echo "BOOTX64.EFI" > ${bd}/STARTUP.NSH
	umount /mnt
done
----------------------------------


Another variant I have on my workstation (which doesn't EFI boot 'cuz
DRM, but can, so I'm pretty sure the script works right),

---------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
cd `dirname $0`

SRC="loader.efi"

for i in 0 1; do
	mount /mnt/efi${i}
	DSTDIR="/mnt/efi${i}/efi/boot"
	mkdir -p ${DSTDIR}
	DST="${DSTDIR}/BOOTx64.efi"
	if(!(cmp ${SRC} ${DST})); then
		echo "$DST: Updating"
		cp -p ${SRC} ${DST}
	else
		echo "${DST}: Up to date already"
	fi
	umount /mnt/efi${i}
done
---------------------------------
% grep efi /etc/fstab
/dev/gpt/nefi0 /mnt/efi0 msdosfs rw,noauto,-g0,-m770 0 0
/dev/gpt/nefi1 /mnt/efi1 msdosfs rw,noauto,-g0,-m770 0 0
---------------------------------

(and yes, when I wrote these, just _figuring_ _out_ WTF EFI wanted and
where it wanted it was _incredibly_ frustrating...)


Of course, those all take manual setup for each system, to know the
devices or labels, and with EFI, to either manually mount or setup
fstab entries for whatever partition[s] apply.  But at least I get to
do it once, when I setup the system, and presumably know what I just
did, rather than trying to remember years later while sitting at the
console of a system I need to finish the update of and get back up and
running.  This way I know I can just `cd /boot ; ./rew<tab>` after
installworld and be done with it    :)


-- 
Matthew Fuller     (MF4839)   |  fullermd at over-yonder.net
Systems/Network Administrator |  http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/
           On the Internet, nobody can hear you scream.