xref: /freebsd/stand/i386/gptzfsboot/gptzfsboot.8 (revision 8ddb146abcdf061be9f2c0db7e391697dafad85c)
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd September 15, 2014
28.Dt GPTZFSBOOT 8
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm gptzfsboot
32.Nd GPT bootcode for ZFS on BIOS-based computers
33.Sh DESCRIPTION
34.Nm
35is used on BIOS-based computers to boot from a filesystem in
36a ZFS pool.
37.Nm
38is installed in a
39.Cm freebsd-boot
40partition of a GPT-partitioned disk with
41.Xr gpart 8 .
42.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
43The GPT standard allows a variable number of partitions, but
44.Nm
45only boots from tables with 128 partitions or less.
46.Sh BOOTING
47.Nm
48tries to find all ZFS pools that are composed of BIOS-visible
49hard disks or partitions on them.
50.Nm
51looks for ZFS device labels on all visible disks and in discovered
52supported partitions for all supported partition scheme types.
53The search starts with the disk from which
54.Nm
55itself was loaded.
56Other disks are probed in BIOS defined order.
57After a disk is probed and
58.Nm
59determines that the whole disk is not a ZFS pool member, the
60individual partitions are probed in their partition table order.
61Currently GPT and MBR partition schemes are supported.
62With the GPT scheme, only partitions of type
63.Cm freebsd-zfs
64are probed.
65The first pool seen during probing is used as a default boot pool.
66.Pp
67The filesystem specified by the
68.Cm bootfs
69property of the pool is used as a default boot filesystem.
70If the
71.Cm bootfs
72property is not set, then the root filesystem of the pool is used as
73the default.
74.Xr loader 8
75is loaded from the boot filesystem.
76If
77.Pa /boot.config
78or
79.Pa /boot/config
80is present in the boot filesystem, boot options are read from it
81in the same way as
82.Xr boot 8 .
83.Pp
84The ZFS GUIDs of the first successfully probed device and the first
85detected pool are made available to
86.Xr loader 8
87in the
88.Cm vfs.zfs.boot.primary_vdev
89and
90.Cm vfs.zfs.boot.primary_pool
91variables.
92.Sh USAGE
93Normally
94.Nm
95will boot in fully automatic mode.
96However, like
97.Xr boot 8 ,
98it is possible to interrupt the automatic boot process and interact with
99.Nm
100through a prompt.
101.Nm
102accepts all the options that
103.Xr boot 8
104supports.
105.Pp
106The filesystem specification and the path to
107.Xr loader 8
108are different from
109.Xr boot 8 .
110The format is
111.Pp
112.Sm off
113.Oo zfs:pool/filesystem: Oc Oo /path/to/loader Oc
114.Sm on
115.Pp
116Both the filesystem and the path can be specified.
117If only a path is specified, then the default filesystem is used.
118If only a pool and filesystem are specified, then
119.Pa /boot/loader
120is used as a path.
121.Pp
122Additionally, the
123.Ic status
124command can be used to query information about discovered pools.
125The output format is similar to that of
126.Cm zpool status
127.Pq see Xr zpool 8 .
128.Pp
129The configured or automatically determined ZFS boot filesystem is
130stored in the
131.Xr loader 8
132.Cm loaddev
133variable, and also set as the initial value of the
134.Cm currdev
135variable.
136.Sh FILES
137.Bl -tag -width /boot/gptzfsboot -compact
138.It Pa /boot/gptzfsboot
139boot code binary
140.It Pa /boot.config
141parameters for the boot block
142.Pq optional
143.It Pa /boot/config
144alternative parameters for the boot block
145.Pq optional
146.El
147.Sh EXAMPLES
148.Nm
149is typically installed in combination with a
150.Dq protective MBR
151.Po
152see
153.Xr gpart 8
154.Pc .
155To install
156.Nm
157on the
158.Pa ada0
159drive:
160.Bd -literal -offset indent
161gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada0
162.Ed
163.Pp
164.Nm
165can also be installed without the PMBR:
166.Bd -literal -offset indent
167gpart bootcode -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada0
168.Ed
169.Sh SEE ALSO
170.Xr boot.config 5 ,
171.Xr boot 8 ,
172.Xr gpart 8 ,
173.Xr loader 8 ,
174.Xr zpool 8
175.Sh HISTORY
176.Nm
177appeared in FreeBSD 7.3.
178.Sh AUTHORS
179This manual page was written by
180.An Andriy Gapon Aq avg@FreeBSD.org .
181.Sh BUGS
182.Nm
183looks for ZFS meta-data only in MBR partitions
184.Pq known on FreeBSD as slices .
185It does not look into BSD
186.Xr disklabel 8
187partitions that are traditionally called partitions.
188If a disklabel partition happens to be placed so that ZFS meta-data can be
189found at the fixed offsets relative to a slice, then
190.Nm
191will recognize the partition as a part of a ZFS pool,
192but this is not guaranteed to happen.
193