[PATCH] Build a separate ZFS-enabled loader.zfs

[Scot Hetzel]

On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 9:26 AM, Thomas Backman <serenity at exscape.org> wrote:
> On Nov 17, 2009, at 4:17 PM, John Baldwin wrote:
>
>> This patch is a workaround to enabling ZFS support by default in the boot
>> loader.  It enables building a loader.zfs which is a ZFS-enabled loader and
>> changing zfsboot and gptzfsboot to use /boot/loader.zfs instead
>> of /boot/loader.  I have only tested that things built ok, I have not
>> boot-tested it as I don't have ZFS setup anywhere.  The patch is available at
>> http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/loader.zfs/.  You will also need to copy
>> the 'loader.zfs/Makefile' file from that URL into a new
>> sys/boot/i386/loader.zfs directory after applying the patch.
> If I may ask (and sorry for my ignorance, but): what problem does this workaround solve?

This solution fixes boot issues on systems that are using ZFS to boot
FreeBSD.  Currently, if such a system uses the freebsd-update service
to update the system,  it receives a /boot/loader that doesn't support
booting from a ZFS root and breaks the boot process.

It also makes it easier to setup a Root On ZFS system, as you will no
longer need to add LOADER_ZFS_SUPPORT to /etc/src.conf and rebuilding
the /boot/loader.

Scot