ZFS booting without partitions (was: ZFS boot on zfs mirror)

[Lorenzo Perone]

On 28.05.2009, at 21:46, Mickael MAILLOT wrote:

> hi,
>
> did you erase gmirror meta ? (on the last sector)
> with: gmirror clear ad6

ohps I had forgotten that. just did it (in single user mode),
but it  didn't help :( Shall I repeat any of the other steps
after clearing gmirror meta?

thanx a lot for your help...

Lorenzo

> 2009/5/28 Lorenzo Perone <lopez.on.the.lists at yellowspace.net>:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I tried hard... but without success ;(
>>
>> the result is, when choosing the disk with the zfs boot
>> sectors in it (in my case F5, which goes to ad6), the kernel
>> is not found. the console shows:
>>
>> forth not found
>> definitions not found
>> only not found
>> (the above repeated several times)
>>
>> can't load 'kernel'
>>
>> and I get thrown to the loader prompt.
>> lsdev does not show any ZFS devices.
>>
>> Strange thing: if I boot from the other disk, F1, which is my
>> ad4 containing the normal ufs system I used to make up the other
>> one, and escape to the loader prompt, lsdev actually sees the
>> zpool which is on the other disk, and shows:
>> zfs0: tank
>>
>> I tried booting with boot zfs:tank or zfs:tank:/boot/kernel/kernel,
>> but there I get the panic: free: guard1 fail message.
>> (would boot zfs:tank:/boot/kernel/kernel be correct, anyways?)
>>
>> Sure I'm doing something wrong, but what...? Is it a problem that
>> the pool is made out of the second disk only (ad6)?
>>
>> Here are my details (note: latest stable and biosdisk.c merged
>> with changes shown in r185095. no problems in buildworld/kernel):
>> (....)