SSD 500GB, has several slices, FreeBSD-ARM64 Snapshot 14, installed to a slice.

I will post details and pictures to https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogpost.com 
to better explain my confusion

I want to thank  Bob Prohaska for his little notes on setting up 
Raspberry Pi 4B at http://www.zefox.net/~fbsd/u-boot_cheatsheet for 
booting from a USB SSD disk. http://www.zefox.net/~fbsd/ Check his other 
notes on booting Raspberry Pi 3+ and 4B SBCs.

I am searching and looking for using EFIBOOTMGR to setup the SSD to boot 
from a slice.  There is an error about NO BootOrder setup and missing 
ubootefi.var value.

So I can boot from a USB 2.0 Flash drive with the FreeBSD 14.0 RPI3 
snapshot installed.  I did  install same image to a slice on the 500GB 
SATA SSD , but did not make any other changes or settings.  Still 
looking for the Instructions, Dance Steps, what ever it takes to make 
the SSD boot for a self contained system.

I document here the steps, so others can follow.

Install FreeBSD 14.0 Snapshot RPI3 to USB Flash Drive:

download from freebsd.org/where 
https://download.freebsd.org/snapshots/arm64/aarch64/ISO-IMAGES/14.0/FreeBSD-14.0-CURRENT-arm64-aarch64-RPI-20220127-2c449a4c5a3-252673.img.xz 
2022 01 27 date snapshot

Note:  unxz 
FreeBSD-14.0-CURRENT-arm64-aarch64-RPI-20220127-2c449a4c5a3-252673.img.xz

dd if=./FreeBSD-ARM64-RPI3.img of=/dev/da1  bs=1m conv=notrunc 
status=progress

Install FreeBSD 14.0 Snapshot RPI3 to USB 3.0 500GB SSD in an external 
HornetTek metal case Drive enclosure:

dd if=./FreeBSD-ARM64-RPI3.img of=/dev/da1p4  bs=1m conv=notrunc 
status=progress

Look at the location difference between  a single USB Flash drive stick  
/dev/da1   and the SDD /dev/da1p4  into a slice (linux primary partition 
) versus if  I used /dev/da1 for the whole disk.  So does the U-Boot 
have logic to do both to boot from a SSD (1.) boot whole drive and then 
2.0 boot a single Slice that has 2 partitions 1.) MSDOS FAT32 2.) BSD 
with a label. )

So I am missing  efibootmrg on  aarch64 FreeBSD 14.0 snapshot to set the 
"boot order".  Missing ubootefi.var  variables?

So  look at more details here at https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com 
{not like a web page with text files, yet I can display pictures I took 
with a camera here }.AR  I have not made the post "Booting 500 GB SSD on 
FreeBSD-ARM64-14.0 January 27, 2022  snapshot". yet.

Simply,  I am asking:

  1.)  Can U-BOOT and UEFI handle booting from an image installed to a  
slice or does it have to be an image installed to a full disk?  How do 
you point the UEFI loader to select this one slice? Which tools 
accomplish that?  Are those tools already loaded inside the snapshot 
image downloaded from FreeBSD.org/where ??  I don't have ethernet access 
here and the internal wifi device does not have a working device driver 
for the Broadcom wifi.

  2.)  Is there a method, to boot Rod Smiths rEFInd aaarch64 boot 
manager to allow FreeBSD 14 ARM64, POP!_OS ARM64, Manjaro Linux ARM64, 
Raspup 8.2.1 (ARM32) from the same disk?   Is there a UEFI work around 
using EFIBOOTMGR, EFI commands: printenv , setenv, run bootcmd  ??

URLS to read are good resource, that I would read.

pss.  Hard when you are starting out, to now what commands to issue in which sequence for the desired effect, unless you follow a pattern worked out by someone else.
If I run eifbootmgr on my FreeBSD developer machine with the SSD plugged in.  It sees the other devices and proceeds to setup the boot order for the development machine,
not the SSD disk that has be plugged in termporarily.   The answer is something simple, that I have not read about using before.  Or so obvious a child could do it.

-- 
Fred Finster
email:Fred.Suyimazu@theGalacticZoo.com
971-718-9144
ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com  <https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com>