Re: How to add an UFS2 partition on a mbr style partition disk.
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Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2025 12:36:16 UTC
Hello bro.
In your opinion can FreeBSD at 64 bit boot on a disk that's formatted with
the MBR ? From what I know,64 bit will boot with GPT and 32 bit will boot
with MBR.
I bet that your RPI3 runs FreeBSD at 32 bit ?
On Sun, Jul 13, 2025 at 2:06 PM Ronald Klop <ronald-lists@klop.ws> wrote:
> I assume your question is 'how to make a bootable SDcard with MBR and
> UFS2?'
> In the man page of gpart (type: man gpart) go to the EXAMPLES section and
> look for MBR.
>
> That contains an example of how to setup MBR + UFS2.
>
> You can play around a bit with it. My RPI3 boots from an SDcard with this
> layout:
>
> gpart show
> => 1 3994623 mmcsd0 MBR (1.9G)
> 1 2047 - free - (1.0M)
> 2048 102400 1 fat32lba [active] (50M)
> 104448 3890176 2 freebsd (1.9G)
>
> => 0 3890176 ufs/rootfs BSD (1.9G)
> 0 128 - free - (64K)
> 128 3890048 1 freebsd-ufs (1.9G)
>
> Although in my config the SDcard only contains /boot. The kernel mounts
> the rootfs from an SSD.
> For your proof of concept I would advice to just write a full rootfs on
> the SD.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Regards,
> Ronald.
>
> Â
>
> *Van:* Mario Marietto <marietto2008@gmail.com>
> *Datum:* zondag, 13 juli 2025 12:23
> *Aan:* FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>,
> freebsd-hackers <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>, freebsd-arm <
> freebsd-arm@freebsd.org>
> *Onderwerp:* How to add an UFS2 partition on a mbr style partition disk.
>
> Hello.
>
> I've bought the nice board "KHADAS Edge-V" because I wanted to try to boot
> FreeBSD from it. An old version of FreeBSD,version 13, is provided by the
> company,but unfortunately it does not boot. Later I've found that the
> reason or one of the reasons is because the board wants the sd card to be
> "formatted" with an MBR style partition layout.
>
> I've understood that the image named
> "Edge_Ubuntu-gnome-focal_Linux-5.7_arm64_SD-USB_V0.9.1-20200602.img" can
> boot from the sd card,but the image named
> "edge-freebsd-aarch64-13.0-release-20210613.img" can't do it. Why ? I've
> crudely identified some crucial differences that make the magic.
>
> 1.
>
> the structure of the disk partitions that comes after having written
> "Edge_Ubuntu-gnome-focal_Linux-5.7_arm64_SD-USB_V0.9.1-20200602.img" to the
> sd card :=> 63 62333889 da1 MBR (30G) 63 32705 - free - (16M) 32768 491520
> 1 fat32 [active] (240M) 524288 61808640 2 linux-data (29G) 62332928 1024 -
> free - (512K)
>
> MBR here is important. With a GPT disk it is not able to boot.
>
> 2) inside the fat32 partition there is a script like this :
>
> Â
>
> echo "Run Khadas boot script"
>
> # Constant
> setenv BOARD_TYPE_NONE 0
> setenv BOARD_TYPE_EDGE 1
> setenv BOARD_TYPE_EDGE_V 2
> setenv BOARD_TYPE_CAPTAIN 3
>
> # Detect board type
> kbi boarddetect
>
> if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_NONE}; then
> echo "Unsupported board detected! Stop here. Reboot...";
> sleep 5;
> reset;
> fi
>
> setenv emmc_root_part 7
> setenv emmc_boot_part 7
> setenv emmc_mbr_root_part 2
> setenv emmc_mbr_boot_part 1
> setenv sd_root_part 2
> setenv sd_boot_part 1
>
> if test ${devnum} = 0; then
> echo "Uboot loaded from eMMC.";
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${emmc_root_part} zImage; then
> setenv imagetype "EMMC";
> setenv boot_env_part ${emmc_boot_part};
> setenv root_part ${emmc_root_part};
> setenv mark_prefix "boot/";
> else
> setenv imagetype "EMMC_MBR";
> setenv boot_env_part ${emmc_mbr_boot_part};
> setenv root_part ${emmc_mbr_root_part};
> setenv mark_prefix "";
> fi;
>
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
> setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk2p${root_part}"
> else
> setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk1p${root_part}"
> fi
> else if test ${devnum} = 1; then
> echo "Uboot loaded from SD.";
> setenv boot_env_part ${sd_boot_part};
> setenv root_part ${sd_root_part}
> setenv mark_prefix ""
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
> setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk1p${sd_root_part}"
> else
> setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk0p${sd_root_part}"
> fi
> setenv imagetype "SD-USB";
> fi;fi;
>
> # Import environment from env.txt
> if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${ramdisk_addr_r} /boot/env.txt || load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${ramdisk_addr_r} env.txt; then
> echo "Import env.txt";
> env import -t ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${filesize}
> fi
>
> # Check root part filesystem UUID
> fsuuid ${devtype} ${devnum}:${root_part} root_uuid
> if test "UUID=${root_uuid}" != "${rootdev}"; then
> echo "Rootfs UUID mismatch! Set rootfs part to default: ${default_rootdev}"
> setenv rootdev ${default_rootdev}
> fi
>
> # Check MIPI
> if test "${mipi_lcd_enabled}" = "true"; then
> setenv dtb_suffix "-mipi";
> else
> setenv dtb_suffix "";
> fi
>
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
> if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE}; then
> setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge.dtb";
> else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE_V}; then
> setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge-v.dtb";
> else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_CAPTAIN}; then
> setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge-captain.dtb";
> fi;fi;fi
> else
> if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE}; then
> setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge-linux.dtb";
> else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE_V}; then
> setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edgev${dtb_suffix}-linux.dtb";
> else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_CAPTAIN}; then
> setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-captain${dtb_suffix}-linux.dtb";
> fi;fi;fi
> fi
>
> if test ${devnum} = 0; then
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
> if test ${imagetype} = EMMC_MBR; then
> setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/rockchip/";
> else
> setenv dtb_prefix "/boot/dtb/rockchip/";
> fi
> else
> if test ${imagetype} = EMMC_MBR; then
> setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/";
> else
> setenv dtb_prefix "/boot/dtb/";
> fi
> fi
> else if test ${devnum} = 1; then
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
> setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/rockchip/";
> else
> setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/";
> fi
> fi;fi;
>
> echo DTB: ${dtb_prefix}${boot_dtb}
>
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
> setenv condev "earlyprintk console=ttyS2,1500000n8 console=tty0"
> else
> setenv condev "earlyprintk console=ttyFIQ0,1500000n8 console=tty0"
> fi
>
> setenv boot_start booti ${kernel_addr_r} ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${fdt_addr_r}
>
> part uuid mmc ${devnum}:1 ubootpartuuid;
> if test "X${ubootpartuuid}" = "X"; then
> echo "Can not get u-boot part UUID, set to NULL";
> setenv ubootpartuuid "NULL";
> fi;
>
> kbi ethmac
> if test -e ${custom_ethmac}; then
> echo "Found custom ethmac: ${custom_ethmac}, overwrite eth_mac!";
> setenv eth_mac ${custom_ethmac}
> fi
>
> if test "X${eth_mac}" = "X" || test "X${eth_mac}" = "X00:00:00:00:00:00"; then
> echo "Set default mac address to ethaddr: ${ethaddr}!";
> setenv eth_mac ${ethaddr};
> setenv saveethmac "save_ethmac=yes";
> fi;
>
> if test -e ${loglevel}; then
> setenv log "loglevel=${loglevel}"
> fi
>
> setenv bootargs "${bootargs} ${condev} ${log} rw root=${rootdev} rootfstype=ext4 init=/sbin/init rootwait ubootpart=${ubootpartuuid} board_type=${board_type} board_type_name=${board_type_name} khadas_board=${board_type_name} fan=${fan_mode} mac=${eth_mac} androidboot.mac=${eth_mac} ${saveethmac} coherent_pool=${dma_size} imagetype=${imagetype}"
>
> for distro_bootpart in ${devplist}; do
> echo "Scanning ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart}..."
>
> if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${ramdisk_addr_r} uInitrd; then
> if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${kernel_addr_r} zImage; then
> if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${fdt_addr_r} ${dtb_prefix}${boot_dtb}; then
> run boot_start;
> fi;
> fi;
> fi;
>
> done
>
> # Rebuilt
> # mkimage -A arm64 -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n "rk3399 autoscript" -d /boot/rk3399_autoscript.cmd /boot/boot.screcho "Run Khadas boot script"
>
> # Constant
> setenv BOARD_TYPE_NONE 0
> setenv BOARD_TYPE_EDGE 1
> setenv BOARD_TYPE_EDGE_V 2
> setenv BOARD_TYPE_CAPTAIN 3
>
> # Detect board type
> kbi boarddetect
>
> if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_NONE}; then
> echo "Unsupported board detected! Stop here. Reboot...";
> sleep 5;
> reset;
> fi
>
> setenv emmc_root_part 7
> setenv emmc_boot_part 7
> setenv emmc_mbr_root_part 2
> setenv emmc_mbr_boot_part 1
> setenv sd_root_part 2
> setenv sd_boot_part 1
>
> if test ${devnum} = 0; then
> echo "Uboot loaded from eMMC.";
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${emmc_root_part} zImage; then
> setenv imagetype "EMMC";
> setenv boot_env_part ${emmc_boot_part};
> setenv root_part ${emmc_root_part};
> setenv mark_prefix "boot/";
> else
> setenv imagetype "EMMC_MBR";
> setenv boot_env_part ${emmc_mbr_boot_part};
> setenv root_part ${emmc_mbr_root_part};
> setenv mark_prefix "";
> fi;
>
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
> setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk2p${root_part}"
> else
> setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk1p${root_part}"
> fi
> else if test ${devnum} = 1; then
> echo "Uboot loaded from SD.";
> setenv boot_env_part ${sd_boot_part};
> setenv root_part ${sd_root_part}
> setenv mark_prefix ""
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
> setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk1p${sd_root_part}"
> else
> setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk0p${sd_root_part}"
> fi
> setenv imagetype "SD-USB";
> fi;fi;
>
> # Import environment from env.txt
> if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${ramdisk_addr_r} /boot/env.txt || load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${ramdisk_addr_r} env.txt; then
> echo "Import env.txt";
> env import -t ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${filesize}
> fi
>
> # Check root part filesystem UUID
> fsuuid ${devtype} ${devnum}:${root_part} root_uuid
> if test "UUID=${root_uuid}" != "${rootdev}"; then
> echo "Rootfs UUID mismatch! Set rootfs part to default: ${default_rootdev}"
> setenv rootdev ${default_rootdev}
> fi
>
> # Check MIPI
> if test "${mipi_lcd_enabled}" = "true"; then
> setenv dtb_suffix "-mipi";
> else
> setenv dtb_suffix "";
> fi
>
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
> if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE}; then
> setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge.dtb";
> else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE_V}; then
> setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge-v.dtb";
> else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_CAPTAIN}; then
> setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge-captain.dtb";
> fi;fi;fi
> else
> if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE}; then
> setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge-linux.dtb";
> else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE_V}; then
> setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edgev${dtb_suffix}-linux.dtb";
> else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_CAPTAIN}; then
> setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-captain${dtb_suffix}-linux.dtb";
> fi;fi;fi
> fi
>
> if test ${devnum} = 0; then
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
> if test ${imagetype} = EMMC_MBR; then
> setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/rockchip/";
> else
> setenv dtb_prefix "/boot/dtb/rockchip/";
> fi
> else
> if test ${imagetype} = EMMC_MBR; then
> setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/";
> else
> setenv dtb_prefix "/boot/dtb/";
> fi
> fi
> else if test ${devnum} = 1; then
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
> setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/rockchip/";
> else
> setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/";
> fi
> fi;fi;
>
> echo DTB: ${dtb_prefix}${boot_dtb}
>
> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
> setenv condev "earlyprintk console=ttyS2,1500000n8 console=tty0"
> else
> setenv condev "earlyprintk console=ttyFIQ0,1500000n8 console=tty0"
> fi
>
> setenv boot_start booti ${kernel_addr_r} ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${fdt_addr_r}
>
> part uuid mmc ${devnum}:1 ubootpartuuid;
> if test "X${ubootpartuuid}" = "X"; then
> echo "Can not get u-boot part UUID, set to NULL";
> setenv ubootpartuuid "NULL";
> fi;
>
> kbi ethmac
> if test -e ${custom_ethmac}; then
> echo "Found custom ethmac: ${custom_ethmac}, overwrite eth_mac!";
> setenv eth_mac ${custom_ethmac}
> fi
>
> if test "X${eth_mac}" = "X" || test "X${eth_mac}" = "X00:00:00:00:00:00"; then
> echo "Set default mac address to ethaddr: ${ethaddr}!";
> setenv eth_mac ${ethaddr};
> setenv saveethmac "save_ethmac=yes";
> fi;
>
> if test -e ${loglevel}; then
> setenv log "loglevel=${loglevel}"
> fi
>
> setenv bootargs "${bootargs} ${condev} ${log} rw root=${rootdev} rootfstype=ext4 init=/sbin/init rootwait ubootpart=${ubootpartuuid} board_type=${board_type} board_type_name=${board_type_name} khadas_board=${board_type_name} fan=${fan_mode} mac=${eth_mac} androidboot.mac=${eth_mac} ${saveethmac} coherent_pool=${dma_size} imagetype=${imagetype}"
>
> for distro_bootpart in ${devplist}; do
> echo "Scanning ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart}..."
>
> if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${ramdisk_addr_r} uInitrd; then
> if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${kernel_addr_r} zImage; then
> if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${fdt_addr_r} ${dtb_prefix}${boot_dtb}; then
> run boot_start;
> fi;
> fi;
> fi;
>
> done
>
> # Rebuilt
> # mkimage -A arm64 -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n "rk3399 autoscript" -d /boot/rk3399_autoscript.cmd /boot/boot.scr
>
> Â
>
> I suspect that it has been compiled and it became the file "boot.scr"
> that's responsible for the booting of Ubuntu from the sd card. This script
> is not present on the EFI partition of the sd card where is installed
> FreeBSD :
>
> Â
>
> => 40 500006832 da3 GPT (238G)
> 40 32728 - free - (16M)
> 32768 102400 1 efi (50M)
> 135168 483708928 2 freebsd-ufs (231G)
> 483844096 16154624 3 freebsd-swap (7.7G)
> 499998720 8152 - free - (4.0M)
>
> Â
>
> anyway,I tried to put it there :
>
> Â
>
> marietto# cd /mnt/da3p1
> marietto# ls
>
> EFI dtb dtb-rock u-boot~1.bin
> Edge-V dtb-RK3399 rk3399_autoscript.cmd ubootefi.var
> boot.scr dtb-pinebook-pro splash.bmp ubootefi_.var
>
> Â
>
> What happened ? that FreeBSD does not boot,but is Android that's installed
> on the internal EMMC that makes the boot. I'm pretty sure that the script
> has been written specially for Ubuntu and it should be modified to work
> with FreeBSD.
>
> But at the moment I need to understand how to add an UFS2 partition on top
> of a MBR disk because the KHADAS Edge-V is not able to boot FreeBSD if it
> stays inside a GPT disk.
> --
> Mario.
>
>
> Â
>
--
Mario.