Moving a bootable ZFS USB between systems

[Fabian Keil]

Peter Pauly <ppauly at gmail.com> wrote:

> I installed FreeBSD 11 with an encrypted GELI root and ZFS (zroot) on a
> USB stick. My intention was to boot off of it on several systems. It
> works fine on the original system but not on a second system.
> 
> I get this message:
> Mounting from zfs:zroot/ROOT/default failed with error 5.
> 
> The USB stick is da0.
> 
> The geli part looks like it works, but the zfs mount fails.

Assuming the boot ends at the mountroot prompt, this is likely the
result of a known bug that is only triggered on some systems:
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=208882

You could try the patch from the PR. It has been included in
ElectroBSD since more than a year now without causing any known
issues.

> Should I be able to move the stick between systems or do I need to do a
> zpool export zroot first? If so, where is the best place to put this
> (rc.shutdown?)

In general, moving USB sticks around should not require any special steps.

Fabian
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