Moving a bootable ZFS USB between systems

[Peter Pauly]

I didn't realize I could retry the mount by typing in
zfs:zroot/ROOT/default at the mountroot> prompt. I hadn't even seen the
prompt previously because of output that came out over the top of it. I
retried the mount and it finished booting correctly. I'm currently not
savvy enough with FreeBSD to do source builds, I'll have to read up on
that. I've done it on OpenBSD for errata patches so it can't be too bad.

Thanks for your help Fabian.

On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 10:02 AM, Fabian Keil <freebsd-listen at fabiankeil.de>
wrote:

> 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
>