boot loader too large

Jason C. Wells jcw at speakeasy.net
Sat Apr 17 08:31:27 UTC 2010


I have been following a number of GPT and ZFS docs on the web. I intend 
to run UFS with GPT. 

I have partitioned the drive.  I installed the bootcode using:

    gpart bootcode -b /dist/boot/pmbr -p /dist/boot/gptboot -i 1 ad4

ad4p1 is a 1 MB partition with nothing in it and type=freebsd-boot.  The 
root device is ad4p2 with binaries and kernel already installed. When I 
boot I get an error message:

    boot loader too large

I am not sure what stage of the boot process this occurs in.  I do not 
see any of the familiar boot0 or boot1 prompts.  I tried installing mbr, 
boot0, and boot1 just to see what would happen.  I didn't expect them to 
boot assuming that they are GPT unaware.  I did get some familiar 
prompts/errors. I at least confirmed that I was managing to get the 
bootcode installed.

Is there any documentation on the new GPT boot process yet?  I am 
curious how the PMBR knows to pass control to the boot partition, and 
then on the to root partition's /boot/loader.

Thanks,
Jason


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