Change in loader or kernel: won't boot with kfreebsd in grub2

[Juergen Lock]

On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 03:39:45PM +0000, Thomas Mueller wrote:
> > Hmm I just tested super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.00s1-beta5.iso from
> 
> >         http://www.supergrubdisk.org/category/download/supergrub2diskdownload/
> 
> > if it can boot FreeBSD-9.2-RC1-amd64-memstick.img in qemu and I
> > had to fix "kfreebsd" spelled as "freebsd" and "kfreebsd_loadenv"
> > spelled as "frebsd_loadenv", replace /boot/kernel/kernel with
> > /boot/loader, and I in the loader I then had to set currdev=disk1a
> > (shown by lsdev) and load /boot/kernel/kernel.  qemu was started
> > like this:
> 
> >         qemu-system-x86_64 -cdrom super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.00s1-beta5.iso -hda FreeBSD-9.2-RC1-amd64-memstick.img -m 512 -boot d -monitor stdio
> 
> >  Letting super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.00s1-beta5.iso boot the kernel
> > directly via kfreebsd /boot/kernel/kernel fails tho because of a this
> > bug in the vanilla grub 2.00 code:
> 
> >         http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=699002
> 
> >  (The fix for that bug now is in our sysutils/grub2 port as well as
> > in debian's grub 2.00 but apparently not yet in the super grub disk
> > isos.)
> 
> >  So maybe your problem is that loader needs currdev set at least
> > in this case and in your old 9.0 installation it didn't?
> 
>  HTH, :)
> >         Juergen
> 
> I still wonder why Super Grub Disk kfreebsd worked until recently.
> 
> I figure something must have changed in FreeBSD loader or kernel structure since the Super Grub Disk didn't change in that time.
> 
> For currdev, apparently the big hard drive is just recognized as one big drive with no reference to partitions (lsdev).
> 
Hmm that sounds like a problem and would explain why loader cannot boot
that install, when it doesn't find the partition...  Maybe this is
another case of confusion caused by leftover partition table data?
In that case you probably can fix this by backing up what you want
to keep from that disk, dd'ing /dev/zero over beginning and end of
it and then reinstalling everything...  (What does gpart show
say about that disk now when run from a booted system and also from
the 9.2 live system?)

> I could try building grub2 from ports on both the hard-drive installation and the USB-stick amd64 installation, see what possibilities are then available.
> 
> FreeBSD gpart can create a boot partition, but then the question is how to boot that when there is more than one OS partition.
> 
> I can't simply put the FreeBSD boot partition at the start of the hard drive as I did with the USB sticks.
> 
> I had a FreeDOS installation with syslinux on a USB stick that went bad (the USB stick hardware).  That would permit me to have various boot images including grub4dos and Super Grub Disk to boot with syslinux without booting into FreeDOS.  I'd re-create that, but the FreeDOS installer has proven tricky.
> 
 I talked to the super grub disk people yesterday and they want to
prepare an updated iso using debian's grub 2.00 (that has the
kfreebsd >= 9.1 kernel fix), and with the FreeBSD templates fixed
also, _maybe_ that would then help you as well...

 Good luck, :)
	Juergen