Suggested option for the DVD Installer

[Rob Diamond]

Hi Allan,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post.

However, I think you missed the main point of my original post (sorry if 
i was a bit verbose - comes from being an IT contractor/consultant who 
never uses one word when ten will do). I can and did work out that the 
problem was that my (old) PC's BIOS didn't support GPT partitions, and 
therefore I had to go for an MBR disk layout instead.

My point is that when I followed the default "Guided" option the 
installer defaulted to GPT, and on exiting the installer my PC wouldn't 
boot. At this point a FreeBSD noob would have a great deal of difficulty 
diagnosing the problem, and would most likely give up and try some other 
distro. For example, I tried installing PC-BSD-10, and after the 
installer had finished the same PC re-booted fine (it used an MBR 
layout), and I was away. Previously I've tried Ubuntu and Linux Mint on 
the same PC, and again both re-booted fine. So I think an extra effort 
is needed with the installer to get a noob up and running - once they've 
got something to play with then, OK, expect them to read the manual. But 
to expect a noob to diagnose the problem, and then manually partition 
using MBR is unrealistic. And then they're lost to FreeBSD..

Also, there's the following in the FreeBSD manual

"GPT is usually the most appropriate choice for amd64 computers. Older 
computers that are not compatible with GPT should use MBR. The other 
partition schemes are generally used for uncommon or older computers."

I think the wording should be a bit stronger than this - something like 
"Older computers that are not compatible with GPT will not boot from a 
GPT disk, and must use the older MBR partition type."

Anyway, just my 2 cents..

Regards,

Rob Diamond

On 21/11/14 00:46, Allan Jude wrote:
> On 2014-11-20 05:03, Rob Diamond wrote:
>> Hi Guys,
>>
>> I would like to suggest an option for an MBR install on the current 10.1
>> DVD installer image. Some background:
>>
>> I'm a refugee from the Linux systemd wars.
>>
>> I have been running Gentoo for 10-15 years, but finally got fed up with
>> the problems of keeping my system up to date. If I left the system for a
>> couple of months then any attempt to upgrade something/everything would
>> block because of intertwined dependencies and the fast pace of updates
>> to packages. So a few months ago, after trying various other Linux
>> distros I installed Linux Mint. It's dead easy to install, sound, video,
>> printers work pretty well out of the box. But I hate the complexity of
>> everything, and the way it's starting to look like Windoze:
>>
>> - grub2, with its unreadable config file and convoluted set-up and
>> update (Yeah, I know I could RTFM, but I don't want to waste a couple of
>> hours working out how to change some settings when I'll forget in a
>> couple of days).
>> - the "quiet, splash" default boot option, with the mindless jiggling
>> logo instead of being able to see what's going on.
>> - the byzantine complexity of systemd (Yeah, I know I could RTFM, but I
>> don't want to waste a couple of months working out how to change some
>> settings when I'll forget in a couple of seconds).
>> - etc, etc
>>
>> BTW I'm NOT a FreeBSD noob. I started off installing 386BSD on a PC-AT
>> (if there's anyone here young enough to remember that !), and I've got
>> the Walnut Creek CDROMs for FreeBSD 2.0 and 2.2 in my bottom drawer.
>>
>> However, I had a problem getting FreeBSD to install on my "test" PC. The
>> motherboard is a few years old, and the BIOS has no clue about GPT
>> partioning. I first tried the default install, but (and it takes a long
>> time to boot and install off DVD) after rebooting my BIOS couldn't find
>> an OS. I tried Googling for a clue, but as usual the problem is that
>> there's way too much information out there and most of it is not
>> current. So next I tried partitioning with gpart and setting up an MBR
>> disk, but I kept getting complaints about the partition not being 4k
>> aligned. So then I tried using the "Expert mode" patitioning, but I put
>> a swap partition first, so.. no boot. Finally I found something that
>> said to make sure "/" was the first partition, and (after re-booting and
>> installing for the umpteenth time) I was in business.
>>
>> It would have been much easier if there was a default MBR partioning
>> option, with a label saying something like "MBR partitioning for older
>> hardware", which would give installers a clue, and which got the user
>> going with the first (or second) install.
>>
>> We can't afford to put people off by making it difficult to get their
>> first installation running - once you have a working system it's easier
>> to learn about various aspects of the OS. But expecting inexperienced
>> people with older hardware to be able to work out how to partition an
>> MBR disk is unrealistic. They'll just give up and go back to something
>> like Ubuntu.
>>
>> My 2 cents worth.
>>
>> Best Regards,
>>
>> Rob Diamond.
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> The installer does support MBR, for both UFS and ZFS installs
>
> This section of the handbook shows the partitioning stage for the main
> install option:
> https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bsdinstall-partitioning.html#bsdinstall-part-guided
>
> So, select the disk (top item), choose modify and pick 'mbr', then
> choose 'create' and accept the defaults (this will create the freebsd
> wrapper partition). Now press the down arrow to select that partition,
> and select create again. This will create a freebsd-ufs partition, set
> the mount point to / and modify the size to be slightly smaller than
> your entire disk (by the amount of swap you want to have). Create 1 more
> partition for swap with the remaining space, change the type to
> 'freebsd-swap'.
>
> Then select finish, and you should be good to go.
>