GPTZFSBoot [FreeBSD WIKI]

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====== Installing FreeBSD Root on ZFS using GPT ======

===== Manually Installing FreeBSD on ZFS =====
This guide assumes you want to manually creating the pool, to change default settings, or to not use the entire disk.
If you just want to setup ZFS on the entire disk, use the 'ZFS' option in the bsdinstall partitioning menu.

  - Boot %%FreeBSD%% install DVD or USB Memstick

  - Select Install, and answer questions such as keyboard layout and hostname

  - When prompted to partition the disk:
    - If you do not want to use the entire disk, skip to the [[#Create_Partitions|Partition Creation]] section.
    - choose the 'shell' option.  In this mode you are expected to create a root file system mounted under /mnt that the installer will install the operating system into.
    - Determine which disk you wish to use:

<code>
camcontrol devlist
</code>

%%<%%TOSHIBA HDWN180 GX2M>             at scbus7 target 0 lun 0 (ada0,pass1)

SATA disks usually start with ada followed by a number. SAS and USB disks start with da followed by a number.
The rest of this page assumes the disk is ada0; replace it with your disk device's name in all commands below.

  - Create a fresh partition table:

<code>
gpart destroy ada0
gpart create -s gpt ada0
</code>

<callout type="warning">
This will erase all data on the disk!
</callout>

  - Create the bootcode partition:
    - for UEFI Boot:

<code>
gpart add -a 4k -s 260M -t efi ada0
# Create a FAT32 partition
newfs_msdos -F 32 -c 1 /dev/ada0p1
mount -t msdosfs -o longnames /dev/ada0p1 /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/EFI/BOOT
cp /boot/loader.efi /mnt/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi
umount /mnt
</code>

  - for Legacy Boot:

<code>
gpart add -a 4k -s 512K -t freebsd-boot ada0
gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada0
</code>

===== Create Partitions =====
Add some partitions for %%FreeBSD%% to use: a freebsd-swap partition and a freebsd-zfs partition.
  * -a %%<%%number>: controls alignment.
  * -s %%<%%size>: sets the size of the partition; if not set, it will default to the remaining space on the disk.
  * -l %%<%%name> sets the label for the partition.

Create the swap and zfs partitions

<code>
gpart add -a 1m -s 4G -t freebsd-swap -l swap0 ada0
gpart add -a 1m -t freebsd-zfs -l disk0 ada0
</code>

<callout type="info">
**Note:**
While a [[/RootOnZFS#ZFS_Swap_Volume|ZFS Swap Volume]] can be used instead of the freebsd-swap partition, it is not recommended, and crash dumps can't be saved to the ZFS Swap Volume.
</callout>

===== Create the Pool =====
  - Find the device for the freebsd-zfs partition created above

<code>
gpart show -p ada0
</code>

=>         40  15628053088    ada0  GPT  (7.3T)
40         1024  ada0p1  freebsd-boot  (512K)
1064          984          - free -  (492K)
2048      4194304  ada0p2  freebsd-swap  (2.0G)
4196352  15623856776  ada0p3  freebsd-zfs  (7.3T)

  - Mount a tmpfs to /mnt

<code>
mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /mnt
</code>

  - Create the ZFS Pool

<code>
zpool create -o altroot=/mnt zroot ada0p3
</code>

<callout type="info">
**Note:**
zroot is the name of the ZFS Pool; it could be anything, e.g. tank, data, mypool, ...
</callout>

===== Create the ZFS file system hierarchy =====
{{page>RootOnZFS/PoolLayout&nofooter&noeditbtn}}

===== Configure Boot Environment =====

<code>
zpool set bootfs=zroot/ROOT/default zroot
</code>

===== Finish install =====
  - Create /tmp/bsdinstall_etc/fstab

<code>
cat << EOF > /tmp/bsdinstall_etc/fstab
# Device			Mountpoint		FStype	Options		Dump	Pass#
/dev/gpt/swap0			none			swap	sw		0	0
EOF
</code>

  - Exit Shell Partitioning mode, bsdinstall will continue and complete the installation.

<code>
exit
</code>

  - In the post installation step, when asked if you would like to drop into the installed system, choose yes and run the following two commands.

<code>
sysrc zfs_enable="YES"
echo 'zfs_load="YES"' >> /boot/loader.conf
</code>

----

{{tag>HowTo}}