Bug #9048
closed
Installer memsticks using GPT should always have partition count that is a multiple of 4
0%
Description
The memstick installers use GPT but they only include three partitions and not four. This can cause a problem when writing disk images on Windows (at least, maybe others) as it expects the partition count to be a multiple of four when recalculating the checksum after writing the disk. This can lead to FreeBSD refusing to boot on the target memstick.
Lots more detail and analysis here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/9oe15x/having_trouble_getting_pfsense_to_boot_off/e7vxswc/
The easiest solution appears to be adding another partition so that it has four instead of three. We can make this a smallish FAT32 partition which will help in several ways:
- We can drop a copy of the license there
- We can drop a README.txt on there pointing to the installation docs
- Users can put a config.xml backup on there to restore during the installation.
Updated by Anonymous
Updated by Renato Botelho about 6 years ago
- Status changed from New to In Progress
Updated by Renato Botelho about 6 years ago
- Status changed from In Progress to Not a Bug
This but only applies to installer image, not to installed system. Our memstick installer image uses MBR since May, when gjb@ made this change on FreeBSD at r334337 and MFC'd it.