Re: How to add an UFS2 partition on a mbr style partition disk.

Errata corrige :

# gpart list da7 | grep rawuuid
nothing.

On Sun, Jul 13, 2025 at 4:59 PM Mario Marietto <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Hello.
>
> Following the man page I have created da7 with the MBR scheme and I've
> added the second partition as UFS2 giving the following commands :
>
> # gpart create -s MBR da7
> # gpart add -t freebsd  -s 119G -a 4k da7
> # gpart set -a  active -i 1 da7
> # gpart bootcode -b /boot/boot0 da7
> # gpart create -s BSD -n 20 da7s1
>
>
> =>       63  249737153  da7  MBR  (119G)
>          63       1985       - free -  (993K)
>        2048     102400    1  fat32lba  [active]  (50M)
>      104448  249561088    2  freebsd  (119G)
>   249665536      71680       - free -  (35M)
>
>
> Now the problem is that I'm not able to determine the uuid of da7s2a,that
> is required by the boot.scr script that should be stored on da7s1 :
>
> # gpart list da7s2a | grep rawuuid
> nothing.
>
> Why ? How to fix it ? thanks.
>
> On Sun, Jul 13, 2025 at 3:22 PM Ronald Klop <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> AFAIK, MBR or GPT does not relate to the amount of bits. There are
>> reasons why GPT and 64bit system are often used together, but is not
>> necessary. Google or ChatGPT can probably tell you more details about this
>> than I can come up with from the top of my head.
>>
>> To be precise I have an RPI3B. It runs 64 bits FreeBSD.
>> https://dmesgd.nycbug.org/index.cgi?do=view&id=8422
>>
>> Regards,
>> Ronald.
>> Â
>>
>> *Van:* Mario Marietto <[email protected]>
>> *Datum:* zondag, 13 juli 2025 14:36
>> *Aan:* Ronald Klop <[email protected]>
>> *CC:* FreeBSD Mailing List <[email protected]>, freebsd-arm <
>> [email protected]>
>> *Onderwerp:* Re: How to add an UFS2 partition on a mbr style partition
>> disk.
>>
>> Hello bro.
>> Â
>> In your opinion can FreeBSD at 64 bit boot on a disk that's formatted
>> with the MBR ? From what I know,64 bit will boot with GPT and 32 bit will
>> boot with MBR.
>> Â
>> I bet that your RPI3 runs FreeBSD at 32 bit ?
>> Â
>> On Sun, Jul 13, 2025 at 2:06PM Ronald Klop <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> I assume your question is 'how to make a bootable SDcard with MBR and
>>> UFS2?'
>>> In the man page of gpart (type: man gpart) go to the EXAMPLES section
>>> and look for MBR.
>>>
>>> That contains an example of how to setup MBR + UFS2.
>>>
>>> You can play around a bit with it. My RPI3 boots from an SDcard with
>>> this layout:
>>>
>>> gpart show
>>> =>      1  3994623  mmcsd0  MBR  (1.9G)
>>>         1     2047          - free -  (1.0M)
>>>      2048   102400       1  fat32lba  [active]  (50M)
>>>    104448  3890176       2  freebsd  (1.9G)
>>>
>>> =>      0  3890176  ufs/rootfs  BSD  (1.9G)
>>>         0      128              - free -  (64K)
>>>       128  3890048           1  freebsd-ufs  (1.9G)
>>>
>>> Although in my config the SDcard only contains /boot. The kernel mounts
>>> the rootfs from an SSD.
>>> For your proof of concept I would advice to just write a full rootfs on
>>> the SD.
>>>
>>> Hope this helps.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Ronald.
>>>
>>> Â
>>>
>>> *Van:* Mario Marietto <[email protected]>
>>> *Datum:* zondag, 13 juli 2025 12:23
>>> *Aan:* FreeBSD Mailing List <[email protected]>,
>>> freebsd-hackers <[email protected]>, freebsd-arm <
>>> [email protected]>
>>> *Onderwerp:* How to add an UFS2 partition on a mbr style partition disk.
>>>
>>> Hello.
>>>
>>> I've bought the nice board "KHADAS Edge-V" because I wanted to try to
>>> boot FreeBSD from it. An old version of FreeBSD,version 13, is provided by
>>> the company,but unfortunately it does not boot. Later I've found that the
>>> reason or one of the reasons is because the board wants the sd card to be
>>> "formatted" with an MBR style partition layout.
>>>
>>> I've understood that the image named
>>> "Edge_Ubuntu-gnome-focal_Linux-5.7_arm64_SD-USB_V0.9.1-20200602.img" can
>>> boot from the sd card,but the image named
>>> "edge-freebsd-aarch64-13.0-release-20210613.img" can't do it. Why ? I've
>>> crudely identified some crucial differences that make the magic.
>>>
>>>    1.
>>>
>>>    the structure of the disk partitions that comes after having written
>>>    "Edge_Ubuntu-gnome-focal_Linux-5.7_arm64_SD-USB_V0.9.1-20200602.img" to the
>>>    sd card :=> 63 62333889 da1 MBR (30G) 63 32705 - free - (16M) 32768 491520
>>>    1 fat32 [active] (240M) 524288 61808640 2 linux-data (29G) 62332928 1024 -
>>>    free - (512K)
>>>
>>> MBR here is important. With a GPT disk it is not able to boot.
>>>
>>> 2) inside the fat32 partition there is a script like this :
>>>
>>> Â
>>>
>>> echo "Run Khadas boot script"
>>>
>>> # Constant
>>> setenv BOARD_TYPE_NONE        0
>>> setenv BOARD_TYPE_EDGE        1
>>> setenv BOARD_TYPE_EDGE_V    2
>>> setenv BOARD_TYPE_CAPTAIN    3
>>>
>>> # Detect board type
>>> kbi boarddetect
>>>
>>> if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_NONE}; then
>>>     echo "Unsupported board detected! Stop here. Reboot...";
>>>     sleep 5;
>>>     reset;
>>> fi
>>>
>>> setenv emmc_root_part        7
>>> setenv emmc_boot_part        7
>>> setenv emmc_mbr_root_part    2
>>> setenv emmc_mbr_boot_part    1
>>> setenv sd_root_part            2
>>> setenv sd_boot_part            1
>>>
>>> if test ${devnum} = 0; then
>>>     echo "Uboot loaded from eMMC.";
>>>     if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${emmc_root_part} zImage; then
>>>         setenv imagetype "EMMC";
>>>         setenv boot_env_part ${emmc_boot_part};
>>>         setenv root_part ${emmc_root_part};
>>>         setenv mark_prefix "boot/";
>>>     else
>>>         setenv imagetype "EMMC_MBR";
>>>         setenv boot_env_part ${emmc_mbr_boot_part};
>>>         setenv root_part ${emmc_mbr_root_part};
>>>         setenv mark_prefix "";
>>>     fi;
>>>
>>>     if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
>>>         setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk2p${root_part}"
>>>     else
>>>         setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk1p${root_part}"
>>>     fi
>>> else if test ${devnum} = 1; then
>>>     echo "Uboot loaded from SD.";
>>>     setenv boot_env_part ${sd_boot_part};
>>>     setenv root_part ${sd_root_part}
>>>     setenv mark_prefix ""
>>>     if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
>>>         setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk1p${sd_root_part}"
>>>     else
>>>         setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk0p${sd_root_part}"
>>>     fi
>>>     setenv imagetype "SD-USB";
>>> fi;fi;
>>>
>>> # Import environment from env.txt
>>> if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${ramdisk_addr_r} /boot/env.txt || load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${ramdisk_addr_r} env.txt; then
>>>     echo "Import env.txt";
>>>     env import -t ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${filesize}
>>> fi
>>>
>>> # Check root part filesystem UUID
>>> fsuuid ${devtype} ${devnum}:${root_part} root_uuid
>>> if test "UUID=${root_uuid}" != "${rootdev}"; then
>>>     echo "Rootfs UUID mismatch! Set rootfs part to default: ${default_rootdev}"
>>>     setenv rootdev ${default_rootdev}
>>> fi
>>>
>>> # Check MIPI
>>> if test "${mipi_lcd_enabled}" = "true"; then
>>>     setenv dtb_suffix "-mipi";
>>> else
>>>     setenv dtb_suffix "";
>>> fi
>>>
>>> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
>>>     if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE}; then
>>>         setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge.dtb";
>>>     else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE_V}; then
>>>         setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge-v.dtb";
>>>     else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_CAPTAIN}; then
>>>         setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge-captain.dtb";
>>>     fi;fi;fi
>>> else
>>>     if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE}; then
>>>         setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge-linux.dtb";
>>>     else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE_V}; then
>>>         setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edgev${dtb_suffix}-linux.dtb";
>>>     else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_CAPTAIN}; then
>>>         setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-captain${dtb_suffix}-linux.dtb";
>>>     fi;fi;fi
>>> fi
>>>
>>> if test ${devnum} = 0; then
>>>     if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
>>>         if test ${imagetype} = EMMC_MBR; then
>>>             setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/rockchip/";
>>>         else
>>>             setenv dtb_prefix "/boot/dtb/rockchip/";
>>>         fi
>>>     else
>>>         if test ${imagetype} = EMMC_MBR; then
>>>             setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/";
>>>         else
>>>             setenv dtb_prefix "/boot/dtb/";
>>>         fi
>>>     fi
>>> else if test ${devnum} = 1; then
>>>     if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
>>>         setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/rockchip/";
>>>     else
>>>         setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/";
>>>     fi
>>> fi;fi;
>>>
>>> echo DTB: ${dtb_prefix}${boot_dtb}
>>>
>>> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
>>>     setenv condev "earlyprintk console=ttyS2,1500000n8 console=tty0"
>>> else
>>>     setenv condev "earlyprintk console=ttyFIQ0,1500000n8 console=tty0"
>>> fi
>>>
>>> setenv boot_start booti ${kernel_addr_r} ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${fdt_addr_r}
>>>
>>> part uuid mmc ${devnum}:1 ubootpartuuid;
>>> if test "X${ubootpartuuid}" = "X"; then
>>>     echo "Can not get u-boot part UUID, set to NULL";
>>>     setenv ubootpartuuid "NULL";
>>> fi;
>>>
>>> kbi ethmac
>>> if test -e ${custom_ethmac}; then
>>>     echo "Found custom ethmac: ${custom_ethmac}, overwrite eth_mac!";
>>>     setenv eth_mac ${custom_ethmac}
>>> fi
>>>
>>> if test "X${eth_mac}" = "X" || test "X${eth_mac}" = "X00:00:00:00:00:00"; then
>>>     echo "Set default mac address to ethaddr: ${ethaddr}!";
>>>     setenv eth_mac ${ethaddr};
>>>     setenv saveethmac "save_ethmac=yes";
>>> fi;
>>>
>>> if test -e ${loglevel}; then
>>>     setenv log "loglevel=${loglevel}"
>>> fi
>>>
>>> setenv bootargs "${bootargs} ${condev} ${log} rw root=${rootdev} rootfstype=ext4 init=/sbin/init rootwait ubootpart=${ubootpartuuid} board_type=${board_type} board_type_name=${board_type_name} khadas_board=${board_type_name} fan=${fan_mode} mac=${eth_mac} androidboot.mac=${eth_mac} ${saveethmac} coherent_pool=${dma_size} imagetype=${imagetype}"
>>>
>>> for distro_bootpart in ${devplist}; do
>>>     echo "Scanning ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart}..."
>>>
>>>     if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${ramdisk_addr_r} uInitrd; then
>>>         if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${kernel_addr_r} zImage; then
>>>             if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${fdt_addr_r} ${dtb_prefix}${boot_dtb}; then
>>>                 run boot_start;
>>>             fi;
>>>         fi;
>>>     fi;
>>>
>>> done
>>>
>>> # Rebuilt
>>> # mkimage -A arm64 -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n "rk3399 autoscript" -d /boot/rk3399_autoscript.cmd /boot/boot.screcho "Run Khadas boot script"
>>>
>>> # Constant
>>> setenv BOARD_TYPE_NONE        0
>>> setenv BOARD_TYPE_EDGE        1
>>> setenv BOARD_TYPE_EDGE_V    2
>>> setenv BOARD_TYPE_CAPTAIN    3
>>>
>>> # Detect board type
>>> kbi boarddetect
>>>
>>> if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_NONE}; then
>>>     echo "Unsupported board detected! Stop here. Reboot...";
>>>     sleep 5;
>>>     reset;
>>> fi
>>>
>>> setenv emmc_root_part        7
>>> setenv emmc_boot_part        7
>>> setenv emmc_mbr_root_part    2
>>> setenv emmc_mbr_boot_part    1
>>> setenv sd_root_part            2
>>> setenv sd_boot_part            1
>>>
>>> if test ${devnum} = 0; then
>>>     echo "Uboot loaded from eMMC.";
>>>     if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${emmc_root_part} zImage; then
>>>         setenv imagetype "EMMC";
>>>         setenv boot_env_part ${emmc_boot_part};
>>>         setenv root_part ${emmc_root_part};
>>>         setenv mark_prefix "boot/";
>>>     else
>>>         setenv imagetype "EMMC_MBR";
>>>         setenv boot_env_part ${emmc_mbr_boot_part};
>>>         setenv root_part ${emmc_mbr_root_part};
>>>         setenv mark_prefix "";
>>>     fi;
>>>
>>>     if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
>>>         setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk2p${root_part}"
>>>     else
>>>         setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk1p${root_part}"
>>>     fi
>>> else if test ${devnum} = 1; then
>>>     echo "Uboot loaded from SD.";
>>>     setenv boot_env_part ${sd_boot_part};
>>>     setenv root_part ${sd_root_part}
>>>     setenv mark_prefix ""
>>>     if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
>>>         setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk1p${sd_root_part}"
>>>     else
>>>         setenv default_rootdev "/dev/mmcblk0p${sd_root_part}"
>>>     fi
>>>     setenv imagetype "SD-USB";
>>> fi;fi;
>>>
>>> # Import environment from env.txt
>>> if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${ramdisk_addr_r} /boot/env.txt || load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${ramdisk_addr_r} env.txt; then
>>>     echo "Import env.txt";
>>>     env import -t ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${filesize}
>>> fi
>>>
>>> # Check root part filesystem UUID
>>> fsuuid ${devtype} ${devnum}:${root_part} root_uuid
>>> if test "UUID=${root_uuid}" != "${rootdev}"; then
>>>     echo "Rootfs UUID mismatch! Set rootfs part to default: ${default_rootdev}"
>>>     setenv rootdev ${default_rootdev}
>>> fi
>>>
>>> # Check MIPI
>>> if test "${mipi_lcd_enabled}" = "true"; then
>>>     setenv dtb_suffix "-mipi";
>>> else
>>>     setenv dtb_suffix "";
>>> fi
>>>
>>> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
>>>     if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE}; then
>>>         setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge.dtb";
>>>     else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE_V}; then
>>>         setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge-v.dtb";
>>>     else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_CAPTAIN}; then
>>>         setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge-captain.dtb";
>>>     fi;fi;fi
>>> else
>>>     if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE}; then
>>>         setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edge-linux.dtb";
>>>     else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_EDGE_V}; then
>>>         setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-edgev${dtb_suffix}-linux.dtb";
>>>     else if test ${board_type} = ${BOARD_TYPE_CAPTAIN}; then
>>>         setenv boot_dtb "rk3399-khadas-captain${dtb_suffix}-linux.dtb";
>>>     fi;fi;fi
>>> fi
>>>
>>> if test ${devnum} = 0; then
>>>     if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
>>>         if test ${imagetype} = EMMC_MBR; then
>>>             setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/rockchip/";
>>>         else
>>>             setenv dtb_prefix "/boot/dtb/rockchip/";
>>>         fi
>>>     else
>>>         if test ${imagetype} = EMMC_MBR; then
>>>             setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/";
>>>         else
>>>             setenv dtb_prefix "/boot/dtb/";
>>>         fi
>>>     fi
>>> else if test ${devnum} = 1; then
>>>     if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
>>>         setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/rockchip/";
>>>     else
>>>         setenv dtb_prefix "/dtb/";
>>>     fi
>>> fi;fi;
>>>
>>> echo DTB: ${dtb_prefix}${boot_dtb}
>>>
>>> if test -e mmc ${devnum}:${boot_env_part} ${mark_prefix}.next; then
>>>     setenv condev "earlyprintk console=ttyS2,1500000n8 console=tty0"
>>> else
>>>     setenv condev "earlyprintk console=ttyFIQ0,1500000n8 console=tty0"
>>> fi
>>>
>>> setenv boot_start booti ${kernel_addr_r} ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${fdt_addr_r}
>>>
>>> part uuid mmc ${devnum}:1 ubootpartuuid;
>>> if test "X${ubootpartuuid}" = "X"; then
>>>     echo "Can not get u-boot part UUID, set to NULL";
>>>     setenv ubootpartuuid "NULL";
>>> fi;
>>>
>>> kbi ethmac
>>> if test -e ${custom_ethmac}; then
>>>     echo "Found custom ethmac: ${custom_ethmac}, overwrite eth_mac!";
>>>     setenv eth_mac ${custom_ethmac}
>>> fi
>>>
>>> if test "X${eth_mac}" = "X" || test "X${eth_mac}" = "X00:00:00:00:00:00"; then
>>>     echo "Set default mac address to ethaddr: ${ethaddr}!";
>>>     setenv eth_mac ${ethaddr};
>>>     setenv saveethmac "save_ethmac=yes";
>>> fi;
>>>
>>> if test -e ${loglevel}; then
>>>     setenv log "loglevel=${loglevel}"
>>> fi
>>>
>>> setenv bootargs "${bootargs} ${condev} ${log} rw root=${rootdev} rootfstype=ext4 init=/sbin/init rootwait ubootpart=${ubootpartuuid} board_type=${board_type} board_type_name=${board_type_name} khadas_board=${board_type_name} fan=${fan_mode} mac=${eth_mac} androidboot.mac=${eth_mac} ${saveethmac} coherent_pool=${dma_size} imagetype=${imagetype}"
>>>
>>> for distro_bootpart in ${devplist}; do
>>>     echo "Scanning ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart}..."
>>>
>>>     if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${ramdisk_addr_r} uInitrd; then
>>>         if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${kernel_addr_r} zImage; then
>>>             if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${distro_bootpart} ${fdt_addr_r} ${dtb_prefix}${boot_dtb}; then
>>>                 run boot_start;
>>>             fi;
>>>         fi;
>>>     fi;
>>>
>>> done
>>>
>>> # Rebuilt
>>> # mkimage -A arm64 -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n "rk3399 autoscript" -d /boot/rk3399_autoscript.cmd /boot/boot.scr
>>>
>>> Â
>>>
>>> I suspect that it has been compiled and it became the file "boot.scr"
>>> that's responsible for the booting of Ubuntu from the sd card. This script
>>> is not present on the EFI partition of the sd card where is installed
>>> FreeBSD :
>>>
>>> Â
>>>
>>> =>       40  500006832  da3  GPT  (238G)
>>>          40      32728       - free -  (16M)
>>>       32768     102400    1  efi  (50M)
>>>      135168  483708928    2  freebsd-ufs  (231G)
>>>   483844096   16154624    3  freebsd-swap  (7.7G)
>>>   499998720       8152       - free -  (4.0M)
>>>
>>> Â
>>>
>>> anyway,I tried to put it there :
>>>
>>> Â
>>>
>>> marietto# cd /mnt/da3p1
>>> marietto# ls
>>>
>>> EFI            dtb            dtb-rock        u-boot~1.bin
>>> Edge-V            dtb-RK3399        rk3399_autoscript.cmd    ubootefi.var
>>> boot.scr        dtb-pinebook-pro    splash.bmp        ubootefi_.var
>>>
>>> Â
>>>
>>> What happened ? that FreeBSD does not boot,but is Android that's
>>> installed on the internal EMMC that makes the boot. I'm pretty sure that
>>> the script has been written specially for Ubuntu and it should be modified
>>> to work with FreeBSD.
>>>
>>> But at the moment I need to understand how to add an UFS2 partition on
>>> top of a MBR disk because the KHADAS Edge-V is not able to boot FreeBSD if
>>> it stays inside a GPT disk.
>>> --
>>> Mario.
>>>
>>>
>>> Â
>>>
>> Â
>>
>> --
>> Mario.
>>
>>
>> Â
>>
>
>
> --
> Mario.
>


-- 
Mario.