# Macbook boot error



## mozgan (Oct 31, 2011)

Hi,

I have installed FreeBSD-9.0-RC1 on my Macbook 5.1 (used this). but when booting it always says it is not a bootable device.

Does anyone have a solution?

Thanks..


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## mozgan (Nov 1, 2011)

Hello,

I am writing some outputs of "gpart" and "fdisk", maybe help you to find a solution:

[CMD=]# fdisk ada0[/cmd]

```
******* Working on device /dev/ada0 *******
parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are:
cylinders=310101 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)

Figures below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1
parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are:
cylinders=310101 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)

Media sector size is 512
Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1
Information from DOS bootblock is:
The data for partition 1 is:
sysid 238 (0xee),(EFI GPT)
    start 1, size 409639 (200 Meg), flag 0
	beg: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63;
	end: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63
The data for partition 2 is:
sysid 175 (0xaf),(HFS+)
    start 409640, size 271484384 (132560 Meg), flag 0
	beg: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63;
	end: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63
The data for partition 3 is:
sysid 11 (0x0b),(DOS or Windows 95 with 32 bit FAT)
    start 272156672, size 40423424 (19738 Meg), flag 0
	beg: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63;
	end: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63
The data for partition 4 is:
<UNUSED>
```

[CMD=]# gpart show[/CMD]

```
=>       34  312581741  ada0  GPT  (149G)
         34          6        - free -  (3.0k)
         40     409600     1  efi  (200M)
     409640  271484384     2  apple-hfs  (129G)
  271894024        128        - free -  (64k)
  271894152   39845760     4  freebsd-ufs  (19G)
  311739912     841863        - free -  (411M)

=>      63  15679425  da0  MBR  (7.5G)
        63  15679377    1  fat32  (7.5G)
  15679440        48       - free -  (24k)
```

[CMD=]# gpart show ada0[/CMD]

```
=>       34  312581741  ada0  GPT  (149G)
         34          6        - free -  (3.0k)
         40     409600     1  efi  (200M)
     409640  271484384     2  apple-hfs  (129G)
  271894024        128        - free -  (64k)
  271894152   39845760     4  freebsd-ufs  (19G)
  311739912     841863        - free -  (411M)
```

[CMD=]# gpart show -r ada0[/CMD]

```
=>       34  312581741  ada0  GPT  (149G)
         34          6        - free -  (3.0k)
         40     409600     1  c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b  (200M)
     409640  271484384     2  48465300-0000-11aa-aa11-00306543ecac  (129G)
  271894024        128        - free -  (64k)
  271894152   39845760     4  516e7cb6-6ecf-11d6-8ff8-00022d09712b  (19G)
  311739912     841863        - free -  (411M)
```

And [cmd=]# gpart show ad0[/cmd] gives me some "geom" error and no output.


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## falkman (Nov 1, 2011)

mozgan said:
			
		

> Hello,
> 
> ```
> ******* Working on device /dev/ada0 *******
> ...



Something looks terribly wrong about these numbers... every beg and end are 1023/254/63. Also, partition one says

```
start 1, size 409639 (200 Meg), flag 0
```

Where on the wiki it says to have it as

```
start 40, size 409600 (200 Meg), flag 0
```

The size probably is fine even though it is off, but the start may be a bit of an issue. The fact that beg and end are all 1023/254/63, I feel there must have been an issue while formatting, or there's a bug in RC1 giving invalid reports [which I doubt because I don't have any issues with my RC1 virtual machine].

The way the wiki says partition 1 must be is:


```
The data for partition 1 is:
sysid 238 (0xee),(EFI GPT)
    start 40, size 409600 (200 Meg), flag 0
        beg: cyl 0/ head 0/ sector 41;
        end: cyl 406/ head 6/ sector 14
```

I'm not a Mac user, so this is a shot in the dark, but your output is far off from that.

It seems that if the partition #1 doesn't match that snippet above exactly, that BootCamp may throw a fit. Source:

http://wiki.freebsd.org/AppleMacboo...nything.21_.2BAC8_BootCamp_stopped_working.21

Have you been able to boot before from this? If not... if you have nothing installed, then maybe consider a reformat from scratch? Also, are you using BootCamp or something else?

Have you tried 8.2-RELEASE, or any other BSD on this box before?

Also. It looks like you have an 8GB flash drive plugged in?


```
=>      63  15679425  da0  MBR  (7.5G)
        63  15679377    1  fat32  (7.5G)
  15679440        48       - free -  (24k)
```

Perhaps BootCamp is trying to boot off of the flash drive (if it is one at all). Not sure about Mac configuration and particularly your own setup.

Regards,
Brandon Falk


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## mozgan (Nov 1, 2011)

Hi falkman,

Thanks for answer.



			
				falkman said:
			
		

> Have you been able to boot before from this? If not... if you have nothing installed, then maybe consider a reformat from scratch? Also, are you using BootCamp or something else?



I have found this article and installed FreeBSD on Mac successfully. I am writing this on FreeBSD. 

The solution: First, the Boot Camp partition to a FreeBSD slice must be changed and activated. And you may not install a boot partition. So, Efi (or rEfit) boots on FreeBSD.

"fdisk" looks now so:

`# fdisk ada0`

```
******* Working on device /dev/ada0 *******
parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are:
cylinders=310101 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)

Figures below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1
parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are:
cylinders=310101 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)

Media sector size is 512
Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1
Information from DOS bootblock is:
The data for partition 1 is:
sysid 238 (0xee),(EFI GPT)
    start 1, size 409639 (200 Meg), flag 0
	beg: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63;
	end: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63
The data for partition 2 is:
sysid 175 (0xaf),(HFS+)
    start 409640, size 271484384 (132560 Meg), flag 0
	beg: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63;
	end: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63
The data for partition 3 is:
sysid 165 (0xa5),(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
    start 272156672, size 40423424 (19738 Meg), flag 80 (active)
	beg: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63;
	end: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63
The data for partition 4 is:
<UNUSED>
```

And "gpart" looks so:

`# gpart show`

```
=>       34  312581741  ada0  GPT  (149G)
         34          6        - free -  (3.0k)
         40     409600     1  efi  (200M)
     409640  271484384     2  apple-hfs  (129G)
  271894024     262648        - free -  (128M)
  272156672   40423424     3  linux-data  (19G)
  312580096       1679        - free -  (839k)

=>       0  40423424  ada0p3  BSD  (19G)
         0        16          - free -  (8.0k)
        16  36229104       1  freebsd-ufs  (17G)
  36229120   4194304       2  freebsd-swap  (2.0G)
```

Best regards,
mozgan


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## wblock@ (Nov 1, 2011)

falkman said:
			
		

> Something looks terribly wrong about these numbers... every beg and end are 1023/254/63.



Maybe not a problem.  fdisk(8) only understands MBR partition schemes, so it's showing the contents of the "protective MBR" created by GPT.  Seems like it ought to only show one MBR partition, though.  The PMBR should cover the whole disk.

The gpart(8) output shows the EFI partition starting at block 40.


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## falkman (Nov 1, 2011)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> Maybe not a problem.  fdisk(8) only understands MBR partition schemes, so it's showing the contents of the "protective MBR" created by GPT.  Seems like it ought to only show one MBR partition, though.  The PMBR should cover the whole disk.
> 
> The gpart(8) output shows the EFI partition starting at block 40.



I was wondering why gpart(8) was correct and fdisk(8) was not. Now that I'm at home, I get the same printout (1023/254/63)... I must have smashed through the install process in the VM at work that I didn't use GPT as usual.

@mozgan: Glad it all works!

-Falkman


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