# 9.2-RELEASE, RootOnZFS, won't boot/black screen



## Fnyar (Oct 7, 2013)

Hi,

I followed this, exactly, using a USB memstick:

https://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/GPTZFSBoot/9.0-RELEASE

When I exit and reboot I get a blinking cursor on a completely blank screen just after POST, nothing else. I don't know if the documentation is wrong/missing a step or if something is fundamentally unsupported with my hardware. I was previously running 9.0-RC3 on this exact hardware but have difficulties updating to 9.1-RELEASE because of network interface recognition. Based on the lack of network interfaces during the installation process I have a feeling I'm still having network interface recognition problems, but that shouldn't prevent the OS from booting.

I'm running this on an Intel Atom D510 CPU, 2GB ram, Intel motherboard (not sure the model at the moment).

Any thoughts?

Thanks.


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## ShelLuser (Oct 7, 2013)

If the whole thing remains blank and doesn't even try to get to the loader then either something is set wrong in your BIOS (boot sequence perhaps?) or this method doesn't work for you. To be honest I'd not my favourite method, never really liked the separate swap slice.

Since nothing works for you at this time I'd suggest trying to follow this guide. I'm obviously not claiming that this will surely work, but considering that he uses several different values when setting up the boot slices I can't help wonder if that could do the trick here.

Because if it's not your BIOS it has to be related to your system being unable to find and execute the loader block.


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## kpa (Oct 7, 2013)

Blank screen on POST/boot when using GPT partition scheme can be a sign of some BIOS bug. If you can test a normal UFS installation on a GPT partitioned disk it would give a bit more data about the problem.


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## jem (Oct 7, 2013)

I had this problem with the Intel D510MO mini-itx board some years ago.

I resolved it by ensuring that the protective MBR partition spanning the whole drive was flagged as active.


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## Erratus (Oct 7, 2013)

A blank screen or reboot loops can occur when
`# gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 ada0`
was used instead of
`# gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada0`


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## wblock@ (Oct 7, 2013)

Another possibility that could cause this: no bootcode installed.


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## Fnyar (Oct 8, 2013)

Erratus said:
			
		

> A blank screen or reboot loops can occur when
> `# gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 ada0`
> was used instead of
> `# gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada0`



I think that was the trick! I went back, booted from the memstick, and re-ran the bootcode step and now things work. Thank you all for your (quick) replies.


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