# No /boot/loader, No /boot/kernel/kernel



## circus78 (Aug 4, 2018)

Hi,
I just installed FreeBSD 11.1 beside Windows 10 .

This is my partition layout:


```
=>       63  468862065  ada1  MBR  (224G)

         63       1985        - free -  (993K)

       2048    1024000     1  ntfs  [active]  (500M)

    1026048  407589961     2  ntfs  (194G)

  408616009        951        - free -  (476K)

  408616960     983040     3  !39   (480M)

  409600000   58720256     4  freebsd   (28G)

  468320256     541872        - free - (265M)
```

On slice 4 I created (in this order) these partitions: 

1. 8 GB size for /home 
2. 18 GB size for /
3. 2 GB size for swap

After reboot, in boot manager I see:


```
F1: Win

F2: Win

F3: ?

F4: FreeBSD
```
when I choose F4, I get this error:


```
No /boot/loader

FreeBSD/x86 boot
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/boot/kernel/kernel
boot:
No /boot/kernel/kernel



No /boot/loader

FreeBSD/x86 boot

Default: 0:ad(0,a)/boot/kernel/kernel

boot:

No /boot/kernel/kernel
```

First question:
is it mandatory to have / on first partition?

Second question:
if I try to manually boot from second partition, I get this:




```
boot: 0:ad(0,b)/boot/kernel/kernel

int:00000006 err=00000000 efl=00010006 eip:00302000

eax=00302000 ebx=00302000 ecx=80000000 edx=000001e

...

BTX halted
```

why?

Third question: what is the "boot stage" syntax? I mean, what are the difference between the first 0 and the second in such string:


```
boot:0:ad(0, .....)
```


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## Phishfry (Aug 4, 2018)

circus78 said:


> First question:
> is it mandatory to have / on first partition?


No. GPT on FreeBSD needs either /boot or /EFI partitions that resides before the root partition.



circus78 said:


> Second question:
> if I try to manually boot from second partition, I get this:





circus78 said:


> boot: 0:ad(0,b)/boot/kernel/kernel


You are essentailly issuing this boot order here: `boot0cfg -s 2 ada0`
The problem is Slice 2 is listed as windows. You want slice 3
https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=boot0cfg&sektion=8
Question 3: See the above manual.


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## Phishfry (Aug 4, 2018)

circus78 said:


> when I choose F4, I get this error:
> Code:
> No /boot/loader


Well the boot loader is probably F3 from the looks of it.


----------



## Phishfry (Aug 4, 2018)

What you need to do is figure out which ones boot what and mask the others.
For instance say Windows boots with F2 and FreeBSD boots with F3.
Now you can mask partition 1 and partition 4 that are not bootable.
`boot0cfg -m 6`
This is mask 6 or 0x6 from this chart:
https://dririan.com/2012/07/using-boot0cfg/
After applying the mask you will simply have F1 Windows and F2 FreeBSD


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## circus78 (Aug 7, 2018)

Hi,
thank you for your replies.
F1 and F4 are the correct ones.
F1 = Windows 10
F4 = FreeBSD's slice

so I'd need to "mask" F2 and F3.

Does this error:


```
boot: 0:ad(0,b)/boot/kernel/kernel



int:00000006 err=00000000 efl=00010006 eip:00302000



eax=00302000 ebx=00302000 ecx=80000000 edx=000001e



...



BTX halted
```

means that, anyway, the path to my kernel is correct?
Thankyou!


----------



## circus78 (Aug 8, 2018)

Phishfry said:


> No. GPT on FreeBSD needs either /boot or /EFI partitions that resides before the root partition.



Hi Phishfry,
I did several tries.. it seems that I am unable to boot FreeBSD if first partition is NOT root filesystem /.
If I repeat the exact same steps, but with reverted order (swap first, then /), I still get:


```
No /boot/loader

FreeBSD/x86 boot
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/boot/kernel/kernel
boot:
No /boot/kernel/kernel
```


----------

