home | help
ZFSBOOT(8)		     System Manager's Manual		      ZFSBOOT(8)

NAME
     zfsboot -- bootcode for ZFS on BIOS-based computers

DESCRIPTION
     zfsboot  is used on BIOS-based computers to boot from a filesystem in a ZFS
     pool.  zfsboot is installed in two parts on a disk or a partition used by a
     ZFS pool.	The first part, a single-sector starter boot block, is installed
     at the beginning of the disk or partition.  The second part,  a  main  boot
     block, is installed at a special offset within the disk or partition.  Both
     areas  are  reserved  by  the  ZFS  on-disk specification for boot use.  If
     zfsboot is installed in a partition, then that  partition	should	be  made
     bootable  using  appropriate  configuration  and  boot  blocks described in
     boot(8).

BOOTING
     The zfsboot boot process is very similar to  that	of  gptzfsboot(8).   One
     significant  difference  is that zfsboot does not currently support the GPT
     partitioning scheme.  Thus only whole disks and MBR partitions,  tradition-
     ally  referred  to as slices, are probed for ZFS disk labels.  See the BUGS
     section in gptzfsboot(8) for some limitations of the MBR scheme support.

USAGE
     zfsboot supports all the same prompt and configuration  file  arguments  as
     gptzfsboot(8).

FILES
     /boot/zfsboot  boot code binary
     /boot.config   parameters for the boot block (optional)
     /boot/config   alternative parameters for the boot block (optional)

EXAMPLES
     zfsboot is typically installed using dd(1).  To install zfsboot on the ada0
     drive:

	   dd if=/boot/zfsboot of=/dev/ada0 count=1
	   dd if=/boot/zfsboot of=/dev/ada0 iseek=1 oseek=1024

     If  the  drive is currently in use, the GEOM safety will prevent writes and
     must be disabled before running the above commands:

	   sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=0x10

     zfsboot can also be installed in an MBR slice:

	   gpart create -s mbr ada0
	   gpart add -t freebsd ada0
	   gpart create -s BSD ada0s1
	   gpart bootcode -b /boot/boot0 ada0
	   gpart set -a active -i 1 ada0
	   dd if=/boot/zfsboot of=/dev/ada0s1 count=1
	   dd if=/boot/zfsboot of=/dev/ada0s1 iseek=1 oseek=1024

     Note that commands to create and populate a pool are not shown in the exam-
     ple above.

SEE ALSO
     dd(1), boot.config(5),  boot(8),  gptzfsboot(8),  loader(8),  zfsloader(8),
     zpool(8)

HISTORY
     zfsboot appeared in FreeBSD 7.3.

AUTHORS
     This manual page was written by Andriy Gapon <avg@FreeBSD.org>.

BUGS
     Installing  zfsboot  with dd(1) is a hack.  ZFS needs a command to properly
     install zfsboot onto a ZFS-controlled disk or partition.

FreeBSD 11.1		       September 15, 2014		      ZFSBOOT(8)

home | help