RFD 176: discussion about rfd HOT 5 CLOSED

The code in the MBR loads iPXE from the ZFS boot area on that same disk

I think this is missing a step. In legacy mode the MBR can only load gptzfsboot (slice 1). You'd need to modify that to load iPXE from the zfs boot area.

from rfd.

The code in the MBR loads booter from the ZFS boot area on that same disk

Should this be "loader"? Again, gptzfsboot.

from rfd.

It may be that we want to always create an ESP, even when not using EFI
In this case, the MBR would load a boot loader from the FAT file system in the ESP

Hmm. Presumably there's some reason why legacy boot doesn't do that with gptzfsboot, preferring to load the root's loader instead... but I'm not sure what exactly.

from rfd.

Where are the PIs stored and handled in this key-less world (on the HN) ? Can loader accommodate what we need there?

from rfd.

Another thing that's not explicitly mentioned but will need accounting for: iPXE delivers two binaries, one for legacy and one for EFI.

from rfd.