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<pre>Hi Martin,
first, let's have a look at this quote from the prologue section of fdisk(8) man page:
<blockquote type="cite"><pre>In order for the BIOS to boot the kernel, certain conventions must be adhered to.
Sector 0 of the disk must contain boot code, a slice table, and a magic number.
BIOS slices can be used to break the disk up into several pieces. The BIOS brings
in sector 0 and verifies the magic number. The sector 0 boot code then searches the
slice table to determine which slice is marked ``active''. <b>This boot code then brings
in the bootstrap from the active slice</b> and, if marked bootable, runs it.</pre></blockquote>
so, your first step
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<pre><font size="-1">fdisk -iB /dev/da0 # initialize sector 0 of the disk and install the MBR</font></pre>
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<pre>is correct; namely initializing sector 0 with the mbr bootcode from /boot/mbr.
your second step
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<pre><font size="-1"># [...] I marked da0s1 as active.</font></pre>
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<pre>is also correct.
now, the partition table is where you did a mistake, i guess. to my understanding
the first partition of the active slice should contain the bootstrap (/boot)
mentioned by the fdisk(8) quote to start your system. it is also done like that
in the example from the handbook [1]. this is missing in your partition layout.
so, maybe change this
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<pre><font size="-1">disklabel64 -e da0s1 <span style="white-space:pre"> </span></font></pre>
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<font size="-1"><tt>
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<pre><font size="-1"><span style="white-space:pre"></span> a: 50G * HAMMER # the root partition
b: 8G * swap
d: * * HAMMER # the /home partition
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<pre>to this instead
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<pre><font size="-1">disklabel64 -e da0s1 <span style="white-space:pre"> </span></font></pre>
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<pre><font size="-1"><span style="white-space:pre"></span> a: 1G * 4.2BSD # the /boot partition (format as UFS)
b: 8G * swap
d: 50G * HAMMER # the / partition
e: * * HAMMER # the /home partition
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<pre>
you can find further instructions on formatting the partitions afterwards as well
as copying the system data and editing the /boot/loader.conf and /etc/fstab files
under [1].
i hope i did understand everything correctly and this is of any help to you.
[1] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.dragonflybsd.org/docs/handbook/Installation/#index3h1">https://www.dragonflybsd.org/docs/handbook/Installation/#index3h1</a></pre>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
best regards,
Tobi</pre>
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