Guided Root-on-ZFS Not Booting Without LiveCD

[tick]

My system currently only has one drive in it.

When installing Opnsense, if I select to install using ZFS GPT/UEFI Hybrid mode, it asks me to select the drive(s) (offering the boot usb and the intended install ssd). I select stripe, it asks which drives, I select only the install ssd, it goes through and says it will format that, and proceeds and completes without error. On reboot, I pull the usb, it detects in bios and boots fine from the ssd working system.

However, if I choose other modes > auto zfs (guided root-on-zfs), default settings except enable encryption, encrypted swap, increase swap size, then under pool type/disks I choose stripe, and it asks which of the two drives, I select only the ssd, not the usb.
I then go and select proceed with install, and it says it will format that drive (it doesn't say anything about the USB). All goes fine, but when I reboot and pull the usb, my system refuses to boot from the ssd. It says no media found, insert drive and reboot. Now if I reboot but plug in the usb, it boots fine without issues, and asks for my encryption password I had set when installing. In case the issue wasn't clear, the USB should have nothing on it besides the livecd to install. The SSD is the drive I am installing to.

It worked no issues when selecting zfs gpt/uefi hybrid mode.
I wanted encryption enabled. I don't see why that would affect this, but I just can't boot without the usb when I install using zfs gpt/uefi hybrid.

[franco]

It would be best to discuss this here since it discusses the code itself https://github.com/opnsense/installer/issues/18


Cheers,
Franco

[tick]

Thank you, will keep the discussion there.
to avoiding flooding that github issue with off topic, I have a slightly related question.
I have started to setup my machine on the non encrypted install (the ZFS GPT/UEFI Hybrid mode setting bcause that worked). My goal is to have the ZFS+encryption, if I figure this out what is the best way to clone my setup, reinstall, then restore that clone so it brings over all my interfaces, settings, plugins, etc. exactly how I had it, just on the ZFS+encryption install.
I don't have another empty drive to clone to. Does the web gui's XML export backup EVERYTHING?

[franco]

Everything except logs, runtime fetch data (blocklists, IDS rules, etc), local databases and actual code (core and plugins).

That means it's sufficient to restore a previous installation in behaviour.


Cheers,
Franco

[tick]

If I coud find another drive, would I be able to backup and restore the local datbases, blocklists ids rules plugins etc. Like an exact mirror, but just with zfs+encryption?
I saw I can clone backup and restore but won't it restore with however the original drive was setup (so without encryption)?

Thanks for your support franco.