Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2014 21:24:43 -0400 From: Henry Hu <henry.hu.sh@gmail.com> To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: UEFI bios, problem installing freebsd but not pc-bsd Message-ID: <CAEJt7ha-Lt_fsr1%2BuX3ZueYEV4XLNU1rPV4yj=zQAWZX2sCVSg@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20140404000343.GA45831@potato.growveg.org> References: <20140404000343.GA45831@potato.growveg.org>
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On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 8:03 PM, John <freebsd-lists@potato.growveg.org>wrote: > Hello -stable, > > Got a new computer the other day. It has a UEFI bios. I downloaded the > latest builds of 10-stable and 11 from allbsd, and also downloaded > pc-bsd 10-R. > > Although I could install all three, for the freebsds the system would > not get to the loader prompt. All I got was a blank screen and the > cursor hopping around in the top left quadrant of the screen. > > In contrast to this, when I installed pc-bsd and the system rebooted, it > was able to fully boot as expected. Why is this? I suspect it's due to > UEFI but, unlike a server I look after, this machine does not appear to > have a legacy bios. > > Now, while I have nothing against pc-bsd, I'm used to getting the base > install sorted then installing what I need out of ports, probably > because I'm an old fart who has been using freebsd as a desktop since > 2.2.5. How can I make the proper BSD bootable after install in the face > of UEFI ? How does pc-bsd overcome this limitation? > > [whoops, just looked at https://wiki.freebsd.org/UEFI - has anyone here > got this to work?] > I'm using the projects/uefi branch and it works well. Generally, you need to * Build loader.efi This is built in the process of buildworld of that branch. * Install loader.efi to EFI partition's /EFI/FreeBSD * Build and install an EFI kernel Notice that traditional kernel cannot be booted with loader.efi * Copy /boot to EFI partition's /boot kernel is not needed, only the scripts and config files. * Change /boot/loader.conf in the EFI partition. You may want to specify bootfile="part5:/boot/kernel/kernel" // or other partition vfs.root.mountfrom="ufs:gpt/root" // or other partition * Boot with FreeBSD's loader.efi In my laptop, you can create a new boot entry and specify that one as the boot loader in BIOS. Currently, I'm using rEFInd to chain-load freebsd's loader.efi and it works well. For bootstrap, my laptop can still boot up the install media (using legacy boot loader), so I can mount the root partition after loading the kernel from the install media, and build and install the necessary items. You can find the EFI partition as a small fat partition on the disk. Notice that you also need to replace syscons with vt to get a usable console. Good Luck! > thanks, > -- > John > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > -- Cheers, Henry
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