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Date:      Tue, 9 Sep 2014 10:56:18 -0600
From:      John Nielsen <lists@jnielsen.net>
To:        freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: UEFI display frozen on Retina MacBook Pro
Message-ID:  <C870E5F7-8032-494E-BCBF-5CE3D7A39177@jnielsen.net>
In-Reply-To: <540DAD5F.3050902@icloud.com>
References:  <9C939A39-79DA-44A7-8C8C-48B6423B50D4@jnielsen.net> <20140905173019.GF36287@hub.FreeBSD.org> <97975F21-B733-4549-8ED8-8E86CBE6DEA7@jnielsen.net> <540DAD5F.3050902@icloud.com>

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On Sep 8, 2014, at 7:21 AM, Anders Bolt Evensen <andersbo87@icloud.com> =
wrote:

> On 05.09.14 19:37, John Nielsen wrote:
>> On Sep 5, 2014, at 11:30 AM, Glen Barber <gjb@FreeBSD.org> wrote:
>>=20
>>> On Fri, Sep 05, 2014 at 11:20:21AM -0600, John Nielsen wrote:
>>>> I have a "MacBook Pro Retina, Mid 2012" (MacBookPro10,1) on which =
I'd like to be able to boot FreeBSD from an external USB drive. For =
testing I've been using the mini-memstick images from the -CURRENT =
snapshots, most recently the one from 20140903.
>>>>=20
>>>> I am able to select "EFI Boot" on the USB device from the Mac's =
boot menu, and it does _something_, but the screen never changes--the =
image of the boot menu is displayed indefinitely. I think it is actually =
booting since there is drive activity and the caps lock key indicator =
starts working a few seconds in, but the screen just stays the same. =
Thinking the resolution of the Retina display may have been an issue, I =
tried booting with it disabled (lid closed) and an external monitor and =
keyboard. The result was the same--Mac boot menu frozen on the external =
display.
>>>>=20
>>>> Is there anything I should try to troubleshoot or debug this issue? =
Anything else I should include in a PR? I can test patches if needed =
(probably after building an image including the patch from a VM).
>>>>=20
>>> To be clear, which boot menu do you see?  If you see the FreeBSD =
loader
>>> menu, escape to the loader prompt and try:
>>>=20
>>>    set kern.vty=3Dvt
>>>    set hw.vga.textmode=3D1
>>>    boot
>>>=20
>>> I am a bit unclear under which conditions 'hw.vga.textmode=3D1' is
>>> required, though.
>> No, I don't ever see the FreeBSD loader. I see the menu you get on a =
Mac when you hold down the option (alt) key while booting--big disk =
icons representing the bootable disks/partitions in the system. In my =
case it was the "Macintosh HD" volume (Mac OS Mavericks), my Windows =
partition, and the USB stick with the FreeBSD memstick image on it, =
which the Mac just called "EFI Boot" (and the icon was that of a USB =
disk). There is also a little section at the bottom that allows wifi =
network booting (if you've done all the black magic (not PXE) to get =
that to happen). It shows a circular activity animation while it scans =
for wireless networks. That animation stops when I select the USB EFI =
icon and press enter (and that is the only visual indication I get that =
I made a selection).
>=20
> To see the FreeBSD (U)EFI boot loader on the Mac, you need to install =
an EFI shell like rEFIt on either your hard drive or a HFS formatted =
memory stick:
> 1) Download the rEFIt installer from here: =
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/refit/rEFIt/0.14/rEFIt-0.14.dmg?r=
=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Frefit.sourceforge.net%2F&ts=3D1410181876&use_mirror=3Dopti=
mate
> 2) Open the downloaded file
> 3) Run the following command from the terminal: sudo installer -pkg =
/Volumes/rEFIt/rEFIt.mpkg -tgt /Volumes/memstick (in this example, I'm =
using an HFS formatted memory stick).
> 4) Run the command "sudo /Volumes/memstick/efi/enable.sh"
> 5) When you reboot your Mac, when you hold down the alt key, choose =
rEFIt on the startup menu. Then, choose the "BOOTx64.efi from =85" =
option
> If everything now goes as it should, you should see the FreeBSD =
loader. When the "Press enter to boot or any other key to go to loader =
in X seconds" (or whatever it says), press a random key. Then try to =
type the commands suggested by [Glen Barber].

Thanks all, made _some_ progress.

I installed rEFInd on my internal hard drive and now I can get to (and =
see!) the FreeBSD EFI loader. Unfortunately that's about as far as it =
gets. Once I tell the loader to boot it displays the EFI framebuffer =
information and then nothing else. This happens with 'kern.vty=3Dvt' set =
and with or without 'hw.vga.textmode=3D1'.

Screenshot here: https://blog.jnielsen.net/images/efiloader.jpg

What should the next troubleshooting steps be?

JN




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