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Date:      Fri, 4 Apr 2014 08:53:55 +0300
From:      "Sergey V. Dyatko" <sergey.dyatko@gmail.com>
To:        freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: UEFI bios, problem installing freebsd but not pc-bsd
Message-ID:  <20140404085355.33efbe2d@laptop.minsk.domain>
In-Reply-To: <CAEJt7ha-Lt_fsr1%2BuX3ZueYEV4XLNU1rPV4yj=zQAWZX2sCVSg@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <20140404000343.GA45831@potato.growveg.org> <CAEJt7ha-Lt_fsr1%2BuX3ZueYEV4XLNU1rPV4yj=zQAWZX2sCVSg@mail.gmail.com>

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On Thu, 3 Apr 2014 21:24:43 -0400
Henry Hu <henry.hu.sh@gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.

something from that branch was commited to head by emaste@ 
Look at r264095

> 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"
> >
> 
> 
> 




--
wbr, tiger




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