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Date:      Sat, 15 Oct 2016 12:02:42 +0300
From:      Heikki Lindholm <holindho@saunalahti.fi>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Install on macpro1,1 (efi32)
Message-ID:  <5801F0B2.1070201@saunalahti.fi>

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Hello list,

I'm quite unfamiliar with FreeBSD, but thought I'd give it a try, mainly 
to get ZFS, and maybe to get rid of Linux. The machine I'm trying to 
install on is a first generation Apple Mac Pro (macpro1,1) with 64-bit 
Xeons, but 32-bit EFI implementation. I tried to boot some of the 
installation media with varying success.

The following would not boot at all:
FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-disc1.iso
FreeBSD-11.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso

The following did boot:
FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso

I'm guessing that the one that boots, does it in the BIOS emulation mode 
provided by Apple's firmware. Of course, I'd like to skip any BIOS 
emulation and have it utilise EFI, and I'd also like to start with the 
latest 11.0 RELEASE version.

So, my questions are: Does FreeBSD support a mixed boot-up process of a 
32-bit EFI and a 64-bit kernel (Linux does, or at least did). Once the 
kernel is booted up, does it matter in FreeBSD whether it got booted 
using BIOS emulation or EFI (ie. slower firmware call access, changes in 
perceived HD geometry or device tree, etc..)? Is there a way to boot the 
11 RELEASE installation media on this machine?

Ultimately I'd like to have a dual boot system of OS X and FreeBSD with 
only Apple's firmware provided OS / boot device chooser (pressing Alt at 
startup). IF reFind or something like that is the only way on this 
machine then so be it, though.

Regards,
Heikki Lindholm



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