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Date:      Wed, 19 Apr 2017 07:51:55 +0000
From:      Manish Jain <bourne.identity@hotmail.com>
To:        "holindho@saunalahti.fi" <holindho@saunalahti.fi>, "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Efi/mbr freebsd-11.0-RELEASE-p9 unbootable
Message-ID:  <VI1PR02MB1200F27BC5C1196A9E525C65F6180@VI1PR02MB1200.eurprd02.prod.outlook.com>

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>> Dear freebsd users,
>>
>> I got a used toshiba-laptop with windows 7.  A friend of mine gave me a
>> new
>> hard drive and we installed void-linux with a 1GB /boot partition, an 8 =
GB
>> swap partitionx and a 100GB / for the install.  Installation suceeded, b=
ut
>> grub install failed some ttx? Error.  I then got a regular x86_64 amd
>> freebsd 11.0 RELEASE and installed it sucessfully as well.  I did not ge=
t
>> questioned to install bootloader. When booting the machine tries to boot
>> off the network.  I get a supergrubdisk and boot off it and I am able to
>> run freebsd-update on it get it to -p9 and install pkgs that I want to
>> run.  I am not very fond of secure boot and I had installed linux on
>> another machine with windows 7 and it supposedly had EFI support, howeve=
r
>> when grub installed, i lost the ability to boot into windows.  In this
>> machine a toshiba satellite laptop, I tried to play it safe and instead
>> cannot boot either void-linux or freebsd from the hard drive.  I can boo=
t
>> into freebsd with supergrubdisk, i don't believe it is a question of EFI
>> because I had previously installed DragonflyBSD 4.8 which has support fo=
r
>> EFI and I selected it as well, but the system was unbootable as well.  H=
ow
>> should I troubleshoot this?  I can boot from live media, but I cannot
>> install grub or the freebsd bootloader.  Hard drive is 465 GB, with the
>> above mentioned linux partitions, the rest for freebsd with ufs.  If the=
re
>> is a how to, or a laptop wiki on this topic, I appreciate all your help
>> even if it would be recommended that I reinstall the OS again from
>> scratch.  I am confused with GPT vs old style MBR which just worked TM b=
y
>> the way and this secure boot crap which renders our machines unbootable.
>=20
>=20
> Show the output of gpart show ada0 (or whatever your disk is) for better
> guesswork to begin. You might need to (1) disable secure boot, (2) enable
> bios emulation, (3) install FreeBSD (and linux) with the BIOS/MBR booter
> instead of EFI.
>=20
> Regards,
> Heikki Lindholm

I strongly recommend to everyone facing problems [or if you have no wish=20
to face them in future] :

1) Use Legacy BIOS; not UEFI
2) Use MBR partitioning; not GPT. This further implies that either use=20
the whole disk (presuming you have only one), or use UFS only (no ZFS)
3) Only install from optical media; not USB stick.

If you have any problems booting FreeBSD, use the installer to set up a=20
Fixit/Live Shell session and make sure you put Boot Easy to the MBR :

boot0cfg -B /dev/ada0 # or whatever device corresponds to your disk

One of the best things in FreeBSD is Boot Easy : it makes life so much=20
sweeter that once you start using it, you will realize that Grub has no=20
place in the FreeBSD world - except for any Linux installation later=20
which should put Grub boot record to its system partition, never the MBR.

For any assistance, please at least send across your gpart geometry,=20
which you can get in Fixit/Live Shell with :

gpart show ada0

Regards
Manish Jain




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