From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sun Feb 25 14:29:27 2018 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF493F3084D for ; Sun, 25 Feb 2018 14:29:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from vrwmiller@gmail.com) Received: from mail-ua0-x22c.google.com (mail-ua0-x22c.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:400c:c08::22c]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 74B737EBB5 for ; Sun, 25 Feb 2018 14:29:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from vrwmiller@gmail.com) Received: by mail-ua0-x22c.google.com with SMTP id p12so8919932uad.0 for ; Sun, 25 Feb 2018 06:29:26 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc; bh=bDWhgtGSmnGBHmsd6PRIuiRyo73bqVgeFeerMjg7ClM=; b=Pr9L5nFdJabQ+exlijesX2N8WbolNT/CKLDITwRCBx+2vA4msAESw4Q7v0R9R59l7l FejjXeJO29TNqpXVvlNl9TUhnfdSgwMOuMjQTgSsZURK4Cm+cesle0KTlaoaGmBnI4Y0 4TvBnF1AR0pNvX035L+rwsDw3q08USd5VwyPGqhMliQWVb3qJrSdP9LO78HmE0V+/KH6 s2SbPGJIw24GBinJ+3nDXmDP92diFHj+lRC4E3/4AhE3K+TA68a+XLMqPYjHh/a+36+9 2WtNS0nEiX3udDFAzePptQpOT8mVt8rFgSWbnS9h9+o/IbZ/E1wvd749GCoJuTQXIOmq r0sQ== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date :message-id:subject:to:cc; bh=bDWhgtGSmnGBHmsd6PRIuiRyo73bqVgeFeerMjg7ClM=; b=Rk9MR5br0lI0lZOEW/Apm1iOzIjqZiEOGroPcPcDxTp1PVwI6dnnQDhFyIj8e8bygC 55XueOtO8XIJz8U/crm+P7mnu/IU4J54kg9nK4B1ux70tT3Gm2LxdVyEvbmT3R4ZYeVV j6+YbXTRUQ68rKElLLwRj/wcBahgouGozbauRg7CWHcO47D8zEECo6T7ExEvYp5xh+Wx qR+uxBYrZzNdyvrQdAu93EqI8kWamCNuZSyZRly4zAUoYd2KLzGSbV/R7qIiq1YGZnou x+6Bo0DyhprDFMLKLFQiYLcbu5pc2y24bNOXj2E2U9nCD+uX4chRQL7yV4Kei4JCJwDo 3E4g== X-Gm-Message-State: APf1xPB7o5d2dG/7sdCy25MGMcMzBeTBxeixzfrEdvVbIcQonepqzeky 8UiuRvUB/Qj7BX2Wnz3m+sVrhm5LRYolndwQzH0= X-Google-Smtp-Source: AG47ELvjizKoswk+GYhM6f+KQKmnqn2dDC62T2c7IzfLUb/Qftx3I6TCTiKBkAn/w8aYOpsCKZJ2D0CUTepq44fWa58= X-Received: by 10.176.83.151 with SMTP id k23mr5937646uaa.167.1519568965802; Sun, 25 Feb 2018 06:29:25 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.159.60.11 with HTTP; Sun, 25 Feb 2018 06:29:25 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <45199144-8228-f661-bb2e-5a55861dfe34@keve.hu> References: <45199144-8228-f661-bb2e-5a55861dfe34@keve.hu> From: Rick Miller Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2018 09:29:25 -0500 Message-ID: Subject: Re: ipxe + EFI loading FreeBSD - should/will this work? To: Keve Cc: FreeBSD Questions Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.25 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.25 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2018 14:29:27 -0000 Hi On Sat, Feb 24, 2018 at 11:43 AM, Keve wrote: > Hi, > > I am booting several different OSes cleanly with ipxe (http://ipxe.org) > in both physical as well as virtual environments. The only system > resisting so far is FreeBSD. > > I can easily boot it from iso (e.g. the excellent mfsbsd isos), but this > reduces flexibility in giving kernel command line arguments, etc. > > ipxe can boot multiboot kernels on x86, there are traces of multiboot in > FreeBSD, but I have not succeeded in getting it up. ipxe lacks direct > support for loading the FreeBSD kernel. > > With the advent of loader.efi I have tried my luck again - with moderate > success. > > On amd64 I can boot loader.efi as the "kernel" passing kernel command > line arguments, but any attempt to pass an initial ramdisk fails. > > I tried passing no initrd, a small UFS (40MB) with /boot, a small disk > image with gpt freebsd-ufs partition (50MB), a big UFS (mfsroot), but I > consistently get the same result: > > * "Found 1 disk(s) but no logical partition" message, "can't load 'kernel'" > > * lsdev shows only the network card > > * loader.efi tries to nfs mount / on the tftp-server > > The whole point of my investigation was to avoid the nfs-root by > providing a memory disk. > > Hence my questions: > > Am I missing something in my approach above (some parameter to > loader.efi that will make it use the memory disk) or some other magic to > use the memory disk as the root filesystem? > > Are you considering to enrich loader.efi to be able to work with an > initial ramdisk, if yes, where can I sign up to support the process? > > Any guidance on how to proceed, what to try is highly appreciated. > iPXE can boot an ISO. My use-case simply uses iPXE to load and and boot FreeBSD's bootonly ISO via HTTP (which is modified to perform OS installation). IIRC correctly, iPXE had to be recompiled for EFI booting, but don't recall how as I was not directly involved from that perspective. FWIW, I too was using mfsbsd disk images previously and switched to the bootonly ISO due to similar challenges. -- Take care Rick Miller