Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2018 14:13:15 -0400 (EDT) From: DTD <doug@safeport.com> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Getting UEFI working Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1807271359490.22820@bucksport.safeport.com>
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I solved [my??] UEFI booting problem. A first email on this described all the gory details. This IMO just obscured the larger message. If you want this to work there are two choices if you encounter a problem: (1) find hardware that works; (2) know the internals of the firmware on the failing system and enough about the UEFI boot process so you can find/write a first level module that the firmware in question will recognize. I have used only FreeBSD for my work station since 4.5. So I have installed it a time or two and worked around various software issues. Having to figure out what the PC firmware is looking for takes the problem to another level. TrueOS (iXsystems) seems to think using rEFInd is an answer. Starting with a free range version of that is a bit like rewriting termcap. The guide I found was for ZFS on a version of Windows those partition layout had little in common with what I had. Between the Lenovo BIOS and Windows boot options that could recovery from anything, I eventually got FreeBSD installed. None of the Windows versions (that I encountered in this go-around) had these options. I did all this using the same install medium. The amd64-dvd1 iso and the USB img file (both 11.2). The hardware was Dell, HP, and POWERSPEC (Micro Center's brand). Only the Dell worked. I did a legacy and a UEFI install each taking less than 5 minutes. The POWERSPEC would only boot Windows and entering the BIOS did not work. On the HP I did a GPT install that worked followed by a UEFI ZFS install that rendered the system unusable. Only the Dell recognized the bootable USB which I used for both installs. The rEFInd docs speak to setting various variables that will aid in booting. If rEFInd makes UEFI booting easier/possible it would be really nice if at a minium some of this information made its way into the handbook. _____ Douglas Denault http://www.safeport.com doug@safeport.com Voice: 301-217-9220 Fax: 301-217-9277
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