# Using SanDisk USB to check HDD



## JFAH (Aug 29, 2021)

As I stated in another post, I am a complete N00B to FreeBSD. I am experimenting with a $40.00 AMD 350 mini computer device. Not deeply invested in this yet, but hopeful I could get FreeBSD running here without need for any further wifi connection here...
     I have discovered that once a UFS full-disk install has been completed, apparently, ISO's of any other operating system don't get recognized at all at boot. The FreeBSD installation no longer recognizes the option of using the usb to view a live disk version of the same.??? 
I am interested in learning what FreeBSD has done to lock out grub, syslinux, and newer versions of FreeBSD, NetBSD,etc. from being booted at all? I'm stuck with either having to make an incomplete install work out, or pulling out Hdd and nuking FreeBSD completely...


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## dd_ff_bb (Aug 29, 2021)

> As I stated in another post


I haven't seen that post



> once a UFS full-disk install has been completed, apparently, ISO's of any other operating system don't get recognized at all at boot.



I don't know what other ISOs mean but i would assume you had another OS installed on your hard drive and you cant boot it any more.

Which is normal because you made a "full-disk install" meaning you wiped your entire disk and install FreeBSD. So no more other OS.



> The freebsd installation no longer recognizes the option of using the usb to view a live disk version of the same.???



Please clarify what you are trying to do. 

Are you trying to boot your computer from a usb stick with FreeBSD image on it or are you trying to mount a usb drive to your freshly installed FreeBSD system.



> I am interested in learning what freebsd has done to lock out grub, syslinux,



Actually FreeBSD did nothing, according to your post you made "full-disk" installation meaning you wiped out everything on your hard drive including grub (if you were using grub)



> newer versions of freebsd, netbsd,etc. from being booted at all?



if you create a installation media and boot from it you can install any OS you want, past and for sure future releases


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## Alain De Vos (Aug 29, 2021)

I use linux grub to boot freebsd which i installed on a zpool.


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## SirDice (Aug 30, 2021)

JFAH said:


> I am interested in learning what FreeBSD has done to lock out grub, syslinux, and newer versions of FreeBSD, NetBSD,etc. from being booted at all?


Simple, nothing at all. It simply cannot lock out anything as the BIOS/UEFI has control at this point. Your inability to boot anything else has nothing to do with your FreeBSD install.


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## free-and-bsd (Aug 30, 2021)

JFAH said:


> As I stated in another post, I am a complete N00B to FreeBSD.
> I have discovered that once a UFS full-disk install has been completed, apparently, ISO's of any other operating system don't get recognized at all at boot. The FreeBSD installation no longer recognizes the option of using the usb to view a live disk version of the same.???
> ....


Seems like you're "noob" not just in FreeBSD but generally in how PCs work.
A good starting point will be to get familiar with BIOS.


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## grahamperrin@ (Aug 30, 2021)

dd_ff_bb said:


> I haven't seen that post











						Begiuiled Beginner full install
					

Hi, I'm a N00B user, just trying to find out... I just installed full disk to UFS without any wi-fi or internet available, and I'm stuck. 1. how could I download necessary installation files on USB to feed to a permanently air-gapped system? 2. how can I get a clear output in sh of all installed...




					forums.freebsd.org


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## grahamperrin@ (Aug 30, 2021)

JFAH said:


> AMD 350 mini



I know nothing about this type of computer.



grahamperrin said:


> What architecture/platform is the air gapped system?



Does it support UEFI boot?



JFAH said:


> … usb … live disk …



The advice at <https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/bootcoup.html> relates primarily to boot coups. Essentially: "… *Most EFIs provide their own built-in boot managers.* …", so whatever happened in your case (not necessarily a coup), you need to discover AMD's routine for presenting your computer's boot manager. 

The routine will probably involve striking a key at a particular time.


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## JFAH (Sep 6, 2021)

SirDice said:


> Simple, nothing at all. It simply cannot lock out anything as the BIOS/UEFI has control at this point. Your inability to boot anything else has nothing to do with your FreeBSD install.


It seems that before installing FreeBSD I could boot from usb with no problems to an .iso image burned on a USB. Now I cannot. The bootloader always boots to FreeBSD right now... I realize whose fault it was, MINE, but I don't remember which options were available in the installer or which options I chose at the time to get it locked up this way.
If there is a way to reset, or enter the configuration options again, that would help. But I can't use grub or even dban right now. It no longer attempts to boot on anything except the HDD. (I could be missing something when all the devices get checked on screen)


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## JFAH (Sep 6, 2021)

grahamperrin said:


> I know nothing about this type of computer.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I will have to research this, about boot coups. The screen starts up with the device name "viewsonic" and a keypress menu. those options neither allow me to run a different usb system, nor erasing my installation. I'm possibly going to have to reset/ reinstall hdd to get it to change this behavior...


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## Criosphinx (Sep 6, 2021)

Press the Del key when the logo appears.


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## JFAH (Sep 6, 2021)

free-and-bsd said:


> Seems like you're "noob" not just in FreeBSD but generally in how PCs work.
> A good starting point will be to get familiar with BIOS.


Exactly, I agree. I have familiarized myself with several pre-uefi Dell, HP, and Compaq installs of linux. Now I'm dealing with a new device from viewsonic designed for OEM win7... I'm not certain if this device has uefi or not yet.


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## Vull (Sep 6, 2021)

JFAH said:


> Exactly, I agree. I have familiarized myself with several pre-uefi Dell, HP, and Compaq installs of linux. Now I'm dealing with a new device from viewsonic designed for OEM win7... I'm not certain if this device has uefi or not yet.


What is the model number of your Viewsonic device?


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## JFAH (Sep 6, 2021)

VOT133


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## mark_j (Sep 6, 2021)

As Criosphinx  says press del or whatever key gets you into the bios and set the usb device as a boot source before your hard disk/ssd whatever.

See here: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/335249/Viewsonic-Vot133.html?page=16


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## JFAH (Sep 6, 2021)

I have AMD64 CPU and 13.0-release freebsd. But I think I may have mistaken a fat32 formatted usb stick for the hdd that I wanted to create the boot sector on. Or the hdd was bad in that sector. I cannot login to multi user mode because my password was lost.


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## mark_j (Sep 6, 2021)

As we say here: you're up shit creek without a paddle. Apologies to all offended.


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## JFAH (Sep 6, 2021)

Ok, my pw for single user works. I never set up multi user.
I cannot write to files in single user until after...
`fsck -y`
`mount -u`
`mount -a -t`
`swapon -a`

this was part of a tutorial I saw online that allows me to edit config files. Maybe my usb disk isn't being formatted correctly by my cellphone, which I try to use to burn .iso images to usb.


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## mark_j (Sep 6, 2021)

Jeez I'm confused. 
The format of the usb drive doesn't matter because you're imaging an .iso onto it. That determines the end format of the usb.
I know nothing of your burning procedure. I would normally just use `dd` or something on MS Windows like windiskimager (i think)
Now, perhaps, if you suddenly powered down the machine the UFS file system markers show it as unclean and will not mount or mount read-only. That's where fsck and possibly single-user mode becomes relevant. Under normal circumstances, fsck shouldn't be required to repair anything.
If it constantly requires fsck, then I would suspect a hardware failure.
I suggest you restart. Open the handbook and follow it.


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## JFAH (Sep 7, 2021)

I have heard of problems burning .iso in an app on android. Last time I used windoze to burn .iso, the os wouldn't allow me to 'safely remove' it, seems the background antimalware was really, really curious about it... so I yanked it out anyway! May also explain the problem.
     There is no way to fully explain here what's going on, but I think the "Socratic Method" is actually helping me solve my own problem...


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## mark_j (Sep 7, 2021)

If you have access to windows, just use win32diskimager.exe to burn it. It works, I just did it. Once finished, it will say it needs to be formatted (*don't do that*) and* just pull it out*. It's not mounted, it's not caching disk writes, so just pull it out.

Then take it to your device and plug it in. Keep your windows or android device open to read the handbook as you proceed.
Get back to us when you have a problem.  (Which you surely will. )


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## JFAH (Sep 7, 2021)

mark_j said:


> Jeez I'm confused.
> The format of the usb drive doesn't matter because you're imaging an .iso onto it. That determines the end format of the usb.
> I know nothing of your burning procedure. I would normally just use `dd` or something on MS Windows like windiskimager (i think)
> Now, perhaps, if you suddenly powered down the machine the UFS file system markers show it as unclean and will not mount or mount read-only. That's where fsck and possibly single-user mode becomes relevant. Under normal circumstances, fsck shouldn't be required to repair anything.
> ...


by the way, linux warned me of some bad superblocks, and I went and installed UFS instead. fsck says its a clean filesystem so maybe I don't have to use that anymore. The drive is old and in trouble, thats why I'm still using this for practice until I can install a new drive and get to work on reinstalling this right.


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## JFAH (Sep 7, 2021)

mark_j said:


> If you have access to windows, just use win32diskimager.exe to burn it. It works, I just did it. Once finished, it will say it needs to be formatted (*don't do that*) and* just pull it out*. It's not mounted, it's not caching disk writes, so just pull it out.
> 
> Then take it to your device and plug it in. Keep your windows or android device open to read the handbook as you proceed.
> Get back to us when you have a problem.  (Which you surely will. )


Win 10's built in Defender doesn't easily allow usbs to be plugged in without ransacking the device. Seriously, now that windize owns github, you might think they've learned to play nice with other OS'es property. but Defender's programmers seem to think foreign disk images are all a "rootkit waiting to happen".


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## mark_j (Sep 7, 2021)

Right, now you're throwing linux into the mix?
So you have Android to burn the ISO and linux to check your filesystem? Wow, could you go any further down the rabbit hole with Alice?


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## JFAH (Sep 7, 2021)

Like I said, its impossible for me to explain everything that's going on here. Tl;dr is I'm looking for workarounds that get me what I need, trying everything out.
     The current market is full of competition busting stumblingblocks one OS throws in front of another. I do not need a system that shuts down every time I turn it on because of another security hotfix. I want to compartmentalize a stable system for word processing, and backup storage that works with a big screen. and dedicate the spy infested email, derpy tiktoks, and constant updates for a device I can put in airplane mode, or update while I'm commuting. But for now I have to try to read manpages on a 4.5 inch mobile screen. Very frustrating.


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## Criosphinx (Sep 7, 2021)

Don't use the iso for usb drives, download the AMD64 memstick img file: https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/13.0/ I've never had any trouble writing it using win32diskimager.

Can't find the manual for that specific model but for similar one it says press Del to enter the BIOS, go to Boot menu and change the order to usb o removable first.

Finaly Using a defective drive for anything is not a good idea. If you insist on using it scan or full erase it using the brand specific tool if possible, I always use https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html for that.


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## grahamperrin@ (Sep 7, 2021)

Criosphinx said:


> Don't use the iso for usb drives, ...


.iso files for FreeBSD are usually fine on USB. 





__





						257347 – Outdated directions to use standard optical media (CDs, DVDs) for installation of FreeBSD
					






					bugs.freebsd.org


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## JFAH (Oct 11, 2021)

This worked! Thank you. I am able to run live disk sessions now. but I'm still tinkering on weekends, only...


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