# Error at startup



## Swedish bsdexplorer (May 26, 2019)

I recently installed freebsd on an old dell desktop from 2007 that I intented to use as a server.

The problem is that when I start it up I get an error that says the following lines "Startup error in /boot/lua/loader.lua:
Lua error:cannot open /boot/lua/loader.lua:no such file or directory
can't load 'kernel'
Type ? for a list of commands 'help' for more detailed help.

I am migrating from lubuntu linux and I have never used a bsd system before so any helpful tips are strongly appreciated.

There is also another major issue
and that is my keyboard because I am using a swedish keyboard but the layout is american english even though I set it to swedish during the installation. Because of this the tip that tells me to type ? is completely useless because the swedish keyboard combo for ? does not work with american english layout


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## stratacast1 (May 28, 2019)

Is this a fresh install? Or have you done any monkeying with the system? If files are missing, I wonder if the install didn't complete. That would be my guess, maybe someone smarter will chime in.

I'm guessing you're trying to use the Swedish layout at the bootloader since you can't load the kernel yes? I don't know the way of changing layouts at the bootloader, there probably is a way? Needless to say, I know your pain with using a different keyboard layout that isn't the standard American one. I use Colemak Mod DH and just did myself a favor and bought a keyboard where I could make custom keyboard layouts and let the keyboard translate to US English. You'll never have to think about your keyboard layout again when you use that keyboard. Especially nice when using virtual machines.


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## Swedish bsdexplorer (May 28, 2019)

stratacast1 said:


> Is this a fresh install? Or have you done any monkeying with the system? If files are missing, I wonder if the install didn't complete. That would be my guess, maybe someone smarter will chime in.
> 
> I'm guessing you're trying to use the Swedish layout at the bootloader since you can't load the kernel yes? I don't know the way of changing layouts at the bootloader, there probably is a way? Needless to say, I know your pain with using a different keyboard layout that isn't the standard American one. I use Colemak Mod DH and just did myself a favor and bought a keyboard where I could make custom keyboard layouts and let the keyboard translate to US English. You'll never have to think about your keyboard layout again when you use that keyboard. Especially nice when using virtual machines.


It is a fresh install that I installed by burning the iso to a rewritable dvd and installing it onto the pc.The issue appeared as soon as I had configured everything and restarted the pc.I just followed along with the gui installer and used the freebsd noob guide on this website .


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## Phishfry (May 28, 2019)

Since Lua is only used on FreeBSD 12 why don't you try FreeBSD RELEASE-11.2.
There were some issues with the introduction of Lua as the boot interperter.
You could also consider FreeBSD-12-STABLE as some of these problems have been fixed.


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## Minbari (May 28, 2019)

Did you partition your hdd as UFS BSD disklabel? Switch to MBR and the error should disappear.


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## Swedish bsdexplorer (May 28, 2019)

Minbari said:


> Did you partition your hdd as UFS BSD disklabel? Switch to MBR and the error should disappear.


As soon as I get home I will try to reinstall freebsd to format the hdd as mbr and I will also try downgrading in case the other method does not work.I also did not know there was freebsd 12 stable and I will try that one too.


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## SirDice (May 29, 2019)

Minbari said:


> Did you partition your hdd as UFS BSD disklabel? Switch to MBR and the error should disappear.


MBR pretty much dictates using BSD disklabels (i.e. ada0s1*a*). It's GPT that doesn't need bsdlabel(8) (i.e. ada0p1).


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## Swedish bsdexplorer (May 29, 2019)

Reinstalling it and formatting to mbr solved the problem so thank you very much.


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## Minbari (May 29, 2019)

SirDice said:


> MBR pretty much dictates using BSD disklabels (i.e. ada0s1*a*). It's GPT that doesn't need bsdlabel(8) (i.e. ada0p1).


Yes but putting a BSD disklabel at the beginning of a disk and skipping the MBR sometimes gives error because of poorly written BIOSes.


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## SirDice (May 31, 2019)

Minbari said:


> Yes but putting a BSD disklabel at the beginning of a disk and skipping the MBR sometimes gives error because of poorly written BIOSes.


This is called "dangerously dedicated" and is not something the installer allows you to do.


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## haricot (Sep 18, 2020)

I have been trying to install 12.1 64 for a while. I keep hitting snags, one of which relates to SwedishBSDExplorer's keyboard problem.
Before installing the OS on the HD one is offered a choice of keyboards. I chose the UK cos I wanted the " over the 2 and the @ over the ' . The one chosen didn't have a £ symbol , at least not above the 3. Anyway, once the OS was installed it had reverted to the "good luck if you can find what you're looking for" US keyboard. 
Is this a design fault? Or is my choice not registering?
Appreciate this stays with you through xorg problems. So it's a struggle write code.


SirDice said:


> This is called "dangerously dedicated" and is not something the installer allows you to do.


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