# POST hangs with USB disk



## arkive (Feb 25, 2010)

I've installed FreeBSD 8.0 Release i386 bootonly cd (over ftp passive) with a USB CD-Rom to a USB Disk. There were no errors during the install, as far as I can tell. After rebooting with the USB Disk plugged into any USB port the system does not boot. If the partitions are delete on the USB Disk the system POSTs fine. What is it about FreeBSD 8.0 that would cause this? UFS?


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## Carpetsmoker (Feb 25, 2010)

Disable "USB Legacy support" in your BIOS, this usually fixes the problem.


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## arkive (Feb 25, 2010)

I've tried disabling usb legacy support, no dice. what would explain the system being able to POST with a FAT16 or no filesystem? is it possible to have freebsd boot from a FAT16 filesystem?


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## arkive (Mar 1, 2010)

with the same USB disk the system posts fine and boots with Ubuntu on the USB Disk. I believe they use FAT32.


```
$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 8015 MB, 8015282176 bytes
247 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1022 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15314 * 512 = 7840768 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0007260c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        1022     7825423    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
```


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## Carpetsmoker (Mar 1, 2010)

If your system hangs at POST then I doubt it has something to do with the filesystem ...

Maybe your system hangs at some post-POST stage, for example at the USB disk's bootloader?


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## fbsd1 (Mar 1, 2010)

Freebsd can not be installed to a MS partition. Using sysinstall you have to delete the allocated ms/partition and allocate a freebsd slice and then allocate the file systems in that slice.


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## arkive (Mar 1, 2010)

It's during POST when the system hangs. If FreeBSD is installed on the USB disk (with either of the boot loader options installed) the system never beeps, it never finishes POST. If Ubuntu Linux (FAT32 and Grub?) or a plain FAT filesystem is on the USB Disk the system works fine.


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