# I'm sure I'm just missing something obvious but... can't install



## doc1623 (Jan 5, 2018)

I'm using the usb img

made by 


```
dd if=/home/larry/Downloads/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/sdb1 bs=1M conv=sync
```

I've got the bios to UEFI only, on compatibility mode it says partition error.

I've booted into rescue linux from usb but with the freebsd image I can't get further than this 








I've tried two usb sticks both do the same. Also the checksum matches. 

Since the machine is working it's got to be something dumb but I'm just missing it. It's a Lenovo Thinkserver TS440

I want a fresh install. It had an old freebsd install but I installed an ssd and I'm going to put the new install on that... if I can get this to work


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## Sensucht94 (Jan 5, 2018)

doc1623 said:


> made by
> 
> 
> ```
> ...



Hi, output must be the whole drive and not the first partition, so set `of=/dev/sdb`, instead of "sdb1". That's likely the only the reason behind USB drive failing to boot, as I think dd only copies the the FAT12 EFI partition to sdb1, then fails to create a root UFS partition to mount

Besides that, it may help adding also `conv=notrunc`, `conv=noerror`, and running sync(8) afterwards (which is different from passing the conv=sync option, as the former forces completion of pending disk writes, the latter
forces dd to pad each block to the left with NUL bytes, so that if, due to error the full block cannot be read, the full length of the original data is preserved).

So,  in your case the command would look like:

`dd if=/home/larry/Downloads/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/sdb bs=1M conv=sync,noerror,notrunc && sync`


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## doc1623 (Jan 5, 2018)

Sensucht94 said:


> Hi, output must be the whole drive and not the first partition, so set `of=/dev/sdb`, instead of "sdb1". That's likely the only the reason behind USB drive failing to boot, as I think dd only copies the the FAT12 EFI partition to sdb1, then fails to create a root UFS partition to mount
> 
> Besides that, it may help adding also `conv=notrunc`, `conv=noerror`, and running sync(8) afterwards (which is different from passing the conv=sync option, as the former forces completion of pending disk writes, the latter
> forces dd to pad each block to the left with NUL bytes, so that if, due to error the full block cannot be read, the full length of the original data is preserved).
> ...




Thank You but that doesn't seem to make any difference. I redid both usbs and tried them both again


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## Sensucht94 (Jan 5, 2018)

Mmm....Strange, I burnt a memstick.img of STABLE a couple of days ago, for troubleshooting purposes, and gave me no problem at all. Does boot stop at the same point still? Is Secure Boot Disabled? You may have luck deleting first any partition first from the flash drive, blanking it completely (`dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512`), and burning the raw inage once again


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## Maxnix (Jan 6, 2018)

Did you verify the checksum of the downloaded USB image?


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## balanga (Jan 6, 2018)

doc1623 said:


> I'm using the usb img
> 
> made by
> 
> ...



Shouldn't that be `of=/dev/da0` ?


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## Sensucht94 (Jan 6, 2018)

balanga said:


> Shouldn't that be `of=/dev/da0` ?


He's evidently on Linux,  otherwise dd would have created a sdb1 folder under /dev/, instead of copying files to his flash drive


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## doc1623 (Jan 6, 2018)

Thank You all for trying. Here is were I'm @


1. I tried downloading the file again (_2). 
2. I re-checked the checksum on the new download.
3. I tried from both my gentoo and my freebsd (see device files )
4. I tried *Sensucht94*'s dd (thank you)
5. the pic below is from another machine a Dell T3610 (just for testing, I don't plan to put FreeBSD on it)
6. Oh and I have two separate usb sticks that I've used

It must be something really dumb... Thank You again  Sensucht94 for pointing out the device name 




```
grep `sha512sum FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick_2.img` ../CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64                                                                                                                                                          2679
../CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64:SHA512 (FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img) = f42b04c4db7b783bfb5758e5f32ebba2db2bd2d8f57e1153dd29ea71f3d758e9995c89017e2c230291b7a93d4d7b434a5c3d6a9e685431170707c146de2b4284


# dd if=/home/larry/Downloads/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick_2.img of=/dev/sdb bs=1M conv=sync
736+1 records in
737+0 records out
772800512 bytes (773 MB, 737 MiB) copied, 68.2957 s, 11.3 MB/s



# dd if=FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick_2.img of=/dev/da4 bs=1M conv=sync
736+1 records in
737+0 records out
772800512 bytes transferred in 153.193586 secs (5044601 bytes/sec)


# dd if=FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick_2.img of=/dev/da4 bs=1M conv=sync,noerror,notrunc && sync
736+1 records in
737+0 records out
772800512 bytes transferred in 58.251532 secs (13266613 bytes/sec)
```


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## doc1623 (Jan 6, 2018)

Ok ... I knew it was something dumb.

Put both bios's..or uefi into compatibility mode instead of uefi only...

works


Well hopefully my blundering will help others!


I did some research into uefi in the past but I don't recall much. Can't a usb boot in uefi mode? or no? I prefer uefi with secure boot off. It gives you a small os almost before boot (if needed). On my older Freebsd I have the ReFind boot loader. Back to the books...web... I guess!


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## doc1623 (Jan 6, 2018)

from:  https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bsdinstall-pre.html



> Additional installation files are included for computers that boot with UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). The names of these files include the string uefi.


but

from: https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/


```
Index of /ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/

[B][URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/?C=N&O=A']File Name[/URL] [URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/?C=N&O=D'] ↓ [/URL][/B] [B][URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/?C=S&O=A']File Size[/URL] [URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/?C=S&O=D'] ↓ [/URL][/B] [B][URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/?C=M&O=A']Date[/URL] [URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/?C=M&O=D'] ↓ [/URL][/B]
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/']Parent directory/[/URL] - -
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/CHECKSUM.SHA256-FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64']CHECKSUM.SHA256-FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64[/URL] 1171 2017-Jul-21 03:05
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64']CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64[/URL] 1811 2017-Jul-21 03:04
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso']FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso[/URL] 313339904 2017-Jul-21 02:19
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso.xz']FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso.xz[/URL] 71868412 2017-Jul-21 02:19
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso']FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso[/URL] 723697664 2017-Jul-21 02:17
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso.xz']FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso.xz[/URL] 433368260 2017-Jul-21 02:17
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso']FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso[/URL] 3348465664 2017-Jul-21 02:23
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso.xz']FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso.xz[/URL] 2804217536 2017-Jul-21 02:23
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img']FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img[/URL] 772208128 2017-Jul-21 02:23
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img.xz']FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img.xz[/URL] 437597672 2017-Jul-21 02:23
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img']FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img[/URL] 329479680 2017-Jul-21 02:23
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img.xz']FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img.xz[/URL] 73960748
```
are these somewhere else?


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## Sensucht94 (Jan 6, 2018)

doc1623 said:


> Ok ... I knew it was something dumb.
> 
> Put both bios's..or uefi into compatibility mode instead of uefi only...
> 
> works



Glad you worked it out!



> I did some research into uefi in the past but I don't recall much. Can't a usb boot in uefi mode? or no? I prefer uefi with secure boot off. It gives you a small os almost before boot (if needed). On my older Freebsd I have the ReFind boot loader. Back to the books...web... I guess!



USBs can definitely boot from UEFI  (I believe any BIOS/UEFi shipped after ~2003 can) so I wonder what might be the problem here, most likely some weird option in your UEFI (might  help set everything back to the default?) ...for "small os" you mean the UEFI graphical interface, or the UEFI shell?


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## doc1623 (Jan 6, 2018)

Sensucht94 said:


> Glad you worked it out!
> 
> 
> 
> USBs can definitely boot from UEFI  (I believe any BIOS/UEFi shipped after ~2003 can) so I wonder what might be the problem here, most likely some weird option in your UEFI (might  help set everything back to the default?) ...for "small os" you mean the UEFI graphical interface, or the UEFI shell?



Lol, not sure I've "worked it out" just yet...

I have a brand new ssd and I was hoping that the FreeBSD install would install the EFI partition but looks like I'll have to do that manually and add Refind or something...then of course, I think that makes installation harder as well. I was hoping to just use the Freebsd bootloader for now but I wouldn't know how to make it use EFI.

"you mean the UEFI graphical interface, or the UEFI shell?"  I meant the shell but it's been awhile since I've looked @ it. (not that I was ever an expert)

"most likely some weird option in your UEFI " ... Remember I've tried two machines with the same effect turning compatibility worked on both but neither could boot from uefi only (both with secure boot off)


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## doc1623 (Jan 6, 2018)

Also Freebsd hasn't supported UEFI for a real long time

from: https://wiki.freebsd.org/UEFI

"_The project is complete and basic UEFI boot support is available in FreeBSD 10.1 and later"_


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## doc1623 (Jan 6, 2018)

from: https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/

```
[B]Index of /ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/[/B]
[B][URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/?C=N&O=A']File Name[/URL] [URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/?C=N&O=D'] ↓ [/URL][/B] [B][URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/?C=S&O=A']File Size[/URL] [URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/?C=S&O=D'] ↓ [/URL][/B] [B][URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/?C=M&O=A']Date[/URL] [URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/?C=M&O=D'] ↓ [/URL][/B]
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/']Parent directory/[/URL] - -
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/CHECKSUM.SHA256-FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64']CHECKSUM.SHA256-FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64[/URL] 2392 2017-Sep-29 02:38
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64']CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64[/URL] 3672 2017-Sep-29 02:36
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso[/URL] 268906496 2017-Sep-29 01:51
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso.xz']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso.xz[/URL] 66044640 2017-Sep-29 02:10
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso[/URL] 641955840 2017-Sep-29 01:50
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso.xz']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso.xz[/URL] 431746232 2017-Sep-29 02:10
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso[/URL] 3040700416 2017-Sep-29 01:53
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso.xz']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso.xz[/URL] 2631187572 2017-Sep-29 02:11
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img[/URL] 685965312 2017-Sep-29 01:53
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img.xz']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img.xz[/URL] 434136540 2017-Sep-29 02:12
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img[/URL] 283451392 2017-Sep-29 01:53
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img.xz']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img.xz[/URL] 67325268 2017-Sep-29 02:12
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-bootonly.iso']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-bootonly.iso[/URL] 272183296 2017-Sep-29 01:53
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-bootonly.iso.xz']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-bootonly.iso.xz[/URL] 65928176 2017-Sep-29 02:13
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-disc1.iso']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-disc1.iso[/URL] 645232640 2017-Sep-29 01:53
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-disc1.iso.xz']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-disc1.iso.xz[/URL] 431807328 2017-Sep-29 02:13
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-dvd1.iso']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-dvd1.iso[/URL] 3043977216 2017-Sep-29 01:53
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-dvd1.iso.xz']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-dvd1.iso.xz[/URL] 2630734648 2017-Sep-29 02:14
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-memstick.img']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-memstick.img[/URL] 687852032 2017-Sep-29 01:53
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-memstick.img.xz']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-memstick.img.xz[/URL] 434195956 2017-Sep-29 02:12
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-mini-memstick.img']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-mini-memstick.img[/URL] 285338112 2017-Sep-29 01:53
[URL='https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.4/FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-mini-memstick.img.xz']FreeBSD-10.4-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-mini-memstick.img.xz[/URL]
```


is FreeBSD no longer providing UEFI images or are the new ones supposed to be dual compatibility in 11+ ?


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## SirDice (Jan 10, 2018)

The new ones are compatible with both CSM and UEFI.


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## doc1623 (Jan 11, 2018)

SirDice said:


> The new ones are compatible with both CSM and UEFI.



H'mm well that's good news but it leaves me rather puzzled. What could I have wrong in the bios on two different machines preventing them from going further? 

Secure boot is disabled.

P.S. I'm back at it now but I was down and out with the flu, hence the long delay


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## Sensucht94 (Jan 11, 2018)

doc1623 said:


> H'mm well that's good news but it leaves me rather puzzled. What could I have wrong in the bios on two different machines preventing them from going further?
> 
> Secure boot is disabled.
> 
> P.S. I'm back at it now but I was down and out with the flu, hence the long delay



I know this is an extremely remote occurrence, but are you sure you're not onto some of those Bay Trail, 32-bit UEFI notebooks?

EDIT: I had missed the Thinkpad specs you provided on on your first post. What about trying to temporarily disable (provided you have any of those options):  CSM, CFG-Lock, and Intel Vt-d one at a time?
I'd start also suspecting sone USB ports's setting (what about trying to disable/enable XHCI hand-off?)
Be sure also that SATA mode is set to AHCI, "OS Type" to "other OS",
then look onto Lenovo site for any UEFI firmware update you may lacking

Finally what about trying to boot off a CD-ROM?


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## doc1623 (Jan 12, 2018)

SirDice said:


> The new ones are compatible with both CSM and UEFI.





Sensucht94 said:


> I know this is an extremely remote occurrence, but are you sure you're not onto some of those Bay Trail, 32-bit UEFI notebooks?
> 
> EDIT: I had missed the Thinkpad specs you provided on on your first post. What about trying to temporarily disable (provided you have any of those options):  CSM, CFG-Lock, and Intel Vt-d one at a time?
> I'd start also suspecting sone USB ports's setting (what about trying to disable/enable XHCI hand-off?)
> ...




CSM does work but that's compatibility mode. 

from wiki

"For backward compatibility, most UEFI implementations also support booting from MBR-partitioned disks, through the Compatibility Support Module (CSM) that provides legacy BIOS compatibility.[36] In that case, booting Linux on UEFI systems is the same as on legacy BIOS-based systems."


So if it boots in CSM it can install a legacy MBR (unless I'm very much mistaken). That's not what I want. In CSM I could install FreeBSD 9 (in theory, I believe)

I'm trying two machines, only one of which is going to have freebsd. Lenovo ThinkServer TS440 and a Dell Precision T3610 both will boot with CSM but not UEFI only which made me think these were not UEFI supported images.


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## Snurg (Jan 12, 2018)

doc1623 what happens when you burn an installer dvd and try to boot it?


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## doc1623 (Jan 12, 2018)

I can try that but it'll only work for diagnosis. I've stolen the sata port for the dvd for an ssd, for the OS

But that'll be for tomorrow, bed time is coming on!


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## doc1623 (Jan 17, 2018)

The cd-rom img boots right up (with compatibility off). The problem is that I need that sata port for the SSD.


----------

