# Boot Error booting from usb



## Xeo84 (Dec 2, 2009)

Hi all, i'm trying to install freebsd 8 from usb but i encountered some problems!
First of all i am not on freebsd but on linux.
I downloaded the .img file for usb stick and wita a dd command (dd if=8.0-RELEASE-i386-memstick.img of=/dev/sde1 bs=10240 conv=sync)
i copied all into my usb stick (as described in the wiki).
But when i put the pen on my netbook it says boot error!
I also tried with unetbootbin but it freezes when try to make the stick bootable!!

How can i do to install freebsd 8 from usb??

thank you!


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## alff (Dec 15, 2009)

Xeo84 said:
			
		

> Hi all, i'm trying to install freebsd 8 from usb but i encountered some problems!
> First of all i am not on freebsd but on linux.
> I downloaded the .img file for usb stick and wita a dd command (dd if=8.0-RELEASE-i386-memstick.img of=/dev/sde1 bs=10240 conv=sync)
> i copied all into my usb stick (as described in the wiki).
> ...



 Hi!
I had the same problem and i had resolve it. What i did.. At firts i tried copy image on linux system and after that i every time saw the message "Boot error". On dmesg messages i saw that memstick had resolved like "/dev/sdb" and "/dev/sdb1". Handbook says that you must write img directly on device, not at partition. But I could wrote image at partition only "sdb1". Well, I found working freebsd host and had research dmesg messsages about my memstick. I saw messages "/dev/da0%" and "/dev/da0a1%". I erased memstick completely by "dd" copy from "/dev/zero" to "/dev/da0" and after that copyed img to memstick by command from handbook.

```
dd if=imagename.img of=/dev/da0 bs=10240 conv=sync
```
After that my memstick had resolved "/dev/da0" and "/dev/da0a". And it boot now! =)
I hope it could be help..


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## Xeo84 (Dec 16, 2009)

alff said:
			
		

> Hi!
> I had the same problem and i had resolve it. What i did.. At firts i tried copy image on linux system and after that i every time saw the message "Boot error". On dmesg messages i saw that memstick had resolved like "/dev/sdb" and "/dev/sdb1". Handbook says that you must write img directly on device, not at partition. But I could wrote image at partition only "sdb1". Well, I found working freebsd host and had research dmesg messsages about my memstick. I saw messages "/dev/da0%" and "/dev/da0a1%". I erased memstick completely by "dd" copy from "/dev/zero" to "/dev/da0" and after that copyed img to memstick by command from handbook.
> 
> ```
> ...



Thanks for reply but i don't have a working freebsd host!
I'm trying to build it!
I know that the DD command is different between bsd and linux and this is the problem!
I can't use freebsd to make a bootable usb of freebsd!! this is a nonsense!
I need a way to build a bootable usb device whithout freebsd!
I can't believe that to install a freebsd on a netbook (without optical device) i need freebsd alredy installed!


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## alff (Dec 16, 2009)

Xeo84 said:
			
		

> Thanks for reply but i don't have a working freebsd host!!!
> I'm trying to build it!!!!
> I know that the DD command is different between bsd and linux and this is the problem!
> I can't use freebsd to make a bootable usb of freebsd!! this is a nonsense!!!!
> ...



 Don't panic! (c)  8)
My solution shows usefull steps only. Have you tried to do this steps on your OS?
 You should do another steps:

1. _Erase all data on memstick._
[cmd=]dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=128M[/cmd]
2. _Write image to memstick._
[cmd=]dd if=/path/to/memstickfile.img of=/dev/sdb bs=10240 conv=sync[/cmd]

 In my example memstick device name is "sdb"! If you have different name you should use your own.


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## Xeo84 (Dec 17, 2009)

alff said:
			
		

> Don't panic! (c)  8)
> My solution shows usefull steps only. Have you tried to do this steps on your OS?
> You should do another steps:
> 
> ...



I only did step 2, this evening i will try following step by step!!

Thanks again


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## Xeo84 (Dec 17, 2009)

Really, I love you! :-D

Thank you so much it works! And now i can install FreeBSD on my netbook!


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## alff (Dec 18, 2009)

You're welcome! 8)


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## aka (Jan 13, 2012)

And I have not succeeded, after step 1 you need to create a GUID Partition Table, create a file system?


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