# Having Trouble Booting an Install Despite The 'Live' Version Ability to Boot



## plumtreed (Nov 19, 2018)

I am using FreeBSD-11.2-RELEASE-i386-memstick.img. I have an older laptop,  Acer Aspire 5315 and it is dual-booting 2 Linux OSs. This Is a BIOS boot.

I have successfully made a 'live' USB stick in order to install FreeBSD to another, larger USB drive.........this part has been a success. The installation is correct and has been tested, the same USB, on my old eeePC700, which is very old & slow, but eventually got to a Gnome desktop.  The trouble comes when I try boot the new install USB on my Acer Laptop........it doesn't boot despite being created from a live USB that does boot.

I was hoping there was a way of using the live USB booting mechanism to get the 'installed' version to boot............any help or suggestions?


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## Phishfry (Nov 19, 2018)

When you install to USB from USB the device letter changes when you reboot and remove install media.
So plug your USB installer back in and mount your USB with the FreeBSD on it that will not boot.

To fix this you will need to point /etc/fstab to the correct USB drive location. For instance /dev/da0s1a.
When you open fstab you will spot the correct  line to modify. Just change /dev/da1s1a to /dev/da0s1a.
This is asuming an MBR install. A GPT install will be /dev/da0p2 for the correct drive.

So for MBR example when booted from FreeBSD memstick installer:
`mount /dev/da0s1a /mnt`
`ee /mnt/etc/fstab`


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## plumtreed (Nov 20, 2018)

Thanks for your help and the very clear way it was expressed.........but I haven't made any progress.

Inserted the USB installer and the USB 'installed' and fired up...........installer got to the the install window and I checked /etc/fstab ie via 'ee /mnt/etc/fstab it was blank/no entries.

The USBs are identified as /dev/da2 and da1.......da1 seems to be the 'installer'. Using your identifiers yielded only a 'no file' response. 

Oddly enough, while the installed USB doesn't boot on the Acer laptop, it works on the eeePC. The difference that I can see is that the eeePC doesn't need Grub to select the boot medium ......by selecting ESC you can choose which medium 
to boot directly.

Perhaps, I need to attach a bootloader to the installed USB ...............surprised to find I'm very lonely in this aspect because my laptop configuration can't be particularly unique.


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## ShelLuser (Nov 20, 2018)

Can you get into a boot menu? If so then drop down to the ok> prompt and issue an `lsdev` command, that should give you all you need to know regarding the boot loader being able to actually detect something it can use to boot from.


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## Phishfry (Nov 20, 2018)

/dev/da1 is the raw USB device with no partition.
/dev/da1p2 would be a partition name(da1p1 is the boot partition on GPT whereas da1p2 contains the FreeBSD installation with fstab).
Another way to check your disk partitions is `ls /dev|grep da`.


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## plumtreed (Nov 24, 2018)

Many thanks for your help.....a confusing 'difference' with USB installs!

I guess there will be more new things to learn.......the quick response from two experienced users made a big difference.


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## Phishfry (Nov 24, 2018)

When you install FreeBSD at the very end you are asked if you want to drop to shell to edit your install.
I use this opportunity to add in special settings.
For Instance: /boot/loader.conf I add settings for serial boot console. I also modify sshd_config for naughty root usage.
On a usb install I would use this post install shell to modify /etc/fstab so no extra steps needed.

The post install shell is easy to overlook but it is very valuable to me for special installs.

Another usage is switching to system console on picky machines that require it.
`ee /boot/loader.conf`
kern.vty="sc"

It helps to know the machines quirks heading into an install.


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## Phishfry (Nov 24, 2018)

One more note:
I delete swap disk assigned on automatic disk setup. Then I delete main slice to use all the space and then recreate it..
My thought is swap on Flash memory based disk is bad. Too much disk thrashing. YMMV. Thus is just my personal opinion.
I do the same on SSD.


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## Phishfry (Nov 24, 2018)

It just occurred to me that the proper way to handle this is to add a disk label to your USB drive when installing FreeBSD.
That way /etc/fstab would reference the disk label and not the physical drive lettering..


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## plumtreed (Nov 27, 2018)

I slipped right past that.....anxious to get on with things. I think your swap idea makes sense but I have never had a USB fail by getting used....dropped a stick into a cup of coffee once. I am always aware of this aspect with USB & SSDs.


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## Phishfry (Nov 27, 2018)

From my testing this only works in the FreeBSD installer with GPT type disk install. 
You can use Auto disk format mode and then modify the partitions manually adding a label.
Below 'mount point' is label. On a MBR install that 4th field (label) does not exist.


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