# Install from usb stick:  Can't find boot/entropy?



## Spartrekus (Dec 23, 2018)

Hello,

For i386, using version 12 and the 13, I get all the time :
Can't find boot/entropy.

What would you recommend?
Here my file used: https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/re...S/12.0/FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-i386-memstick.img

It is not a warning, but the frozen thing does just freeze, endlessly. *It is frozen once at boot *: entropy msg occurs.

Yours sincerely and best regards


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## Phishfry (Dec 23, 2018)

From loader prompt:
set efi.rt.disabled=1
boot
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=233534


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## Spartrekus (Dec 24, 2018)

Phishfry said:


> From loader prompt:
> set efi.rt.disabled=1
> boot
> https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=233534



Ok, I tried the above, but ... 

it does start the kernel
say : loading modules

 and the entropy error issues comes up


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## Phishfry (Dec 24, 2018)

Maybe try this in /boot/loader.conf
kern.cam.boot_delay="320000"
https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-bugs/2017-May/073548.html


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## Spartrekus (Dec 24, 2018)

Phishfry said:


> Maybe try this in /boot/loader.conf
> kern.cam.boot_delay="320000"
> https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-bugs/2017-May/073548.html



It didnt work. It is actually due to kernel difficulty for the given hardware.
I worked on antoher laptop but not on the asus one. Acer ok, but asus not.

I check with openbsd.
https://cdn.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/6.4/i386/install64.fs


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## bplipschitz2 (Dec 26, 2018)

Having the same problem of "can't find /boot/entropy" on an old Dell PowerEdge 2850.  Tried both suggestions above, but no joy.  Also tried suggestion here, but there aren't much in the way of UEFI settings on this machine.

EDIT:  this is reproducible with the USB image, and a full DVD I just burned.


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## Spartrekus (Dec 27, 2018)

Hello,

After some testing, it has nothing to do else than the FreeBSD.

I have tried with an old cdrom and it works out of the box.

The 12.0 and 13.0 that we can download today give  entropie bug.

The freebsd 12.0 current jan 18 18.13.19 root@relegn3.nyi.freebsd.org generatic i386 r328126 passes flawlessly, and can give installation.
The best is that the wireless works also after first reboot.
The things, is however that it is toooooo old and pkg update gives:
ALLOW MISSMATCH NOW y/n)
Yes
extracting pkg 1.10.5.5 100pct

and mega broken:
shared object libssl.so.111 not found, required by "pkg".

If the 12.0 is not stable for regular hardware of a notebook.  I have no idea what to do.
The notebook was bought 5 years ago, which is good time to get working (not too much new).

Reaching dead end.


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## bplipschitz2 (Dec 31, 2018)

In my case, I elected to install 11.2-RELEASE instead of 12.0-RELEASE, which worked fine.


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## Spartrekus (Dec 31, 2018)

The 11.2 hangs just at boot, blue color, and hangs forever.
12.0 does not load, quite similar
13.0 entropy

I added /entropy in the minipendrive img file, but it did not work either 

so so far, only an old version of march of freebsd iso, can pass the boot


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## Spartrekus (Dec 31, 2018)

Hurra, I have managed.

There is a cdrom without entropy and hanging forever.

The file that works (pass the entropy) is a cdrom.
Here the following reference.

FreeBSD 12.0-current freebsd 12.0-current #0 r328126 thu jan 18 18:13:19 utc 2018
root@relengen3.nyi.freebsd.org /usr/obj/usr/src/i386.i386/sys/eneric i386

I load it with a cdrom.
The idea would be that maybe it can install it and try to convert it to 13.0, no??

Btw, where can I find this ISO file again? Maybe there is still a memstick.


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## Phishfry (Jan 1, 2019)

Current ISO and Memsticks files are not archived. They go back about one month with 2 or 3 releases on the ftp.


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## Spartrekus (Jan 1, 2019)

Phishfry said:


> Current ISO and Memsticks files are not archived. They go back about one month with 2 or 3 releases on the ftp.



I have only the burnt cdrom, and no other backup.
I have installed it and I would like to study why this cdrom works - not the other later / current release of BSD.


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## Phishfry (Jan 1, 2019)

If you really wanted to 'dial this in' you would try several versions until you pin the version that is broke, then go to revision commits for that prior approximate 10 day time period and look for changes in the entropy arena.

You would need to keep an archive of CURRENT files for that backwalk. I only keep them back 6 months roughly.
Not for all platforms either. That got to be too much.

Have you tried 12-STABLE ?? Perhaps this has been fixed already.


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## Vull (Jan 1, 2019)

Do you have a 'legacy BIOS' boot option in your firmware setup? I have a somewhat similar configuration as yours, which boots 12.0-RELEASE okay, but I'm using GPT partitioning and the old-school legacy BIOS MBR-style booting method.

I also get the 'Can't find /boot/entropy' error when I boot the 12.0-RELEASE memstick image, using a 4 GB or 16 GB Sandisk USB thumb drive, but I just ignore it, and then proceed with the install as if nothing had happened. Everything works alright from that point on, and the installed system boots normally (i.e., without the 'Can't find /boot/entropy' error or any other problems). This is on a Dell Dimension 4700 with 3 GB RAM, a 1 TB SATA drive, and a 3-1/2" floppy drive. The partition table is GPT and was created by FreeBSD using legacy BIOS, since this machine has no UEFI support whatsoever.

ada0p1 512 KB freebsd-boot
ada0p2 100 GB freebsd-ufs mountpoint /
ada0p3 6096384 KB freebsd-swap


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## Spartrekus (Jan 1, 2019)

Phishfry said:


> If you really wanted to 'dial this in' you would try several versions until you pin the version that is broke, then go to revision commits for that prior approximate 10 day time period and look for changes in the entropy arena.
> 
> You would need to keep an archive of CURRENT files for that backwalk. I only keep them back 6 months roughly.
> Not for all platforms either. That got to be too much.
> ...



The 12 is not passing the boot. I have however this wondeful cdrom which has no issue with entropy, i.e. which works. https://github.com/spartrekus/freebsd-13-entropyfix
I copied the boot of the working one and I am creating a memstick with 13.0 memnstick regular.
The idea is maybe successfull. I dont know yet.


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## Spartrekus (Jan 6, 2019)

Likely you do want to stay in Legacy (no UEFI) and you are facing the entropy "bug" of FreeBSD R.12.0.

the fix is here to install FreeBSD on modern hardware, such as new brand notebooks and new towers.
With this cdrom, you will be capable to pass the boot and to install FreeBSD 12.0  Cool.

You can then install it the way you want, including MBR. I installed 12.0 Freebsd with MBR partition. It works, and at boot it also works. I have icewm (XP theme), texlive full, vim, Xorg, feh and rox-filer.

Installation with *MBR* (Legacy): works, passed.

Here is the link to the CDROM :
https://sourceforge.net/projects/freebsd-12-r328126/

You can burn the ISO image to cdrom.
Eg. growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/cd0=/home/username/Downloads/freebsd-12-r328126.iso

If FreeBSD developers are interested to dig in the boot, kernel,... files of this cdrom, the link is available here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/fr...bsd-dist/usr/freebsd-dist/kernel.txz/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/fr...eebsd-dist/usr/freebsd-dist/base.txz/download

Good Luck and wish enjoyable time with FreeBSD Unix!

For questions or more hints, please feel free to contact me, discuss here this bug, or post in this thread.


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## Spartrekus (Jan 21, 2019)

Spartrekus said:


> Hello,
> 
> For i386, using version 12 and the 13, I get all the time :
> Can't find boot/entropy.
> ...




Is there a possible idea when the entropy issue will be fixed?
today, it is not working on 12.0 and 13.0 freebsd memstick images.


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## Phishfry (Jan 21, 2019)

The more I studied this I believe "can't find endotropy" warning is normal.
I see it all the time now that I look and it plows past.
It is the next process that is failing. That warning is simply an artifact from the last process.
It is also around the same time the VT framebuffer kicks in so I would start there.


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## Spartrekus (Jan 21, 2019)

Phishfry said:


> The more I studied this I believe "can't find endotropy" warning is normal.
> I see it all the time now that I look and it plows past.
> It is the next process that is failing. That warning is simply an artifact from the last process.
> It is also around the same time the VT framebuffer kicks in so I would start there.




It is not a warning, but the frozen thing does just freeze, endlessly. It is frozen once at boot : entropy msg occurs.


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## Phishfry (Jan 21, 2019)

I am just telling you from experience.
Don't get hung up on the text on screen. Many times it is the last thing to successfully complete(the entrophy warning).
The next process is frozen.
It really helps to look at another computer booting up.
With devd they are all a little different machine to machine, but generally everything happens in steps or chunks.
What step comes after entropy warning on most machines.
That is probably your target.


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## Phishfry (Jan 21, 2019)

Have you tried switching to sc(4) console instead. Like I said the point you are stuck at leads me straght to vt(4).
So eliminated that possibility with: set kern.vty=sc from your beastie loader menu #3
It is low hanging fruit and is a common remedy.
https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons


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## Phishfry (Jan 21, 2019)

Also what is the computer exactly?
Some Windows x86 tablets with Z37xx chip used a 32bit UEFI and FreeBSD does not support 32 bit EFI.


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## de0u (Jun 4, 2019)

Phishfry said:


> Have you tried switching to sc(4) console instead. Like I said the point you are stuck at leads me straght to vt(4).
> So eliminated that possibility with: set kern.vty=sc from your beastie loader menu #3
> It is low hanging fruit and is a common remedy.
> https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons



This worked for me.  Thanks for taking the time to help!


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