# Bootable FreeBSD 12.1 amd64 memstick on 32-Bit UEFI Laptop



## Manoli (Nov 23, 2019)

Good evening everybody,

I’d like to solve problem to install FreeBSD and be able to boot from installation USB on my ASUS T100TA.

This notebook has 64-Bit architecture Intel CPU so obviously I’d like to use amd64 version of FreeBSD 12.1.

The problem is it has just only 32-Bit UEFI which needs an EFI partition to boot from, but it is searching for something like BOOTIA32, well...

Can someone please point me right direction, how to make bootable FreebBSD installation USB memstick, which I can use to boot from using 32-Bit UEFI?

(If it is not possible to boot amd64 FreeBSD, I would appreciate even solution to boot i386 FreeBSD, but this doesn’t appear to have 32-Bit UEFI boot support either. Unfortunately I’m not able to switch my system into old BIOS legacy boot.)

Thank you guys...


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## Manoli (Nov 24, 2019)

So I was able to use FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick installer USB and I just removed /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi from its EFI partition. And instead of that one I put there /boot/loader.efi from other FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-i386 installation on harddrive on my other computer and I renamed it to BOOTIA32.efi.

So with FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick installer USB and /EFI/BOOT/BOOTIA32.efi on it's EFI partition I'm now able to boot into first screen (with Beastie logo and choice of possible boot options).

Unfortunately which ever one I choose I get an error:
Failed to load kernel

Can't load 'kernel'

Anybody is able to help me with that?

Why my BOOTIA32.efi is not able to find kernel on must be 100% located on FreeBSD USB installer. Thank you...


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## Manoli (Nov 24, 2019)

Again one step further...

I gave up for now booting into amd64 version installer, so what I did:

I just got ready another blank USB with GPT partition scheme, one EFI partition and one FreeBSD-UFS partition.

I copied /boot/loader.efi -> /EFI/BOOT/BOOTIA32.efi on da0p1 (that's the only file my UEFI firmware is able to boot from).

And than I copied all FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-i386-memstick freebsd partition on da1s1a to second partition on my new gpt USB da0p2.

Now after booting from my new USB on that 32-Bit UEFI laptop I'm able to choose an option on the first screen with beastie logo, let's say 1. Boot Multiuser [Enter], I don't get an error Failed to load kernel, but I get another one:

Loading kernel...
/boot/kernel/kernel text=... data=... syms=...
*can't find '/boot/entropy'*

Any advice, please...


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## Emrion (Nov 24, 2019)

Hello,

And what about legacy BIOS booting (CSM)? Is it possible on your notebook?


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## Manoli (Nov 24, 2019)

Emrion said:


> Hello,
> 
> And what about legacy BIOS booting (CSM)? Is it possible on your notebook?


No, I wrote that in the beginning, 32-Bit UEFI only, but 64-Bit capable CPU.


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## SirDice (Nov 25, 2019)

As far as I know most UEFI implementations have a compatibility mode (CSM), it might be slightly obfuscated and buried deep in the settings though. 









						UEFI - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


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## Manoli (Nov 25, 2019)

SirDice said:


> As far as I know most UEFI implementations have a compatibility mode (CSM), it might be slightly obfuscated and buried deep in the settings though.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Unfortunately not this one. It’s Asus Transformer Book T100TA. It unfortunately lacks CSM, BIOS Legacy support.

The only distro I found booting on this laptop with no problems is Fedora. That’s fine but I’m interested more in Unix like system not linux, FreeBSD would be great. Unfortunatelly, still can’t make it work properly. :-(


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## mcbig (Jun 10, 2022)

Hi, did you have any progress in your trying? I have Asus X205TA, with same BIOS. I try to boot FreeBSD, and after many spells with grub and dd, FreeBSD boot, but without I2C keyboard support, which i have.

I got the farthest with OpenBSD 6.7, which works, but freeze sometime after around ten to thirty minutes. Last kernel freezes on boot with this issue: https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-bugs&m=164541726108774&w=2.

I was try use OpenIndiana or NomadBSD, but both of them are based on FreeBSD which not works. But, if you don't have I2C keyboard, or have some different hardware, may be, you will be lucky.


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## jardows (Jun 10, 2022)

We used to have some Dell Venue tablets that are similar to your Asus Transformer.  They were a pain even getting Windows to install.  I think our solution was to just use 32 bit Windows.  When we cycled them out, I could have gotten one for a song (other than the 32 bit UEFI, they were pretty decent tablets), but the issue of the 32 bit BIOS scared me off.  If you can get FreeBSD amd64 to properly boot on one of these, that would be quite the accomplishment!


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## inf3rno (Oct 27, 2022)

Manoli said:


> Good evening everybody,
> 
> I’d like to solve problem to install FreeBSD and be able to boot from installation USB on my ASUS T100TA.
> 
> ...


I had the same struggle with Linux Mint 20.3+XFCE on my T100TA. I spent a few days with it, but I was not able to make a proper ISO or modify files on the pendrive. I almost gave up, but somebody told me that Ventoy supports 32bit UEFI out of the box, so simply installing Ventoy on a pendrive and copying the installer ISO there worked. For Mint 21 it did not boot somehow and Xubuntu 22 was very slow too for unknown reason, that's how I ended up with Mint 20.3. The touch screen does not work properly, there is no multi-touch support and Linux appear to support two-finger gestures only, there is no one-finger gesture fallback, at least all I can do is clicking and moving files, though on Windows 8.1 the tablet worked properly with one-finger gestures such as single tap + drag for scrolling, double tap + drag for clicking and moving stuff, long tap for right click. I have no idea how this can be solved, but I really miss the tablet function, I just converted a transformerbook into a simple notebook with the docking keyboard. I guess even some sort of event transformation could work, because the touchscreen registers the gestures, they are just processed incorrectly by the OS, but according to some people the driver must include this stuff and there is no additional abstraction level above it, which I can hardly believe. At least it is a sign of badly designed software. I don't have more time for this tablet. Please let me know if you managed to find an OS, which is up to date from security perspective and supports the touchscreen. Good luck!


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