# problem boot on laptop (no grub) when installing FreeBSD on a external hard drive



## sylflo (Nov 6, 2012)

Hello,


I tried to install FreeBSD on an external hard drive, but I think the "boot" of FreeBSD installs itself on the hard drive of my laptop. When I boot my laptop I have these errors.

First error :

Intel(R) Boot Agent CE v.1.3.76
Copyright (C) 1997-2011, Intel Corporation

Intel(R) Boot Agent PXE Base Code (PXE-21 build 090)
Copyright (C) 1997-2011, Intel Corporation

Initializing and etablishing  link..._


Second error

Intel(R) Boot Agent CE v.1.3.76
Copyright (C) 1997-2011, Intel Corporation

Intel(R) Boot Agent PXE Base Code (PXE-21 build 090)
Copyright (C) 1997-2011, Intel Corporation

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F : Exiting Intel Boot Agent.

Third error

BootDevice Not Found

Please install an operating system on you hard disk.

Hard Disk - (3F0)

F2 System Diagnostics

For more information, please visit : www.hp.com\go\techcenter\startup



I can acces to Grub Legacy with SuperGrubDisk. I tried to reinstall the Grub with the CD and differents methods but it didn't work. And I wonder if I install an other Linux on my computer like ArchLinux with Grub2, will I see my Grub repair ?

Thank you in advance for your answers.


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## SirDice (Nov 7, 2012)

The first two errors are related to PXE and have nothing to do with FreeBSD.

The third one can probably be solved by booting to linux and restoring the master boot record.


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## sylflo (Nov 7, 2012)

Thank for your answer.
Ok, but all these errors appears when I try to install FreeBSD :/.
Okay but if I restore the master boot record, it will only solve the third one error? And no the two others errors?


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## SirDice (Nov 7, 2012)

The other two have nothing to do with FreeBSD, they are a BIOS feature that's started before anything else.


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## sylflo (Nov 7, 2012)

Yes, I understand that. But what I don't understand, it's the problem really appers when I try to install FreeBSD. So it's probably not because of BSD, but it appears just after my "miss installation". But it's probably because I made a wrong manipulation during the installtion.


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## stanfortress (Jan 6, 2013)

*I have a smiliar problem*

*J*ust installed freebsd FreeBSD on my T41 on a second partition after Windows XP. For a while I thought too that the boot order was messed up, but when I put in a boot CD it boots correctly, so after a while the obvious thing being that it can't load the operating system on the hard drive.

Not sure how Grub works, but I realized that the boot.ini file is on the C: drive and it*'*s a windows NT partition. *W*ell, bsd FreeBSD can't read NT partitions.

I haven't tr*ied* to reformat the drive yet, but I will try tomorrow.

*H*ope this helps.


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## wblock@ (Jan 6, 2013)

You neglect to say what actually happens when the system tries to boot.  Grub is not installed by FreeBSD, if you have it, you installed it separately.


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## stanfortress (Jan 6, 2013)

*Got it partially working*

Sorry for the last bad post (lots of errors).  I looked into it further today. The problem is not exactly the NT partition, but the MBR. 

I have been reading "Absolute OpenBSD" by Michael W. Lucas.  According to the book, installing GAG should pick up the different operating systems.  I used GAG on an USB drive to boot up my machine and I found both operating systems!  I can only save it to "floppy" (read GAG how to and you will see, it's really just saved to memory, because it's not persisted after power off).  So after I "return to menu", I could choose and start FreeBSD!

Originally I had the same "PXE" errors, but in the process of finding a solution I somehow fixed the problem.  Trying to fix the MBR, first I tried "fdisk -B -b /boot/boot0 device" (booting from FreeBSD DVD) then I tried GAG "save to hardrive", but GAG spitted back "disk error".  Somewhere in there the MBR got fixed, I believe.

The only issue now is to have GAG persist on the hardrive! (or try a different boot manager altogether?)


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## wblock@ (Jan 6, 2013)

The FreeBSD multi-boot loader is boot0, installed with boot0cfg(8).  It is bare-bones, but works.


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