# Installer bug in FreeBSD12.2-RELEASE



## Deleted member 67029 (Jul 6, 2021)

At the end of installing FreeBSD, it asks if you would like to reboot into the operating system or live CD. When indicating boot into the operating system, the computer reboots and then boots into the live CD environment.

I imagine there's a switch FreeBSD's live CD checks for on the hard drive, and if it is toggled, it hands booting process over to the MBR, and if the switch is not toggled it boots from the CD. This doesn't seem to be happening.


----------



## SirDice (Jul 6, 2021)

Kolusion said:


> When indicating boot into the operating system, the computer reboots and then boots into the live CD environment.


Fix the BIOS boot order.



Kolusion said:


> I imagine there's a switch FreeBSD's live CD checks for on the hard drive, and if it is toggled,


No such toggle exist. Nothing is toggled because a CD is read-only. There's no possible way this could ever work. 

Which device gets booted from is configured in the BIOS/UEFI. You change the boot order there.


----------



## Deleted member 67029 (Jul 6, 2021)

The BIOS has nothing to do with this. The function works perfectly in Windows 10... and Windows XP.


----------



## Alain De Vos (Jul 6, 2021)

Maybe it's because of a dog.


----------



## SirDice (Jul 6, 2021)

Kolusion said:


> The BIOS has nothing to do with this.


So what determines the device to boot from after a reboot?


----------



## mer (Jul 6, 2021)

Oftentimes one must remove install media prior to rebooting since at least 90% of systems (bios, uefi, whatever) are configured with "boot from cd, pxe boot, boot from floppy, boot from harddrive" as the default boot order.


Alain De Vos said:


> Maybe it's because of a dog.


Did you hear one bark?  I didn't.   

I've found the hardest part about learning something new/different is accepting it for what it is, and not trying to force it into what you know.  Human languages are like that.

There is an incredible thread here, from a long time ago:









						Why is FreeBSD not (more) like ....
					

As of today, FreeBSD Forums staff will actively close down (and eventually remove) topics that serve no other purpose than to complain that "FreeBSD is not (like) Linux" (or Windows, or MacOS, or any other operating system), or that "FreeBSD does not use systemd", or that "FreeBSD has no default...




					forums.freebsd.org


----------



## Deleted member 67029 (Jul 6, 2021)

SirDice

I am just writing to the update of your message.

What I mean is, the CD checks for a switch on the hard drive (which is set by the installer). If the switch is toggled, the CD installer boots to hard drive. If it is not toggled, it continues booting to the CD. This is how I would design the feature. I imagine it was the intended design of the installer as well, but the feature does not work.


----------



## SirDice (Jul 6, 2021)

Kolusion said:


> I imagine it was the intended design of the installer as well, but the feature does not work.


It's not. The installer CD doesn't do that.


----------



## Deleted member 67029 (Jul 6, 2021)

Yes it does. I just installed FreeBSD 12.2-RELEASE, again. The last question is would you like to reboot into the system or live CD.


----------



## hardworkingnewbie (Jul 6, 2021)

PEBKAC.


----------



## SirDice (Jul 6, 2021)

Kolusion said:


> Yes it does.


No. That 'feature' you speak of might work for the Windows installer but the FreeBSD installer just reboots the machine and boots whatever is set in the BIOS to boot. If that happens to be the install CD then, yes, the installer CD is started again. That's why I told you to fix the boot order in your BIOS.


----------



## jmos (Jul 6, 2021)

Checked (but already knew that): It doesn't ask you if you want to reboot to the Live CD - instead you can switch to the already running Live CD. Just because the installer cannot tell your computer what should happen on a reboot.


----------



## Deleted member 67029 (Jul 6, 2021)

Ah yeah so it doesn't, but the answers to the question is asks are wrong.

It asks if you would like to reboot into the installed system now and gives you two options, reboot or live CD.







So what it should be asking is would you like to reboot into the installed system now or continue using the live CD.


----------



## Deleted member 67029 (Jul 6, 2021)

It should really also give you the option to eject the disc before rebooting.


----------



## Alain De Vos (Jul 6, 2021)

The question looks right to me.


----------



## mer (Jul 6, 2021)

Kolusion said:


> Yes it does. I just installed FreeBSD 12.2-RELEASE, again. The last question is would you like to reboot into the system or live CD.


The question is there, last time I ran a FreeBSD installer there may have been a "Remove install media before rebooting" message along with it.

"Next image to boot" depends on how the disk is partitioned/installed.  Oldfashioned MBR you set the active partition.  Newer gpt/UEFI there are a series of flags that can be set to "boot this partition".

The check for what partition to boot is done by the bios, looks at flags/partition state to determine which one to use.

Last time I installed Windows 10 from a USB install media, it explicitly said "Please remove install media".

Pretty much every OS I've ever installed (Windows 3.x, XP, 7, Solaris, different Linux distros, different BSDs) if you reboot without removing the install media or changing boot order in BIOS you wind up booting into the installer again.

The only answer I have is what I've done for as long as I can remember on every operating system install:
Hit reboot
Wait until you get to the BIOS starting
Remove the install media
Let the machine finish booting

Don't change your boot order, simply remove the install media.
Why?  Because the default boot device order on almost every single BIOS I've ever run across has "hard drives" as the last thing.  Removable and network boot devices come first for the sole purpose of allowing you to install to a hard drive.

For me and others I've worked with, it seems to be common sense to remove the install media after you install before or as you are rebooting.


----------



## Deleted member 67029 (Jul 6, 2021)

mer, I can confirm on Windows XP that if you reboot and keep the disc in the drive it says press any key to boot into the installer and then goes dot dot dot dot dot and if you haven't pressed any key by then, then hands the boot process over to the MBR.

This design is probably unreliable now that I think about it. If the disk is encrypted, the CD boot loader may fail to detect the installation and find the switch.


----------



## Geezer (Jul 6, 2021)

Alain De Vos said:


> Maybe it's because of a dog.


Woof.


----------



## Geezer (Jul 6, 2021)

Thank you, Alain and Menelkir.


*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  


Dear OP, if you put as much effort into reading the handbook as you do in these threads, you might end up quite proficient.


----------



## mer (Jul 6, 2021)

Kolusion said:


> mer, I can confirm on Windows XP that if you reboot and keep the disc in the drive it says press any key to boot into the installer and then goes dot dot dot dot dot and if you haven't pressed any key by then, then hands the boot process over to the MBR.
> 
> This design is probably unreliable now that I think about it. If the disk is encrypted, the CD boot loader may fail to detect the installation and find the switch.


If you read what you wrote a couple of times, the installer sounds like it is simply restarting itself if you don't press a key.
If it then is jumping directly to running the code in the MBR and bypassing going through the BIOS, that is a different reboot than going to the BIOS.

But I'm not going to debate the "correctness" of an installer for an operating system that the manufacturer retired at least 4 versions ago when the hardware choices were a lot more limited than they are now.


----------



## Alain De Vos (Jul 6, 2021)

Window XP was easy to install. Ergo the installer was OK.
Dragonfly BSD and OpenBSD are more difficult to install.


----------



## grahamperrin@ (Jul 8, 2021)

Alain De Vos said:


> The question looks right to me.



I was often, repeatedly surprised when rebooting _into the installed system_ booted a different system.


----------

