# "PXE-353 no boot file received" after successful installation & reboot



## toogley (Apr 1, 2015)

Hello,

I'm trying to install FreeBSD on a Thinkpad T520, but after every successful installation and the following reboot, I receive the error message "PXE-353 no boot file received". It doesn't make any difference, whether I try to install it with ZFS (2 Disks), ZFS (single disk), UFS, or whatever - although PC-BSD, Debian, Ubuntu, etc. pp, worked flawlessly.

I've saw recently a Thread here, where an user has the same problem and solved it through an "update", but a) I'm not sure whether he really meant an BIOS update, or something else and b) I'm kind of anxious of breaking something, by install a new version. (of course I also tried to "boot directly" from the Harddisks, made reboots, etc.)

Any ideas?

regards,
toogley


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## SirDice (Apr 1, 2015)

Turn off PXE booting in the BIOS. It looks like it keeps trying to PXE boot, which is probably not configured on your network.


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## wblock@ (Apr 1, 2015)

Does the T520 have a UEFI BIOS?  Which version of FreeBSD did you install?  Was it the original BIOS-booting flavor, or the new extra crispy UEFI?  If it was the BIOS version, legacy booting must be enabled in UEFI.  Otherwise, the disk will not be seen as bootable and other boot devices like PXE will be tried.  Of course, that's the UEFI version of PXE, so it probably won't work either unless you have a triple-signed, encrypted-beyond-usefulness western reticulated PXE server.


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## toogley (Apr 1, 2015)

SirDice: The option, who is most similar to the network booting thing is: "Ethernet LAN Option ROM" which is defined as "enable startup from the integrated network device". => the error disapears, but I can't boot anyway.
2nd option is "network boot" where I can choose several devices, including my harddisks. => can't really disable it and choosing other things there makes also no difference.

wblock@: Yes, it does have UEFI, although it is a ncurses like/nongraphical environment.
I tried FreeBSD 10.1 Release Memstick UEFI, memstick legacy, and some of the others also. If I recall right, the current "version" is a legacy disc 1 or something like that.
I don't know whether it boots in UEFI or legacy mode - I will deliver that later. I have chosen both legacy and UEFI with legacy to prefer.

What makes me wondering is, PC-BSD worked flawlessly with every option I tried.

regards,
toogley


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## wblock@ (Apr 1, 2015)

PCBSD uses Grub, I think.  FreeBSD's native UEFI booting support is new.


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## toogley (Apr 1, 2015)

Do you have an idea why legacy booting doesn't work? I'll try UEFI booting through the UEFI version later/tomorrow.


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## wblock@ (Apr 2, 2015)

Some Lenovo machines have had problems with booting GPT disks on non-UEFI systems.  People reported that BIOS upgrades fixed those problems on some systems.  Other than that, I don't know what to suggest.


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## toogley (Apr 2, 2015)

short update:
I installed Windows 7 to make a BIOS upgrade, downloaded and installed FreeBSD 10.1 release UEFI Memstick Version(BIOS settings => prefer UEFI) with UFS filesystem and it works for now. I will try now Legacy booting and ZFS.

Legacy booting and UFS works, Legacy booting and ZFS doesn't with the same pattern as before. UEFI booting & ZFS doesn't work per definition.


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## toogley (Apr 2, 2015)

I forgot to say that I need ZFS, so any ideas?


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## protocelt (Apr 2, 2015)

Hi, 

First contact Lenovo and complain about this bug. It's never been fixed to my knowledge and clearly breaks UEFI specification regardless of operating system support.

This link may be helpful. I do not own this hardware so it is untested by me.


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## wblock@ (Apr 2, 2015)

Use legacy boot with ZFS in a partition.  gptzfsboot(8) should handle that, if the Lenovo BIOS allows it.


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## toogley (Apr 3, 2015)

Is this the right approach? The error messages make me unsure, although it's marked outdated.
I could also continue by Chapter 2 of my source, instead of just exit. But I'm not very hopeful that this would work.

`# gpart destroy -F ada0
# gpart create -s gpt ada0
# gpart add -s 64K -t freebsd-boot ada0
# gpart add -s 4G -t freebsd-swap -l swap0 ada0
# gpart add -t freebsd-zfs -l disk0 ad0
# gpart bootcode -b /mnt2/boot/pmbr -p /mnt2/boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada0`
=> /mnt2/boot/pmbr: No such file or directory
`6) gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gpzfsboot -i 1 ada0
# kldload /boot/kernel/opensolaris.ko
# kldload /boot/kerenel/zfs.ko
# zpool create /dev/gpt/disk0`
=> is part of potentially active pool "zroot"
`# zpool create -f zroot /dev/gpt/disk0`
=> cannot mount /zroot/ failed to create mountpoint
`# exit`
=> Error while extracting base.txz Cant restore time.

Source: https://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/GPTZFSBoot
EDIT: fixed some typos &  a missing command.


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## wblock@ (Apr 4, 2015)

I mean turn off UEFI booting on the computer.  Try to get an un-bugged version of the UEFI for the Lenovo.

As far as the procedure, you'll have to at least remove the old ZFS metadata before reassigning it.  See zpool(8) about the labelclear subcommand.


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## toogley (Apr 4, 2015)

How do I find a unbugged UEFI? Testing all versions? As said before, I use the newest version (at least I think so)

After `zpool labelclear /dev/ada0`, `zpool status` shows "no pools available", but `zpool create zroot /dev/gpt/disk0` shows "is part of potentially active pool zroot and `zpool create -f zroot /dev/disk0` shows "cannot mount /zroot failed to create mountpoint. Isn't that contradictory?

I use both legacy booting & legacy memstick version.


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## toogley (Apr 5, 2015)

Hello, again.
According to this thread: Can't install Root on ZFS FreeBSD 9.2 my problem is that the cd is read only.

But after `zpool create -m /zroot -o altroot=/tmp/ zroot /dev/gpt/disk0`
and `exit` I receive as the FreeBSD installer tries to extract the packages.

```
Error while extracting base.txz: can't restore time
```
The only thing I could found about that is my own thread here.
Any ideas?

Thanks 

PS: btw: the error message doesn't make any sense to me. What is meant by that?


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## toogley (Apr 8, 2015)

Hello again.
I'm trying to install FreeBSD with Grub and UEFI. After uefi booting and the finished ZFS installation, FreeBSD asks about final manual changes, which I answered with yes.

In this chroot environment, I installed Grub2 with `pkg install grub2`, but the commands `grub-install` and `grub-mkconfig` can't be found.
Have I forgotten something? some Days ago, I've read a FreeBSD/Grub guide, but I forgot where it was.

Thanks in advance for the help..
regards,
toogley


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## wblock@ (Apr 8, 2015)

toogley said:


> In this chroot environment,



What chroot environment?



> I installed Grub2 with  pkg install grub2, but the commands  grub-install and  grub-mkconfig can't be found.



See http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/interrupted.html, #3.


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