Re: How to boot FreeBSD14 without EFI?

On Sun, Jan 14, 2024, at 02:35, Dewayne Geraghty wrote:
> I pulled the release i386 and amd64 iso's from https://download.freebsd.org/releases/ISO-IMAGES/14.0/ and both require EFI to boot. 
> 
> Then I proceeded to download the source for releng14 and did the usual build and install steps for an amd64 vdi (virtualbox setup on a Windows host).  However I've been unable to boot from either an MBR or a GPT scheme.  Clearly I'm missing something.  Does anyone have the incantation to boot without EFI on either i386 or amd64?
> 
> I added WITHOUT_EFI to /etc/srcconf and rebuilt GENERIC but more is required...
> 
> Also the loader no longer provides vidconsole as a console device.  Has vidconsole been replaced with eficonsole?  
> 
> Regards, Dewayne

Just to confirm the FreeBSD-14.0-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img file does not boot unless UEFI is enabled on your Virtual Machine or physical hardware?

Have you double checked the checksum of the image or images you are using?

Assuming BIOS boot do you know if the device has previously booted using GPT or only MBR partition tables?

— Robert