Unable to boot on USB key on Lenovo Thinkpad T440

[Warren Block]

On Fri, 24 Jan 2014, Kata Goto wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I recently (this week), recieved a Lenovo Thinkpad T440 and I want to
> install FreeBSD, so I have disabled the secure boot and force the legacy
> boot mode only.
> Then I have downloaded an USB image and write it via
>    $ dd if=FreeBSD-9.2-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/da0 bs=64k
>
> (I also tried with 10.0-RELEASE)
> And my laptop refuses to boot on it, even if I force to boot on it (via
> <F12>).
> My USB key works well on other computers (they boot on it) and my laptop
> boots well on an Ubuntu USB key.
> I have also tried to boot on an external CD Drive, but nothing change :/
>
> I am running out of ideas.
> If you have the same issue or new ideas, please, let me know.

The USB image uses a bare BSDlabel, aka "dangerously dedicated", meaning 
there is no MBR at all.  Some versions of Thinkpad firmware had strange 
misconceptions about disk formats.  A CD could boot fine, being a more 
common format.  Make certain the Thinkpad firmware is the latest 
version, and the USB image might work.

Some work with gpart and dd might be able to convert the USB image to an 
MBR/BSDlabel format which would boot.

Or the problem might not be related to the bare BSDlabel, but that it 
works on everything but the Thinkpad make it a good guess.