Getting UEFI working
DTD
doug at safeport.com
Fri Jul 27 18:38:42 UTC 2018
I solved [my??] UEFI booting problem. A first email on this described all the
gory details. This IMO just obscured the larger message. If you want this to
work there are two choices if you encounter a problem: (1) find hardware that
works; (2) know the internals of the firmware on the failing system and enough
about the UEFI boot process so you can find/write a first level module that the
firmware in question will recognize.
I have used only FreeBSD for my work station since 4.5. So I have installed it a
time or two and worked around various software issues. Having to figure out what
the PC firmware is looking for takes the problem to another level.
TrueOS (iXsystems) seems to think using rEFInd is an answer. Starting with a
free range version of that is a bit like rewriting termcap. The guide I found
was for ZFS on a version of Windows those partition layout had little in common
with what I had. Between the Lenovo BIOS and Windows boot options that could
recovery from anything, I eventually got FreeBSD installed. None of the Windows
versions (that I encountered in this go-around) had these options.
I did all this using the same install medium. The amd64-dvd1 iso and the USB img
file (both 11.2). The hardware was Dell, HP, and POWERSPEC (Micro Center's
brand). Only the Dell worked. I did a legacy and a UEFI install each taking less
than 5 minutes. The POWERSPEC would only boot Windows and entering the BIOS did
not work. On the HP I did a GPT install that worked followed by a UEFI ZFS
install that rendered the system unusable. Only the Dell recognized the bootable
USB which I used for both installs.
The rEFInd docs speak to setting various variables that will aid in booting. If
rEFInd makes UEFI booting easier/possible it would be really nice if at a minium
some of this information made its way into the handbook.
_____
Douglas Denault
http://www.safeport.com
doug at safeport.com
Voice: 301-217-9220
Fax: 301-217-9277
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