Booting off usb installer

[LuKreme]

I made a usb installer from FreeBSD-12.0-STABLE-amd64-20190510-r347397-memstick.img

When I set my FreeBSD 11.2 machine to boot from the usb, it does so and I get a normal looking boot menu, 1 for multi user, 2 for single user, etc.

Whichever option I choose, 1 or 2, the machine starts to boot, but then reboots before completion. If there is an error, it passes too quickly for me to see it. At no point do I get an installer or a login prompt.

The hardware is a 3rd? generation i5 and 8GB of RAM. Possibly a Dell machine?

Should I instead be using the 12.0-RELEASE image?

The machine does not have an optical drive in it.

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