FreeNAS 11.1 - UEFI or Legacy BIOS During Install?

[theprez]

Hey All -

Redoing my server from scratch and am installing 11.1 onto my SuperMicro X10-SL7 board with 32GB ECC and several WD40 drives.

During the end of the install it asks me to either select EFI or BIOS - what's the best practice here and what is gained/lost?
I know my board supports both modes - just not sure what it does to FreeNAS.

Thanks

 

[Ericloewe]

UEFI is the way forward and works fine on my X10SLM+-F.

 

[sjones]

Ugh - I think I've been bit again by old information as a new FreeNAS user:

1) I spent a good amount of time watching YouTube videos where it showed built in docker support - apparently that was for a version called Corral that was retired - looked pretty neat but apparently 11.X is now the standard.

2) This topic at hand...the installer clearly says UEFI is for consumer boards and it recommends the legacy bios option for the other boards. I too have a SuperMicro board and this isnt a consumer level board....why would anyone go against the installer's advice on the screen and select UEFI anyway?

Is this yet another example of outdated guidance that should be reflected on the installation screens?

Hate to redo my install but i'd rather do it now vs. loading up the server and addressing later.

Thx

 

[Ericloewe]

2) This topic at hand...the installer clearly says UEFI is for consumer boards and it recommends the legacy bios option for the other boards. I too have a SuperMicro board and this isnt a consumer level board....why would anyone go against the installer's advice on the screen and select UEFI anyway?

That advice is weird and I have not seen any rationale for it.

Hate to redo my install but i'd rather do it now vs. loading up the server and addressing later.

There's nothing to address. Is it working? Leave it. New install? Go with UEFI (at least on known-good systems) and minimize your headaches dealing with crap system firmware that can't even correctly implement a boot priorities list. If UEFI doesn't work for some reason and legacy BIOS (CSM) does, use that instead.

Once the system is up, the differences are cosmetic.

 

[alwu]

what do you recommend for "boot mode select" in the bios? set it to uefi or leave it on the default dual setting?

 

[Ericloewe]

If you're booting from UEFI, UEFI. If not, CSM.

 

[moelassus]

Is this a setting you can change after the fact or do I need to do a reinstall? I selected BIOS based on the language in the installer.

 

[Ericloewe]

If it's installed and working, there's no good reason to change.

 

[pschatz100]

If it's installed and working, there's no good reason to change.

I will confirm what @Ericloewe wrote: if it works, then don't worry about it.

On my Supermicro x9xcm-f board, some boot devices will work with UEFI and others will not. I have not bothered to figure out why. Now, when I configure a new system, I try creating the boot device with UEFI first. If it works, then great. If I have problems, then I try configuring the boot device for BIOS boot (what some systems call LEGACY.) At the end of the day, as long as the system boots reliably, then it doesn't really matter which one you use.

 

[Exhorder]

2) This topic at hand...the installer clearly says UEFI is for consumer boards and it recommends the legacy bios option for the other boards. I too have a SuperMicro board and this isnt a consumer level board....why would anyone go against the installer's advice on the screen and select UEFI anyway?

I've seen this, too. Seems to be an outdated info. Current enterprise hardware comes with UEFI supoort, too.

 

[quiet-truck]

UEFI is the way forward and works fine on my X10SLM+-F.

considering switch from AMD Ryzen to Xeon E3 V4 and X10SLM-F for better ECC support.
just want to confirm that your X10SLM+-F can boot FreeNAS installed with UEFI boot mode?

cause i see that on supermicro website, it says X10SLM does not support UEFI, and i am worrying if my current UEFI installation of FreeNAS will boot on X10SLM.

 

[Ericloewe]

just want to confirm that your X10SLM+-F can boot FreeNAS installed with UEFI boot mode?

Of course.

cause i see that on supermicro website, it says X10SLM does not support UEFI, and i am worrying if my current UEFI installation of FreeNAS will boot on X10SLM.

Not sure what that's all about, UEFI is standard starting with the Sandy Bridge generation (i.e. X9).

 

[quiet-truck]

Of course.


Not sure what that's all about, UEFI is standard starting with the Sandy Bridge generation (i.e. X9).

thanks! got the board today and it migrate flawlessly.
i thought it does not support UEFI before because it does not list UEFI as its BIOS feature compare to later X11 generation.

from X10SLM-F

from X11SSH-F