FreeNAS 11 VM Tab Install

[SaskiFX]

I'm trying to get something/anything to boot in the VM tab on the new RC. I have added a VM, added the necessary devices, but it never gets anywhere.

I have tried both using the UEFI and the UEFI_CSM. With CSM I get nothing. Even when I dig up the console connection. When I use UEFI, I get the UEFI shell, but it never shows anything but a Block device which I assume is the empty drive I created. No CDROM mounted for me to boot from, just:

Code:

UEFI Interactive Shell v2.1
EDK II
UEFI v2.40 (BHYVE, 0x00010000)
Mapping table
  BLK0: Alias(s):BLK1:;BLK2:
  PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x5,0x0)/Sata(0x0,0x0,0x0)
Press ESC in 2 seconds to skip startup.nsh or any other key to continue.
Shell>

Typing exit there lets me go and select the CDROM from the byhve Boot Manager, but it just dumps me back to the same UEFI shell.

I'm currently trying to do this with RancherOS ISO, but I have tried a couple others as well. Same results. I have had success in getting RancherOS to install via iohyve commands, so I know it's possible. I'm just stuck.

Anyone else had any success with this? All my forum searching has so far come to nothing.

 

[Andy C]

Not all distros are UEFI aware. Debian based ones aren't while RedHat based distros do - e.g CentOS and Fedora. I suspect RancherOS falls into the first category.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[blaco]

Debian based ones aren't

Not 100% correct:
Ubuntu Server image is UEFI ready and Debian as well. I'm running a Ubuntu VM with UEFI in FreeNAS. (Often you can install easily, but not boot afterwards - I use an iso of refind, so i don't have to change anything in EFI or rescue boot etc. to boot it)

But many "Docker" distros like RancherOS or CoreOS are not. (They don't have EFI support)

 

[SaskiFX]

So the built in VM stuff doesn't support any kind of BIOS booting yet?

 

[KrisBee]

Not at the moment.

You could add rancher-server to a Linux VM that already has docker installed.

RE: Debian, etc. It's the installer that needs to support UEFI, but your VM may not boot post-install as the byhve UEFI firmware looks for the default file \EFI\BOOT\boot64.efi in the EFi system partition and dumps you in the EFI shell if it cannot find it. See here:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/how-to-how-to-boot-linux-vms-using-uefi.54039/

Yes, you can keep a refind iso permanently attached in a virtual CD-ROM to your VM, but I prefer to fix the VM.

You can convert linux grub installs to UEFI, if need be.

 

[SaskiFX]

I gave up and used iohyve. It booted the VM and seems to be working fine. This will get me by until later releases when the VM tab is more functional.

 

[rm-r]

I use an iso of refind

GENIUS!!!! thank you so much!