SOLVED FreeNAS 11 won't boot from USB in UEFI bios

[zoomzoom]

Might not be exactly what you are looking for but why hassle with usb sticks when you motherboards has a BMC controller with ipmi and iIKVM. Why not install using the kvm controller? Just mount a the iso in the virtual cd drive :)

@Bebop doesn't have a server board, they have a HP P6716

 

[wblock]

There are a handful of BIOS motherboards that do support GPT, but 99%+ do not.

"Support" is a word that is open to interpretation. GPT has a simulated MBR which even has boot code. So most BIOS motherboards will boot from GPT. And it does not have the many limitations of MBR.

 

[Ericloewe]

FreeNAS 9.3+ has been known to boot on tons of systems that predate the wide availability of UEFI, despite the fact that it's installed to GPT partitions.

 

[Bebop]

@Bebop After doing some research, it appears only UEFI PC motherboards support GPT

• There are a handful of BIOS motherboards that do support GPT, but 99%+ do not.

I totally agree, best one should assume GPT will not work with BIOS systems.

I do wonder if having an EFI or GPT boot capable system was mentioned as a requirement for FreeNAS 11, or if I managed to miss it?

Yet, while it's a topic I've always found a little confusing TBH, I thought Windows GPT boot required EFI whereas other OS often do not (eg Linux does not seem to have this limitation, I just assumed BSD behaved similarly). Compounding confusion, I'm not positive but I believe (at least) one of my other BIOS machines will boot GPT, namely a GPT formatted FreeNAS 11 install USB.

Oh well. Regardless, it seems I'm out of luck with this system.

 

[Ericloewe]

I do wonder if having an EFI or GPT boot capable system was mentioned as a requirement for FreeNAS 11, or if I managed to miss it?

It's a much of a requirement as it has been since 9.3 was released nearly three years ago...

 

[Bebop]

It's a much of a requirement as it has been since 9.3 was released nearly three years ago...

Yeah I do remember somewhat seeing it as a new for 9.3 requirement, now that you mention it, but not in the FreeNAS 11 hardware requirements. I assumed it would be a non issue. Unlucky with this board I guess.

 

[wblock]

What @Ericloewe meant was that EFI or GPT booting was NOT a requirement then, and is not a requirement now.

 

[Bebop]

What @Ericloewe meant was that EFI or GPT booting was NOT a requirement then, and is not a requirement now.

I appreciate you clarifying, but I'm still lost... I get that it's often a non issue, but it certainly seems a requirement:

"...beginning with version 9.3, FreeNAS boots from a GPT partition...https://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas_intro.html

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding? Edit: I see there are work arounds avoiding the boot requirement; perhaps you two are alluding to that?

Further, with 9.3+ even when BIOS/MBR is selected during installation, I believe it creates a GPT disk (not 100% sure, poor notes on my part).

 

[zoomzoom]

@wblock & @Ericloewe is it possible @Bebop's HP P6716 motherboard simply doesn't support FreeBSD, or is this simply a BIOS issue?

• @Bebop, depending on the answer to the above question, if it's the latter, you may want to look into an unlocked BIOS to flash on the Tech Inferno forum and BIOS Mods forum

 

[wblock]

I see there are work arounds avoiding the boot requirement; perhaps you two are alluding to that?

As I said in post #22:

GPT has a simulated MBR which even has boot code. So most BIOS motherboards will boot from GPT.

So BIOS motherboards will boot from GPT hard disks. After booting, it's all up to the operating system, and FreeBSD has supported GPT for many years.

As for the issue here, I would guess it is due to the BIOS. HP has done stupid things in their BIOS implementations before. An update might help. Last time I looked at an HP, it seemed that they might be recovering from the Fiorina years.

 

[wblock]

Oh, and the full quote from that 9.3 intro (emphasis added):

beginning with version 9.3, FreeNAS® boots from a GPT partition. This means that the system BIOS must be able to boot using either the legacy BIOS firmware interface or EFI.

 

[Bebop]

@wblock & @Ericloewe is it possible @Bebop's HP P6716 motherboard simply doesn't support FreeBSD, or is this simply a BIOS issue?

• @Bebop, depending on the answer to the above question, if it's the latter, you may want to look into an unlocked BIOS to flash on the Tech Inferno forum and BIOS Mods forum

The BIOS is up to date and it seems there are no modded BIOS' available. The CPU is overclockable and unlockable, so I spent quite some time looking. (I'll probably just replace the motherboard at some point). Regardless, thank you for the suggestion.

As I said in post #22:
So BIOS motherboards will boot from GPT hard disks. After booting, it's all up to the operating system, and FreeBSD has supported GPT for many years.

As for the issue here, I would guess it is due to the BIOS. HP has done stupid things in their BIOS implementations before. An update might help. Last time I looked at an HP, it seemed that they might be recovering from the Fiorina years.

Thank you for clarifying. I agree, that makes sense. Yeah, I'm no HP/prebuilt fan, rather it was a gift.

At some point I'll see if I can work around the issue or boot FreeNAS from an HDD and edit this post or repost.

 

[farfetched]

I had the same issue, and based on these posts, it led me in the right direction. I disabled "Legacy USB Support" on my older Gigabyte MB and that did the trick. Thanks all.

 

[farfetched]

Ya, turns out I wasn't done yet. After I pulled the original boot drive, which I was trying to replace with a USB stick, I couldn't boot again. Somehow it was using the boot sector off the original drive then continuing to load via the USB stick. I check the Gigabyte site for a newer BIOS and it turns out they had a "Beta" bios which was dated 2012 so I tried that and it worked.

 

[Mattia3rd]

I have figured out my issue, I do still have some issues, now with disks :(, in any case if it helps, my problem wasn't on Freenas, was the bios that had security settings about CSM that would only allow windows images, so you need to change that setting in the boot section of the bios. Unfortunately is the 1st time I try this with consumer grade equipment, usually I use servers and never crossed with this issue and of course I'm feeling fairly stupid :). The only bizarre thing is that any other non-windows OS I tried was always boot fine, starting by the iso that is GRUB based and was always booting fine. Hope it helps.

Hi,
i have the same issue but I cannot solve it.
I have a consumer motherboard (Asus H87 PLUS) with secure boot which do not le me boot from my FreeNAS 11.2 USB drive created with Rufus.
It is for sure my motherboard the issue.
Would anybody help please ?

Mattia

 

[Mattia3rd]

Hi,
i have the same issue but I cannot solve it.
I have a consumer motherboard (Asus H87 PLUS) with secure boot which do not le me boot from my FreeNAS 11.2 USB drive created with Rufus.
It is for sure my motherboard the issue.
Would anybody help please ?

Mattia

I was finally able to SOLVE it.

Issue Description
Cannot boot from USB (SANDISK 16GB) with flashed FreeNAS 11.2 U7 on ASUS motherboard H87Plus

Introduction
I have no CD ROM on my home NAS so the only option was to use an USB as installation media.
I change my BIOS configuration dozen of times between :

1. secure boot : Windows / Other OS
2. CSM
   1. Boot dev control: UEFI + Legacy / UEFI / Legacy
   2. Boot storage device: Both, legacy firs / Both, UEFI first / UEFI / Legacy
   3. Legacy
   4. UEFI
3. And with different USB speed port: USB 3 / USB 2

My final configuration was:

1. secure boot : Windows
2. CSM
   1. Boot dev control: UEFI + Legacy
   2. Boot storage device: Both, UEFI first
3. And the USB plugged into USB 3

I flashed the USB drive different times with RUFUS from Windows 10 and with dd from Fedora 31. (Take this in mind!)

Never never never able to boot from that damn USB!

Solution
It was a great stroke of luck.
I saw a strange label on boot when flashing the USB with dd from Fedora.
My USB had a UEFI in the name at the boot prompt.
Sooooo... ?
To have a working boot USB use:
sudo dd if=FreeNAS-11.2-U7.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=64k

This is the only option to have a boot USB supported by my motherboard with Secure Boot!

I leave it to posterity

Namaste