[HOWTO] How-to Boot Linux VMs using UEFI

[João Dalvi]

Isn't it possible to symlink bootx64.efi to grubx64.efi?
Will this issue ever be corrected?

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

JD, the filesystem of the EFI partition is FAT or a derivation thereof. So no symlinks, I fear.

I still recommend installing rEFInd ...

Patrick

 

[João Dalvi]

rEFInd goes on the guest OS, right?

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

rEFInd goes on the guest OS, right?

Yes - to the EFI partition.

Patrick

 

[diskdiddler]

So will the release build of FreeNAS 11.2 include all the bhyve improvements put in to regular BSD 11.2?

Do they continue to always add all the improvements that FreeBSD gets?

Finally, is FreeBSD developers actively improving bhyve, so that threads like this sound less troublesome?

 

[Ericloewe]

It might not be straight pull, but anything of interest is very likely to end up in FreeNAS sooner rather than later. Keep in mind that FreeNAS doesn't track FreeBSD releases these days, instead pulling from the stable branch before point releases.

 

[KrisBee]

Finally, is FreeBSD developers actively improving bhyve, so that threads like this sound less troublesome?

If would be interesting to know just what development work is taking place on bhyve. The mailing list https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-virtualization points to current and recent problems and http://bhyvecon.org/ provies gives a few hints. The latter lists one piece of work by Marcelo Araujo for FreeNAS/FreeBSD for 2018..

 

[diskdiddler]

I had a quick glance, there's some activity but not a heap. I guess this will be a slow burn for improvement.

 

[mmontgom]

Install a Debian 9.4 OS under bhyve FreeNAS 11.1-U5.

I found that when I utilized all the VirtIO settings in the VM device setup and kept the disk settings simple in the OS install (no logical volumes, no encryption), It just worked.

I found that when I attempted to use a logical volume for the OS install, the VM would not boot regardless of attempting all the file system manipulation suggestions contained in the previous 6 pages of this topic.

 

[soko]

I've read through this thread from start to finish attempting to get an Ubuntu VM up.

I'm on Freenas 11.1U6, trying to run up ubuntu-16.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso
1) setup a storage dataset/zvol for 25GB (permissions standard o:g=root:wheel
2) created a new VM with four devices: NIC, VNC (port 5901), DISK (type=disk, mode=virtIO, ZVol=set to zvol created in (1), Sectorsize=0, CDROM (set to ..../ubuntu-16.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso file)
3) Start VM, shows running
4) connect with VNC Viewer, I get:

type exit, get menu for BHYVE, then select 'Boot Maintenance Manager>Boot from file> EMPTY

This thread has morphed into many discussions. Apologise if this is not the right place/time to ask. I cannot get the BHYVE menu's to present boot files or directories. I'm missing something including brain cells. My thinking was to manually mount the zvol to copy the EFI boot files from the iso.

I've gone to /dev/ssd/ubuntu to figure out how to mount the zvol to manually copy the boot files over per the thread, but there is no obvious device to mount. Just need some direction to get me pointed in right direction.

Thanks Newbie.

 

[KrisBee]

@soko Check your iso. Booting from the ubuntu iso (cdrom device attached to VM) shouldn't drop you to the EFI shell, it's only post install that you may end up there.

 

[neubert]

@soko: same issue here, started separate thread https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...d-disk-not-visible-in-efi-boot-manager.69640/

 

[KrisBee]

@soko: same issue here, started separate thread https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...d-disk-not-visible-in-efi-boot-manager.69640/

Might be. But when you try to boot your VM what messages to do you see in the logs re: bhyve?

Use tail -f /var/log/middlewared.log

 

[soko]

@KrisBee I redownloaded 16.04.5 from Ubuntu alternative. I think I have success using a new iso instead of 16.04.4. Should have tried that first. Thankyou.

I got a grub boot menu instead of falling to EFI Boot menu, I've selected install Ubuntu, problem is I am running a resilver for the last 24hrs for encrypted disk replacement. Performance has degraded!

tail -f /var/log/middlewared.log

Code:

[2018/09/03 03:12:27] (DEBUG) VMService.run():155 - ====> NIC_ATTACH: re0
[2018/09/03 03:12:27] (DEBUG) VMService.run():231 - Starting bhyve: bhyve -H -w -c 1 -m 4096 -s 0:0,hostbridge -s 31,lpc -l com1,/dev/nmdm1A -l bootrom,/usr/local/share/uefi-firmware/BHYVE_UEFI.fd -s 3,e1000,tap0,mac=00:a0:98:7b:b4:ad -s 29,fbuf,vncserver,tcp=0.0.0.0:5901,w=1024,h=768,, -s 30,xhci,tablet -s 4,virtio-blk,/dev/zvol/ssd480enc/ubuntu/ubuntu -s 5,ahci-cd,/mnt/vol/Install_Files/ubuntu/ubuntu-16.04.5-desktop-amd64.iso 1_ubuntu
[2018/09/03 03:12:27] (DEBUG) VMService.run():250 - ubuntu: 02/09/2018 20:12:27 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901

[2018/09/03 03:12:27] (DEBUG) VMService.run():250 - ubuntu: 02/09/2018 20:12:27 Listening for VNC connections on TCP6 port 5901

Connect with VNCViewer I get the following which looks promising once the resilver completes. Will report back.

 

[neubert]

For comparison, this is what I get (cd-rom removed, only NIC, VNC and Disk attached to the vm):

Code:

[2018/09/04 18:15:40] (DEBUG) VMService.run():155 - ====> NIC_ATTACH: igb0
[2018/09/04 18:15:40] (DEBUG) VMService.run():231 - Starting bhyve: bhyve -H -w -c 4 -m 4096 -s 0:0,hostbridge -s 31,lpc -l com1,/dev/nmdm2A -l bootrom,/usr/local/share/uefi-firmware/BHYVE_UEFI.fd -s 3,e1000,tap0,mac=00:a0:98:7c:b0:ec -s 29,fbuf,vncserver,tcp=192.168.31.12:5902,w=1920,h=1200,, -s 30,xhci,tablet -s 4,ahci-hd,/dev/zvol/volume0/vm-epiphyt-sda,sectorsize=4096 2_epiphyt
[2018/09/04 18:15:40] (DEBUG) VMService.run():244 - ==> Start WEBVNC at port 5802 with pid number 33869
[2018/09/04 18:15:40] (DEBUG) VMService.run():250 - epiphyt: 04/09/2018 20:15:40 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5902

[2018/09/04 18:15:40] (DEBUG) VMService.run():250 - epiphyt: 04/09/2018 20:15:40 Listening for VNC connections on TCP6 port 5902

 

[neubert]

I spotted the differenceL soko uses virtio driver instead of ahci. Turning to virtio makes the virtual disk visible in the "boot from file" menu of the Boot Maintenance Manager. The vm properly boots after manually choosing the grubx64.efi. So the issue is related to the ahci setting.

 

[KrisBee]

I spotted the differenceL soko uses virtio driver instead of ahci. Turning to virtio makes the virtual disk visible in the "boot from file" menu of the Boot Maintenance Manager. The vm properly boots after manually choosing the grubx64.efi. So the issue is related to the ahci setting.

Correct, this problem surface some time ago in FreeNAS 11.2 betas. Since I habitually use virtio for NIC and HDD devices I clean forgot the obvious when looking at your posts.

 

[hexley]

I had to do a little searching to find this since it doesn't show up in Debian's example preseed, but you can also do this if you use preseeds:

Code:

# Work around buggy UEFI implementations that do not support boot entries
# correctly:
# https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI#Force_grub-efi_installation_to_the_removable_media_path
d-i grub-installer/force-efi-extra-removable boolean true

Unfortunately this is still necessary with 11.2-BETA3.

 

[diskdiddler]

I thought all that stuff was going to be fixed in B3, is it RC1?
What's the ticket / job# on the tracker?

 

[KrisBee]

I had to do a little searching to find this since it doesn't show up in Debian's example preseed, but you can also do this if you use preseeds:

Code:

# Work around buggy UEFI implementations that do not support boot entries
# correctly:
# https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI#Force_grub-efi_installation_to_the_removable_media_path
d-i grub-installer/force-efi-extra-removable boolean true

Unfortunately this is still necessary with 11.2-BETA3.

d-i preseed? Not for the casual user then. But just use expert install, surely that's easier than mounting then copying an ios , changing the preseed file and then generating a new iso.