Solved BIOS hangs with FreeBSD usb stick plugged

Hello!
I'm trying to install FreeBSD 13 on my old "home server" (Gigabyte P55A UD3 + intel core i5 + 4gb ram + ssd + hdd).
Unfortunately BIOS startup process hangs if I have FreeBSD usb stick plugged into the PC.
I tried FreeBSD 8 and it passed BIOS startup process fine. Also I read that this motherboard may not work with newer BSD bootloaders: https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/boot-disk-failure-on-newer-versions.84415/
I tried the same usb stick in my desktop PC and it was fine.
BIOS is updated to the latest version possible. Motherboard doesn't support uefi.

Any help is appreciated! Maybe someone has this very MB in use with FreeBSD and can confirm it works.
 
I have no idea how you could make FreeBSD bootloader work, but you can try to follow this guide : Thread installing-freebsd-manually-no-installer.63201. To boot a livecd, maybe you can use some virtualisation software on a Linux livecd or something like that. Then after installing everything, you can install another bootloader that will work instead of the default one. Maybe even just using the installer in a VM would work. Of course, you need to pass the disk to the VM. I had some problems booting the FreeBSD stick too with my computer, so I installed it manually using HardenedBSD's iso and by fetching the tarballs, but mine can get to the bootloader
 
the FreeBSD USB i think boots with or without UEFI support (certainly it has and installs boot loaders for both boot modes BIOS and UEFI)

Are you sure you don't have any other issues going on, like funky AGP settings, bios shadows, video card reserves, or a video card that doesn't actually do VGA (like older nvidia)?

I would not immedialy blame FreeBSD 13 for forcing uefi just on the notion "it froze when first tried". But I have a UEFI system with i5 so IDK for sure.

PLEASE SAY MORE: EXACTLY WHERE DOES IT "HANG". Before or after you see the ascii art Beastie? Did you know there is a difference between the "memstick.img" and "iso.img" and how some PCs bioses may not support both (and bsd offers both)? And has anyone asked if you reset your BIOS and if you know your bios settings?

You seem to have omitted that "https://www.quora.com/Why-can-t-I-boot-by-USB-on-my-Gigabyte-motherboard" is a well known problem asked for many models of gigabyte motherboards.

So that may change my advice to ... if you insist on using it then maybe just keep the working FreeBSD 8 USB "boot loader" but change the kernel it boots, or hack the FreeBSD 13 USB to use the old boot.img? Or run FreeBSD 8 and have it download the binaries for FreeBSD 13 for you (from there, maybe you can make a rescue disk but use the older boot.img). But it might not be worth all that. I mean, I'm running on an asian motherboard I got for free so if it didn't work? I'd replace it.

All guess work when you haven't even said _where_ it stops (before or after beastie, bofore or after /\| spin, before or after bios logos, with or without beeps, lights, ...)

I bet if you format the memstick right (say fat32) put an iso on it "the way win8 would expect it" the gigabyte will like it. I'm not sure though and I hate suggesting things that would burn your valuable time without joy in the end.
 
I'm trying to install FreeBSD 13 on my old "home server" (Gigabyte P55A UD3 + intel core i5 + 4gb ram + ssd + hdd).
Unfortunately BIOS startup process hangs if I have FreeBSD usb stick plugged into the PC.
...
I tried the same usb stick in my desktop PC and it was fine.
BIOS is updated to the latest version possible. Motherboard doesn't support uefi.

Any help is appreciated! Maybe someone has this very MB in use with FreeBSD and can confirm it works.
I have a Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3L that was showing similar behaviour when I was trying to install FreeBSD 12.X from a USB flash drive back in 2019. As soon as the USB stick was plugged into any USB port, the BIOS would just hang. I tried two different USB flash drives, one USB 3.0 the other USB 2.0, changed various BIOS settings to no avail, but nothing worked. Ultimately I ended up stealing the DVD drive from my desktop machine and installing from a DVD. Once installed, FreeBSD has been running absolutely fine on that mainboard.

I don't think this is a FreeBSD specific issue as I believe back then I also tried booting memtest86 off a USB stick which also failed. I remember that an older P4 based MSI mainboard showed similar symptoms trying to boot off a USB stick.
 
Hello guys,

Thanks for the help, I found my old dvd rom, blew dust from it and burnt the image to disc. And everything went perfectly fine, I got my FreeBSD installer!
The thing is, I gave up trying to install FreeBSD on bare metal yesterday and installed Alpine Linux and VM with FreeBSD, created pool with my HDD and copied data there, now it will take half a day to back it up and reinstall the system and recreate the pool, but at least I got what I wanted.
ps: maybe zpool import will help

Thanks a lot!
 
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