Boot FreeBSD-13 on an Asus T200TA-CP022H ... questions and assumptions.

A

Arnaud M.

Hi everybody,

I wanted to give a try to FreeBSD using a netbook (Asus T200TA-CP022H) that I am not using anymore but until now, all my attempts failed.

I have followed these instructions to make the memstick (using dd on a Debian desktop).
I have tried two differents .img : one for the amd64 and one for the i386.

Here is what I observed :
  1. With the amd64 image, the BIOS recognize the USB stick i.e. the USB stick is present in the boot options. But if I attempt to launch a start from this stick, the system restarts and boots as usually on the hard disk (and in the current installed system).
  2. With the i386 image, the BIOS does not see the stick.

So, these experiments let me think that my laptop only starts in UEFI mode but can not launch a 64-bits OS. Could you confirm or not my assumption ?
If my hypothesis is right, would it mean that I need a 32-bits image with an UEFI mode ?

That brings me to my other questions, since it is mentioned in the Hardware Compatibility List that the i386 image can not be booted in UEFI :
Why this limitation ? Is it technical or a packaging choice ? (by "packaging", I mean the action of baking *.img)
If it is a packaging choice : Is there a way to mount the image and tweak it to boot in UEFI rather the legacy mode ?
If it is a technical limitation : Which work does it represent to make this possible ?

Many thanks for your clues and thoughts

PS: I have bolded my questions in order to ease the reading so no offense here but if anyone feels attacked, do not hesitate to tell me : I will change my habits... I am a nice boy in reality :)
 
Geezer said:
I am sure it can. You have probably not set the boot order for the usb stick first.
Click to expand...

Thank you Geezer for your answer but could you explain why are you "sure" ?
As told in my initial post, I have tried to launch a startup from the USB key and it did not work... ;)
 
Arnaud M. said:
… a netbook (Asus T200TA-CP022H) …
Click to expand...

<https://bsd-hardware.info/?view=computers&type=Notebook&vendor=ASUSTek+Computer> there's not yet a match, it may be that the system will work but no-one has uploaded the result of a probe.

Arnaud M. said:
… With the amd64 image, the BIOS recognize the USB stick i.e. the USB stick is present in the boot options. But if I attempt to launch a start from this stick, the system restarts …
Click to expand...

That might be a kernel panic. Can you share a recording?

If the unexpected restart occurs with the computer set to boot UEFI only, retry with CSM.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#CSMBOOT>
 
Arnaud M. said:
If my hypothesis is right, would it mean that I need a 32-bits image with an UEFI mode ?
Click to expand...
Yes you nailed it.
There was a class of devices fostered by Microsoft mainly tablets and surface like devices.
Just like your Asus Transformer.

If this has a Z37xx CPU chances are it uses a 32 bit EFI which is not supported on FreeBSD.
Spotty support on linux as well.
 
Arnaud M. said:
If my hypothesis is right, would it mean that I need a 32-bits image with an UEFI mode ?
Click to expand...
You would need an image with 32-bit UEFI mode.
Physically possible but EFI-32bit never ported on FreeBSD.
ia32.efi is the 32 bit EFI bootloader that is needed.

Note that these are 64 bit CPU's but used an 32-bit UEFI BIOS built to MS specs for the device class.
 
grahamperrin said:
<https://bsd-hardware.info/?view=computers&type=Notebook&vendor=ASUSTek+Computer> there's not yet a match, it may be that the system will work but no-one has uploaded the result of a probe.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this great resource, I did not know it and it is really appreciated.

grahamperrin said:
That might be a kernel panic. Can you share a recording?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, the reboot occures without any messages.

grahamperrin said:
If the unexpected restart occurs with the computer set to boot UEFI only, retry with CSM.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#CSMBOOT>
Click to expand...
I must check but I don't remember there is an option to boot in a kind of "legacy mode" ... (I know that this option exists on my daily Asus laptop but not on this little netbook ... must be verfied in any case)
 
Phishfry said:
There was a class of devices fostered by Microsoft mainly tablets and surface like devices.
Just like your Asus Transformer.
Click to expand...
Arf ... no comment ;)

Phishfry said:
If this has a Z37xx CPU chances are it uses a 32 bit EFI which is not supported on FreeBSD.
Spotty support on linux as well.
Click to expand...
What do you mean with "Spotty"... I haven't find any resources on that. Have you got a link to share ?

Phishfry said:
Physically possible but EFI-32bit never ported on FreeBSD.
ia32.efi is the 32 bit EFI bootloader that is needed.
Click to expand...
So if I found the time to port ia32.efi, it could solved the problem ?

Phishfry said:
Note that these are 64 bit CPU's but used an 32-bit UEFI BIOS built to MS specs for the device class.
Click to expand...
Yes, I think I have already heard about this ...
Thank you for your help !
 
Arnaud M. said:
So if I found the time to port ia32.efi, it could solved the problem ?
Click to expand...
Yes indeed. Linux ELF is different so you can't use theirs directly.
What porting involves I am unsure of.
Before Microsoft came along with the spec everybody was already using 64 bit EFI.
I dunno if it was cheaper perhaps...
 
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