FreeBSD 10.2 on Apple xserve - install CD does not boot

da1 · Sep 23, 2015

Hello eveyone,

I have an Apple xserve from years ago that I'm trying to install FreeBSD on. I've burned an UEFI DVD image and also an UEFI memstick ISO but the server will not boot from either one. It doesn't matter if I power on the server with the CD or the USB stick, it simply does not boot.

I also tried holding down the c key but I get no boot menu.

Has anyone successfully booted this server with a FreeBSD image?

junovitch@ · Sep 24, 2015

That hardware is rather old isn't it? You may have much better luck with the non-UEFI images.

kpa · Sep 24, 2015

Which model is it? The G4 is a powerpc (32-bit) one and uses OpenFirmware. Same with the G5 models except they are powerpc64. Intel Xserve models should be with EFI firmware and you'll have to use the standard amd64/i386 BIOS images with those since the firmware on those doesn't implement UEFI.

da1 · Sep 24, 2015

I forgot to mention that I've also tried the amd64 ISO and memstick image. Still no go.

da1 · Sep 24, 2015

It seems there is a bug with the EFI version of 10.2. I couldn't find a 11-CURRENT EFI-enabled ISO to test. Is there one?

Juanitou · Sep 24, 2015

Sure, they have UEFI boot by default: ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.0/

da1 · Sep 24, 2015

Ah, ok. I was expecting a separate image with the UEFI word in it, similar to 10.2.

Allan · Feb 21, 2016

Were you able to get this working? I was able to successfully install FreeBSD 10-2 on an XServe G4 with a USB Flash. If I can share what worked, I would be happy to.

da1 · Feb 22, 2016

I haven't tried a USB stick but 11-CURRENT worked from a CD. I've also tried 10.3-RELEASE-BETA1 and BETA2 but they did not boot as well (something with missing framebuffer information - https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2016-February/084136.html)