FreeBSD 13.2 install (boot) issues on a DELL PE R430 server hardware

[JackD-bsd]

Hello,
I am a newbie FreeBSD user and I would like to install FreeBSD 13.2 on a DELL PowerEdge R430 server hardware. After downloading and booting from a bootable USB stick made from image "FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso", FreeBSD boot menu appears and when I press enter, tons of texts are running, I can't even stop to read it. When it stops I receive some USB bus related error messages. Is it possible to somehow overcome this issue? I tried several USB related options in BIOS but I get alwys the same result. See attached screenshots. Couldn't find any resolutions using Google.

 

[yuripv79]

USB errors might or might not be the stopper here, however the mfi errors look more fatal.

Try entering the following from the loader prompt (press 3 in the Beastie menu on startup) to switch to mrsas driver:

set hw.mfi.mrsas_enable="1"
boot

 

[richardtoohey2]

FreeBSD definitely runs on these machines (I’ve got it running on six R430s).

Definitely want the MRSAS driver rather than MFI driver.

I’m away from the machines right now so can’t help too much other than say FreeBSD 13.2 will work on R430s.

 

[JackD-bsd]

USB errors might or might not be the stopper here, however the mfi errors look more fatal.

Try entering the following from the loader prompt (press 3 in the Beastie menu on startup) to switch to mrsas driver:

set hw.mfi.mrsas_enable="1"
boot

I've tried to switch to mrsas driver. Now a different kind of loop appears while booting from USB stick image. See attached screenshots.

 

[richardtoohey2]

Firmware all up-to-date?

Nothing plugged into USB ports (these machines might also have an internal USB port) or anything unusual about USB? Having said that the USB messages might be a red herring.

If you’ve got another different machine could test your boot media is correct to eliminate that.

Could try Linux to confirm hardware is good.

FreeBSD works well on these machines so something unusual going on here.

 

[jason]

Disable USB 3.0 support in bios.

In loader prompt:
set hw.mfi.mrsas_enable="1" set hw.usb.xhci.xhci_port_route="-1" boot

After installation: edit /boot/loader.conf
hw.mfi.mrsas_enable="1" mrsas_load="YES" hw.usb.xhci.xhci_port_route="-1"

 

[JackD-bsd]

Firmware all up-to-date?

Nothing plugged into USB ports (these machines might also have an internal USB port) or anything unusual about USB? Having said that the USB messages might be a red herring.

If you’ve got another different machine could test your boot media is correct to eliminate that.

Could try Linux to confirm hardware is good.

FreeBSD works well on these machines so something unusual going on here.

All firmwares are up-to-date, BIOS settings are on default, no internal USB device is used. (My other idea was some kind of virtual USB devices from iDRAC...)
I've managed to get an identical same hardware, another DELL R430. My idea was to test if it fails the same way. And if it doesn't fail then I can compare slight differences.
Using 'set hw.mfi.mrsas_enable="1"' was a must but I could install FreeBSD 13.2 on this new hardware. So as you've mentioned something must have been with my older the hardware.
To tell the truth I never figured out what caused the issues mentioned above, because I just reset every BIOS and integrated device configuration to default, loaded default parameters, ereased RAID controller even if it had no RAID config and now everything works fine, I have no issues like I had before.
So conclusion is somewhat unknown... I must use 'set hw.mfi.mrsas_enable="1"' , but with this FreeBSD setup works just fine.
Thank you for your help guys!

 

[Michael-O]

This smells like: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=277062