FreeBSD 9.0-CURRENT install via USB on Windows

B

BertrandWilmot

So I've tried Windows DD and Win32 Disk Imager to no avail, please note that the Ubuntu live USB works just fine for me when I write it in Windows.

I'm really hoping I don't have to install Ubuntu to be able to install FreeBSD, seeing as I do not have an optical or floppy drive.

Has anyone actually successfully written the memstick image from Windows? I have from Ubuntu, but never from Windows, regardless of which tool I use. Some of the same tools which work for Linux operating systems simply do not work with the memstick image I've downloaded multiple times and verified.
 
Disk Imager worked for me, although I haven't tried it with a FreeBSD 9 memstick image.

You don't say exactly what doesn't work. Is it an error when writing the image? Booting from it?
 
With Win32 Disk Imager, the disk disappears, but is still in the Windows partition editor, showing up as 24 MB RAW. Doesn't boot. DD seems to work, but just is unbootbale.
 
It's normal that disk disappears after written in windows, the memstick image does not have a slice table (partition table in DOS/Windows speak) so windows does not see anything on it. Are you sure this is not a BIOS (setting) problem on your machine? I can boot just fine using the memstick image on my machine, both i386 and amd64 versions of 9.0.
 
BertrandWilmot said:
You're able to use Windows to do so?

Which BIOS options would afflict booting via USB? Should I turn USB legacy off?
Click to expand...

USB legacy should not matter, it's concerned with USB keyboard and mouse emulating a PS/2 keyboard and mouse. Make sure the system can boot from USB (it's not disabled) and that the boot menu is enabled so you can pick the USB device when booting.
 
The kernel from USB loads, BTW, it seems like USB devices aren't activating, though. Ergo using a PS/2 keyboard once I'm at mountroot> since it can't mount USB, since no USB devices are loaded. Furthermore, no devices, regardless of which storage mediums I plug in, will show up when I type ? at mountroot>.
 
Message #8 shows an error when booting FreeBSD. Sometimes that can be fixed just by waiting a few seconds for the USB device to be detected and entering the device path at the mountroot prompt.

Message #9 shows an error when trying to write the USB image in Windows. I've seen that error or something like it from having another window open showing the contents of memory stick. That locks it, and the program can't overwrite it.
 
In regard to waiting at mountroot> I am unable to mount the USB drive even after waiting for 10 minutes, for that matter.

In regards to message 9, I don't even have anything open while running the application... I'll try a few things then report back, later.
 
So making the USB stick has been completed.

It's probably a USB keyboard. Unfortunately, I don't know anything more to suggest.
 
Can you try the memory stick you made on another machine? I suspect that the image was written correctly and the memory stick would boot on another machine with less broken BIOS.

Edit:

Can you try the following:

Break into the loader prompt at the loader screen by selecting 2) at the menu

Type these commands:

Code: 
set kern.cam.boot_delay="10000" <enter>
boot <enter>

If it boots with these commands then the problem is that the USB subsystem is too slow to pick up the memory stick before the kernel tries to mount the root file system.
 
I don't think the quotes matter, that's just how I copy/pasted the setting from /boot/loader.conf on a memory stick I use for recovery.

Do you have some kind of virus/malware scanner running on your windows system that could interfere with writing to the memory stick?
 
The other version to try is
Code: 
kern.cam.scsi_delay=10000

However, when I've seen these work, it's no different than just waiting a little bit.
 
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