Solved FreeBSD on a Dell PowerEdge R730xd - 13G

T

tovo

Hi all,
I'm trying to install the latest FreeBSD on a R730xd server but, I can't. I can't even make FreeBSD ISO files boot on when I can do the same with a debian ISO. Please, I don't want a Linux on my server ;-) , help me !
 
No,
As I said, the main problem is that I can't boot FreeBSD ISO image. It's like if the ISO file was unbootable. Of course, I checked the file integrity (with md5sum) and the same operation with a Debian ISO file works perfectly.
 
How did you write the ISO image to a CD? Some of the common utilities that people use for Linux do not work for FreeBSD.
 
I don't use a CD. The dell utility (idrac) permits us to boot directly with any ISO file over the network.
 
tovo said:
I don't use a CD. The dell utility (idrac) permits us to boot directly with any ISO file over the network.
Click to expand...
The normal symptom of misbehaving CD emulation is that the early stages of booting work as expected, but when the kernel goes to use its own drivers to continue the boot process, things hang or error out. That's because the CD emulation is performed by INT 13 mapping in the BIOS, and once you get into protected mode that isn't available.

I haven't tried this on an R730xd - the newest system I have here is an R710 (iDRAC 6 Enterprise). I can try it on that if it may help - but I think you have an iDRAC 7.

Perhaps you could tell us more about the failure?

You might also have better luck with the FreeBSD memstick image. Worst case, you can always boot from a physical CD drive, either in the system (if it has one) or an external USB unit. Dell part GRHR5 is what they usually ship (an external USB DVD-ROM) with systems that don't have space for an internal drive, like the PowerVault NX3100 series. But any USB drive should suffice, or you can always use a USB memory stick.

One other thing would be to confirm that the system has the absolute latest firmware installed, particularly the BIOS, iDRAC, and BMC. You can download the Server Update Utility from Dell's web site. Note that as delivered, the image is too big for a physical DVD or the iDRAC6. You may find my blog post, "De-bloating the Dell Server Update Utility (SUU) DVD Image" helpful in this area.
 
I just recently successuly installed to a Dell PowerEdge using the memstick image method. So maybe try that: Download the memory stick image, use the /bin/dd command to write the image to the USB stick, and then boot (making sure you enter the boot prompt selector and selecting USB).
 
Thank you all for your replies.
I tried the dd method to create a usb key with the memstick image but my key seemed to be not recognized. I got to find another key. By the way, I tried to burn a bootonly-CD that I put into an external drive and I have the following error :
Code: 
Boot Failed: Optical Drive connected to back USB 1: CDDVDW SN-208DB

Boot Failed:

Please ensure compatible bootable media is available.
Use the system setup program to change the boot mode as needed.

Press F1 to continue, F2 for system setup, F10 for lifecycle controller, F11
for boot manager.
I was thinking that my DVD was corrupted or something like that so I unplugged it and plugged it on another server (a R730 one, mine is R730xd) in order to boot with it, and guess ... It worked !
Now I'm gonna try another ISO images, another DVD player and another usb stick to eliminate any external device issue and I'm going back to you.
And thanks again for helping.
 
tovo said:
Code: 
Boot Failed: Optical Drive connected to back USB 1: CDDVDW SN-208DB

Boot Failed:

Please ensure compatible bootable media is available.
Use the system setup program to change the boot mode as needed.

Press F1 to continue, F2 for system setup, F10 for lifecycle controller, F11
for boot manager.
Click to expand...
That's coming out of the BIOS on the system - it never got to the point where it even started to load FreeBSD. As I mentioned earlier, I'd suggest using the SUU to make sure all your firmware is up-to-date.

A new BIOS (1.1.4) was posted less than a month ago and a new iDRAC (2.02.01.01) in October, so those would be a good place to start. But I'd simply boot the de-bloated SUU and let it update everything.
 
Yeah !
I succeeded in installing FreeBSD 10.1 by using the DVD image: FreeBSD-10.1-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-disc1.iso
Now I know it's possible so, I'm going to update all my firmware first and do it again!
Thanks a lot.
 
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