HP EliteBook 2540p installation problem

Hello FreeBSD people,

I have a laptop as I said above and trying to install FreeBSD. I have a booting problem. I have been searching about this and realized (found out) that there is a bug which is given on the website below;

It mentions the workaround for this specific laptop however I do not quite understand and I am not sure what exactly the procedure is.

Is there anybody who can guide me more (detailed way) about this issue to install on my laptop please?

Thanks,

PC,
 
That issue is only in combination with SYSLINUX, which FreeBSD does not use.

Please post details of the issue you're having.
 
I tried all release of the FreeBSD. I am trying to boot from usb (I dont have cd-drive), and as soon as the pc about to boot it is re-setting itself and restarting to the boot menu options again. So basically I dont even see FreeBSD boot menu. I searched the issue and I saw the website above that I have referred. The description well suits completely.

Note that I tried many Operating systems including many linux distros and windows and I dont think that there is a problem with the computer at this moment.

Thanks,

PC,
 
Which image did you use? It sounds like you tried the IA64 images. Those are for Itanium processors, it's AMD64 if you want the 64 bit version. Yes, it works on Intel 64 too. Because AMD was the first the architecture got named that way.
 
SirDice,

These are the links that I have been trying to install (that's what i meant by all release). I even tried the 32 bit version of these release as well. So again I can't boot up and proceed to the installation. I thought it is related to the link that I provided in my first post.

Do you think that there is no bug about the boot-up? So if there is a really bug, or anything else (which I have no idea at this point), would it be possible to find a way to boot and so I can install it on my pc?

ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.1/
ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/9.3/
ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/8.4/
ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.0/

Thanks,

PC,
 
The answer is in the link you provided:
For affected HP laptops, one workaround is to prepare the system by booting
from a mfsBSD 8.3 ISO image and installing the new release from within the
mfsBSD root image by manually extracting its '*.txz' distribution files
into a root filesystem created manually or by its "zfsinstall" script.

This ensures that "known good" boot sectors will be installed, and
should not affect system operation. It does, however, mean that
automated installers will not function on affected systems.

mfsBSD 8.3 can be downloaded from:
http://mfsbsd.vx.sk/files/images/8/

The HP EliteBook 2540p may require booting mfsBSD 8.3 from ISO media
and/or disabling UEFI mode in the firmware.

It also might be possible to remove the hard drive, do the install on another machine and then return the hard drive to the HP laptop.
 
shepper,

I know the answer is in the link I have provided but as I said in my first post I need more detailed explanation (instruction) to follow. For example is that something Gentoo installation such as creating some directories (/boot, /home, /usr etc..) under the /mnt/gentoo directory. Of course I have assumed that you have separate partition for all these. This is the reason I am asking little bit more detailed instruction to follow.

SirDice,

I have used memstick image for the releases I have mentioned (10.1, 9.3 etc...) and I have used the "Win32 Disk Imager" as I provide the link below. One possible problem might be that disk software doesnt do the job well but I think this is less likely. Also I am unable to install the FreeBSD on another pc and put back to the one that I am having problem with. By the way I have tried so far just legacy boot. I am not sure whether or or not my pc supports EFI boot. In fact I am not sure what exactly is that. Let me do my research first and I ll let you know.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

Thanks,

PC,
 
I just checked. Yes there is a support for UEFI boot however when I enable that option it says

Code:
Warning
The "UEFI Boot" option on this system is provided for development purposes only and is currently NOT fully supported or warranted by HP. Preboot Authentication and Drive Lock are currently NOT supported under the UEFI Boot mode. HP strongly recommends disabling Preboot Authentication and Drive Lock bfore enabling UEFI Boot on this system.

So I am not sure trying this will make any difference. As far as I can understand I need more detailed instruction than this link provides.
http://people.freebsd.org/~bms/dump/freebsd-boot-regression/README.txt


Thanks,

PC,
 
I need more detailed explanation (instruction) to follow. For example is that something Gentoo installation such as creating some directories (/boot, /home, /usr etc..) under the /mnt/gentoo directory. Of course I have assumed that you have separate partition for all these. This is the reason I am asking little bit more detailed instruction to follow.

There is a section in the FreeBSD Handbook on partitioning. My sense is that you can use the 8.3 installation image but you will likely need to manually partition from the shell prompt. The next step would be to mount the partitions and extract the 10.1 install sets It looks like the default is to have 3 partitions, "/boot", "/ "(aka root) and a "swap" partition. /etc/fstab entries will need to be made.

One thing I am not clear on is installing the boot loader - can the 10.1 gpt boot loader be used or is the 8.3 boot code recommended?
 
I am guessing you are talking about the mfsBSD 8.3. In this case again I need a certain knowledge about the partitions that I need to create ( /, /boot, /usr, even may be some others). And your question
One thing I am not clear on is installing the boot loader - can the 10.1 gpt boot loader be used or is the 8.3 boot code recommended?
is so right.
Honestly I was so hopeful from FreeBSD 11.0 (even though it is not release "for testing only"), but obviously it didnt work either. I hope the issue will be solved soon because I really liked it on my virtual machine.

Thanks,

PC,
 
Junovitch,

I checked it, and all I can see is Upgrade Bay Hard drive boot was enabled (even though I searched for it I still have no idea what it does). I also specifically checked for the BIOS update or upgrade, I couldn't see that kind of menu (I dont have much of an experience for updating or upgrading a BIOS so I don't know what to expect).

Let me note the things which are suspicious to me (may be they might be issues), because I don't have a lot of knowledge on them.

a) PXE internal NIC boot was enabled
b) UEFI boot mode is not enabled (which I mentioned about this in my previous post)
c) Disk Sanitizer (again I dont know what it does even though I searched for it), and when I select it, the menu comes with the two options (Notebook Upgrade Bay and cancel)

I am not sure I could give you a clue :(

One another thing I am suspicious about is that, could it be possible that the software I am using for img to usb is not working properly (In this case as I said before it is Win32DiskImager (I have provided the link in my previous posts as well ). )?

Thanks,

PC,
 
Last edited by a moderator:
So I am guessing there is a real bug going on here. The developers should be aware of that. Whatever I tried it just doesn't boot up and I even tried the version 8.0.

At least is there any manual install guide?

Thanks,

PC,
 
...
I checked it, and all I can see is Upgrade Bay Hard drive boot was enabled (even though I searched for it I still have no idea what it does). I also specifically checked for the BIOS update or upgrade, I couldn't see that kind of menu (I dont have much of an experience for updating or upgrading a BIOS so I don't know what to expect).
...

Have you checked the manufacturer's web site for an updated BIOS? The actual update will typically be available there. There will usually be some kind of manual or application to help apply it.
 
For the BIOS update, I am not sure how to do that at this point because the laptop doesn't have any OS at this moment. Installing a Windows is not an option now. And I searched little bit about how to update BIOS with any other linux distros (may be live distro CD/DVD) but I couldnt find that much of information. Note that at this point that laptop has Slackware installed on it (Better than nothing right!)

When it comes to the CD/DVD iso image, I actually tried to burn the iso image (both boot only and disc1) into a usb but it wasnt succesful because there is no software doing that especially from windows environment. Unetboot doesnt do the job anymore and I tried Win32 disk writer, it doesnt work either. When I searched on it, literally, nobody is doing in this way it seems (by burning or writing the iso iamge to usb and try to boot up because it doesnt exist.)

The reason that I have been trying to boot up from usb is because I dont have any cd/dvd reader/writer.

At this point I am searching about how to install from PXE but I have a windows laptop that I have been using and it is not so clear at this point how to use windows box to use as a PXE server and try to boot up a FreeBSD OS.

My personal feeling is, installing FreeBSD shouldnt be this hard especially from a usb. I mean here you go, if you dont have any cd/dvd what will you do and how will you install it to your machine other than using PXE.

I really need a work around to jump over this specific BUG. I believe there is a way to install FreeBSD to that HP Elitebook 2540p, but I am not a FreeBSD Guru unfortunately. And the regression post that I have provided at the very first post of mine (http://people.freebsd.org/~bms/dump/freebsd-boot-regression/README.txt) might need a correction because it is not just the versions it tells. I even tried the version 8.0 to install. But no luck. So this problem has been around for versions and versions as far as I have been experiencing.

Thanks,

PC,
 
This problem could be the result of a few things. For example:
  • An actual bug with FreeBSD
  • Incompatible/bad USB flash media
  • A BIOS bug on your hardware
Before we can figure out which if any, you need to find a way to update your BIOS. You should ask the manufacturer for advice on how to do that in this situation. The other option is to possibly ask a friend to burn the FreeBSD CD/DVD install media for you and try installing with that. Keep in mind that the developers of FreeBSD try very hard to make the operating system as compatible as they can with the most hardware possible. Given most PC hardware is developed, tested and supported against Windows only, bugs will always show up from time to time on various hardware and hardware configurations. Linux gets around this a lot of the time because of the sheer amount of developers as well as actual first line support from some OEMs/Manufacturers.
 
Keep in mind that the developers of FreeBSD try very hard to make the operating system as compatible as they can with the most hardware possible. Given most PC hardware is developed, tested and supported against Windows only, bugs will always show up from time to time on various hardware and hardware configurations.
I am very sorry if I sound mean. I didn't mean to. I really appreciate the FreeBSD developers and their work (I have been and I will). That's why I think I am really eager to install it on my box. I mean, yes, I have been trying other things, but my end goal is really use FreeBSD as my everyday system.

You should ask the manufacturer for advice on how to do that in this situation. The other option is to possibly ask a friend to burn the FreeBSD CD/DVD install media for you and try installing with that.
I don't have any optical reader such as CD/DVD reader/writer.

I found another link having the same issue as well. But the person who had this problem get away from that by using PXE installation. I don't know how exactly he/she did that.
Here is the link http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-sysinstall/2014-August/001047.html.
Of course my priority is to install without PXE first :) because it seems there might be some problems during the install.

This problem could be the result of a few things. For example:
  • An actual bug with FreeBSD
  • Incompatible/bad USB flash media
  • A BIOS bug on your hardware
I have tried a few different brand of usb drive to install.
So two options either that specific brand of machine (Elitebook series) has problems which could be in the BIOS or any other thing in the hardware or there is a really bug. Since I have found another Elitebook problem (exactly the same type of problem), I believe those machines have specific problems somewhere in the hardware (may be in the usb channels).

Thanks,

PC,
 
I am very sorry if I sound mean. I didn't mean to. I really appreciate the FreeBSD developers and their work (I have been and I will). That's why I think I am really eager to install it on my box. I mean, yes, I have been trying other things, but my end goal is really use FreeBSD as my everyday system.

No need to be sorry and you didn't sound mean, just frustrated. I can understand that. Do you have a CD/DVD burner on the laptop your trying to install FreeBSD on?
 
No I don't have any optical-reader or writer on the computer that I want the FreeBSD on. I have just usb drive ports.

Thanks,

PC,
 
I just updated the computer BIOS to the most current one. And I tried to install FreeBSD_10.1.img again and this time it gave me
Code:
error 1 lba 2868372916
Invalid format

FreeBSD/x86 boot
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/boot/kernel/kernel
boot:
error 1 lba 3195351320
No /boot/kernel/kernel


PC,
 
Can you try booting one of PC-BSD's images? http://www.pcbsd.org/en/download.html

I know that the article you posted mentions that it won't boot after the install, but it also suggests that the image boots. This would give you a live FreeBSD environment on your system from which you might be able to manually install FreeBSD (if you don't like PC-BSD) and work out how to boot it.
 
Is there a CMOS setting "AHCI or IDE" ? Had some trouble with Probook 6550b, and that setting _seemed_ to help. Cannot remember the details, sorry.

Juha
 
I recently installed 10.1/i386 to a laptop with the standard ufs file system. Installation seemed to go normally but the new install would not boot. I found the answer in this link and think it would be worth trying.

Essentially, at the end of the installation, choose the option to open a shell and run
gpart show.

From that output, determine your boot partition and use the other code lines in the link to explicitly set your boot partition.
 
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