Solved Installing FreeBSD on EliteBook 8470p - Boot issues

BSD-Kitsune

BSD-Kitsune

So I have decided to try out FreeBSD on my current laptop, an EliteBook 8470p, I am having issues:
  1. 1 the 11.0-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img didn't boot under HP's "Legacy" mode, which I have Windows 7 installed under. So I switched to UEFI to boot the flash drive.
  2. Setup the partition layout to be compatible with MBR through the install prompt, it is currently like this:
  • ada0p1 - Windows boot partition
  • ada0p2 - Windows partition
  • ada0p3 - FreeBSD Partition
  • ada0p3s1 - FreeBSD /
  • ada0p3s2 - FreeBSD swap
I enabled boot0cfg using the following command:

boot0cfg -m 0x5 -B ada0

However, I cannot boot FreeBSD once switching back to Legacy Mode. Hitting F3 at the prompt just does a # symbol.

Any ideas? I'm prepared if necessary to convert the Windows install to EFI... I'd rather not though.
 
Is ada0p3 a freebsd-boot partition? I think you need that if you want to boot FreeBSD from a GPT partitioned drive in legacy BIOS mode :).
To elaborate a bit more, my legacy BIOS partitioning scheme on a UEFI-compliant PC looks usually as follows:
Table - GPT
ada0p1 - freebsd-boot (no mountpoint assigned!)
ada0p2 - freebsd-ufs (mountpoint /)
ada0p3 - freebsd-swap
ada0p4 - freebsd-ufs (mountpoint /home)
 
Nevermind I ended up fixing it by backing up my Windows install, switching to UEFI and installing Windows then FreeBSD under UEFI mode. I did some research and it seems HP's have some serious Legacy mode bugs that trip up Linux and other OSes trying to be installed too. :/
 
Good that you managed to solve your issue! :) Out of curiosity, how do you boot FreeBSD and Windows alongside? Do you use GRUB2 or do you have some sort of special setup with two bootloaders and booting from UEFI?
 
I'm currently using the ESC+F9 menu on the laptop to manually select FreeBSD. But I'm gonna try the boot0cfg to see if it works pretty soon.
 
TeamBlackFox said:
But I'm gonna try the boot0cfg to see if it works pretty soon.
Click to expand...
Doubtful, it only works for MBR partitions, it doesn't support GPT or ZFS. And UEFI boots quite differently (doesn't use the master boot record for example).
 
SirDice said:
Doubtful, it only works for MBR partitions, it doesn't support GPT or ZFS. And UEFI boots quite differently (doesn't use the master boot record for example).
Click to expand...

Then I won't waste my time trying. But I don't wish to install GRUB, i'll figure out another method.
 
I've multibooted in the past using the Windows bootmanager EasyBCD, but I'm not sure if it works for UEFI.
 
Well nevermind, it seems it's impossible for Windows and BSD to coexist on this machine. Guess its time to look into another computer.
 
I accidentally found that if you first install NetBSD alongside Windows and define boot order (both for Win and BSD) in NetBSD's installer, you can then proceed and install FreeBSD on the same slice you previously put NetBSD on. Just blatantly overwrite the NetBSD install. It's bootloader seems to be perfectly comfortable dualbooting into either Windows or NetBSD/FreeBSD. As long as you use UFS for file system for the latter.

In fact, FreeBSD installer is showing slice made in NetBSD as "BSD" and file systems as "freebsd-ufs", "freebsd-swap".

EDIT: just to be clear. Win had been first installed on disk with MBR partitioning scheme, not GPT. Upon boot, you are being presented with options like 1.Windows 2. BSD. Press appropriate number and to Win or BSD.
 
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