Old iMac cannot boot FreeBSD 11.1 install CD

O

outpaddling

I have an old Core 2 Duo iMac that has been running FreeBSD beautifully for years.

It just hangs when trying to boot an 11.1-RELEASE install CD. 10.4 boots fine.

Same situation on some older MacBooks.

What's changed in the ISO image that might cause this?

Thanks,

Jason
 
How old is your iMac?
I found that 2012 iMac won't boot. The problem is that it has 32-bit EFI.
For example, Debian provides a special installer for Macs.
 
Probably 2008. So 10.4 supports 32-bit EFI and 11.1 does not?

Is it feasible (with reasonable effort) to generate an 11.1 ISO with 32-bit EFI support?
 
I don't think it's weird. If they intentionally dropped support for 32-bit EFI, it probably happened at the 11.0 branch. Still looking for information on this...
 
There is not much info on this, the wiki page is outdated, back in 2016 this topic was discussed on the freebsd-current mailing list with a "not possible" verdict.
Linux had/has issues with this too: Debian and Arch for example.
Maybe you better email this to a mailing list, namely "How to boot/install FreeBSD on an amd64 PC with 32-bit UEFI?"
 
outpaddling said:
If they intentionally dropped support for 32-bit EFI, it probably happened at the 11.0 branch.
Click to expand...
I haven't looked too deep into this but it's more likely the other way around. New features are developed and test on -CURRENT. Once it's ready it's MFC'ed (Merge From Current) to 10-STABLE and 11-STABLE but this likely happened after 11.1-RELEASE and before 10.4-RELEASE.

You may want to try a recent snapshot of 11.1-STABLE.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top