Solved TrueOS boots but FreeBSD doesn't

B

balanga

I have a Windows base Z83 MiniPC on which I would like to run FreeBSD. I'd prefer to keep Windows on it at the moment but boot FreeBSD from an external USB enclosure. The system requires a UEFI boot and have managed to boot TrueOS from a USB disk, but FreeBSD is not recognised when I install via bsdinstall(), probably because there is no efi partition. Is there an option in bsdinstall() for creating an installation which uses efi?
Or have I overlooked someyhing?
 
I think what you need to do is force the BIOS to UEFI for this.
Go to BIOS and go to page to pick boot device.
Make sure it is set to UEFI USB Device. NOT PMAP USB Device
Make sure CSM is set to UEFI only.
When you start the FreeBSD installer you can tell whether you get an UEFI install or Legacy.
The dialog screens of bsdinstall are a lighter blue than the legacy install VGA blue or primary blue.
If you see VGA blue it will be legacy, so go back and hack on BIOS settings.
You must get the USB stick to boot in UEFI mode then everything is automatic in FreeBSD.
This means the whole install hangs off of the mode the usb stick boots in. No way to choose except BIOS.
Maybe TrueOS like pfSense only works on UEFI computers while FreeBSD maintains compatibility with legacy bios installs.
I am unsure. Maybe they start their installer another way.
Of course you could manually force this because FreeBSD is awesome or install on another EFI computer and carry over.
 
Something else you could try is boot up off external CD/DVD and see what that gives you. I only use FreeBSD USB Memstick.
Maybe a FreeBSD CD-ROM ISO install would act differently.
 
Managed to sort things out by copying the TrueOS efi partition to the other disk and now it shows up in the menu.
 
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