Re: When will the FreeBSD (u)EFI work?

On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 4:54 PM Chris <bsd-lists_at_bsdforge.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 28 Mar 2020 01:10:37 +0300 Andrey Fesenko f0andrey_at_gmail.com said
>
> > On Sat, Mar 28, 2020 at 12:53 AM Chris <bsd-lists_at_bsdforge.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On an experiment of the FreeBSD EFI implementation. I installed
> > > a copy of releng/12 from install media. Which left me with:
> > > # gpart show ada0
> > > =>       40  312581728  ada0  GPT  (149G)
> > >          40     409600     1  efi  (200M)
> > >      409640   31047680     2  freebsd-ufs  (15G)
> > >    31457320    7680000     3  freebsd-swap  (3.7G)
> > >    74788904  237792864        - free -  (141G)
> > >
> > > On this Intel based system, I can stab the F12 key to pick
> > > my UEFI bootable OS, or let it boot according to the order
> > > I setup in the BIOS. So far, so good.
> > > I needed a copy of releng/13 to also work with. Installed a copy
> > > from install media. Which left me with:
> > > # gpart show ada0
> > > =>       40  312581728  ada0  GPT  (149G)
> > >          40     409600     1  efi  (200M)
> > >      409640   31047680     2  freebsd-ufs  (15G)
> > >    31457320    7680000     3  freebsd-swap  (3.7G)
> > >    39137320     532480     4  efi  (260M)
> > >    39669800   35119104     5  freebsd-ufs  (17G)
> > >    74788904  237792864        - free -  (113G)
> > > I *assumed* that the install would activate the new install, and I
> > > would boot straight into it. But no. I am still on the previous
> > > install, and worse, I can't get into the new install -- even if
> > > picking it via stabbing the F12 key. I *still* end up in the previous
> > > install. So looking at what might be causing it. I found the following:
> > > # releng/12
> > > # mount -t msdosfs /dev/ada0p1 /mnt/
> > >
> > > # ls /mnt/efi/boot/
> > > BOOTx64.efi
> > > startup.nsh
> > >
> > > # cat /mnt/efi/boot/startup.nsh
> > > BOOTx64.efi
> > >
> > > # umount /mnt/
> > >
> > > releng/13
> > > # mount -t msdosfs /dev/ada0p4 /mnt/
> > >
> > > # ls /mnt/EFI/freebsd/
> > > loader.efi
> > >
> > > Why the difference? When will FreeBSD (u)EFI work as expected?
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance for any insights!
> > >
> >
> > Require only single efi part
> >
> > See
> >
> https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/two-freebsd-installations-and-efi.73968/
> Thanks for they reply, and link, Andrey!
> Well that confirms it. FreeBSD, unlike other OS implementations, will not
> permit booting your chosen "version" via EFI.


It does today. If you use efibootmgr, you can boot exactly what you want. I
do it all the time...  Though your BIOS may overwrite the EFI vars if you
set too many (I'm looking at you supermicro). When you use the efi BootXXXX
variables, it's possible to boot one of many different things on the
system...  Though I've not done 11, just 12 and current.


> That is; not without dropping
> to the loader prompt, or changing the status of slices, or boot entries
> prior to
> reboot. :(
>

Not needed.


> Looks like I'll need to install a third party OS, or bootmanager to use
> FreeBSD.
> Sigh...
>

Again, not needed. Though there may be a few things that need to be MFC'd
if you want 11 on that list...


> There *may* be hope in the future (
> https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=207940)
>

This would require you to stop to select on the way up... Or am I not
understanding what you want?

We should add that functionality to loader.efi, since boot1.efi is in the
process of being deprecated... It should be a simple LUA script there...


> Thanks again, Andrey. Greatly appreciated! :)
>