Installer gets to 100% after creating file systems then when the file explorer window appears with the Exit at the bottom. Pressing Exit results in an installer error dialog.
Pressing continue show errors reading the directories creating during install.
Can't get past this stage. Tried reformatting the HDD and creating a clean partition table. Then installing again with the same results.
System is a Dell R330 with a 730 Raid controller. Configured as non raid mode.
Runs linux and windows OS fine on the same HDD.
Any help appreciated.
Just a guess, but do you need "mrsas_load=yes" (or similar - format is from memory) in /boot/loader.conf? Assuming the driver is not loaded by default.
@pfry - Thank you for responding. But the installer gets to 100% creates the partitions on the drive etc. Seems to write to the drive during install but cannot complete.
Where would this config go. We are installing from the iso full installer. Which is a live system then logging in as installer/opnsense and then following the prompts.
Well, it was a thought. I've had to interrupt the OPNsense boot to make some config mods (https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=38921.0), but I was conflating that with old Linux installs which required booting a different distro to complete an install due to a missing storage driver (the installer had the driver, but did not install it... oops).
UEFI /boot should be FAT32, so if the storage driver was an issue, you could boot almost anything and modify the files there. For MBR boot it's less convenient, but should be reachable using the FreeBSD installer. But it sounds like I'm barking up the wrong tree.
Well thanks for the thoughts on this.
Have checked out the server with Win Server and Ubuntu installs to the same drive.
No issues.
Will keep working on it. Maybe someone from the release team will respond with ideas.
Cheers
Quote from: sparticle on October 02, 2025, 12:08:40 AM[...]
Have checked out the server with Win Server and Ubuntu installs to the same drive.[...]
How about looking at the disk with the FreeBSD installer? It has a live option. And I assume that's a SAS disk, or you could lose the PERC.
So your suggestion would be to download the FreeBSD 14.3 installer iso and install that to the target drive?
We can do that. Will report back.
Cheers
I did find this, but it seems to relate to RAid mode operationof the H730 mine is configured as HBA no raid mode so is just passing the drives through.
You may experience installation issues with FreeBSD 14.3 on a Dell R330 with a PERC H730 due to incorrect driver loading. The operating system may default to the mfi(4) driver, which is incompatible with the H730 and can cause kernel panics or data corruption, especially when using ZFS. The correct driver is mrsas(4).
Fix the H730 driver issue
Stop at the boot loader prompt. When the system boots from the installation media, press a key to enter the boot menu. For FreeBSD, this is typically Escape or a different key indicated on the screen.
Add the correct driver hint. At the boot loader prompt, enter the following command to force the system to use the correct mrsas driver for the H730 controller:
sh
set hw.mfi.mrsas_enable=1
Continue booting the installer. Type boot and press Enter to proceed with the FreeBSD installation.
FreeBSD 14.3 installs fine with the above hack to force using the mrsas driver.
However, OPNSense 25.7 does not install using the same hack. Tried both UFS and ZFS installs.
Ideas anyone?
Maybe you can bootstrap once you installed the FreeBSD 14.3 version with your hack.
https://github.com/opnsense/update?tab=readme-ov-file#opnsense-bootstrap
Or you install a hypervisor on the server (e.g. any linux with kvm) and run OPNsense as VM.
Cedrick,
If teh bootstrap essentially installs OPNSense on top of a stock 14.3 release. What is going on with the 25.7 installer?
Clearly there are some differences as the stock 14.3 installer works fine in both UFS and ZFS modes.
I also tested 25.7 install on the IDSDM Dual SD card module. And that worked fine. Reduced the power from 42W to 28 Watts also.
Sorry I dont know.