OPNsense Forum

Archive => 16.7 Legacy Series => Topic started by: drp on December 23, 2016, 03:06:00 am

Title: Stuck trying to install on bootloader screen
Post by: drp on December 23, 2016, 03:06:00 am
I seem to be stuck on the bootloader screen with no discernible errors.  I don't have any ethernet cables hooked up to it yet as I'm not quite ready to transition to opnsense from m0n0wall.  I'm using:

OPNsense-16.7-OpenSSL-serial-i386.img.bz2   201M   2016-Jul-27 05:17
PNY 32gb USB 3.0
OEM Production 2550L2D-MxPC Intel NM10 2 x 204Pin SO-DIMM Intel GMA 3650 Black Mini / Booksize Barebone System - OEM
Amazon usb keyboard

Here is what the screen looks like:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11595074/usb.jpg)

Since it seems like the last thing it was trying to do was something related to a usb keyboard I tried using a ps2 keyboard instead and got this:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11595074/ps2.jpg)
Title: Re: Stuck trying to install on bootloader screen
Post by: s4rs on December 23, 2016, 05:39:38 am
Just curious did you use the serial image? Do you have a serial console you can plug into the system? Its possible the system is up but displaying on com1..
Title: Re: Stuck trying to install on bootloader screen
Post by: drp on December 23, 2016, 02:27:26 pm
I did use the serial image and it wasn't my first choice.  I tried the following 2 before trying the serial image and they would not boot using a bootable usb setup:

OPNsense-16.7-OpenSSL-vga-amd64.img
OPNsense-16.7-OpenSSL-vga-i386.img

It seems like I really need to use another image besides the serial one but I can't get any of the other ones to work using the same usb stick that works for the serial image.  None of the other images seem to be able to boot.  I got errors like "Invalid partition table" or the pc in an infinite restart loop because it can't find a bootable disk.
Title: Re: Stuck trying to install on bootloader screen
Post by: drp on December 23, 2016, 04:31:41 pm
I just tried the following images again on usb and neither one of them work for me while the serial image at least boots up but isn't really what I need:

OPNsense-16.7-OpenSSL-vga-amd64.img.bz2   219M   2016-Jul-27 05:18
OPNsense-16.7-OpenSSL-vga-i386.img.bz2   201M   2016-Jul-27 05:19

I tried to boot from usb with both of these images from my dell e7440 laptop and neither worked as well.  On my laptop I get an invalid partition table error.  On my actual box that I want to use OPNSense on it just auto-reboots as it doesn't find anything to boot from. 

Should I be using a different version?  Really lost here as I usually never have problems creating a bootable usb installer.  This has been quite frustrating so far.
Title: Re: Stuck trying to install on bootloader screen
Post by: bringha on December 24, 2016, 09:08:44 am
Hi drp,

the screenshot looks the same I got last week here  https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=4103.0 (https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=4103.0).

You could try the following: In the boot splash enable maximum output during boot (if I remember correctly this is option 5 and then in a submenu you can select). Then reboot. If it stalls after the output 'now trying /sbin/init' or similar you could try to change /boot/loader.conf on the stick:

uncomment #boot_multicons and give it a try again.

Br br
Title: Re: Stuck trying to install on bootloader screen
Post by: s4rs on December 24, 2016, 12:06:59 pm
Hi drp,

the screenshot looks the same I got last week here  https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=4103.0 (https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=4103.0).

You could try the following: In the boot splash enable maximum output during boot (if I remember correctly this is option 5 and then in a submenu you can select). Then reboot. If it stalls after the output 'now trying /sbin/init' or similar you could try to change /boot/loader.conf on the stick:

uncomment #boot_multicons and give it a try again.

Br br

What are you using to bzunzip the images? I had a similar issue on Windows 10 using 7zip. It would decompress and get the image file but the file was corrupt. I finally downloaded the Windows based command line bunzip2 and the files were fine. The other option is to use Linux to do the decompress. 
Title: Re: Stuck trying to install on bootloader screen
Post by: drp on December 25, 2016, 03:08:37 am
Hi drp,

the screenshot looks the same I got last week here  https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=4103.0 (https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=4103.0).

You could try the following: In the boot splash enable maximum output during boot (if I remember correctly this is option 5 and then in a submenu you can select). Then reboot. If it stalls after the output 'now trying /sbin/init' or similar you could try to change /boot/loader.conf on the stick:

uncomment #boot_multicons and give it a try again.

Br br

What are you using to bzunzip the images? I had a similar issue on Windows 10 using 7zip. It would decompress and get the image file but the file was corrupt. I finally downloaded the Windows based command line bunzip2 and the files were fine. The other option is to use Linux to do the decompress.

I was using 7zip on windows 10.  This sounded very promising.  I downloaded bzip2 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/bzip2.htm (http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/bzip2.htm) and re-downloaded the vga i386 image from a different mirror than I originally downloaded it from.  I verified the md5 hash of the file downloaded with what was on the opnsense download site and they matched.  I then unzipped it with bzip2 above but I experience the same results where I cannot boot to the usb using my dell windows 10 e7440 laptop or the pc I bought (specs in original post).
Title: Re: Stuck trying to install on bootloader screen
Post by: drp on December 25, 2016, 04:07:00 am
I just downloaded the pfsense image (pfSense-CE-memstick-2.3.2-RELEASE-i386.img.gz) and I was able to load and boot to it successfully using 7zip to extract it and the exact same process as I was using with the opnsense images.  So either something is wrong with the images or something is still wrong with my unzipping process.
Title: Re: Stuck trying to install on bootloader screen
Post by: drp on December 27, 2016, 05:09:44 pm
I also tried using a different usb drive (sandisk usb 2.0 32gb) and had the same results where it's saying "invalid partition table" when trying to boot to the drive on my dell e7440 laptop.  This is with the i386 vga image.
Title: Re: Stuck trying to install on bootloader screen
Post by: drp on December 27, 2016, 06:18:49 pm
I also downloaded the FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-amd64-memstick image and was able to boot to it fine.
Title: Re: Stuck trying to install on bootloader screen
Post by: franco on December 29, 2016, 09:35:28 am
Sorry, late to the party... If you have a VGA plugged the serial image boots as expected: it mutes the console after kernel boot, because VGA is not the primary console. It works but you can't see it.  ;)

This looks like a VGA problem regarding UEFI, because the VGA images use UEFI, but serial does not.

But that isn't entirely true either, because VGA i386 is not UEFI, which may point to a GPT issue.

It's not about the image itself, but the way it is assembled.

In any case, can you try 17.1.b images? And try to update the hardware's BIOS and disable UEFI completely.

https://pkg.opnsense.org/releases/17.1.b/