FreeBSD and pfSense boot, opnSense does not.

[zucca]

Long time pfSense user here. Two days ago I decided to give opnSense a try to check all the hype around it.

Lenovo ThinkCentre M72e (amd64).

BIOS set to UEFI only.
Secure boot deactivated.

ZFS mirror on 2 disk. GPT UEFI only.

opnSense 24.7 installs but then "OS can't be found" 

So I tried FreeBSD and pfSense, same BIOS and install settings of course:
FreeBSD 14.1 installs and boots no problem.
pfSense 2.7.2 CE installs and boots no problem.

To add more confusion, after opnSense is installed if I boot on a Ventoy USB disk and select "F4 localboot" and then tell Ventoy to look for a UEFI boot, IT DOES BOOT IN opnSense.

Tried VGA, DVD .iso installer images...

This opnSense box is kind of an experiment, so feel free to tell me what I have to do confirm it is a opnSense bug (surely affecting only with the my Lenovo HW) that need to be reported.

Furthermore I was able to boot opnSense in bios/legacy... but I am trying to help the opnSense project reporting a bug... maybe.

[chemlud]

...bootstrap from freeBSD maybe?

https://docs.opnsense.org/relations/freebsd.html

[DEC670airp414user]

looks like you found the fix.

Legacy ata bios mode.   non Raid

go with that and run your tests.     without providing the chipset I doubt the driver for the raid controller can be loaded into Opnsense

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Don't use "hardware RAID", simply install with ZFS instead.

[zucca]

Guys I use ZFS not a RAID HW.

I will look into the FreeBSD bootstrap, but if the 14.1 boots no problem, why the problem should be there?

[chemlud]

Maybe a little more detail how you installed? Login as user "installer" and things? :-)

[zucca]

Maybe a little more detail how you installed? Login as user "installer" and things? :-)

Sorry I thought I gave all the relevant details.

Boot off the USB stick in UEFI mode

user: installer
psw: opnsense

select keyboard, when prompted for 'Other Modes' choose auto guided ZFS (this way it is comparable with pfSense and FreeBSD installations). Then when prompted with an options screen select mirror, chose 2 SSDs and change the partition scheme to GPT (UEFI).

All the rest should be irrelevant, if not let me know.

[franco]

> 'Other Modes'

It's a bit strange: these run unmodified FreeBSD code.


Cheers,
Franco

[cookiemonster]

What would be interesting is to see post install of OPN what the partition tables are for each drive. Sounds like the installer despite being told to use both as a zfs mirror, might be only applying it to one and the boot sequence looking at the other.
Of course if this is unmodified freebsd code that would not happen, as is dealt with by the underlying zfs code, IMHO it would be interesting none the less.
Or, there is missing bootcode for some reason in the partitions.

[zucca]

Can you tell me if SSH is active in the installer?
Or should I use the serial terminal installer?

Goal would be to copy paste here what the commands in terminal/shell respond.

Moreover any (ZFS) commands you want me to run?

[chemlud]

Never tried ssh for install, only serial or VGA console...

[alien-redfish]

I had similar issues with a Lenovo, my fix is at the end of this thread:

https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=32485.0

[zucca]

I had similar issues with a Lenovo, my fix is at the end of this thread:

https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=32485.0

Thanks, I could reproduce your fix on my Lenovo as well.
Still it should be no problem to install opnSense in UEFI mode without any workaround, since pfSense and FreeBSD works without any problem.

What would be interesting is to see post install of OPN what the partition tables are for each drive. Sounds like the installer despite being told to use both as a zfs mirror, might be only applying it to one and the boot sequence looking at the other.
Of course if this is unmodified freebsd code that would not happen, as is dealt with by the underlying zfs code, IMHO it would be interesting none the less.
Or, there is missing bootcode for some reason in the partitions.

I can UEFI boot up the opnSense by using the Ventoy USB disk as UEFI "launcher" using the "F4 localboot", see below the option in the bottom:


So I tend to think the partitions are structurally somehow right, but for some reasons the PC can't locate the "bootx64.efi" at startup and throw the error "no bootable  os partition , error code 1962".

I have no clue why this is happening, and according to google, I am not the only one.
Mos of the users will just then revert/change boot in legacy and call it the day.

Unfortunately I have no time anymore to dig into it. So this is just to inform the opnSense community that probably there is a bug in the UEFI installation code, or close to it (since it is most likely 1:1 ported from FreeBSD)
 

[franco]

Unfortunately it's a bit too vague to do anything here. It reminds me of the Windows "partition issue" a while back that needed a very special (and silly) workaround in order to allow the OS to not destroy the images when plugged into a Windows by chance:

https://github.com/opnsense/tools/commit/cccd73b43357


Cheers,
Franco

[zucca]

Unfortunately it's a bit too vague to do anything here.

Just tell me what to do to provide the necessary details to the UEFI/installation code team.
I am an EE not a SW developer, forgive me.