Help needed to update bootloader

[Patrick M. Hausen]

It is using 15.1 release. But you need to manually update your boot loader in FreeBSD after the OS upgrade. There is no automation for that at all.

[emrion]

One thing I wanted to test is if it still works in hybrid UEFI/Legacy boot mode. The standard FreeBSD installers do not work well with cross-booting. Easy to test in a VM.


Cheers,
Franco

As you may have seen, it works perfectly in hybrid configurations.

Some things to know:
- It won't put (or propose) a loader where previously there wasn't one (with an exception for freebsd-boot partition, if you use the -f option). Its goal is only to update.
- It doesn't work on MBR scheme and is likely to never change on this point. This software is only for GPT scheme.
- It supports only amd64 and arm64 arches. Knowing that the support for arm64 is recent and is less tested than amd64.

If you or anyone have any question, I will be pleased to answer.

[BrandyWine]

It is using 15.1 release. But you need to manually update your boot loader in FreeBSD after the OS upgrade. There is no automation for that at all.

15.1-rc3 is said to have the bootloader fix in it. So I thought OPNsense 26.7.2 could use rc3, this way going from less than 26.7 you could get directly to the fixed rc3.

But it's a bit baffling, rc3 is said to be fixed, but the notes for rc3 still says you need to manually copy in a bootloader?

https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-stable/2026-June/004124.html

[Patrick M. Hausen]

15.1-rc3 is said to have the bootloader fix in it.

Of course it does. As does 15.1 release, which OPNsense 26.7 uses. I don't get your point.

If you do a fresh installation of 15.1-rc3 or newer you will get an up to date boot loader including that particular fix. But most people arrive at OPNsense 26.7 by updating a 26.1 system. People don't reinstall all day for fun. And the FreeBSD/OPNsense update process does not touch the on disk boot loader. Never.

It drops the current updated version into /boot/loader.efi and that is that. You need to manually copy it to your EFI boot partition if you want to use it to actually, well, boot the system.

Hope that makes it clear, now.

[BrandyWine]

My point is, make the OPNsense 26.7.2 version with 15.1-rc3. So when I upgrade into 26.7.2 from 26.x less than .7, I don't need to do any manual bootloader copying.

But as I noted, that URL I gave, is talking about rc3, but then goes onto say "copy in the fixed bootloader". If rc3 already has the fixed bootloader then why would I be copying it in?

[Patrick M. Hausen]

My point is, make the OPNsense 26.7.2 version with 15.1-rc3. So when I upgrade into 26.7.2 from 26.x less than .7, I don't need to do any manual bootloader copying.

You do because the update process does not touch the boot loader installed in the EFI partition or the legacy boot partition. It only drops the latest version into the root file system for the admin to copy it to the relevant partition(s).