10.1-RELEASE UEFI RAID0 ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AMD64 PhenomIIx6

[CeDeROM]

Hello there :-)

I have successfully installed and running FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE AMD64
on ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AMD64 PhenomIIx6 using RAID0 booting with UEFI.

UEFI and GPT seems replacement for BIOS+MBR in modern PC hardware. You
can forget about BIOS+MBR in case of UEFI which is tightly related to
hardware/firmware.

What is best about FreeBSD that I also could to the setup on older
ASUS M4A88TD/V EVO/USB3.0 which did NOT support UEFI at all. RAID0 was
possible to accomplish in 4TB size with no problem. GPT support was
already there in FreeBSD. I have installed MBR bootloader which then
switched to GPT support. This setup was not possible for Windows nor
Linux which were limited to see two 2TB devices, even on RAID. Hale to
the FreeBSD!! :-)

However, FreeBSD Boot and Kernel seems to work somehow different on
UEFI. There is no loader menu, there is no OS prompt. There is problem
with Xorg-NVidia driver which hangs the boot process at loader (you
need to use kld_list in rc.conf instead), and then hangs the computer
somewhere on screen blank. All seems new but familiar :-)

Also installing OS on UEFI is somewhat different. You need to create a
dedicated EFI partition where boot code is loaded (using dd as
presented on uefi wiki). BSDInstall creates such partition but its
only 512k in size, while boot1.efifat is 800k. I have created separate
partition that is 100M and it works fine as well. I think installed
could increase the boot partition size, and then dd the boot1.efifat
over there during install on UEFI platform..?

FreeBSD IS THE BEST!! THANK YOU!! :-)
Tomek

[Arto Pekkanen]

Post by CeDeROM
Hello there :-)
I have successfully installed and running FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE AMD64
on ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AMD64 PhenomIIx6 using RAID0 booting with UEFI.
UEFI and GPT seems replacement for BIOS+MBR in modern PC hardware. You
can forget about BIOS+MBR in case of UEFI which is tightly related to
hardware/firmware.
What is best about FreeBSD that I also could to the setup on older
ASUS M4A88TD/V EVO/USB3.0 which did NOT support UEFI at all. RAID0 was
possible to accomplish in 4TB size with no problem. GPT support was
already there in FreeBSD. I have installed MBR bootloader which then
switched to GPT support. This setup was not possible for Windows nor
Linux which were limited to see two 2TB devices, even on RAID. Hale to
the FreeBSD!! :-)

Gratz :)

Although, I think it would be possible with Linux but you would have to use a DIY distro like Gentoo that doesn't hide all the features behind a cascade of automagic system management UI-dialogs or scripts. That being said, haven't done a customized Linux installation for years now, since FreeBSD + documentation enable me to more easily create a customized FreeBSD installation for spesific tasks.

Post by CeDeROM
However, FreeBSD Boot and Kernel seems to work somehow different on
UEFI. There is no loader menu, there is no OS prompt. There is problem
with Xorg-NVidia driver which hangs the boot process at loader (you
need to use kld_list in rc.conf instead), and then hangs the computer
somewhere on screen blank. All seems new but familiar :-)

That must be because UEFI depends on kms.ko to get a framebuffer console. In this case it would be the kms/VESA module. So probably there's some kind of race condition between the kms/VESA framebuffer and nVidia kmod.

Have you already checked if there's any PR about this? If not, you could make one. I am sure this could be fixed easily.

Post by CeDeROM
Also installing OS on UEFI is somewhat different. You need to create a
dedicated EFI partition where boot code is loaded (using dd as
presented on uefi wiki). BSDInstall creates such partition but its
only 512k in size, while boot1.efifat is 800k. I have created separate
partition that is 100M and it works fine as well. I think installed
could increase the boot partition size, and then dd the boot1.efifat
over there during install on UEFI platform..?

Hmm, this is something you should definitely make a PR for, if you can. Your description makes it seem like the BSDInstall scripts are a bit behind the actual UEFI boot stack.

Post by CeDeROM
FreeBSD IS THE BEST!! THANK YOU!! :-)
Tomek

Thank you for describing your use case. This is valuable information :)

[CeDeROM]

Post by Arto Pekkanen
Although, I think it would be possible with Linux but you would have to use a DIY distro like Gentoo that doesn't hide all the features behind a cascade of automagic system management UI-dialogs or scripts. That being said, haven't done a customized Linux installation for years now, since FreeBSD + documentation enable me to more easily create a customized FreeBSD installation for spesific tasks.

Well, I did not manage to install and boot Linux so far hahaha :-)
Even Ubuntu install but does not boot! :-)

Post by Arto Pekkanen
That must be because UEFI depends on kms.ko to get a framebuffer console. In this case it would be the kms/VESA module. So probably there's some kind of race condition between the kms/VESA framebuffer and nVidia kmod.
Have you already checked if there's any PR about this? If not, you could make one. I am sure this could be fixed easily.

I have found some information over the net about buggy nvidia driver
in UEFI mode. I have experienced repeatedly system crash when running
Xorg+nVidia. I have made a PR :-)

https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=201785

Post by Arto Pekkanen
Hmm, this is something you should definitely make a PR for, if you can. Your description makes it seem like the BSDInstall scripts are a bit behind the actual UEFI boot stack.

I will, thank you :-)

Post by Arto Pekkanen
Thank you for describing your use case. This is valuable information :)

You are most welcome :-) Thank you guys for great work! I really
consider FreeBSD to be my favorite OS! Even after switching to OSX I
came back to FreeBSD. Now I can safely work on OSX and FreeBSD and
avoid Windows and Linux :-) :-)

Best regards! :-)
Tomek

[CeDeROM]

Post by Arto Pekkanen

Post by CeDeROM
Also installing OS on UEFI is somewhat different. You need to create a
dedicated EFI partition where boot code is loaded (using dd as
presented on uefi wiki). BSDInstall creates such partition but its
only 512k in size, while boot1.efifat is 800k. I have created separate
partition that is 100M and it works fine as well. I think installed
could increase the boot partition size, and then dd the boot1.efifat
over there during install on UEFI platform..?

Hmm, this is something you should definitely make a PR for, if you can. Your description makes it seem like the BSDInstall scripts are a bit behind the actual UEFI boot stack.

Consider it done Sir! :-)

https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=201898