Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
As I previously indicated, I have tested a couple more Minis and updated the instructions with what I learned. Here is the revised version: 2.12Installing FreeBSD on an Apple Mac Mini The Mac Mini is an attractive server platform. Its small, runs cool, low powered, and reasonably cheap. There a variety of configurations available. However, the bottom of the line seems to be a powerful server. There are a few issues with installing FreeBSD on the mini. Mostly they derive from the newer hardware it uses and that it uses EFI rather than a BIOS for booting. There is not a simple install that will get the unit working, but the additional steps required are quite simple. The goal of these instructions is to get FreeBSD 9.1-Release running as a headless server on a Late 2012 Mini, Model No A1347. Its probably possible to setup the mini as a workstation, but that would require some additional effort to test the display and mouse interfaces and find fixes for any issues with those. The original intent was to have the server without system source so that it could be maintained using freebsd-update. However, that will probably have to wait until 9.2-Release is available. In the meantime, freebsd-update has to be used with care since I believe it will replace the modified bge files. 2.12.1 Preparing for the Install 2.12.1.1Automatic Startup after Power is Restored Generally servers need to be automatically restarted after a power failure. Start up the Mini in OS-X. If this is a new unit, I go through the registration so that Apple has it on record for use with AppleCare. Go to System Preferences and select Energy Saver. I set Put hard disk to sleep when possible, Wake for network access, Allow power button to put the computer to sleep, and most importantly - Start up automatically after a power failure. Note, shutting down the computer at this time will not permit it to come back on when power is applied. You have to pull the power plug. Apparently this setting is a bit mislabeled. Its more like Return the Power to the last status. These settings work properly with Mac OS-X. I have not found a way to set the startup settings while running FreeBSD yet. These settings do carry over to the FreeBSD install. However, you may need to lock the energy saver preferences for that to happen. Shutdown the Mini. 2.12.1.2Preparing FreeBSD for the installation You can select either the i386 or the amd64 distributions. Both have been tested with these procedures and yield a working server. The bottom of the line mini comes with 4 GB of memory installed. The i386 distribution will only use 2 GB. The remainder will not be used. The amd64 distribution builds larger binary modules, but it will use all the memory. Download the 9.1 Release distribution Memstick Image. You will need to copy that to a memstick. There are instructions in section 2.3.5 for copying the image to the memstick. Obtain a display and USB keyboard and connect them to the mini. With a browser go to svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/sys/dev. Click on the bge folder. Click on the name if_bge.c. Find Revision 245931. Click on the download link and save the file. Go back to the bge page and click on if_bgereg.h. Find Revision 243686. Click on the download link and save the file. Edit the saved if_bgereg.h file and add the following to the end: #define PCIER_DEVICE_CAP0x4 #define PCIER_DEVICE_CTL0x8 #define PCIEM_CAP_MAX_PAYLOAD 0x0007 #define PCIEM_CTL_RELAXED_ORD_ENABLE0x0010 #define PCIEM_CTL_NOSNOOP_ENABLE0x0800 #define PCIER_DEVICE_STA0xa #define PCIEM_STA_CORRECTABLE_ERROR 0x0001 #define PCIEM_STA_NON_FATAL_ERROR 0x0002 #define PCIEM_STA_FATAL_ERROR 0x0004 #define PCIEM_STA_UNSUPPORTED_REQ 0x0008 There was a change to some of the names in if_bgereg.h after the 9.1 Release was created, but before the corrections to the bge driver were included. It would be possible to grab the appropriate earlier verion of if_bgereg.h, however, when rebuilding the kernel, there are other drivers that use the new names. This seems to be the easiest approach. Also, it worked. Go back to the dev page and click on the mii folder. Click on brgphy.c. Find revision 244482. Click on the download link and save the file. Copy the saved files to another memstick. 2.12.2 Installing the 9.1 Release Boot the mini using the memstick. Hold down the Option key on the keyboard and power up the mini. You will hear the hardware check beep and shortly thereafter the screen will show one or more boot icons. Double click on the one named Windows. It will have a USB icon. Continue through the normal installation procedure as detailed earlier in this chapter. If you are building a FreeBSD only server, use the entire disk. Also, be sure to install the system source. You will need it later. You will
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
On Sun, Jul 07, 2013 at 05:56:09PM -0700, Doug Hardie wrote: As I previously indicated, I have tested a couple more Minis and updated the instructions with what I learned. Here is the revised version: [...] 2.12.3Rebuilding the kernel to support the Ethernet Interface Once the system has been rebooted, you will notice that ifconfig may not show the ethernet interface. There are at least two different chips being used for that interface. Some of the units work right out of the box. Others do not. I have two units and the only visible difference is the Part No. Part Nu. MC815LL/A appears to be the older unit and the bge interface worked on install. Part No MD387LL/A is newer and has the newer chips that require the driver update. If the bge interface does not show, then the bge driver needs to be updated to recognize the NIC. Mount the second memstick with the files retrieved earlier and move them into the kernel source. I used the following commands: cp -p brgphy.c /usr/src/sys/dev/mii cp -p if_bgereg.h /usr/src/sys/dev/bge cp -p if_bge.c /usr/src/sys/dev/bge then rebuild the kernel. Note the instructions here are for GENERIC, but you can use KERNCONF to specify a custom kernel. cd /usr/src make buildkernel make installkernel Reboot the server as before. Now ifconfig will show bge0 and it will work. The mini is now running a useable version of 9.1-Release. There are still some items remaining to be resolved: Updating the kernel with the recent security patches, Disabling Bluetooth and Wireless to save power, and unattended rebooting. These issues are still being addressed. I'm not sure whether this bge(4) controller is sitting behind TB(Apple Thunderbolt) bridge. The Apple TB bridge has known performance issue and some BCM controllers have a work-around to mitigate it. The work-around is not enabled by default so I'm interested in bge(4) performance numbers on your box. If you can't get more than 920 ~ 930Mbps(950Mbps or higher with jumbo frame) please let me know. I didn't enable the work-around yet since it will hurt other BCM controllers when TB bridge is absent. ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 16:46:37 -0800 Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: I have documented what I have completed and what remains to be done for the install of 9.1 on a Mini. I wrote this as a section of the Handbook, although its not in the right format as I don't know what that format is. I believe this needs to be retained in the documentation somewhere easily found for those who need it in the future. Nice. Perhaps you should qualify that this is for an Intel Mac mini (as opposed to a PowerPC / G4 Mac mini)? HTH -- Torfinn Ingolfsen torfinn.ingolf...@getmail.no ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
I have documented what I have completed and what remains to be done for the install of 9.1 on a Mini. I wrote this as a section of the Handbook, although its not in the right format as I don't know what that format is. I believe this needs to be retained in the documentation somewhere easily found for those who need it in the future. 2.12Installing FreeBSD on an Apple Mac Mini The Mac Mini is an attractive server platform. Its small, runs cool, low powered, and reasonably cheap. There a variety of configurations available. However, the bottom of the line seems to be a powerful server. There are a few issues with installing FreeBSD on the mini. Mostly they derive from the newer hardware it uses and that it uses EFI rather than a BIOS for booting. There is not a simple install that will get the unit working, but the additional steps required are quite simple. The goal of these instructions is to get FreeBSD 9.1-Release running as a headless server on a Late 2012 Mini. Its probably possible to setup the mini as a workstation, but that would require some additional effort to test the display and mouse interfaces and find fixes for any issues with those. The original intent was to have the server without system source so that it could be maintained using freebsd-update. However, that will probably have to wait until 9.2-Release is available. In the meantime, freebsd-update has to be used with care since I believe it will replace the modified bge files. 2.12.1 Preparing for the Install You can select either the i386 or the amd64 distributions. Both have been tested with these procedures and yield a working server. The bottom of the line mini comes with 4 GB of memory installed. The i386 distribution will only use 2 GB. The remainder will not be used. The amd64 distribution builds larger binary modules, but it will use all the memory. Download the 9.1 Release distribution Memstick Image. You will need to copy that to a memstick. There are instructions in section 2.3.5 for copying the image to the memstick. Obtain a display and USB keyboard and connect them to the mini. With a browser go to svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/sys/dev. Click on the bge folder. Click on the name if_bge.c. Find Revision 245931. Click on the download link and save the file. Go back to the bge page and click on if_bgereg.h. Find Revision 243686. Click on the download link and save the file. Edit the saved if_bgereg.h file and add the following to the end: #define PCIER_DEVICE_CAP0x4 #define PCIER_DEVICE_CTL0x8 #define PCIEM_CAP_MAX_PAYLOAD 0x0007 #define PCIEM_CTL_RELAXED_ORD_ENABLE0x0010 #define PCIEM_CTL_NOSNOOP_ENABLE0x0800 #define PCIER_DEVICE_STA0xa #define PCIEM_STA_CORRECTABLE_ERROR 0x0001 #define PCIEM_STA_NON_FATAL_ERROR 0x0002 #define PCIEM_STA_FATAL_ERROR 0x0004 #define PCIEM_STA_UNSUPPORTED_REQ 0x0008 There was a change to some of the names in if_bgereg.h after the 9.1 Release was created, but before the corrections to the bge driver were included. It would be possible to grab the appropriate earlier verion of if_bgereg.h, however, when rebuilding the kernel, there are other drivers that use the new names. This seems to be the easiest approach. Also, it worked. Go back to the dev page and click on the mii folder. Click on brgphy.c. Find revision 244482. Click on the download link and save the file. Copy the saved files to another memstick. 2.12.2 Installing the 9.1 Release Boot the mini using the memstick. Hold down the Option key on the keyboard and power up the mini. You will hear the hardware check beep and shortly thereafter the screen will show one or more boot icons. Double click on the one named Windows. It will have a USB icon. Continue through the normal installation procedure as detailed earlier in this chapter. If you are building a FreeBSD only server, use the entire disk. Also, be sure to install the system source. You will need it later. At the end of the install you will be asked to reboot the mini. Here is where the first problem occurs. If you pop out the memstick and let the system reboot, it will hang with an empty folder icon in the center of the display. The problem is that the EFI boot loader can't find anything to boot. There are several approaches that may work. The Mac bless utility has been used to bless the boot disk so the boot loader can find it. There are currently no instructions available for this approach. The one way that has been shown to work is to make sure the memstick is removed when you boot the mini. Once you get the empty folder icon, plug the memstick back in. The system will shortly boot from the internal disk. There is no known explanation for this phenomena other than it just works. 2.12.3 Rebuilding the kernel to support the Ethernet Interface Once the system has been rebooted, you
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
On 08 Mar 2013, at 17:43, Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: On 7 March 2013, at 17:00, John Mehr j...@visi.com wrote: On Thu, 7 Mar 2013 14:18:23 -0800 Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: On 7 March 2013, at 11:57, Kevin Oberman rkober...@gmail.com wrote: [ ... ] Thanks. Well, I got 9.1 Release installed, but it won't boot from the internal disk. It doesn't see the disk as bootable. I installed using the entire disk for FreeBSD. I used the i386 release. Perhaps I need to switch to the amd64 release? I would generally recommend using the amd64 release, but it may not get your system to boot. How is your disk partitioned? GPT? Some BIOSes are broken and assume that a GPT formatted disk is UEFI and will not recognize them if they lack the UEFI boot partition. UEFI boot is a current project that seems likely to reach head in the fairly near future, but it's not possible now. No idea what the default partitioning is for BSDInstall. However the Mini is only EFI or UFEI with some fallbacks although the comments I find in the web indicate that different models have different fallbacks. One comment indicates that an older unit will boot if its MBR partitioning. I don't know if the new installer supports that or not. You may be able to tweak your BIOS to get it to work or you may have to install using the traditional partitioning system. The installer defaults to GPT, but can create either. I have such a system (ThinkPad T520) and I have two disks... one that came with the system and containing Windows, and my GPT formatted FreeBSD disk. I wrote a FreeBSD BootEasy boot into the MBR of the Windows disk and it CAN boot the GPT disk just fine. Not ideal for most, but it works well for me Based on a comment I say, waiting till the empty folder icon appears and then plugging in the install memstick causes the mini to boot from disk. That just downright weird, but it works. I could live with that, but this is an unattended server and would experience some down time if I am not there when there is a power failure. I just found some instructions for using MBR with bsdinstall, but given there is an effort to create a UEFI boot which I suspect would expect to find the GPT boot partition, perhaps I should just go with the memstick approach? Hello, If you still have a drive with OS X on it, you may have some luck with OS X's bless command: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/Manpages/man8/bless.8.html I got a late 2012 mac mini to boot FreeBSD 9.1 (AMD64) from a hard drive using 'bless' (unfortunately I don't remember the exact command line parameters I used). If you're looking to dual boot, the only luck I had (without resorting to using third party software like rEFIt) was to put the OS's on different drives and install FreeBSD using MBR on the second drive. I have investigated the bless command and nothing I find on google gives me any good ideal on what folder/file to bless. I am wondering if just using the volume command and ignoring folder and file would work? When I was setting up FreeBSD (9/amd64) to run on a MacBook Air, I used (from within Terminal while booted into an OS X boot image): sudo bless --device /dev/disk0s2 --setBoot --legacy (s2 was the FreeBSD boot slice.) My notes also claim that the drive needed to have MBR boot code installed first (e.g., via fdisk -B ada0 or the gpart equivalent) in order for the blessing to work. This was about a year ago (December 2011), on whatever hardware/firmware/OS X were current at the time. -- Molly ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
On 03/07/13 17:18, Doug Hardie wrote: On 7 March 2013, at 11:57, Kevin Oberman rkober...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: On 7 March 2013, at 06:42, Richard Kuhns r...@wintek.com wrote: On 03/07/13 01:59, Doug Hardie wrote: I have a new Mac Mini and have encountered the same problem reported last year by Richard Kuhns. YongHyeon PYUN provided some patches to the kernel that resolved the problem. However, without an internet connection its a bit tricky to get them into the system. Here is the approach I believe will work, but wanted to check first before I really mess things up. 1. Downloaded from current today via svnweb.freebsd.org: sys/dev/bge/if_bgereg.h sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c sys/dev/mii/brgphy.c I believe the patches are incorporated in today's versions. The comments indicate such. Thus I don't need to apply the original supplied patch. 2. Put those on a flash drive. 3. Install 9.1 release from flash drive onto the Mini disk. Have to include the system source. 4. Copy the files from 1 above from flash over the files on the disk. 5. Rebuild the kernel and install it. Thanks, -- Doug That's worked for me 3 times now. Thanks. Well, I got 9.1 Release installed, but it won't boot from the internal disk. It doesn't see the disk as bootable. I installed using the entire disk for FreeBSD. I used the i386 release. Perhaps I need to switch to the amd64 release? I would generally recommend using the amd64 release, but it may not get your system to boot. How is your disk partitioned? GPT? Some BIOSes are broken and assume that a GPT formatted disk is UEFI and will not recognize them if they lack the UEFI boot partition. UEFI boot is a current project that seems likely to reach head in the fairly near future, but it's not possible now. No idea what the default partitioning is for BSDInstall. However the Mini is only EFI or UFEI with some fallbacks although the comments I find in the web indicate that different models have different fallbacks. One comment indicates that an older unit will boot if its MBR partitioning. I don't know if the new installer supports that or not. You may be able to tweak your BIOS to get it to work or you may have to install using the traditional partitioning system. The installer defaults to GPT, but can create either. I have such a system (ThinkPad T520) and I have two disks... one that came with the system and containing Windows, and my GPT formatted FreeBSD disk. I wrote a FreeBSD BootEasy boot into the MBR of the Windows disk and it CAN boot the GPT disk just fine. Not ideal for most, but it works well for me Based on a comment I say, waiting till the empty folder icon appears and then plugging in the install memstick causes the mini to boot from disk. That just downright weird, but it works. I could live with that, but this is an unattended server and would experience some down time if I am not there when there is a power failure. I just found some instructions for using MBR with bsdinstall, but given there is an effort to create a UEFI boot which I suspect would expect to find the GPT boot partition, perhaps I should just go with the memstick approach? -- Doug FWIW, here are the brief notes I made for what has been working for me for the last year or so; most recently with a new Mini purchased about 2 weeks ago. I'm using the entire drive for FreeBSD. Hit Option key while booting, then select 'Windows' USB image. Now trying GPT; looks fine, but will only boot with USB stick in place. If it's not there, just get a folder with a '?' when starting up. Using MBR; boots ok without USB stick. It just takes about 30 seconds before it actually boots. Select YES when asked about GMT. -- Richard Kuhns r...@wintek.com My Desk: 765-269-8541 Wintek Corporation Internet Support: 765-269-8503 427 N 6th Street Consulting: 765-269-8504 Lafayette, IN 47901-2211 Accounting: 765-269-8502 ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
On 7 March 2013, at 17:00, John Mehr j...@visi.com wrote: On Thu, 7 Mar 2013 14:18:23 -0800 Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: On 7 March 2013, at 11:57, Kevin Oberman rkober...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: On 7 March 2013, at 06:42, Richard Kuhns r...@wintek.com wrote: On 03/07/13 01:59, Doug Hardie wrote: I have a new Mac Mini and have encountered the same problem reported last year by Richard Kuhns. YongHyeon PYUN provided some patches to the kernel that resolved the problem. However, without an internet connection its a bit tricky to get them into the system. Here is the approach I believe will work, but wanted to check first before I really mess things up. 1. Downloaded from current today via svnweb.freebsd.org: sys/dev/bge/if_bgereg.h sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c sys/dev/mii/brgphy.c I believe the patches are incorporated in today's versions. The comments indicate such. Thus I don't need to apply the original supplied patch. 2. Put those on a flash drive. 3. Install 9.1 release from flash drive onto the Mini disk. Have to include the system source. 4. Copy the files from 1 above from flash over the files on the disk. 5. Rebuild the kernel and install it. Thanks, -- Doug That's worked for me 3 times now. Thanks. Well, I got 9.1 Release installed, but it won't boot from the internal disk. It doesn't see the disk as bootable. I installed using the entire disk for FreeBSD. I used the i386 release. Perhaps I need to switch to the amd64 release? I would generally recommend using the amd64 release, but it may not get your system to boot. How is your disk partitioned? GPT? Some BIOSes are broken and assume that a GPT formatted disk is UEFI and will not recognize them if they lack the UEFI boot partition. UEFI boot is a current project that seems likely to reach head in the fairly near future, but it's not possible now. No idea what the default partitioning is for BSDInstall. However the Mini is only EFI or UFEI with some fallbacks although the comments I find in the web indicate that different models have different fallbacks. One comment indicates that an older unit will boot if its MBR partitioning. I don't know if the new installer supports that or not. You may be able to tweak your BIOS to get it to work or you may have to install using the traditional partitioning system. The installer defaults to GPT, but can create either. I have such a system (ThinkPad T520) and I have two disks... one that came with the system and containing Windows, and my GPT formatted FreeBSD disk. I wrote a FreeBSD BootEasy boot into the MBR of the Windows disk and it CAN boot the GPT disk just fine. Not ideal for most, but it works well for me Based on a comment I say, waiting till the empty folder icon appears and then plugging in the install memstick causes the mini to boot from disk. That just downright weird, but it works. I could live with that, but this is an unattended server and would experience some down time if I am not there when there is a power failure. I just found some instructions for using MBR with bsdinstall, but given there is an effort to create a UEFI boot which I suspect would expect to find the GPT boot partition, perhaps I should just go with the memstick approach? Hello, If you still have a drive with OS X on it, you may have some luck with OS X's bless command: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/Manpages/man8/bless.8.html I got a late 2012 mac mini to boot FreeBSD 9.1 (AMD64) from a hard drive using 'bless' (unfortunately I don't remember the exact command line parameters I used). If you're looking to dual boot, the only luck I had (without resorting to using third party software like rEFIt) was to put the OS's on different drives and install FreeBSD using MBR on the second drive. I have investigated the bless command and nothing I find on google gives me any good ideal on what folder/file to bless. I am wondering if just using the volume command and ignoring folder and file would work? ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
I have investigated the bless command and nothing I find on google gives me any good ideal on what folder/file to bless. I am wondering if just using the volume command and ignoring folder and file would work? Hello, If memory serves, I used it in device mode and used the --setBoot option to select the bootable FreeBSD partition. I was trying to find a dual boot solution at the time and I remember giving up on the bless command when it booted me straight into FreeBSD. I wish I could remember more... ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
On 03/07/13 01:59, Doug Hardie wrote: I have a new Mac Mini and have encountered the same problem reported last year by Richard Kuhns. YongHyeon PYUN provided some patches to the kernel that resolved the problem. However, without an internet connection its a bit tricky to get them into the system. Here is the approach I believe will work, but wanted to check first before I really mess things up. 1. Downloaded from current today via svnweb.freebsd.org: sys/dev/bge/if_bgereg.h sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c sys/dev/mii/brgphy.c I believe the patches are incorporated in today's versions. The comments indicate such. Thus I don't need to apply the original supplied patch. 2. Put those on a flash drive. 3. Install 9.1 release from flash drive onto the Mini disk. Have to include the system source. 4. Copy the files from 1 above from flash over the files on the disk. 5. Rebuild the kernel and install it. Thanks, -- Doug That's worked for me 3 times now. -- Richard Kuhns r...@wintek.com My Desk: 765-269-8541 Wintek Corporation Internet Support: 765-269-8503 427 N 6th Street Consulting: 765-269-8504 Lafayette, IN 47901-2211 Accounting: 765-269-8502 ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
On 7 March 2013, at 06:42, Richard Kuhns r...@wintek.com wrote: On 03/07/13 01:59, Doug Hardie wrote: I have a new Mac Mini and have encountered the same problem reported last year by Richard Kuhns. YongHyeon PYUN provided some patches to the kernel that resolved the problem. However, without an internet connection its a bit tricky to get them into the system. Here is the approach I believe will work, but wanted to check first before I really mess things up. 1. Downloaded from current today via svnweb.freebsd.org: sys/dev/bge/if_bgereg.h sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c sys/dev/mii/brgphy.c I believe the patches are incorporated in today's versions. The comments indicate such. Thus I don't need to apply the original supplied patch. 2. Put those on a flash drive. 3. Install 9.1 release from flash drive onto the Mini disk. Have to include the system source. 4. Copy the files from 1 above from flash over the files on the disk. 5. Rebuild the kernel and install it. Thanks, -- Doug That's worked for me 3 times now. Thanks. Well, I got 9.1 Release installed, but it won't boot from the internal disk. It doesn't see the disk as bootable. I installed using the entire disk for FreeBSD. I used the i386 release. Perhaps I need to switch to the amd64 release? -- Doug ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: On 7 March 2013, at 06:42, Richard Kuhns r...@wintek.com wrote: On 03/07/13 01:59, Doug Hardie wrote: I have a new Mac Mini and have encountered the same problem reported last year by Richard Kuhns. YongHyeon PYUN provided some patches to the kernel that resolved the problem. However, without an internet connection its a bit tricky to get them into the system. Here is the approach I believe will work, but wanted to check first before I really mess things up. 1. Downloaded from current today via svnweb.freebsd.org: sys/dev/bge/if_bgereg.h sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c sys/dev/mii/brgphy.c I believe the patches are incorporated in today's versions. The comments indicate such. Thus I don't need to apply the original supplied patch. 2. Put those on a flash drive. 3. Install 9.1 release from flash drive onto the Mini disk. Have to include the system source. 4. Copy the files from 1 above from flash over the files on the disk. 5. Rebuild the kernel and install it. Thanks, -- Doug That's worked for me 3 times now. Thanks. Well, I got 9.1 Release installed, but it won't boot from the internal disk. It doesn't see the disk as bootable. I installed using the entire disk for FreeBSD. I used the i386 release. Perhaps I need to switch to the amd64 release? I would generally recommend using the amd64 release, but it may not get your system to boot. How is your disk partitioned? GPT? Some BIOSes are broken and assume that a GPT formatted disk is UEFI and will not recognize them if they lack the UEFI boot partition. UEFI boot is a current project that seems likely to reach head in the fairly near future, but it's not possible now. You may be able to tweak your BIOS to get it to work or you may have to install using the traditional partitioning system. The installer defaults to GPT, but can create either. I have such a system (ThinkPad T520) and I have two disks... one that came with the system and containing Windows, and my GPT formatted FreeBSD disk. I wrote a FreeBSD BootEasy boot into the MBR of the Windows disk and it CAN boot the GPT disk just fine. Not ideal for most, but it works well for me -- R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer E-mail: rkober...@gmail.com ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
On 7 March 2013, at 11:57, Kevin Oberman rkober...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: On 7 March 2013, at 06:42, Richard Kuhns r...@wintek.com wrote: On 03/07/13 01:59, Doug Hardie wrote: I have a new Mac Mini and have encountered the same problem reported last year by Richard Kuhns. YongHyeon PYUN provided some patches to the kernel that resolved the problem. However, without an internet connection its a bit tricky to get them into the system. Here is the approach I believe will work, but wanted to check first before I really mess things up. 1. Downloaded from current today via svnweb.freebsd.org: sys/dev/bge/if_bgereg.h sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c sys/dev/mii/brgphy.c I believe the patches are incorporated in today's versions. The comments indicate such. Thus I don't need to apply the original supplied patch. 2. Put those on a flash drive. 3. Install 9.1 release from flash drive onto the Mini disk. Have to include the system source. 4. Copy the files from 1 above from flash over the files on the disk. 5. Rebuild the kernel and install it. Thanks, -- Doug That's worked for me 3 times now. Thanks. Well, I got 9.1 Release installed, but it won't boot from the internal disk. It doesn't see the disk as bootable. I installed using the entire disk for FreeBSD. I used the i386 release. Perhaps I need to switch to the amd64 release? I would generally recommend using the amd64 release, but it may not get your system to boot. How is your disk partitioned? GPT? Some BIOSes are broken and assume that a GPT formatted disk is UEFI and will not recognize them if they lack the UEFI boot partition. UEFI boot is a current project that seems likely to reach head in the fairly near future, but it's not possible now. No idea what the default partitioning is for BSDInstall. However the Mini is only EFI or UFEI with some fallbacks although the comments I find in the web indicate that different models have different fallbacks. One comment indicates that an older unit will boot if its MBR partitioning. I don't know if the new installer supports that or not. You may be able to tweak your BIOS to get it to work or you may have to install using the traditional partitioning system. The installer defaults to GPT, but can create either. I have such a system (ThinkPad T520) and I have two disks... one that came with the system and containing Windows, and my GPT formatted FreeBSD disk. I wrote a FreeBSD BootEasy boot into the MBR of the Windows disk and it CAN boot the GPT disk just fine. Not ideal for most, but it works well for me Based on a comment I say, waiting till the empty folder icon appears and then plugging in the install memstick causes the mini to boot from disk. That just downright weird, but it works. I could live with that, but this is an unattended server and would experience some down time if I am not there when there is a power failure. I just found some instructions for using MBR with bsdinstall, but given there is an effort to create a UEFI boot which I suspect would expect to find the GPT boot partition, perhaps I should just go with the memstick approach? -- Doug ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
On Thu, 7 Mar 2013 14:18:23 -0800 Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: On 7 March 2013, at 11:57, Kevin Oberman rkober...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: On 7 March 2013, at 06:42, Richard Kuhns r...@wintek.com wrote: On 03/07/13 01:59, Doug Hardie wrote: I have a new Mac Mini and have encountered the same problem reported last year by Richard Kuhns. YongHyeon PYUN provided some patches to the kernel that resolved the problem. However, without an internet connection its a bit tricky to get them into the system. Here is the approach I believe will work, but wanted to check first before I really mess things up. 1. Downloaded from current today via svnweb.freebsd.org: sys/dev/bge/if_bgereg.h sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c sys/dev/mii/brgphy.c I believe the patches are incorporated in today's versions. The comments indicate such. Thus I don't need to apply the original supplied patch. 2. Put those on a flash drive. 3. Install 9.1 release from flash drive onto the Mini disk. Have to include the system source. 4. Copy the files from 1 above from flash over the files on the disk. 5. Rebuild the kernel and install it. Thanks, -- Doug That's worked for me 3 times now. Thanks. Well, I got 9.1 Release installed, but it won't boot from the internal disk. It doesn't see the disk as bootable. I installed using the entire disk for FreeBSD. I used the i386 release. Perhaps I need to switch to the amd64 release? I would generally recommend using the amd64 release, but it may not get your system to boot. How is your disk partitioned? GPT? Some BIOSes are broken and assume that a GPT formatted disk is UEFI and will not recognize them if they lack the UEFI boot partition. UEFI boot is a current project that seems likely to reach head in the fairly near future, but it's not possible now. No idea what the default partitioning is for BSDInstall. However the Mini is only EFI or UFEI with some fallbacks although the comments I find in the web indicate that different models have different fallbacks. One comment indicates that an older unit will boot if its MBR partitioning. I don't know if the new installer supports that or not. You may be able to tweak your BIOS to get it to work or you may have to install using the traditional partitioning system. The installer defaults to GPT, but can create either. I have such a system (ThinkPad T520) and I have two disks... one that came with the system and containing Windows, and my GPT formatted FreeBSD disk. I wrote a FreeBSD BootEasy boot into the MBR of the Windows disk and it CAN boot the GPT disk just fine. Not ideal for most, but it works well for me Based on a comment I say, waiting till the empty folder icon appears and then plugging in the install memstick causes the mini to boot from disk. That just downright weird, but it works. I could live with that, but this is an unattended server and would experience some down time if I am not there when there is a power failure. I just found some instructions for using MBR with bsdinstall, but given there is an effort to create a UEFI boot which I suspect would expect to find the GPT boot partition, perhaps I should just go with the memstick approach? Hello, If you still have a drive with OS X on it, you may have some luck with OS X's bless command: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/Manpages/man8/bless.8.html I got a late 2012 mac mini to boot FreeBSD 9.1 (AMD64) from a hard drive using 'bless' (unfortunately I don't remember the exact command line parameters I used). If you're looking to dual boot, the only luck I had (without resorting to using third party software like rEFIt) was to put the OS's on different drives and install FreeBSD using MBR on the second drive. ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Sanity Check on Mac Mini
On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 2:18 PM, Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: On 7 March 2013, at 11:57, Kevin Oberman rkober...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Doug Hardie bc...@lafn.org wrote: On 7 March 2013, at 06:42, Richard Kuhns r...@wintek.com wrote: On 03/07/13 01:59, Doug Hardie wrote: I have a new Mac Mini and have encountered the same problem reported last year by Richard Kuhns. YongHyeon PYUN provided some patches to the kernel that resolved the problem. However, without an internet connection its a bit tricky to get them into the system. Here is the approach I believe will work, but wanted to check first before I really mess things up. 1. Downloaded from current today via svnweb.freebsd.org: sys/dev/bge/if_bgereg.h sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c sys/dev/mii/brgphy.c I believe the patches are incorporated in today's versions. The comments indicate such. Thus I don't need to apply the original supplied patch. 2. Put those on a flash drive. 3. Install 9.1 release from flash drive onto the Mini disk. Have to include the system source. 4. Copy the files from 1 above from flash over the files on the disk. 5. Rebuild the kernel and install it. Thanks, -- Doug That's worked for me 3 times now. Thanks. Well, I got 9.1 Release installed, but it won't boot from the internal disk. It doesn't see the disk as bootable. I installed using the entire disk for FreeBSD. I used the i386 release. Perhaps I need to switch to the amd64 release? I would generally recommend using the amd64 release, but it may not get your system to boot. How is your disk partitioned? GPT? Some BIOSes are broken and assume that a GPT formatted disk is UEFI and will not recognize them if they lack the UEFI boot partition. UEFI boot is a current project that seems likely to reach head in the fairly near future, but it's not possible now. No idea what the default partitioning is for BSDInstall. However the Mini is only EFI or UFEI with some fallbacks although the comments I find in the web indicate that different models have different fallbacks. One comment indicates that an older unit will boot if its MBR partitioning. I don't know if the new installer supports that or not. You may be able to tweak your BIOS to get it to work or you may have to install using the traditional partitioning system. The installer defaults to GPT, but can create either. I have such a system (ThinkPad T520) and I have two disks... one that came with the system and containing Windows, and my GPT formatted FreeBSD disk. I wrote a FreeBSD BootEasy boot into the MBR of the Windows disk and it CAN boot the GPT disk just fine. Not ideal for most, but it works well for me Based on a comment I say, waiting till the empty folder icon appears and then plugging in the install memstick causes the mini to boot from disk. That just downright weird, but it works. I could live with that, but this is an unattended server and would experience some down time if I am not there when there is a power failure. I just found some instructions for using MBR with bsdinstall, but given there is an effort to create a UEFI boot which I suspect would expect to find the GPT boot partition, perhaps I should just go with the memstick approach To be cleat, you just insert the thumb drive and the hard drive boots? That IS weird! Or do you get the BootEasy prompt for the partition/disk you want to boot? If the latter, the system is processing the MBR from the thumb drive and using that to boot the GPT disk. I am not an expert on EFI or UEFI. I know EFI is older and UEFI replaced it about five years ago. I am not entirely clear on the differences, but I assume a newer Mac Mini would be UEFI. My experience with boot loaders is, to put it politely, ancient. I mean pre-BIOS. I have, at best, a limited understanding of BIOS booting and not much on UEFI, but I know that UEFI can boot devices using the old PC partitioning system as well as GUID (GPT) partitioned ones. The Wikipedia article on UEFI is enlightening. -- R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer E-mail: rkober...@gmail.com ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Sanity Check on Mac Mini
I have a new Mac Mini and have encountered the same problem reported last year by Richard Kuhns. YongHyeon PYUN provided some patches to the kernel that resolved the problem. However, without an internet connection its a bit tricky to get them into the system. Here is the approach I believe will work, but wanted to check first before I really mess things up. 1. Downloaded from current today via svnweb.freebsd.org: sys/dev/bge/if_bgereg.h sys/dev/bge/if_bge.c sys/dev/mii/brgphy.c I believe the patches are incorporated in today's versions. The comments indicate such. Thus I don't need to apply the original supplied patch. 2. Put those on a flash drive. 3. Install 9.1 release from flash drive onto the Mini disk. Have to include the system source. 4. Copy the files from 1 above from flash over the files on the disk. 5. Rebuild the kernel and install it. Thanks, -- Doug ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
