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    (solved)Automatic Boot from USB harddrive

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • jimpJ
      jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
      last edited by

      But I'm telling you that all option 3 does it set precisely that variable and nothing else related to bootup. It sets two others but they are related to network cards, not booting. Behold:

      From our beastie.4th patch that drives the menu:

      +		dup bootusbkey @ = if
      +			s" 0" s" hw.mca.enabled" setenv
      +			s" 0" s" hw.bce.tso_enable" setenv
      +			s" 10000" s" kern.cam.boot_delay" setenv
      
      

      So if you want to try adding the other two to /boot/loader.conf.local as well, try:

      hw.mca.enabled=0
      hw.bce.tso_enable=0
      kern.cam.boot_delay=10000
      

      Make sure when you edit that file that it's named properly (all lower case letters) and you probably should edit it from the shell with vi or ee to be safest.

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      • A
        acjohnson
        last edited by

        morocon-

        Have you even tried adding these options to the file yet? If you try it you may be pleasantly surprised that it works just as jimp has been telling you.

        Sorry for causing the confusion with the loader.conf.local file. Didn't realize I had to create it. I have just tested it and it works great.

        Thank you!

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        • M
          morocon
          last edited by

          Yes i have tried! but it did not boot on USB drive

          here is my beastie start section, i suspect something wrong in it

          
          : beastie-start
          	s" beastie_disable" getenv
          	dup -1 <> if
          		s" YES" compare-insensitive 0= if
          			exit
          		then
          	else
          		drop
          	then
          	beastie-menu
          	s" autoboot_delay" getenv
          	dup -1 = if
          		drop
          		10
          	else
          		0 0 2swap >number drop drop drop
          	then
          	begin
          		dup tkey
          		0 25 at-xy
          		dup 32 = if nip 0 swap then
          		dup -1 = if 0 boot then
          		dup 13 = if 0 boot then
          		dup bootkey @ = if 0 boot then
          		dup bootacpikey @ = if
          			acpienabled? if
          				s" acpi_load" unsetenv
          				s" 1" s" hint.acpi.0.disabled" setenv
          				s" 1" s" loader.acpi_disabled_by_user" setenv
          				s" 0" s" hw.mca.enabled" setenv
          				s" 0" s" hw.bce.tso_enable" setenv
          			else
          				s" YES" s" acpi_load" setenv
          				s" 0" s" hint.acpi.0.disabled" setenv
                                          s" 0" s" hw.mca.enabled" setenv
                                          s" 0" s" hw.bce.tso_enable" setenv
          			then
          			0 boot
          		then
          		dup bootsafekey @ = if
          			s" arch-i386" environment? if
          				drop
          				s" acpi_load" unsetenv
          				s" 1" s" hint.acpi.0.disabled" setenv
          				s" 1" s" loader.acpi_disabled_by_user" setenv
          				s" 1" s" hint.apic.0.disabled" setenv
                                          s" 0" s" hw.mca.enabled" setenv
                                          s" 0" s" hw.bce.tso_enable" setenv
          			then
          			s" 0" s" hw.ata.ata_dma" setenv
          			s" 0" s" hw.ata.atapi_dma" setenv
          			s" 0" s" hw.ata.wc" setenv
          			s" 0" s" hw.eisa_slots" setenv
          			s" 1" s" hint.kbdmux.0.disabled" setenv
          			s" 0" s" hw.mca.enabled" setenv
          			s" 0" s" hw.bce.tso_enable" setenv
          			0 boot
          		then
          		dup bootusbkey @ = if
          			s" 0" s" hw.mca.enabled" setenv
          			s" 0" s" hw.bce.tso_enable" setenv
          			s" 10000" s" kern.cam.boot_delay" setenv
          			0 boot
          		then
          		dup bootverbosekey @ = if
          			s" 0" s" hw.mca.enabled" setenv
          			s" 0" s" hw.bce.tso_enable" setenv
          			s" YES" s" boot_verbose" setenv
          			0 boot
          		then
          		dup bootsinglekey @ = if
          			s" 0" s" hw.mca.enabled" setenv
          			s" 0" s" hw.bce.tso_enable" setenv
          			s" YES" s" boot_single" setenv
          			0 boot
          		then
          		dup escapekey @ = if
          			2drop
          			s" NO" s" autoboot_delay" setenv
          			exit
          		then
          		rebootkey @ = if 0 reboot then
          	again
          ;
          
          previous
          

          I'm not confident with freebsd bash coding, but i suposed somewhere at the beginning of this section is defined what dup menu will be loaded as default. I would like ti to be bootusbkey. Unfortunatly, and even with modification you recommended, it doesn't start, but just come to a prompt that talk about vfs.mountfrom.options whish should have been set to read write.

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          • jimpJ
            jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
            last edited by

            Nothing is wrong with that. As you can see the section I posted is within the part you posted (mine just had the +'s because it was from a patch file not the actual file, and I trimmed the surrounding irrelevant text).

            If the menu option worked but adding it to loader.conf.local does not, then you must not be putting the right values into loader.conf.local or the file isn't in the right place, or something else must be wrong.

            Further, you need to give exact precise error messages and not "a prompt that talk about vfs.mountfrom.options". Take a cell phone picture of the screen if you have to, but be precise.

            Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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            • M
              morocon
              last edited by

              here it is:

              http://pfsensepict.dyndns.org

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              • jimpJ
                jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                last edited by

                Sure that's the right URL?

                Host pfsensepict.dyndns.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
                

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                Do not Chat/PM for help!

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                • M
                  morocon
                  last edited by

                  oops, try again, it should be working now that i activated it! :)

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                  • jimpJ
                    jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                    last edited by

                    Remove this from /boot/loader.conf and /boot/loader.conf.local

                    autoboot_delay="3"
                    

                    It probably is ignoring the other lines because it says there is a syntax error on that line.

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                    • M
                      morocon
                      last edited by

                      Thaanks, do you have a sample of how it should be written?

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                      • jimpJ
                        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                        last edited by

                        /boot/loader.conf should probably be empty.

                        And if you want to mimic option 3 exactly, /boot/loader.conf.local should only contain:

                        hw.mca.enabled=0
                        hw.bce.tso_enable=0
                        kern.cam.boot_delay=10000
                        

                        Nothing else.

                        Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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                        Do not Chat/PM for help!

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                        • M
                          morocon
                          last edited by

                          @jimp:

                          /boot/loader.conf should probably be empty.

                          And if you want to mimic option 3 exactly, /boot/loader.conf.local should only contain:

                          hw.mca.enabled=0
                          hw.bce.tso_enable=0
                          kern.cam.boot_delay=10000
                          

                          Nothing else.

                          Ok i will do so.

                          I found a file call loader.conf (<>loader.conf.local)where the " autoboot_delay="3" " is writen, what should i do with this one?

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                          • jimpJ
                            jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                            last edited by

                            Remove it from both files.

                            Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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                            Do not Chat/PM for help!

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                            • M
                              morocon
                              last edited by

                              @jimp:

                              Remove it from both files.

                              You are the hitman jimp!

                              Ok i guess there was some thing wrong in my usb drive, so i decided to start from scrash and re-install f sense on it.

                              Then i create the file /boot/loader.conf/local (as you recommended it) including

                              hw.mca.enabled=0
                              hw.bce.tso_enable=0
                              kern.cam.boot_delay=10000
                              

                              Then reboot, then….Miracle! It works!!

                              Thanks guys

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                              • M
                                MrKoen
                                last edited by

                                Same situation here. I'm using a 2,5 inch USB disk drive for my pfSense server. I needed to press 3 in the pfSense boot menu to get it to work. Using the steps outlined in this forum topic I was able to have it boot using USB support automatically. I have put the easy steps together in a tutorial at http://www.zomers.eu/knowledge/pfSense/Pages/Configure-pfSense-2.0-RC1-to-boot-from-USB-disk.aspx

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                                • ?
                                  Guest
                                  last edited by

                                  Awesome .  thanks for the help.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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