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    Boot from install media results in “can’t find '/boot/entropy'”

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
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    • D
      DominikHoffmann
      last edited by

      I went through what seem like the correct steps for creating a bootable USB thumb drive with pfSense-CE-memstick-2.5.0-RELEASE-amd64 on it. When I boot my Protectli FW2 from that thumb drive, it gets to the the “Loading kernel...” stage but then halts with

      can’t find '/boot/entropy'
      can’t find '/boot/hostid'

      On the FREEBSD forum I found a suggestion to change my BIOS configuration for SATA Mode from “AHCI” to “IDE.” That has not helped.

      Somewhere else—I don’t remember where—I saw the suggestion to install 2.4.4 first and then let the pfSense installation update itself.

      Is this a known problem with 2.5.0 or with the Protectli hardware?

      D 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • D
        DominikHoffmann @DominikHoffmann
        last edited by DominikHoffmann

        @dominikhoffmann said in Boot from install media results in “can’t find '/boot/entropy'”:

        can’t find '/boot/entropy'
        can’t find '/boot/hostid'

        It actually says

        can’t find '/boot/entropy'
        can’t find '/boot/hostid'

        IMG_5489.jpeg

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        • D
          DominikHoffmann @DominikHoffmann
          last edited by

          @dominikhoffmann said in Boot from install media results in “can’t find '/boot/entropy'”:

          Somewhere else—I don’t remember where—I saw the suggestion to install 2.4.4 first and then let the pfSense installation update itself.

          So, I tried doing that but only had a 2.4.5-p1 install image lying around. Older versions appear to not be available from Netgate’s download page.

          Booting from the 2.4.5-p1 image gets me this

          IMG_5487.jpeg

          It never gets beyond the “/.”

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          • D
            DominikHoffmann
            last edited by

            I have filed a support request with Protectli. My guess is that is an issue with configuring the BIOS correctly.

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            • D
              DominikHoffmann
              last edited by

              Nothing beats doing your own research and coming up with the solution yourself. It took me a while, while I wrapped my mind around the problem to realize that I should check with Protectli. Sure enough, they have a page on how to configure their BIOS to allow the installation of pfSense:

              Overview: Install pfSense CE

              In essence, I had to make sure that the CSM (Compatibility Support Module) Configuration had the boot option filter set to “UEFI only.”

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              • R
                Ramosel @DominikHoffmann
                last edited by

                @dominikhoffmann Nice find.

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                • J
                  jba
                  last edited by

                  This post is deleted!
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                  • A
                    asasin114
                    last edited by

                    If anyone is curious, the CSM fix also works for the old Ubiquiti NVR's. I just finished installing 2.5.2 on one that I am playing with as a temp VPN server.

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                    • C
                      CyberGeek @DominikHoffmann
                      last edited by

                      @dominikhoffmann Thank you! You saved me a lot of GTS searching. I even dusted off an external DVD burner thinking that might help, somehow....but nope. Redid the USB several times (even though I just used it on another generic miniPC). Thankfully I found your post!

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                      • E
                        Edwin-pfsense @DominikHoffmann
                        last edited by

                        @dominikhoffmann

                        Thanks, I had to change to UEFI (standard DUAL) in the bios of my Microserver.

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