2.4.0 does not boot without Monitor

jack290 · Jan 20, 2018, 11:53 AM

I have a motherboard which displays a manufacturers logo when starting the boot process. The logo display can be turned off in the BIOS, and the machine will then boot normally with a monitor attached. However, the machine will not boot without a monitor attached if the logo display is turned off.

I set up the machine, obviously with an attached monitor, with the logo display set to off and it booted just fine. When using the system I do not have an attached monitor and it took some while to figure out why the system hung at boot without the monitor. The BIOS default is to display the logo - I found out that the system booted without monitor with BIOS defaults, but not with my seemingly small "tweak".

The BIOS is now set to display the manufacturers logo, no monitor attached, and the system boots OK.

This may help,

Regards.

NRgia · Feb 2, 2018, 4:14 PM

@jack290:

I have a motherboard which displays a manufacturers logo when starting the boot process. The logo display can be turned off in the BIOS, and the machine will then boot normally with a monitor attached. However, the machine will not boot without a monitor attached if the logo display is turned off.

I set up the machine, obviously with an attached monitor, with the logo display set to off and it booted just fine. When using the system I do not have an attached monitor and it took some while to figure out why the system hung at boot without the monitor. The BIOS default is to display the logo - I found out that the system booted without monitor with BIOS defaults, but not with my seemingly small "tweak".

The BIOS is now set to display the manufacturers logo, no monitor attached, and the system boots OK.

This may help,

Regards.

I don't see any boot logo on Shuttle pc's, and there are no options to disable the logo anyway. The ideea is, if it was a hardware issue, why the console via com ports it's working on Linux ?

callipso · Apr 30, 2018, 4:35 AM

@marjohh:

No, nothing to do with pfSense.

I would not be so sure about this, perhaps it depends from what angle you look at it.

I ran into the exactly same issue today as described here. While the monitor is connected I had no problems. However, once I removed the monitor pfsense stopped booting. The hardware I'm using is Lenovo H30 (Intel). I have been using this system to run headless home server based on Debian 9 for years and I did not encounter any of the issue described here. Monitor or not it was still booting with no issues.

After multiple reboots and testing of different BIOS settings what I needed to do was to enable/activate Compatibility Support Module (CSM) in BIOS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#CSM_booting . This fixed it for me as now I can boot without monitor attached.

Hope this helps someone ! :-)

For completeness I'm using:
2.4.3-RELEASE (amd64)
built on Mon Mar 26 18:02:04 CDT 2018
FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE-p7

spillemw · Oct 3, 2018, 3:09 PM

I am running pfSense on a mini-ITX with a mitac motherboard. I was running pfSense 2.3.x without monitor all fine. However, recently experienced a HDD crash and had to reinstall pfSense. Went for the latest version 2.4.x.
System refused to boot without monitor attached.
This thread suggested to disable the serial ports, but that did not help.
Another response suggested to change in CSM the UEFI to legacy. I changed UEFI of the monitor to legacy first and that did the trick.
The pfSense folks on this board are adamant it is not a pfSense bug, but with the same motherboard it worked with 2.3.x but not with 2.4.x makes me think there is something in the code that trips this issue.

Pippin · Oct 3, 2018, 4:11 PM

Since I'm already testing some different things I also tested this.
Without monitor attached it does not boot, just gets stuck.
BIOS/UEFI no difference also serial enabled/disabled.
Update BIOS from F4 to F5a, no change.
Have not tested the logo display yet.

This was no problem on pfS 2.3.

spillemw · Oct 3, 2018, 4:25 PM

@pippin what worked for me was to enable csm and in the csm options switch only the monitor item to legacy. I did not change the entire bios to legacy. I also kept the serial ports disabled although not sure that was necessary. You tried the same? The bios is already 4 years old so that was not the issue.

Pippin · Oct 3, 2018, 4:30 PM

CSM is enabled but have to look the options, when I'm back home.

Thanks.

Pippin · Oct 3, 2018, 7:57 PM

Thanks @spillemw
After changing CSM --> Video to Legacy, it boots through.
AMI BIOS does complain with five short beeps but everything works as far as i can tell.

Thanks.

brenuvida · Feb 26, 2019, 3:29 AM

I have just faced the very same issue and RESOLVED as follows:

The machine is running pfSense 2.4.4-RELEASE-p1

To fix the issue I went to System -> Advanced -> Serial Communications -> Checked "Enables the first serial port with 115200/8/N/1 by default, ". Make sure the Primary Console is set to "Serial Console".

As said by user "derelict" above, if the system is set to Primary Console VGA, it could cause pfsense to wait for a monitor during the boot process. I noticed the Primary Console was not explicitly set to VGA, but once the Serial was not enabled, I guess VGA was the only available option, causing the boot process to wait for a monitor.

Good luck!
Eduardo

twixelpixel · Jul 2, 2021, 3:35 AM

Just in case someone finds this in 2021; I am running PfSense on an Intel NUC DC3217IEY (updated with the last bios released like 6 yrs ago) and I didn't have any issues until the 2.5.1 release. I'm using a usb to ethernet for my LAN connection and the connecting the WAN to the built in port. I also had issues with the NUC not booting unless an HDMI monitor was connected, and was able to solve by turning on all optimizations in the bios for video, usb, and peripherals. There is no serial port on this nuc so I'm not sure what was hanging it up, but allowing fast boot seemed to fix the issue on this particular box. If anyone needs more info feel free to shoot me a DM.

Cheers.

astroslug · Jan 10, 2022, 3:57 AM

I encountered this same problem in 2.5.2 running on a Celeron J1900 4-port fanless mini PC (purchased back in 2017 from AliExpress -- link). It has an American Megatrends BIOS dated 2015. After looking at the various responses in this thread, I tried toying with the UEFI settings.

The available UEFI configuration options in my BIOS were:

Win8 UEFI
Win7 UEFI
Win8 Legacy
Win7 Legacy

The problematic configuration was the currently-selected Win8 UEFI setting. The Legacy options didn't work for me, as no boot device was found (I would have needed to reinstall pfSense, which I didn't want to do).

Thankfully, selecting Win7 UEFI resolved the issue for me, and pfSense will now boot headless.

I know the thread is very old, but I'm adding to it because this was the most relevant search result when I went looking for information on my problem. I hope this helps someone in future. Happy 2022, folks!

SeaMonkey · Mar 10, 2023, 10:35 PM

@astroslug Thank you!

Through several releases I've just been hoping that no power outage lasted long enough to drain my UPS, as even with VGA console selected as the default, pfSense would try to use Serial by default and then would hang. Selecting Windows 8 in the UEFI boot settings fixed it.

brenuvida · Aug 13, 2024, 8:34 PM

After 2 years I had the same issue again, this time with release 2.5.2

The issue was solved by going into the BIOS and disabling all Serial ports.

Now Pfsense boots without a monitor connected to the CPU

stephenw10 · Aug 13, 2024, 10:37 PM

2.7.2?

brenuvida · Aug 13, 2024, 10:50 PM

@stephenw10 No, 2.5.2. I am afraid I am a little behind... not proud of it though...