"Invalid partition table!" error while booting from USB media to install

necron · Aug 2, 2018, 11:59 AM

Hi all,

I'm on the verge of reinstalling my pfSense box because I have some weird issues and can't find the time to sort them out.
So I've tried to create a bootable USB drive, but for some reason it keeps getting up with "Invalid partition table!" error at boot.
It doesn't matter if I create it with Win32Img, dd or etcher. I've tried different USB drives to rule a hardware error out.
I read something about bios updates, but for this particular piece of hardware there are no bios updates available.
Bios is in legacy boot mode, secure boot disabled.
For instance, a Kali Linux or Windows boots fine.

I've tried the latest, 2.4.3 and all the way down to 2.4.0.
Anyone a clue? Thanks in advance.

kpa · Aug 2, 2018, 12:37 PM

Use UEFI mode if possible, the legacy emulation might have bugs on your system that make it spit out the errors when it detects a slightly unusual partition table on the USB drive. The pfSense memstick images use GPT partitioning and there are quite a few BIOSes that choke on perfectly standard partition tables that just happen to be hybrid MBR/GPT.

necron · Aug 2, 2018, 1:10 PM

Thanks for the quick reply @kpa
The USB boots with UEFI enable on my test laptop, so that seems to be the main issue.
I hope my (very old) pfsense box has UEFI to boot from...

Cheers.