Embedded install: "No boot device has been detected"

[Fmstrat]

Hi all,

Just tried to do an embedded 4GB install to CF for this hardware: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=26120407

Steps:

• Used diskpart to clean CF partition

• Used physdiskwrite to write the gz file to CF

• Ejected CF from windows

[AhnHEL]

Might be a silly question but is the drive recognized in the BIOS and is it set as the first boot device?

Secondly, are you using that CF Adapter as a SATA device or USB?

[jaredadams]

I thought I read around here to use a smaller image than the CF.  Try using the 2GB image on the 4GB stick.

[wallabybob]

There is a crucial detail that seems to reasonably regularly get overlooked: you have to write the UNCOMPRESSED image to the "raw" CF, not to a partition of the CF. (The first sector of the uncompressed image becomes the MBR and partition table of the CF and that partition table specifies that the CF is bootable.)

@Fmstrat:

When booting PFSense, I get this message:

"No boot device has been detected, please press any key to reboot!"

This suggests to me that the CF is not being seen by the BIOS in its scan looking for devices with a partition marked "bootable" or the CF doesn't have a bootable partition, perhaps because it wasn't written correctly.

[Fmstrat]

@onhel:

Might be a silly question but is the drive recognized in the BIOS and is it set as the first boot device?

Yes.

@onhel:

Secondly, are you using that CF Adapter as a SATA device or USB?

SATA, but I have tried both. I do think the issue may be related to the reader, as I'm able to boot off a 4GB USB thumbdrive with the same image.

@jaredadams:

I thought I read around here to use a smaller image than the CF.  Try using the 2GB image on the 4GB stick.

I had never heard this before. Are you sure this isn't in relation to people with large CF cards (over 4GB?). I tried this as well, no luck. I'm going to try getting a new SATA/CF adapter and see if that works.

@wallabybob:

There is a crucial detail that seems to reasonably regularly get overlooked: you have to write the UNCOMPRESSED image to the "raw" CF, not to a partition of the CF. (The first sector of the uncompressed image becomes the MBR and partition table of the CF and that partition table specifies that the CF is bootable.)

This is exactly what diskpart/physdiskwrite does. Also, the latest versions of physdiskwrite can handle gzip files as it has zlib incorporated so there is no longer a need to uncompress.

@wallabybob:

This suggests to me that the CF is not being seen by the BIOS in its scan looking for devices with a partition marked "bootable" or the CF doesn't have a bootable partition, perhaps because it wasn't written correctly.

I think you're right here. The partitions are good with the first active, and the BIOS is showing the device, but perhaps the CF itself isn't being read. I'm going to swap it for another reader. Thanks.

Thanks,
Ben