Bug 221056

Summary: FreBSD 11 can not be remotely installed on older HP Proliant models
Product: Base System Reporter: cwf-ml
Component: binAssignee: freebsd-bugs (Nobody) <bugs>
Status: Closed Unable to Reproduce    
Severity: Affects Many People CC: emaste
Priority: --- Keywords: regression
Version: 11.0-RELEASE   
Hardware: amd64   
OS: Any   

Description cwf-ml 2017-07-27 22:18:58 UTC 
Trying to install 11.0-amd64 on a HP Proliant DL360G7

Which like all our servers, sits in some data center where I can not physically access it. So the only possible method (and, indeed, the only method at all for certain types of servers) is installation via HP iLo.

ILOs can use both ISO and IMG files, to simulate CDROMs/DVDs and Flash Images.

Now FreeBSD broke HP's iLo based CDROM emulation somehwere in 8.x or 9.x, and never bothered to fix it, despite being told about it. HP changed iLo Firmware on G8 and G9 to work around that problem, but there is no such Update for older models. For them the memstick image was the only way to go.

The uefi memstick image doesn't boot on those older Proliants, as they don't support UEFI either. As there is no other available installation method, FreeBSD 11 can not be installed at all.
Comment 1 Ed Maste freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2017-07-28 16:11:07 UTC 
Would you please link the related PRs for the CDROM issue in thie "See Also" field?

The memstick images contain both UEFI and BIOS boot code and have been successfully tested on both. Can you please provide specific detail on how it fails to boot?
Comment 2 cwf-ml 2017-07-31 17:56:10 UTC 
(In reply to Ed Maste from comment #1)

I will have to look into the CDROM issue. The guys who do our installation images for us tell me it#s a known issue. 

The non-booting memstickk image is simply not recognized as bootable device. I mark and mopunt it via the iLo console, but the server simply jumps from thje last normal boot message to either hard drive boot (if there is a bootable one) or directly into error message and reboot.
Comment 3 Ed Maste freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2024-02-15 03:18:04 UTC 
I am sorry but without further detail there's nothing we can do about this issue. Please reopen if you are able to collect additional detail.