Bug 222960 - Installer suggests GPT+Active when booting in EFI mode
Summary: Installer suggests GPT+Active when booting in EFI mode
Status: New
Alias: None
Product: Base System
Classification: Unclassified
Component: bin (show other bugs)
Version: 11.1-RELEASE
Hardware: amd64 Any
: --- Affects Many People
Assignee: freebsd-sysinstall (Nobody)
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2017-10-12 18:01 UTC by Eric van Gyzen
Modified: 2018-05-24 19:05 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

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Description Eric van Gyzen freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2017-10-12 18:01:10 UTC 
When booting a Dell Precision T5810 in EFI mode, the installer recommends the GPT+Active workaround.  This would be correct in Legacy/BIOS mode, but it's very harmful in EFI mode because the newly installed system won't boot.  The installer should only suggest the workaround when booting in Legacy/BIOS mode.

This has bitten two of my coworkers recently when they got new workstations.
Comment 1 Allan Jude freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2017-10-12 18:30:36 UTC 
(In reply to Eric van Gyzen from comment #0)
That is interesting, because if booting EFI it should not even look at the partition active flag. It should just run boot1.efi from the ESP.

This hardware is on the blacklist because of issues, so I suppose it makes sense that it will have more issues.


What generation processor is in the T5810?
Comment 2 Eric van Gyzen freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2017-10-12 18:41:31 UTC 
The EFI spec says the active flag must not be set on the PMBR pseudo-partition.  I imagine the machine is just enforcing the spec.

This very issue is the reason I added this machine to the blacklist.  :-/

The CPU in my T5810 looks like Haswell:

    CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1650 v3 @ 3.50GHz (3491.98-MHz K8-class CPU)

My coworker that hit this earlier today is away from his desk.  I'll check his CPU when he's back, though I imagine it's the same.  Out of curiosity, why do you ask?
Comment 3 Eric van Gyzen freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2017-10-12 19:02:55 UTC 
My coworker's CPU is exactly the same.