Need some help installing pfsense or opnsense on HP T620 Plus [RESOLVED]

[BLinux]

Since it is working for me there is no reason why it shouldn't work for you When installing I chose ZFS file system and did not make any other changes. I just plugged in USB stick that was booting fine from 2.0 port to 3.0 port and system booted fine.

Couple ideas:

• try different USB stick
• make sure secure boot is not enabled
• load BIOS defaults and start from there

My relevant BIOS settings:

 - Storage:
   - Storage Options:
     - SATA Emulation                   AHCI
     - USB Storage Boot                 Before SATA

 - Security:
   - System Security:
     - Data Execution Prevention        Enable
     - Virtualization Technology        Disable
   - Device Security:
     - Network Controller               Device available
     - SATA0                            Device available
     - SATA1                            Device available
     - Pcie Device in Mini-PCIE Slot    Enable
   - USB Security:
     - USB Port Configuration           Auto
     - Front USB Ports                  Enable
     - USB Port 3                       Enable
     - USB Port 4                       Enable
     - USB Port 8                       Enable
     - USB Port 9                       Enable
     - Rear USB Ports                   Enable
     - USB Port 0                       Enable
     - USB Port 1                       Enable
     - Internal USB Ports               Enable
     - USB Port 2                       Enable
     - USB Port 7                       Enable
   - Slot Security:
     - PCI Express x4 Slot              Enable
     - Mini Card Slot                   Enable
   - Secure Boot Configuration:
     - Legacy Support                   Enable
     - Secure Boot                      Disable
     - Fast Boot                        Disable

 - Power:
   - Hardware Power Management:
     - SATA Power Management            Enable
     - S5 Maximum Power Savings         Disable
     - S4/S5 Wake on LAN                Disable

 - Advanced:
   - Onboard Devices:
     - Serial Port A                    IO=3F8h; IRQ=4
     - Serial Port B                    IO=2F8h; IRQ=3
     - Parallel Port                    IO=378h; IRQ=7; DMA=3
   - Bus Options:
     - PCI SERR# Generation             Enable
     - PCI VGA Palette Snooping         Disable
   - Device Options:
     - Integrated Graphics              Auto
     - Multi-Processor                  Enable
     - Internal Speaker                 Enable
     - NIC PXE Option ROM Downlaod      Disable

Ok. so my BIOS settings were reset to default. Still no go. Re-installed again, and same issue, install successful but will not boot; says no boot device detected. I tried a couple of other USB sticks I had, none worked. Then installed CentOS 7 on one of those USB sticks and it booted just fine; so it can't be the USB stick. Checked the secure boot option, and it was disabled. I also removed the M.2 SSD just to have that out of the equation; still same issue.

Not accusing you of fabricating anything, but in contrast to my own experience, I just can't see how you got pfsense to boot at all? My mind is blown that our experiences contrast so greatly and yet I don't know what is different?

This is the USB image I used:

https://nyifiles.pfsense.org/mirror/downloads/pfSense-CE-memstick-2.4.3-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz

Is that the same as what you used?

 

[BLinux]

Have you posted on the pfsense forum? They'll have more detailed info most likely considering the devs are there, they've helped me past some very strange installs. Could even be a bug with this hardware combo they'd like to know about

just did... we'll see what they say.

honestly, considering @nezach was able to install and boot pfsense without issue, I just don't know... but i can't justify spending too much more time on this as I was really only interested in playing with pfsense on this box, i wasn't really planning on using it. but this has been frustrating and i hate walking away from something unresolved, yet I don't have a lot of spare time for this.

 

[nezach]

Yep, same image and I created bootable USB from it on Linux using dd. Did you try recreating your install USB or are you always using the same? Verify checksum of the file you downloaded just to be on the safe side.

If you format stick before installing on it, do you see filesystem created on it after install?

It seems like that message you are getting is coming from BIOS. If you try booting from the stick you installed system onto on another machine, does it work?

Maybe try installing it on the SSD to make sure that works.

 

[BLinux]

@nezach OK... FINALLY, got it booting. I chose zfs/root this time, and it completed the install like before, but upon reboot it was recognized as a UEFI bootable drive and booted pfsense.

Previously, I was choosing the UFS option, and the USB drive would not be seen as UEFI bootable drive, but instead as a "legacy" bootable hard drive, but would not boot.

I know you said you got it to work both ways, but I have no idea how. Also, based on the boot order you shared, it looks like you were able to boot even as "legacy" usb hard drive? that never worked for me...

at this point, i have a working pfsense machine I can play with so I'm fine with that... not sure i'm interested enough to want to figure out why the UFS install didn't work or why it won't boot as legacy usb hard drive.

 

[fohdeesha]

Excuse me if you've already covered this, but what did you use to create the bootable USB stick? Whatever you used, it sounds like you picked "GPT/UEFI" instead of MBR (for instance in Rufus there's a dropdown to choose). In my experience if you pick GPT/UEFI for the installer disk, it's not going to install a legacy system, only UEFI, and UEFI installs can be quite buggy on older hardware like these T620's

This would also explain why the installer wouldn't even boot when you chose "legacy boot" in the BIOS

 

[BLinux]

Excuse me if you've already covered this, but what did you use to create the bootable USB stick? Whatever you used, it sounds like you picked "GPT/UEFI" instead of MBR (for instance in Rufus there's a dropdown to choose). In my experience if you pick GPT/UEFI for the installer disk, it's not going to install a legacy system, only UEFI, and UEFI installs can be quite buggy on older hardware like these T620's

This would also explain why the installer wouldn't even boot when you chose "legacy boot" in the BIOS

In short, I used 'dd' as described here:

Installing and Upgrading — Writing Disk Images | pfSense Documentation

Under Linux section.

 

[Aestr]

FWIW I just ran into this same issue trying to boot off the included SATA DOM that came with my A1SRI-2558F. Would not boot after install until I used your workaround with UEFI boot after installing on ZFS.

 

[nezach]

@BLinux glad you finally got it running. I saw your thread on pfsense forum and response from Steve. It sounds like this might be a bug in the FreeBSD installer if it also applies to A1SRI boards, I will see if I can reproduce it later today.

 

[BLinux]

@BLinux glad you finally got it running. I saw your thread on pfsense forum and response from Steve. It sounds like this might be a bug in the FreeBSD installer if it also applies to A1SRI boards, I will see if I can reproduce it later today.

I think there's something strange going on with the BIOS/UEFI of the T620 Plus in general. In a previous USB stick where I had installed pfsense, but didn't boot, and then I installed CentOS 7 over it and that booted with UEFI. Well, now that I have pfsense booting (with UEFI ZFS/root), I put that USB stick with CentOS 7 on it back in, and it will no longer boot!!

there is something peculiar about the BIOS on the T620....

 

[fohdeesha]

I think there's something strange going on with the BIOS/UEFI of the T620 Plus in general. In a previous USB stick where I had installed pfsense, but didn't boot, and then I installed CentOS 7 over it and that booted with UEFI. Well, now that I have pfsense booting (with UEFI ZFS/root), I put that USB stick with CentOS 7 on it back in, and it will no longer boot!!

there is something peculiar about the BIOS on the T620....

did you update to that latest v2.17 image? I saw in the notes some fixes related to UEFI but don't remember what exactly

 

[BLinux]

did you update to that latest v2.17 image? I saw in the notes some fixes related to UEFI but don't remember what exactly

I did! thanks to you... actually, that was the whole reason I was trying to boot the CentOS 7 USB stick again... the 2.17 download also had a Linux utility that I wanted to try out and then found that my CentOS 7 USB stick would no longer boot.

 

[fohdeesha]

ahh dang. Guess the issue is still there! I wonder if it's just poor MBR/BIOS vs GPT/UEFI boot detection

 

[nthu9280]

@BLinux - It is frustrating and feel bad as I had a part in nudging you in this direction.

I didn't run into this issue on either T610 / T620. But I booted & installed from USB to the 16GB SSD.

BIOS upgrade itself can be done from within the BIOS itself also in addition to DOS & Linux tools.

 

[fohdeesha]

BIOS upgrade itself can be done from within the BIOS itself also in addition to DOS & Linux tools.

the issue is earlier BIOS versions do not come with that tool (not one of my 3 t620's had this available)

 

[BLinux]

@BLinux - It is frustrating and feel bad as I had a part in nudging you in this direction.

I didn't run into this issue on either T610 / T620. But I booted & installed from USB to the 16GB SSD.

BIOS upgrade itself can be done from within the BIOS itself also in addition to DOS & Linux tools.

@nthu9280 LOL... no fault of yours... and really, my plan was not to use pfsense. in fact, I already have one of my T620+ in use with Linux and that's worked fine with little frustration. the only annoyance was the M1.6 screws for the mSATA but I found a way to make that work.

I was only trying out pfsense install since I bought 2 units, 1 as spare, so I thought I would try it out.

I'm actually quite happy that you pointed me in this direction.... i'm only using about 12W at the wall with 4-ports connected. When I dug around, I found out that the Supermicro E200-9B that I was looking at would have used about the same or even more power, so for 1/3 the cost, i got about the same energy efficiency, and a faster processor! I think these T620+ are really a gem.... that 25W TDP on the AMD chip is deceiving... they obviously have very good power management...

 

[nezach]

I was able to reproduce the problem on my system. During POST screen if you hit F9 boot selection screen pops up and you can pick which device you want to boot and if you want to boot UEFI or legacy. I was always using that screen when booting my box and always choosing UEFI, that's why I never ran into the problem.

pfSense installation media boots in UEFI mode, but in legacy mode I get error "No boot disk has been detected or the disk has failed.".

If I install it using "Auto (UFS)" option it does not boot in legacy mode, same error as above, but it boots fine in UEFI mode.

If I install it using "Auto (ZFS)" option and choose "GPT (BIOS+UEFI)" partition scheme it does not boot in legacy mode, but works fine in UEFI mode.

So nothing really works in legacy mode and everything works in UEFI mode and it must just depend on the BIOS settings which mode gets chosen and in turn if it boots or you get an error message.