Install FreeBSD DVD install on El Capitan/dual boot option

D

Dave109

As I am new to this forum, I apologize if this the wrong place to ask for this advise/experience. If inappropriate, please point me to forum that might answer this post.

Currently I am running a Macpro with El Capitan version 10.11.5. Due to SIP, making a bootable USB/EFI is very difficult for FreeBSD. I am aware of how to do this as Unetboot works for a Ubuntu iso but not FreeBSD.
Unetboot home page suggests https://sevenbits.github.io/Mac-Linux-USB-Loader/ that my malware detector honks on.

My question is:
Before buying the install FreeBSD DVD, has anyone installed FreeBSD as a dual boot option on Apple's El Capitan?
Creating a bootable DVD on a Mac does not work. Their DVD drives had issues re 2011 alas ...

Thank you for considering my question.
dave
 
Hello Dave,
I've played around with FreeBSD on Apple hardware (older macbooks and macbook pros), and have found that you can usually successfully boot if you create a bootable CD. For some mysterious reason probably known only to Apple, the machines I've had refused to boot from either a USB or a DVD, but were happy to boot from a CD.

To address the Mac-Linux-USB-Loader issue, I don't know what malware detector you are using, but in my experience, I have found anti-malware software will often complain about this type of software since it requires hardware access, root privileges, etc... and is often not signed by a "trusted developer". I have never tried this particular software for making bootable images, but if you are really suspicious (and set on this software), it looks as though its open source on github, and you could clone, examine, and compile the source code if you are so inclined. Alternatively, I have found that a simple:

sudo dd if=your/freebsd.iso of=/usb/device bs=16384

will typically succeed in creating a bootable USB drive. The dd command is also what I use for making bootable CDs.

Hope that helps. And just looking ahead a little: I have found that even after a successful boot on apple hardware, it seemed like apple went out of their way to provide you with hardware that you will have difficulties loading drivers for (like the network card).

Best of luck :D

-Greg
 
DiscmanDaemon said:
Hello Dave,
I've played around with FreeBSD on Apple hardware (older macbooks and macbook pros), and have found that you can usually successfully boot if you create a bootable CD. For some mysterious reason probably known only to Apple, the machines I've had refused to boot from either a USB or a DVD, but were happy to boot from a CD.

To address the Mac-Linux-USB-Loader issue, I don't know what malware detector you are using, but in my experience, I have found anti-malware software will often complain about this type of software since it requires hardware access, root privileges, etc... and is often not signed by a "trusted developer". I have never tried this particular software for making bootable images, but if you are really suspicious (and set on this software), it looks as though its open source on github, and you could clone, examine, and compile the source code if you are so inclined. Alternatively, I have found that a simple:

sudo dd if=your/freebsd.iso of=/usb/device bs=16384

will typically succeed in creating a bootable USB drive. The dd command is also what I use for making bootable CDs.

Hope that helps. And just looking ahead a little: I have found that even after a successful boot on apple hardware, it seemed like apple went out of their way to provide you with hardware that you will have difficulties loading drivers for (like the network card).

Best of luck :D

-Greg
Click to expand...
Greg
Thank you for the comments.
Due to EFI on the usb which Apple requires, the dd command wipes out the efi partition which Apple does not see the usb as bootable.
This i did aways back. Ubuntu iso created by unetboot works when the usb is formatted by unetboot and usb is fat partitioned.

I use bitdefender. The Mac-Linux-USB-Loader software has efi files that are not source just object. If the assembler code was there then i could review it.
As the dvd is not expensive, i will go ahead and try the freebsd install and see where it takes me.
The reason for the dual boot is to use dtrace to debug some ruby/rails code as Apple has now closed off this avenue for security reasons --- Ugh.
dave
 
I hope it works out, and keep me updated. As I mentioned, I have had success booting from CDs, but apple hardware has landed me in driver hell (obscure broadcom chips, weird serial io errors, etc). I'm wonder if the official DVD version is able to resolve these better since they can pack more on a DVD than a CD (and probably are cooking them with something more sophisticated than a sudo dd).

Keep us posted,

-Greg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top