Unable to install FreeBSD 10.2 USB won't boot

Jacopo Gagnarli

Jacopo Gagnarli

Hi all, this is my first experience in the BSD world, I want to install FreeBSD 10.2 on this old machine:

HP Compaq dc5850
AMD Athlon(tm) Dual Core 4450B @ 2300Mhz
5gb DDR2 RAM
250gb Seagate HDD
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500 256MB

I downloaded FreeBSD-10.2-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img and wrote it to USB with Win32DiskImager.

I insert the USB and the boot stuck after BIOS.
Code: 
Attempting boot from usb device
After this the system restart.

I tried on other machine and the same USB boots fine.

I also tried to boot USB with PCBSD10.2-RELEASE-08-19-2015-x64-DVD-USB but I got the same result.

Linux USB boots fine.

I can't understand what I'm doing wrong.

EDIT: I retried using dd on linux but I got the same result
 
First thing to do is make sure the BIOS/UEFI on the computer is the latest revision issued by the manufacturer. If not, update the BIOS/UEFI. That is quite an old computer so I assume it uses BIOS instead of UEFI. Also consider trying a different USB media device to install from and see if that might help.
 
Thanks for your reply, I also tested FreeBSD-10.2-RELEASE-amd64-uefi-memstick with no luck.

I update bios from 1.09 to 3.14 and now it stuck on this:

Code: 
Attempting boot from usb device

BTX Loader 1.00 BTX Version 1.02

I will try with another USB stick but as I say it works on other machine
 
Does the PC have a working CD/DVD drive? If so, maybe try installing with CD/DVD media instead. You can also try adjusting the available options in the BIOS.
 
Ok, I tried with another USB but I got the same result, it stuck on BTX Loader.

I will try the CD option at this point.

According to this:

Thread freebsd-9-on-hp-dc-5850.31069/

I think the problem is related to HP BIOS.

EDIT: I downloaded and burned FreeBSD-10.2-RELEASE-amd64-disc1 still got the same error with a little bit different output
Code: 
CD Loader 1.2

Building the boot loader arguments
Looking up /BOOT/LOADER... Found
Relocating the loader and the BTX
Starting the BTX loaer

BTX loader 1.00 BTX version is 1.02
 
Possibly. One way you could try to attempt to get around this is take the disk out, place it into another computer if you have one available, install FreeBSD, then place the disk back into the target system and see if it will boot from the disk.
 
Most likely another case of a broken BIOS. Maybe someone else will have an idea I haven't thought of. If you can't get FreeBSD installed directly on the machine, you always have the option of installing it in a virtual machine using VirtualBox or similar software until you have access to other hardware to use. :)
 
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