Multiple (3 disk) installation

[J65nko]

In behalf of a newly registered user, I post his question here:

I have a Core i7 based computer with 32GB RAM with 3 HDD's (2 x 1TB, and 1 x 3TB WD Red HDD's). I'm able to boot off the installation disc I downloaded and install the OS but once I reboot the computer after installation the system won't boot at all.

The only way I can get it up and running again is for me to unplug the primary HDD and take it elsewhere to get it formatted. It won't even boot if I put the drive to another position in the chain.

I gave the primary HDD a 1GB / (root) partition and spread the others of the two 1TB drives with the 3TB drive being set aside for /home.

Am I doing something wrong or is there a compatibility issue with my drive? If it's the latter I can go out and buy a replacement drive, though I'd rather be able to make use of the ones I already have.

Thank you in advance for your time and I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

[J65nko]

The easiest way is to install on a single disk first. That should give you a system that will boot.
When you have a working install, we can help you to add the other two disks.

[jggimi]

There have been scattered reports of some systems refusing to boot with OpenBSD crafted MBRs. This might be one. If I recall correctly, in each of these cases they are UEFI systems which apparently have legacy BIOS boot capability. Either this capability is not being properly enabled by the reporters*, or the legacy BIOS boot objects to some facet of the MBR as provisioned by OpenBSD. So far, from reading these reports and discussing it with some of those affected, it's not clear which.

EFI boot is possible with OpenBSD-current. But with EFI booting, video is restricted to using a framebuffer without acceleration. Such a system would not be suitable for use as a modern graphical workstation, where 2D or 3D acceleration is often a dependency.

* This is just my conjecture, since none of these affected systems has apparently reached any developer. Perhaps on these particular systems two BIOS switches must be set: enable legacy BIOS, and disabling secure boot.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

If I may:

Originally Posted by jggimi

with EFI booting, video is restricted to using a framebuffer without acceleration

This is incorrect, my Haswell laptop has hardware acceleration under UEFI in OpenBSD-current

The machine boots in both UEFI and non-UEFI mode and the graphics performance is identical in either mode.

[jggimi]

Really! The last time I tested EFI was in September, and I'd tested with wsfb(4) rather than vesa(4) at jasperla@'s recommendation. It was unaccelerated.

My apologies for providing misinformation. -current is a moving target.

[sorkom]

Thanks for the messages so far, all. The motherboard is an MSI Z87-GD65. It is an EFI board but I currently have it set to Legacy. Because OpenBSD doesn't seem to like the Atheros Killer E220 NIC I've bought a USB Ethernet converter, which is not ideal. I'd ideally like to be able to get this board to let me use OpenBSD and to use the onboard NIC but am prepared to buy a replacement motherboard if needed, as that seems to be the issue here. If this is the case, which would you recommend? I don't like buying computers very often so want a board that will last a long time under heavy use.

Thanks in advance.

[jggimi]

Hello, and welcome! If you can get EFI boot working, that would circumvent any issues these motherboards seem to have with BIOS booting.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ms-4175476175/
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/...t-process.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2239793

The Tom's Hardware posting discusses a CMOS reset. Note that the person posting did so under the guidance of MSI support, and with a BIOS post code in hand.

[sorkom]

Thanks for all the help so far, all.

I've not been able to boot into OpenBSD with the above computer so have decided to take the plunge and get a new motherboard. Who can recommend a good reliable one that will take 32GB RAM, a Nvidia GeForce 780 graphics card, and Haswell Core i7? I was thinking of a Sabertooth but am not sure if it's compatible and don't want to spend all that money on the off chance.

[jggimi]

If you require Nvidia graphics, I recommend you choose a different OS. Nvidia does not release specifications; and they write their own closed source drivers for Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD.

With Nvidia graphics, you will most likely need to use vesa(4) or wsfb(4). The nv(4) driver, which provides 2D acceleration for a subset of their chipsets for X.Org, was Nvidia's last foray into open source, with copyrights until 2008. The X.Org driver's ChangeLog shows the last update was in 2012.

[J65nko]

Did you try the steps outlined at https://blog.jasper.la/openbsd-uefi-bootloader-howto/ ?
Where did you get stuck?

Buying a new motherboard does is not guarantee that OpenBSD will work on it.
Before you spend money on new hardware, you could try to install FreeBSD . The folks at https://forums.freebsd.org are also very helpful.

[sorkom]

Thanks for that. I did try that. I dd'd the .fs image to a flash drive but it didn't work as planned. I booted into as instructed but get dumped into a UEFI shell that won't load it's own bootup script, startup.nsh and that won't allow me to do it either.

I've contacted Asus and Supermicro to ask them if their motherboards are compatible with OpenBSD.

[sorkom]

Hello all,

I'm pleased to say that the problem has been resolved, I can now boot into my Corei7 computer with no problems.

I bought a new motherboard, an Asus Z-97 Pro Gamer and had no problems with it. I bought it from a company here in the UK called Overclockers[1] because they said that if it didn't work I could return it and try a different one. This is the second time I've used them and have no problems with them at all.

I don't know if it was company policy or an employee with a sense of humour but they included a small packet of Haribo sweets in the box

From what I've seen from other sites, anyone wanting to install OpenBSD on their computer should avoid MSI. I've already got OBSD installed on two computers, both of which have Asus motherboards so it seems that this may be the safest option to choose.

[1]: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-...mb-635-as.html