VirtualBox 6.1.14 fails to boot FreeBSD 12.1 install ISO in EFI mode

[Thomas Dreibholz]

VirtualBox 6.1.14 fails to boot FreeBSD 12.1 install ISO in EFI mode. I am trying VirtualBox 6.1.14 from virtualbox.org. However, with 6.1.10 provided by Ubuntu 20.04, I was able to boot the ISO in EFI mode.

[Thomas Dreibholz]

Screenshot of boot issue

[Thomas Dreibholz]

Output of "vboxmanage showvminfo -machinereadable" for the VM

[Thomas Dreibholz]

VBox.log

[kiokoman]

same problem here, same configuration, NEW machine created with virtual box 6.1.14 does not boot, with an iso from FreeBSD I'm stuck at efi shell. OLD machines created with a previous version are still working

[Thomas Dreibholz]

This FreeBSD EFI boot issue may be the same as for the latest Ubuntu beta: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/19967 .

[Thomas Dreibholz]

Trying to boot the same FreeBSD-12.1 ISO with an older VirtualBox 6.1.10-dfsg (as provided by the Ubuntu 20.04 repositories) succeeds. It seems that there has been an EFI booting bug introduced with a VirtualBox version after 6.1.10.

[Thomas Dreibholz]

The issue still exists in the latest VirtualBox 6.1.16.

[Thomas Dreibholz]

The issue is still reproducible, using VirtualBox 6.1.16 (from the VirtualBox repository) under Ubuntu 20.04 with the FreeBSD 12.2 ISO ( https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/12.2/FreeBSD-12.2-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso).

[Thomas Dreibholz]

FreeBSD 12.2 VM configuration

[Thomas Dreibholz]

FreeBSD 12.2 VM log file

[Andrew 1717]

I can confirm Thomas's observations. Comparing the log from booting the same FreeBSD 12.1 VM under 6.1.12 vs. 6.1.16, I see an extra EFI module is loaded:

EFI: VBoxDbg> loadimage64 'R:/tinderbox/efi2-6.1/out/win.amd64/release/obj/VBoxEfiFirmware/amd64/RELEASE_VS2010/X64/VBoxPkg/VBoxFsDxe/VBoxIso9660/DEBUG/VBoxIso9600.efi' 0xbee7a000 LB 0x5680

As Thomas also noticed, the issue probably came with the fix of https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/19682.

[martinw]

This is not specific to the FreeBSD ISO - it affects any ISO that uses an El Torito boot record to boot in EFI mode and that doesn't include a fallback bootloader in /EFI/BOOT in the iso9660 filesystem. I am seeing the same issue when testing the Mageia ISOs.

I have fixed this on my system with the following patch (largely based on the code in Firmware/MdeModulePkg/Universal/Disk/PartitionDxe/ElTorito.c). This causes the firmware to only load the iso9660 filesystem if it doesn't find an El Torito EFI boot record.

[martinw]

Patch that fixes this bug for me

[Thomas Dreibholz]

The EFI boot issue is still occurring in the latest VirtualBox 6.1.18.

[Thomas Dreibholz]

VBOX file from VirtualBox 6.1.18

[Thomas Dreibholz]

VBox log file for VirtualBox 6.1.18

[grahamperrin]

Maybe a factor, for some of who are attempting to boot from a FreeBSD 12.2 ISO – and please note, this bug is not limited to virtual machines:

• FreeBSD bug  251866 – Because the loader.efi modified the size of EFI_STAGING_SIZE, vmware could not start the system above FreeBSD 12.2

If a patched (or fixed) VirtualBox host can not boot a 12.2 ISO, then please try one from the 12.1 area:

•  https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/ISO-IMAGES/12.1/

Thank you

[Thomas Dreibholz]

VirtualBox 6.1.18 also cannot boot a FreeBSD 12.1 in EFI mode. However, the old VirtualBox 6.1.10 from the Ubuntu 20.04 repository was able to boot this ISO some time ago. So, I assume this is a bug of VirtualBox.

[Thomas Dreibholz]

Log file of VirtualBox 6.1.18 failing to boot FreeBSD 12.1 ISO

[Thomas Dreibholz]

VBox file of VirtualBox 6.1.18 failing to boot FreeBSD 12.1 ISO

[Thomas Dreibholz]

And, for testing, I also tried the current 13.0-BETA2 ISO. It fails to boot with EFI as well.

That is, I tried the following ISOs:

•  https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/ISO-IMAGES/13.0/FreeBSD-13.0-BETA2-amd64-disc1.iso
•  https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/ISO-IMAGES/12.1/FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso
•  https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/12.2/FreeBSD-12.2-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso

All fail to boot with EFI.

[grahamperrin]

Cc: grahamperrin

[grahamperrin]

As a workaround, try:

1. at the UEFI shell prompt
2. exit
3. ignore the boot manager
4. boot maintenance manager
5. boot from file
6. browse the file system of the ISO until you find (for example) bootx64.efi
7. select the required file then key Return or Enter.

[Thomas Dreibholz]

The work-around successfully boots a FreeBSD-13.0-RC3 ISO as well.

But the actual issue remains: VirtualBox 6.1.18 cannot directly boot a FreeBSD ISO in EFI mode. It worked fine with VirtualBox 6.1.10. Since the bug is there since around 7 months now, is Oracle going to provide a fix at any time soon?

[Thomas Dreibholz]

The bug is still there, in the latest VirtualBox 6.1.20 with the current FreeBSD-13.0-RELEASE ISO.

Note, that the work-around above makes VirtualBox boot from the ISO, but a FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE installed from the ISO to the virtual HDD does not boot after installation.

[martinw]

As noted in comment 6, this is a regression caused by the fix to https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/19682.

How can we encourage a VirtualBox developer to look at the fix I suggested (patch attached 4 months ago)?