Hi again,
On Wed, 14 Oct 2026, I wrote:
> Fixed in -current: with the -current snapshot bsd.rd
> (kern.version: 8.0-current #92), installboot -c completes on this
> machine.
Follow-up: my earlier statement "fixed in -current" was wrong.
1. The problem persists in the 8.0 release, in all three paths:
- sysupgrade 7.9 -> 8.0 freezes right after "Making all device
nodes... done" (bsd.upgrade runs md_installboot)
- a fresh install from the 8.0 install media freezes at the
same point
- "installboot -v -c -r /mnt sd2" from the 8.0 bsd.rd shell
freezes the machine; without -c it completes
Booting with "boot -c", "disable efi" makes 8.0 install and run
without problems.
2. The firmware itself can write boot variables. From a Linux live
system (grml, booted via UEFI) on the same machine:
- before: efibootmgr -v showed only firmware-generated device
entries (UEFI USB Floppy, UEFI USB CD, the two SSDs, ...);
no OpenBSD entry existed
- efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sda -p 1 -L OpenBSD-Test \
-l '\EFI\OPENBSD\BOOTX64.EFI'
completed without problems
- after a reboot the entry is still present, appears in the
firmware's F9 boot menu, and is first in BootOrder
So the hang is not simply broken firmware: the same
SetVariable-style operation works when issued by Linux, but
freezes the machine when issued by OpenBSD's efi(4).
One possibly relevant difference: Linux carries workarounds for
firmware that touches memory outside the EFI runtime regions
during runtime service calls. If this AMI firmware does that,
a fault inside the firmware call could explain the hard freeze.
This is only a guess.
3. My earlier successful test with the -current snapshot (#92)
remains unexplained. No pre-existing OpenBSD boot entry was
present on this machine, so that is not the reason. Possibly a
change between snapshot #92 and the 8.0 release.
Note for affected users: /etc/bsd.re-config ("disable efi") only
covers the installed kernel. sysupgrade boots /bsd.upgrade, which
runs installboot -c again, so efi(4) also has to be disabled at the
boot> prompt ("boot -c /bsd.upgrade") for future upgrades. Boot
entries can be created from Linux with efibootmgr instead.
Hardware unchanged: HP Z420, BIOS J61 v03.96, efi0: UEFI 2.3.1,
American Megatrends rev 0x4028d, 2x Samsung SSD 870 QVO 1TB.
Still investigating,
Sebastian
