Re: Can not boot without monitor attached

On Fri, Apr 07, 2023 at 11:40:47AM +0200, Kusalananda Kähäri wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm trying to set up a headless FreeBSD 13.1 system.  I've done so
> successfully before on this particular machine, but for whatever reason,
> after a complete reinstall, it doesn't want to boot without a monitor
> attached via HDMI.  Since it never shows up on the network I'm assuming
> it never even gets past the boot prompt.
> 
> If I plug in a HDMI cable to a monitor before booting, it boots as
> expected.  Plugging in a monitor after unsuccessfully trying to boot
> without a monitor does not work (black display).
> 
> I tried adding -P to /boot.config, but this had no effect.  The system
> is, apart from that, fairly vanilla.
> 
> The system is a fan-less Chinese(?) "Basoaro" system with an American
> Megatrends BIOS, but I can't find anything in the BIOS that seems
> relevant, and since it *used* to be possible to boot the system without
> an attached monitor, I'm assuming it's not a BIOS-related issue.
> 
> Whatever I did before to get it to boot headless, I've forgotten what it
> was and need a reminder and/or pointers from you guys.
> 

I believe my issue might have been solved by simply setting

	console="efi"

... in /boot/loader.conf

This seems to not block the boot process when there's no attached video
or serial console.

I was initially afraid of setting a value to this setting as I didn't
want to get locked out completely with no way of accessing the system,
but I don't know whether that's even a possible risk.

Thanks for reading,

-- 
Andreas (Kusalananda) Kähäri
SciLifeLab, NBIS, ICM
Uppsala University, Sweden

.