FreeBSD host, EFI guests, 6.1.18: no boot manager in response to F12 or Escape

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on other (unsupported) hosts like FreeBSD.
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grahamperrin
Posts: 57
Joined: 27. Apr 2008, 15:19

FreeBSD host, EFI guests, 6.1.18: no boot manager in response to F12 or Escape

Post by grahamperrin »

Last edited by grahamperrin on 27. Mar 2021, 13:59, edited 1 time in total.
fth0
Volunteer
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Location: Germany

Re: FreeBSD host, EFI guests, 6.1.18: F12 no longer presents the boot manager

Post by fth0 »

Simply type "exit" in the EFI shell. ;)

PS: F12 only works in the VirtualBox legacy BIOS.
grahamperrin
Posts: 57
Joined: 27. Apr 2008, 15:19

Re: FreeBSD host, EFI guests, 6.1.18: F12 no longer presents the boot manager

Post by grahamperrin »

Thanks, I'm 99% certain that F12 worked with EFI in 5.2.44.

The need to type 'exit' (with no on-screen hint to do so) would have been very memorable.

This feels regressive.
fth0
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Re: FreeBSD host, EFI guests, 6.1.18: F12 no longer presents the boot manager

Post by fth0 »

grahamperrin wrote:I'm 99% certain that F12 worked with EFI in 5.2.44.
I believe you. The VirtualBox EFI used to accept the Any key. The current implementation seems to only accept the ESC key.
fth0
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Re: FreeBSD host, EFI guests, 6.1.18: F12 no longer presents the boot manager

Post by fth0 »

Well, I successfully verified it myself just before posting it, albeit on a macOS host. I cannot say why it doesn't work for you.
grahamperrin
Posts: 57
Joined: 27. Apr 2008, 15:19

Re: FreeBSD host, EFI guests, 6.1.18: F12 no longer presents the boot manager

Post by grahamperrin »

Thanks,
fth0 wrote:… why it doesn't work for you.
Maybe specific to FreeBSD hosts.

I'd like to test both F12 and Escape with 6.1.18 on a non-Mac supported host before deciding whether to raise a bug in the FreeBSD area.

Aiming to install on Linux, however I'm presented with a bewildering array of options.
fth0
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Re: FreeBSD host, EFI guests, 6.1.18: F12 no longer presents the boot manager

Post by fth0 »

I just successfully tried the following on a Lenovo T590 with a Linux Mint 20 host OS and VirtualBox 6.1.18:

In the VirtualBox Manager, I created a new VM for a Windows 10 guest (shouldn't really matter) with the default settings, and manually changed System > Motherboard > Enable EFI. Then I clicked the Start button, and nearly simultaneously hammered on the ESC key (about twice a second should be more than fast enough ;)), and it worked as expected. Other keys incl. F12 did not work.
grahamperrin
Posts: 57
Joined: 27. Apr 2008, 15:19

Re: FreeBSD host, EFI guests, 6.1.18: F12 no longer presents the boot manager

Post by grahamperrin »

Thanks. This smells increasingly like a bug in the port to FreeBSD.
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