FreeBSD EFI guests 6.1.26 will not install

[adwsklerjuihgweiop]

VirtualBox 6.1.x no longer works with FreeBSD's EFI (boot code). 6.0.x works fine.
I'm running into the same problem.
But I don't know what sort of magic is needed to make it work again with the new VB versions.

[adwsklerjuihgweiop]

Hi there,
I've noticed that 6.1 no longer boots my EFI-enabled VM images. They just go straight to network boot (even if I disabled network booting in the VM settings).
VirtualBox 6.0.24 is the last version that works.

Changelog for 6.1 says there is a new EFI impl.
Any ideas what has changed that might affect whether any particular partition is bootable or not?

[scottgus1]

I merged your two posts to avoid splitting the support we'll try to give.

Unfortunately I don't know enough about Virtualbox EFI to answer questions about changes in it.

Since an upgrade to 6.1.something stops the VMs from booting, does downgrading to 6.0.previous let them start booting again?

[adwsklerjuihgweiop]

Downgrading to 6.0.24 makes my images boot again, yes.

[scottgus1]

OK, thanks. This sounds like a good item for the Bugtracker. Post a log from 6.0 where the VM boots, then 6.1 where the VM does not boot.

Also, can you make a new FreeBSD EFI VM on 6.1 and can it boot?

[adwsklerjuihgweiop]

Also, can you make a new FreeBSD EFI VM on 6.1 and can it boot?

Not sure I follow...
The EFI-enabled image has both legacy BIOS boot bits and EFI. The BIOS bootcode still works in 6.1, so the image itself is fine, I think.

[scottgus1]

If the new EFI VM installs and run on 6.1 then it shows Virtualbox is working and the problem lies inside the old VM's OS. It's a troubleshooting step: pin down where the problem lies.

[adwsklerjuihgweiop]

OK, thanks. This sounds like a good item for the Bugtracker. Post a log from 6.0 where the VM boots, then 6.1 where the VM does not boot.

https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/20743

[fth0]

As you already know, VirtualBox 6.0 and 6.1 provide different (U)EFI implementations. Especially the virtual NVRAM used to store (U)EFI variables was implemented completely different, and AFAIK, there is no converter available.

I believe (but I'm not sure) that you have to manually configure the VirtualBox (U)EFI variables necessary to boot into the guest OS, to be able to set further (U)EFI variables from within the guest OS.