..No Boot Device Found. Press any key to reboot..

[mikethe1wheelnut]

ok.. I'm not sure whether this is a cheer, or a scream..

I used gparted to make some space, a 40 gig empty primary partition. My understanding is that my boot-loader operates from another partition 'earlier' on the disc. I booted into the live cd, ran the installer as instructed. the only place I deviated from the instructions was in the partitioning. I chose manual partitioning. I think that was it. The installation instructions do not seem to include instructions as to what to do here. I selected the partition, (the empty partition) that I had previously created for the purpose, and selected auto (I first selected create, but didn't know what to do), it created it's partitions (zfs and swap?), the "next" option became available, and the rest of the installation proceeded like magic. I felt like cheering, the experience that far was wonderful!

Now.. having shut down the system, removed the installation media, and re-booted... I get: "No boot device found. Press any key to reboot".. ..so I don't even know if -any- of the other operating systems are even still there.. ???what happened???

..nobody need panic, I have my backups.. ..praise the lord.. ..if you're religions.. (I'm not)

[mikethe1wheelnut]

..everybody breath.. searching for solutions.. will report on results..

[mikethe1wheelnut]

..well, I tried this (linux option): https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-c ... egacy-mode

..and the result so far is:

No bootable devices found.
Press F1 key to retry boot. (no effect)
Press F2 key for setup utility. (blank screen.. I killed the power eventually)
Press F5 key.. for fancy diagnostics.. (..plenty of bells and whistles so far..)

[mikethe1wheelnut]

ok.. hitting F12 immediately after powering off and back on brings up "Preparing one-time boot menue", which gives the following options:

Bios setup (nothing useful here that I know of)
Bios Flash Update (?)
Diagnostics (the bells and whistles of earlier)
Intel(R) management engine.. (?)
Change Boot Mode Settings (I can choose to switch to secure boot mode, but it warns that I might be unable to boot if I do that, so..)

I'll try now to boot into the live usb again..

Ok. I can boot into the live ghostbsd, apparently..

..well, I went back into ghostbsd, told it to install again. because I realized I could get it to tell me about the disc partioning. ..not encouraging.

I have da0 which look like the partitions on the usb-key, and.. ada0 with a size of 122104 mb with no mount point and no system type. ..so it would appear.. that ghostbsd erased my whole computer, while not actually installing ghostbsd. ..somebody please tell me I've got this all wrong..

[mikethe1wheelnut]

..the next thing to try, (tomorrow), will be repairing the boot-loader: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

[mikethe1wheelnut]

It turns out that gpart show gives some very interesting and relevant information. I'll include a screenshot when I figure out how. the screenshot I'm able to take is a file that is too large for uploading here.

..it seems to be reporting three partitions, all of them identical except for their name, all of them corrupt.
one is da0, the next is iso9660/ghostBSD, the third is diskid/DISK-[long number].

the partitions in each are:
freebsd-boot (13K)
-free- (26K)
efi (2M)
-free- (2.7G)

..total of 29G..

[zazlox]

the info are not enough. either shae the whole log file or screenshots of the issue. EFI partitions shall be at least 256M . put outputs of commands in code here . so as they look clear.

[wb7odyfred]

GhostBSD installer is broken, when trying to use existing setup partitions. GhostBSD Installer GBI works best with automatic install to free contiguous unpartitioned space disk space. Then it will create 3 GPT partitions ESP EFI FAT32 260 MB partition, 2048 Swap partition, Data partitions of size ( Free Space - 260MB - 2048MB ) We boot rEFInd boot manager, that allows you to select which O/S to boot.
/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64-REFIND.EFI
/EFI/refind/BOOTX64-REFIND.EFI
/EFI/ghostbsd/bootx64_ghost.EFI

Eric is working on a new GhostBSD installer.
I assume you are trying to install GhostBSD on a disk with other Linux already installed. Thanks for your testing and your detailed explanations. Mike.
Explain what you wish to do with the GhostBSD install. I assume to install alongside other Linux installations on GPT partitioned disk.

Disable Secure Boot BIOS option. USE GPT partition tatble scheme, NOT MBR scheme Master Boot Record

"ESP EFI FAT32 260 MB partition" This partition probably conflicts with existing partiton for FAT32 ESP EFI. Not sure how that looks.
In GhostBSD Terminal use these commands to view partiion information
camcontrol devlist
geom disk list
gpart status
gpart show -lp or gpart show -rp

copy from terminal window text area selected by a mouse. Use Ctrl-Shift-C. Paste here in ghostbsd forums with either ctrl-v or shift-insert

t.me/ghostbsd help and support topic GhostBSD Telegram channel, You can attach screenshot fif

[wb7odyfred]

Answer copied from Telegram https://t.me/ghostbsd

0XFE, [9/15/23 5:02 AM]
The error message "No Boot Device Found. Press any key to reboot..." in GhostBSD typically indicates that the system cannot find a bootable device to load the operating system from. Several factors can cause this problem:

Incorrect BIOS/UEFI Settings: The most common reason for this error is incorrect BIOS or UEFI settings. Ensure that the system is set to boot from the correct device (usually your primary hard drive or SSD) in the BIOS/UEFI settings. You might also want to check the boot order to make sure that the selected device is at the top of the list.

Boot Loader Configuration: If you've recently installed or updated GhostBSD, a misconfiguration in the boot loader can cause this issue. Ensure that the boot loader is correctly configured to point to the GhostBSD installation.

Faulty Hard Drive or SSD: A malfunctioning or disconnected hard drive or SSD can lead to this error. Check the physical connections and health of your storage device.Simply use rEFInd boot USB on a pendrive and place it in the BIOS UEFI

Operating System Corruption: If the GhostBSD installation is corrupted or incomplete, it may not be able to boot. In such cases, you might need to reinstall GhostBSD or repair the installation.

Boot Sector or Partition Table Issues: Problems with the boot sector or partition table on your storage device can prevent the system from booting. You can attempt to repair these issues using tools like gpart or third-party disk recovery utilities.

UEFI vs. Legacy BIOS: Ensure that your system's boot mode (UEFI or Legacy BIOS) matches the installation method used for GhostBSD. Mismatched boot modes can cause boot failures.

Filesystem Errors: If there are filesystem errors on the GhostBSD root partition, it can prevent the system from booting. You can try running a filesystem check and repair using the fsck command.

Another Telegram comment:
Simply use rEFInd boot USB on a pendrive and place it in the BIOS UEFI

Hardware Failures: In rare cases, hardware failures such as a failing hard drive or motherboard issues can cause boot problems. Diagnosing and replacing faulty hardware may be necessary.

To resolve this issue, start by checking your BIOS/UEFI settings to ensure that the correct boot device is selected.

[wb7odyfred]

Simply use rEFInd boot USB on a pendrive and place it in the BIOS UEFI from t.me/ghostbsd telegram group.