Background

I come from using Gentoo, the source based distribution. With that in mind, and 4 hard drives in my PC, I decided to experiment, and possibly switch to FreeBSD. I'm writing this question from:

OS Specs

% cat /etc/os-release NAME=FreeBSD VERSION=12.2-RELEASE-p3 VERSION_ID=12.2 ID=freebsd ANSI_COLOR="0;31" PRETTY_NAME="FreeBSD 12.2-RELEASE-p3" >snip< 

Running the KDE-5 version in the ports tree, and synth as a package manager

Issue

Having installed all of the above properly, I'm in the process of fine tuning items. I'm very comfortable editing config files, as that's the main mechanism in Gentoo. I've run into an issue that I finally can't solve on my own, mainly because the FreeBSD documentation is woefully outdated. See: Bug 235040 - Lua-based loader(8) does not pick up /boot/loader.rc.local

Questions

1. Making loader.efi point back to loader_4th.efi fixes the issue.

Is this just a symbolic link. I wanted to know before I create it, because there are no links in the list

# ls -al /boot/loader* -r-xr-xr-x 3 root wheel 372736 Jan 3 18:40 /boot/loader -r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 327680 Jan 3 18:40 /boot/loader_4th -r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 428032 Jan 3 18:40 /boot/loader_4th.efi -r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 327680 Nov 28 17:18 /boot/loader_4th.old -r-xr-xr-x 3 root wheel 372736 Jan 3 18:40 /boot/loader_lua -r-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 490496 Jan 3 18:40 /boot/loader_lua.efi -r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 372736 Nov 28 17:18 /boot/loader_lua.old -r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 278528 Jan 3 18:40 /boot/loader_simp -r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 367616 Jan 3 18:40 /boot/loader_simp.efi -r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 278528 Nov 28 17:18 /boot/loader_simp.old -r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 7492 Jan 3 18:40 /boot/loader.4th -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 179 Feb 26 18:23 /boot/loader.conf -r-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 490496 Jan 3 18:40 /boot/loader.efi -r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 468 Jan 3 18:40 /boot/loader.rc -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 28 Feb 27 16:18 /boot/loader.rc.local 

2. Would switching from 12.2-RELEASE to 12.2-STABLE help? I can't tell because no Google results come up, other than how to switch branches

I'm using the nvidia-driver blob from x11/nvidia-driver(There are no KMS options for this driver, due to no DRM kernel module) on a:

device = GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] 

Half Solution/Aggravation

If I boot to a UEFI Shell and use the mode command, the FreeBSD loader will be properly displayed. I can also choose option 3 after the loader loads (at the wrong resolution) to Escape to the loader prompt and use gop set, but I must use either option at each reboot, because my system defaults to 1024x768. Is there a way to force the UEFI to default to the new setting permanently?