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Date:      Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:55:40 -0700
From:      Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Kevin Oberman <oberman@es.net>
Cc:        Volker <volker@vwsoft.com>, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, Kelly Black <kjblack@gmail.com>
Subject:   Re: Problem with /boot/loader
Message-ID:  <20080627035540.GA21710@eos.sc1.parodius.com>
In-Reply-To: <20080627031233.9DC4945047@ptavv.es.net>
References:  <48640FE8.9080501@vwsoft.com> <20080627031233.9DC4945047@ptavv.es.net>

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On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 08:12:33PM -0700, Kevin Oberman wrote:
> > Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:53:44 +0200
> > From: Volker <volker@vwsoft.com>
> > Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
> > 
> > On 12/23/-58 20:59, Kelly Black wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > I have a problem with loader. I recently upgraded from 6_rel to 7_rel.
> > > Now when I install world there is a problem booting.
> > > 
> > > Here is what I do:
> > > cd /usr/src
> > > make buildworld
> > > make buildkernel KERNCONF=BLACK
> > > make installkernel KERNCONF=BLACK
> > > 
> > > At this point I can reboot and all is good. After boot I install the new world:
> > > 
> > > cd /usr/src
> > > mergemaster -p
> > > reboot into single user mode
> > > cd /usr/src
> > > make installworld
> > > mergemaster
> > > 
> > > Now when I reboot there is a problem. I get an error that the system
> > > cannot boot. Part of it looks like this:
> > > Can't work out which disk we are booting from.
> > > Guessed BIOS device 0xffffffff not found by probes, defaulting to disk0:
> > > 
> > > If I boot from a live disk and replace /boot/loader with
> > > /boot/loader.old it boots up fine and everything looks good. A new
> > > world and a new kernel. I would be grateful for any help or any
> > > pointers.
> > > 
> > > Sincerely,
> > > Kel
> > > 
> > > PS I do not do anything special with my loader config files:
> > > 
> > > $ cat loader.conf
> > >...
> > 
> > Kelly,
> > 
> > the /boot/loader.conf file does not come into play at that stage. Early
> > in the loader code, loader needs to figure out, which disk (BIOS device)
> > has been booted from. Until loader knows which device was booted up,
> > it's unable to access any files (even loader.conf) on your boot device.
> > 
> > As I've never seen such a problem while upgrading any system, I suspect
> > your problem must be settings specific. Can you show me your kernel
> > config or are you using a plain vanilla GENERIC? Which arch are we
> > talking about?
> > 
> > As I'm currently investigating another boot problem (but earlier in the
> > boot chain), I'll check boot logic in the source code and may check for
> > your issue, too, at that time, so it's just one effort. But please stay
> > patient for some days, as I'm currently too busy.
> 
> We just got hit by this. The loader never loads and nothing boots. But a
> system admin discovered that the problem disappeared if the /boot.conf
> file was deleted. It just contained '-P'.
> 
> Once this file was removed, the system just booted up as expected. When
> he changed it to -D or -h, the boot still locked up. 

I believe you mean /boot.config.  :-)

-P set the console to the serial port assuming no AT/PS2 keyboard is
connected to the machine.  -D and -h are described in more detail in the
Handbook.

Even with -P, -D, -h, or -Dh, the system *should* still actually boot
up, you just won't see anything on the VGA console until the system is
fully up and getty/login is run against ttyv0 (VGA console login).

If Kelly has no /boot.config, then I'd say the issue you're reporting is
a different bug/problem, but should still be investigated.

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.              PGP: 4BD6C0CB |




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