Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 12:24:55 -0600 From: John Nielsen <lists@jnielsen.net> To: Barney Cordoba <barney_cordoba@yahoo.com> Cc: "current@freebsd.org" <current@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Booting a SuperMicro Superserver Message-ID: <0F76C4E8-A71F-4192-9AE0-9E54F02DFBE1@jnielsen.net> In-Reply-To: <1407866979.73449.YahooMailNeo@web121604.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> References: <1407861156.35826.YahooMailNeo@web121606.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> <0D393AB7-4632-4BF8-95A3-D8AF25D53E60@jnielsen.net> <1407866979.73449.YahooMailNeo@web121604.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
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On Aug 12, 2014, at 12:09 PM, Barney Cordoba <barney_cordoba@yahoo.com> = wrote: > On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 1:16 PM, John Nielsen <lists@jnielsen.net> = wrote: >=20 >> On Aug 12, 2014, at 10:32 AM, Barney Cordoba = <barney_cordoba@yahoo.com> wrote: >>=20 >>> A continuing issue (with 9.1 previously and now 10) is that FreeBSD = occasionally (or always) seems to boot from the 2nd installed drive = rather than the first. I'd be happy to debug this, but I have no idea if = it's bootcode or a BIOS issue. Supermicro pleads innocent, but their = bios guys are hard to work with and fairly arrogant if you don't = specifically isolate something. >>>=20 >>> The scenario occurs when ada0 is upgraded and has an incompatible = kernel with other code on drive ada1. (note that ada1 is a backup of = the pre-upgrade ada0, so it's fstab points to ada0 for mount points). = The system will boot and then modules will fail to load. It loads the = kernel from ada1 and then mounts partitions from ada0; old kernel and = newer modules. >>>=20 >>> The problem is resolved by popping the 2nd drive. So there is = nothing wrong with ada0 to cause it to bounce to ada1. >>>=20 >>> My question: What would cause the system to boot from ada1 instead = of ada0? Bios or Bootcode? >>=20 >> BIOS, most likely. If the disk controller in question is onboard you = should be able to specify which disk(s) and what order they will be = booted from. If not, you'll need to just say <disk controller> in the = BIOS boot order then go to the controllers BIOS to say which disk(s) to = boot from and in what order. I have recent experience with a SuperMicro = box and an LSI controller; the latter allows you to specify a (b)oot = drive and an (a)lternate. Yes, b comes before a. :) >=20 > The bios only gives you one choice for "HDD". You can't select one of = the 4 drives to boot from. You can specify USB or CD or HDD, but Not = HDD2 or HDD3. There may be a separate option controlling "hard drive boot order", = and/or there may be a completely separate BIOS program for your drive = controller with its own hotkey. JN
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