Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:24:59 +0200 From: Ruben de Groot <mail25@bzerk.org> To: PJ <af.gourmet@videotron.ca> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: boot sector f*ed Message-ID: <20090814052459.GA7598@ei.bzerk.org> In-Reply-To: <4A84659B.9000400@videotron.ca> References: <20090811173211.6FE4D106567B@hub.freebsd.org> <20090812193008.F19821@sola.nimnet.asn.au> <4A82A8D9.30406@videotron.ca> <20090812172704.GA27066@slackbox.xs4all.nl> <4A831DF7.9090506@videotron.ca> <20090812232810.GA37833@slackbox.xs4all.nl> <4A841AC2.1050809@videotron.ca> <20090813174057.GA1517@ei.bzerk.org> <4A84659B.9000400@videotron.ca>
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On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 03:12:27PM -0400, PJ typed: > Ruben de Groot wrote: > > Hi PJ, > > > > On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 09:53:06AM -0400, PJ typed: > > > >> I apologize for the lengthy explanation below, but perhaps it will give > >> some insight on what is see from this end: > >> > > > > You probably won't get much helpfull response. When troubleshooting, it's > > allways best to try to break down the problem in tiny bits and solve them > > one by one, asking specific questions when you get stuck. > > > > <snip> > > > > > >> to be in a position to do what is required. For one thing, I do not know > >> how I can save testing output to an external file when I am working on a > >> temporary shell on the problem machine. Perhaps you could indicate what > >> I should be doing or where to look for information. > >> > > > > What kind of "temporary shell"? You mean the fixit console or livecd? You can > > allways redirect the output to some file in /tmp for example and then scp > > it to another computer. Or mount_nfs or even mount_smbfs a windows share and > > save the output there. > > > > > >> And in checking the disks with fdisk, fsck, and even running that weird > >> regenerate progam... I wasn't able to come up with anything > >> significant... that is, the configuration of the disks seemed to be ok, > >> the boot sector was ok as it was able to boot but the when the system > >> was being mounted something went wrong... and looking back, I vaguely > >> recall something about a "soft update" or something like that which > >> seems to indicate some stumbling block in the software and not hardware. > >> > > > > soft updates inconsistencies perhaps? They can be caused by faulty hardware. > > Or by power failure. What did you do about them? In such a situation the > > system will drop you into single user mode where you can do an fsck. > > > > > >> All that I am seeing is that there is either a problem with the bios > >> (which I even reinstalled and that changed nothing in the functioning) > >> or something is going on with the OS. > >> > > > > How exactly did you see this? And you reinstalled the BIOS ??? > > > > > >> I now have set up another instance of 7.2 on a different disk on the > >> 2.4ghz machine and I already find something strange... after installing > >> the minimum configuration, I installed the packages - samba3.3.3, > >> cvsup-without-gui, and smartmontools. I tried to run smartctl and cvsup > >> but nothing worked. The path variable was correct but the shell just > >> would not pick up on it. I had to start the programs from their directories. > >> That just doesn't make sense. > >> > > > > It does if your shell is csh (the default shell for root). You must issue > > the "rehash" command to re-read everything in your path after installing new > > software. > > > > Ruben > > > Thanks Ruben, > Frankly, I don't know an;ymore what I'm doing nor what is going on... it > used to be so easy to set up FBSD even if it took a lot of time to > compile... but it seems to be getting less and less intuitive and user > friendly. > How can I break thinkgs up into little bits and pieces without just > smashing the whole show to bits and pieces ;-) > There are so many problems, I have not idea where to begin. I did a little bit of that for you. You could start by answering the specific questions I asked you above right below where I asked them instead of trying to answer all in just one paragraph and failing that. > Oh, yes, csh ? I always set up bash and it never gave me such problems. > Did the same just now and again, no problems with the shell. > Right now I'm just fixing up a new set up of 7.2 on another disk and > we'll see what that does. Then I will re-setup the files I had recoverd, > see if they work and then do a last and final install of everything and > see if that works. And if there is a problem then, then I will know for > sure that it is not a hardware problem. In using computers, in general, > over the past 20 plus years I have only had maybe 6 crashes... mostly > Winbloz and about 3 with FBSD - and only 1 was because of defective > hardware (a disk)... the rest was power outs and 1 erroneous shutdown... > not bad ... and I never lost irreplaceable files. :-) Took some time > to recover them, but recover did as recover should. > Oh, well, before I give it all up, I'm giving it one final shot. > PJ
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