From owner-freebsd-sparc64@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 8 21:42:30 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8B4C6106564A for ; Thu, 8 Sep 2011 21:42:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from marius@alchemy.franken.de) Received: from alchemy.franken.de (alchemy.franken.de [194.94.249.214]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 23CB48FC16 for ; Thu, 8 Sep 2011 21:42:29 +0000 (UTC) Received: from alchemy.franken.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by alchemy.franken.de (8.14.4/8.14.4/ALCHEMY.FRANKEN.DE) with ESMTP id p88LgSjp083740; Thu, 8 Sep 2011 23:42:28 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from marius@alchemy.franken.de) Received: (from marius@localhost) by alchemy.franken.de (8.14.4/8.14.4/Submit) id p88LgStl083739; Thu, 8 Sep 2011 23:42:28 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from marius) Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 23:42:28 +0200 From: Marius Strobl To: "Leong, Jason (NSN - MY/Kuala Lumpur)" Message-ID: <20110908214228.GA83690@alchemy.franken.de> References: <80409B6843D9324DA0D21B67F41C9DBA04BABEFD@FIESEXC035.nsn-intra.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <80409B6843D9324DA0D21B67F41C9DBA04BABEFD@FIESEXC035.nsn-intra.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i Cc: "Saw, Jason \(NSN - MY/Kuala Lumpur\)" , freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org Subject: Re: "short disk read" error during boot on Sparc SunFire v215 X-BeenThere: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the Sparc List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:42:30 -0000 On Thu, Sep 08, 2011 at 09:15:02AM +0300, Leong, Jason (NSN - MY/Kuala Lumpur) wrote: > Hi FreeBSD, > > I've been trying to get FreeBSD installed into a SunFire v215 server but > am stumped with this problem! > > {1} ok boot cdrom > Boot device: /pci@1e,600000/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/ide@1f/cdrom0,0:f > > Short disk read > The file just loaded does not appear to be executable. > > I've burned a bunch of CDs thus far, the > FreeBSD-8.2-RELEASE-sparc64-dvd1.iso, > FreeBSD-8.2-RELEASE-sparc64-bootonly.iso, > FreeBSD-8.1-RELEASE-sparc64-disc1.iso, > FreeBSD-7.4-RELEASE-sparc64-disc1.iso and none of them was able to boot > the system. > Even tried the openbsd and netbsd's iso to no avail! > > Even ended up flipping CD-drives between another working Sparc v215 > system. Didn't work too. > > I've tried playing around with the boot devalias, tweaking the > "cdrom0,0:f" to "cdrom6,0:f" and other sequences. Didn't help. > > Last resort, I "dd" the image into a secondary hard-disk and booted out > of that but came out with the same error message! I'm not sure whether booting a ISO9660 image from a hard disk is supported by OBP at all. > > Would you kind folks have an idea and a solution to this problem? Thanks > in advance for your help! > Given that the problem even isn't limited to the FreeBSD install media I'd highly suspect a hardware problem. If it isn't the drive it still could be defective cabling or the IDE controller. On thing one has to keep in mind with SPARC hardware is that at least for some models Sun altered the generally IDE drives in some subtle ways so that off-the- shelf drives from the PC world don't work with these. This is at least the case for V210 (I can't remember the exact failure mode though). One thing that might help is updating the OBP to the latest version in case a previous one had some bug regarding booting from CD/DVD. In general an alternative to installing from CD/DVD is to netboot the machine and to install from that environment. Marius