From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Mon Oct 5 15:13:27 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 13D3B9B1FB1 for ; Mon, 5 Oct 2015 15:13:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wam@hiwaay.net) Received: from fly.hiwaay.net (fly.hiwaay.net [216.180.54.1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D91871E8 for ; Mon, 5 Oct 2015 15:13:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wam@hiwaay.net) Received: from kabini1.local (dynamic-216-186-213-32.knology.net [216.186.213.32] (may be forged)) (authenticated bits=0) by fly.hiwaay.net (8.13.8/8.13.8/fly) with ESMTP id t95FDJBO029155 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Mon, 5 Oct 2015 10:13:20 -0500 To: FreeBSD Questions !!!! From: "William A. Mahaffey III" Subject: Install issues Message-ID: <5612938F.4080508@hiwaay.net> Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2015 10:18:49 -0453.75 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.2.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 05 Oct 2015 15:13:27 -0000 I am attempting to provision a new box w/ FreeBSD 9.3R, using a customized USB drive w/ the default install media plus some scripts I conjured up to expedite partitioning/slicing of HDD's. I plugged the USB stick in & powered on. Though the UEFI BIOS gave my no options to configure boot order, it did figure out that the USB stick was there & bootable. I booted from that & the loading proceeded up to the regular FreeBSD 'choose boot options' screen, w/ multi-user, single user, etc. (6 choices total, w/ the ASCII-art logo). I let it go w/ option 1 (bad choice :-) ? ) & it failed to get booted, but gave me a choice of boot devices at the 'mountfs' (or some such) prompt. I entered 'ufs:/dev/da0s1a rw' & it proceeded to boot the installer. At 1st prompt, i chose 'Shell' & dropped to the shell to run my utilities. The 1st problem was that the USB media was mounted 'ro', *not* 'rw' as I asked, making it tough to log what was going on to use in queries such as this one when problems arose. My script completed down to an error in an innocuous echo statement, but subsequent df revealed no customized partitions visible for the install to proceed with, & little way to discern what had happened, since everything scrolled past too fast & too far to recover. I never found a magic key-stroke combo to page up in console mode, so I am mostly in the dark. Is there a way to force the booted root drive to be mounted 'rw' ? FWIW, I did this early in the summer in a (somewhat complex) NetBSD install, which is where I got the idea. I was able to accurately log my many screwups & post to their list for help, which was instrumental to eventually getting that box up & running. -- William A. Mahaffey III ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "The M1 Garand is without doubt the finest implement of war ever devised by man." -- Gen. George S. Patton Jr.