Date: Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:59:19 -0400 From: Michael Powell <nightrecon@hotmail.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Boot failure Message-ID: <h5fn7l$ciu$1@ger.gmane.org> References: <4d4e09680908061012q6ea8aeacm875c556eaea7a54f@mail.gmail.com> <4A7B1B41.7090507@unsane.co.uk> <4d4e09680908061431q50c6f45bn76040bcc8d1950ae@mail.gmail.com>
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Identry wrote: >> Try downloading and booting the livefs environment (I think you need cd1 >> and the livefs cd or just the DVD) and see if you can mount it from >> that, if not it could be a controller issue. If you can then its >> probably your OS/kernel but at least you now have access to your >> data/configs etc etc not to mention you could try extracting the GENERIC >> kernel from the install media (use the install.sh script in the kernels >> directory.) > > Well, I am in the data center (2 hr drive, unfortunately)... > > This is an Intel mother board. The front panel light labeled '!' is > lit. It isn't lit on the working server. I'm googling right now for > the meaning of this light, but if anyone knows off hand, please let me > know... > > I have the cd1 and cd2, but not the livefs cd. I'm going to try to > find that right now. > I do not know exactly what the light is indicating, such things are usually located in the hardware docs that came with the server. I would hazard a guess that it is indicating a hardware failure. If you are exceedingly lucky it might not be a FreeBSD issue as long as the data on the hard drive(s) has not been corrupted. If it were me, the very first thing I'd do is power down and disconnect the drives. I'd install for temporary testing purposes any old spare blank hard drive I had laying around. If it is a brand name server there may have been included a diagnostics CD. Boot from that and see what happens. Next up is a boot to the BIOS configuration screen. When you power up the first item normally displayed is the text from the video ROM initialization. After this should be some form of announcement on how to get into BIOS config. Press whatever key and enter. Look for one of the preconfigured options such as "BIOS Defaults". If you can select this and save the board will be set to a fairly fail-safe set of defaults. Note that what this is telling you is the video and motherboard are initializing. If you cannot get to this point you may have a dead motherboard. Most boards will emit some form of beep code if the video ROM fails to initialize. Next up is if the board proceeds past this point watch for drive controller initialization. Most (most notably RAID) server controllers may have a message display when the controller ROM initializes indicating some form of key-press combo to enter the controller configuration. An example would be "press Ctrl-A" you'll see from an Adaptec card/chip. If you cannot get to any of these stages consider either dead motherboard or power supply problem. Easiest way to confirm/eliminate a power supply is to substitute a known 100% functional one and see if you can now get to the afore mentioned stage(s) of boot. Power supply problems can sometimes manifest as hard drives that don't want to spin up. Listen and you can usually tell if they spin up, or not. Your trouble sounds most like hardware failure. And because in your first email you did indicate a "Trying to mount root..." error most of the above described basic troubleshooting will end up being either dead hard drive(s) or malfunctioning controller. The reason I would have substituted a known good "scratch" drive earlier is twofold: if it can boot or install or otherwise initialize the controller it is indicative that the controller is OK and the problem is most likely dead drive(s). Secondly, you don't want to take any chances on damaging the data yourself with all this mucking about. If there has been drive failure you will need to replace, reinstall, and restore. If it has been a controller failure you will never have any success either booting, or installing a minimum system to the "scratch" drive. A controller failure also has the possibility of having already destroyed your data. Again, replace, reinstall, restore will be the order of the day. This is just some quickly thrown out stuff in hopes it may be useful to you. It sounds like a hardware failure and not only do you have to deal with that first, you may also have to reinstall and/or restore from backup as well. I typed this up rather in a hurry, (so it's a little 'scrambled') but I think if read in totality you get the idea on things you can do to isolate and resolve. Good luck to you in any event. -Mike
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