From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Oct 9 17:58:41 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4245C106566C for ; Sat, 9 Oct 2010 17:58:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: from email1.allantgroup.com (email1.emsphone.com [199.67.51.115]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E18F38FC12 for ; Sat, 9 Oct 2010 17:58:39 +0000 (UTC) Received: from dan.emsphone.com (dan.emsphone.com [199.67.51.101]) by email1.allantgroup.com (8.14.0/8.14.0) with ESMTP id o99HwaG3016140 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Sat, 9 Oct 2010 12:58:36 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: from dan.emsphone.com (smmsp@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dan.emsphone.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id o99HwaVD077983 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Sat, 9 Oct 2010 12:58:36 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: (from dan@localhost) by dan.emsphone.com (8.14.4/8.14.4/Submit) id o99HwaAE077982; Sat, 9 Oct 2010 12:58:36 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dan) Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2010 12:58:36 -0500 From: Dan Nelson To: Hac Phan Message-ID: <20101009175835.GA12910@dan.emsphone.com> References: <20101009020948.GB91654@hal.rescomp.berkeley.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20101009020948.GB91654@hal.rescomp.berkeley.edu> X-OS: FreeBSD 8.1-STABLE User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.96 at email1.allantgroup.com X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.0.2 (email1.allantgroup.com [199.67.51.78]); Sat, 09 Oct 2010 12:58:36 -0500 (CDT) X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.45 Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Boot loader/kernel error X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 09 Oct 2010 17:58:41 -0000 In the last episode (Oct 08), Hac Phan said: > I'm having trouble with a machine that was recently rebooted and will no > longer boot correctly. > > The boot process hangs with the following screen: > Loading /boot/defaults/loader.conf > - > > The cursor does not move and no other text is displayed. After about 10 > minutes, the boot finishes (without the splash screen) and displays the > login prompt. I tried to login but it timed out after 300 seconds. That behaviour is consistent with having a serial console setup in /boot/loader.conf . As soon as the loader sees "console=comconsole", it will switch its output and the kernel's output to com1. If com1 doesn't exist, it will take a long time to boot. When the kernel finally finishes, init still start a getty on the physical console, which is when you see the login prompt. If you can boot your fixit CD and get the root filessytem mountd read/write, try commenting out that comconsole line. Most bad loader.conf problems can be fixed by hitting space just before the loader starts up the kernel and unsetting the bad variable, but "comconsole" is one of the commands that it runs immediately, and I don't think you can stop the loader from parsing loader.conf. -- Dan Nelson dnelson@allantgroup.com