From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Mon Oct 5 19:39:22 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 D77ED9B607E for ; Mon, 5 Oct 2015 19:39:22 +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 A820E1A2E for ; Mon, 5 Oct 2015 19:39:22 +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 t95JdJoa022601 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Mon, 5 Oct 2015 14:39:20 -0500 Subject: Re: Install issues References: <5612938F.4080508@hiwaay.net> <20151005173644.d3b9c5ce.freebsd@edvax.de> Cc: FreeBSD Questions !!!! From: "William A. Mahaffey III" Message-ID: <5612D1E7.2020005@hiwaay.net> Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2015 14:44:49 -0453.75 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.2.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20151005173644.d3b9c5ce.freebsd@edvax.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; 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 19:39:23 -0000 On 10/05/15 10:42, Polytropon wrote: > On Mon, 5 Oct 2015 10:18:49 -0453.75, William A. Mahaffey III wrote: >> 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. > mountroot> :-) > > It's being presented by the kernel's root partition mounting > mechanism (see sys/kern/vfs_mount.c). > > > >> I entered >> 'ufs:/dev/da0s1a rw' & it proceeded to boot the installer. > If I remember correctly, the boot process will mount root > read-only, this is the default behaviour of single-user mode. > That's why there is no "rw" option at this prompt; "rw" will > therefore be ignored. Otherwise, the options from /etc/fstab > would apply. > > > >> 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. > The df command will only consider _mounted_ partitions. Check > for the device nodes (and maybe labels) - if they are available, > mount them, then use df. > > The command would be "mount -uw /", or "mount -u -o rw /". > > The ability to write to / maybe is the problem why no further > partitions got mounted...? Hmmmm .... OK, I'll try those mount commands. However, how would the installer mount internally customized partitions (partitions/slices done interactively through the installer) w/o a writable root ? Or am I (badly ?) misunderstanding the install process :-/ ? > > >> I never found a magic key-stroke combo to page up in >> console mode, so I am mostly in the dark. > There is a nice little key, called "Scroll Lock", and it actually > does what's printed on it: it locks the screen (cursor disappears) > and you can use the vertical cursor keys and page keys to scroll > up and down. Press the lock key again, and you can continue where > you left the screen. Maybe the key is so old and so obvious that > you didn't see it. :-) > > No, seriously: Scroll Lock isn't supported on many systems to > work as it should. FreeBSD is an excellent exception here. *Booooyah* !!!! That will be *hugely* useful :-) .... > > >> Is there a way to force the >> booted root drive to be mounted 'rw' ? > Probably you can do this with a custom entry in /etc/rc.local (if > the boot image processes /etc/rc). > > > > > -- William A. Mahaffey III ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "The M1 Garand is without doubt the finest implement of war ever devised by man." -- Gen. George S. Patton Jr.