From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 21 08:29:10 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C81B716A403 for ; Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:29:10 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mikepeirson@gmail.com) Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com (wx-out-0506.google.com [66.249.82.238]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D313443D55 for ; Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:29:08 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from mikepeirson@gmail.com) Received: by wx-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id i27so568832wxd for ; Thu, 21 Sep 2006 01:29:08 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=n65GN4n+pJpSctweR1dKCrlY8zWzSTPdWrvfLmtPBKmP45i4XnK4Pb0oRyrVta6TP1zu6A7Kl/CxLPWqxGKAAxhIZPq/uy5yJ0Bk/grhkrh2MhTuJU4T9YgFoKRj4M+C5AAUAvu9EToOUPL8warrNc/WMJFTK5Rd5fO3rI12mqc= Received: by 10.70.32.10 with SMTP id f10mr24773225wxf; Thu, 21 Sep 2006 01:29:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ?192.168.0.3? ( [72.25.94.94]) by mx.gmail.com with ESMTP id h19sm147450wxd.2006.09.21.01.29.06; Thu, 21 Sep 2006 01:29:07 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <45124DBC.6010906@gmail.com> Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 01:30:52 -0700 From: Mike Peirson User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 (Windows/20060909) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <4511D307.1070906@gmail.com> <20060921044344.GA97672@ns2.wananchi.com> <20060921053101.GG88782@wantadilla.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <20060921053101.GG88782@wantadilla.lemis.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: FreeBSD 6.1 hangs at mountroot> during bootup 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: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:29:11 -0000 Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: > On Thursday, 21 September 2006 at 7:43:44 +0300, Odhiambo Washington wrote: >> * On 20/09/06 16:47 -0700, Mike Peirson wrote: >>> Hi all, >>> First off, I'm new to FreeBSD and this mailinglist so I hope I am in the >>> right place. Anyways, right now I am having some problems with FreeBSD >>> booting up. I have tried to install 3 times now and keep getting the >>> same error. When I try to boot into FreeBSD, this eventually comes up: >>> >>> Manual root filesystem specification: >>> : Mount using filesystem >>> >>> eg. ufs:da0s1a >>> ? List valid disk boot devices >>> abort manual input >>> Mountroot> >>> >>> This seems to be a prompt where I need to specify the location of the >>> root partition, but the problem here is that it hangs or freezes and I >>> cannot input any text. >> Any further details about your hardware specs in general? > > This is a keyboard problem. The background is that the boot process > uses a different keyboard driver from the final kernel, and that it's > much more finicky than the kernel version. It seems to have got worse > in the last few years. I've found that a USB keyboard will do better, > but YMMV. > >>> At first I thought it may be a result of FreeBSD not properly >>> recognizing my HDD's geometry but I manually fixed that and it >>> still is giving me this same issue. If anyone has had a similar >>> problem or knows how to fix this I would greatly appreciate any >>> help. I looked through the Handbook and googled this but I haven't >>> found a solution yet. > > The background for the *message* (not the apparent freeze) is that > your root file system can't be found. This happens typically when you > change the device name. For example, my situation is that I'm doing > development with a SATA disk drive and moving it from system to > system. On my machine the root file system shows up as /dev/ad4s1a; > on the other machine it's /dev/ad0s1a. > > It's probably worth putting in a PR about this problem. > > Greg > -- > See complete headers for address and phone numbers. About the keyboard.. I have it running through a KVM switch, would this also cause any problems? I booted into safemode and noticed that the problem with inputting text was nonexistant. I am not sure why it can't find my root filesystem. I haven't changed the device name or moved anything around at all. BTW, is there any way I can get into FreeBSD (maybe via the install disc?) to get a detailed printout of my FreeBSD slice? Posting that on here may be of some use. -- Michael Peirson