From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Mar 20 12:52:13 2005 Return-Path: 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 988F116A4CF for ; Sun, 20 Mar 2005 12:52:13 +0000 (GMT) Received: from sccrmhc12.comcast.net (sccrmhc12.comcast.net [204.127.202.56]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DFB1043D55 for ; Sun, 20 Mar 2005 12:52:12 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jshamlet@comcast.net) Received: from bedroompc (pcp04634027pcs.gambrl01.md.comcast.net[68.49.71.158]) by comcast.net (sccrmhc12) with SMTP id <2005032012521201200e8ccae>; Sun, 20 Mar 2005 12:52:12 +0000 From: "J. Seth Henry" To: Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 07:52:11 -0500 Message-ID: <000201c52d4b$a1f5ba00$0c00a8c0@BEDROOMPC> MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.6626 Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.1 Subject: Having problems booting when attempting to mounting /dev from another filesystem on 4.11-REL X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 12:52:13 -0000 Guys/Gals, One of my embedded machines died a while back after several years of = service (enough to erase my memory.). I am trying to rebuild the flash file = system on the machine, and ran into a snag. I'm attempting to manually install 4.11-REL on this system, as it is a rather old device with little RAM (32MB), and a troublesome ACPI system. (By manually, I mean I'm creating/copying file systems from a "host" drive running 4.11 rather = than use the installer) =20 The flash memory is only 32MB, so I have to fairly particular about what = I put on it. Right now, I just have the kernel, /bin, /sbin, /etc, /boot, = and place holders for /usr. I symlink in /modules, /root, /home, /var, /tmp, = etc from /usr (which is an IBM micro drive). I mount /dev from another slice = on the flash memory. =20 The rule is, anything that doesn't need to be written, or is required = for boot, is placed on a read-only flash slice, /dev (which doesn't actually harm the flash, but must be mounted read-write, is mounted from a = separate slice on the flash, and everything else is mounted on /usr. =20 The problem I'm seeing is that the kernel boots to "mounting root from ad0s1a" and then it hangs. I suspect that is because I don't have the = right /dev entries on the primary slice's /dev. =20 The question is what are the minimal set of /dev devices required to = boot sufficiently to the point where it can attempt to mount the rest of the = file systems? I know this can be done, because the original install did it = this way (though it took quite a bit of hacking to get it to work right) I = just lost half the secret sauce formula. The other half was remembering to = create a 1MB slice, and using "newfs -b 4096 -i 128" on the /dev file system so there are enough inodes. =20 Thanks, Seth Henry