From owner-freebsd-current Sun Nov 15 07:09:16 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id HAA02083 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Sun, 15 Nov 1998 07:09:16 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from ceia.nordier.com (m1-36-dbn.dial-up.net [196.34.155.36]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id HAA02076 for ; Sun, 15 Nov 1998 07:09:09 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from rnordier@nordier.com) Received: (from rnordier@localhost) by ceia.nordier.com (8.8.7/8.6.12) id RAA24444 for freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG; Sun, 15 Nov 1998 17:08:02 +0200 (SAT) From: Robert Nordier Message-Id: <199811151508.RAA24444@ceia.nordier.com> Subject: Re: Help! Recovering from a ELF kernel moveover that didn't work!! In-Reply-To: from "Brian W. Buchanan" at "Nov 14, 98 03:25:09 pm" To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 17:07:59 +0200 (SAT) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL31 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Brian W. Buchanan wrote: > On Sat, 14 Nov 1998, Peter Johnson wrote: > > > Then I did the following: "disklabel -B -b /boot/boot1 -s /boot/boot2 da0a" > > (da0a is my / slice). > > > > Now my system just reboots when I try to boot FreeBSD.. > > Your system is like mine (and those of several others), which doesn't like > the new bootblocks. Boot from a FreeBSD floppy and do > "0:wd(0,a)/boot/loader" and the boot prompt, then "disklabel -B da0a" as > root to reinstall the old boot blocks. You can put "/boot/loader" in > boot.config to use the new bootloader until the new bootblocks are fixed. Just as a general comment (not aimed at anyone in particular): If someone is having a problem with some part of -current that's being actively developed, the best plan is to find out which FreeBSD developer is involved, and send e-mail directly to him, in which you describe (in as much detail as possible) just what is going wrong. If you believe there is a problem with the new boot blocks, for example, I'd be interested in getting mail which includes: o The source revisions you are using [ident(1)] o Drive, slice, and partition details [dmesg(8), fdisk(8), disklabel(8)] o Copies of the master boot record and slice boot sector [dd(1) and hexdump(1)] o A detailed description of exactly what happens (if the machine reboots, is a diagnostic or register dump displayed? At what stage do you think things are going wrong? Does the same thing happen if you boot from a floppy disk? from a floppy disk in a different PC? etc.) If all this seems too much like hard work, at least filing a PR (or adding a "me too", with some level of detail, to an existing PR) is likely to get the problem looked at. Just mentioning the problem on -current, making vague or oblique references to it, or keeping quiet about it in the hope that someone else will eventually get around to doing something: are all pretty effective strategies for keeping bugs around and problems ignored. To a great extent, maintaining and even improving the quality of FreeBSD is something that all -current users (whether active FreeBSD developers or not) can take responsibility for. -- Robert Nordier To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message