From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 27 03:55:41 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 63DED106567B for ; Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:55:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jdc@parodius.com) Received: from mx01.sc1.parodius.com (mx01.sc1.parodius.com [72.20.106.3]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4FF578FC16 for ; Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:55:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jdc@parodius.com) Received: by mx01.sc1.parodius.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id E6A781CC03E; Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:55:40 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:55:40 -0700 From: Jeremy Chadwick To: Kevin Oberman Message-ID: <20080627035540.GA21710@eos.sc1.parodius.com> References: <48640FE8.9080501@vwsoft.com> <20080627031233.9DC4945047@ptavv.es.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20080627031233.9DC4945047@ptavv.es.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.18 (2008-05-17) Cc: Volker , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, Kelly Black Subject: Re: Problem with /boot/loader X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:55:41 -0000 On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 08:12:33PM -0700, Kevin Oberman wrote: > > Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:53:44 +0200 > > From: Volker > > Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@freebsd.org > > > > On 12/23/-58 20:59, Kelly Black wrote: > > > Hello, > > > > > > I have a problem with loader. I recently upgraded from 6_rel to 7_rel. > > > Now when I install world there is a problem booting. > > > > > > Here is what I do: > > > cd /usr/src > > > make buildworld > > > make buildkernel KERNCONF=BLACK > > > make installkernel KERNCONF=BLACK > > > > > > At this point I can reboot and all is good. After boot I install the new world: > > > > > > cd /usr/src > > > mergemaster -p > > > reboot into single user mode > > > cd /usr/src > > > make installworld > > > mergemaster > > > > > > Now when I reboot there is a problem. I get an error that the system > > > cannot boot. Part of it looks like this: > > > Can't work out which disk we are booting from. > > > Guessed BIOS device 0xffffffff not found by probes, defaulting to disk0: > > > > > > If I boot from a live disk and replace /boot/loader with > > > /boot/loader.old it boots up fine and everything looks good. A new > > > world and a new kernel. I would be grateful for any help or any > > > pointers. > > > > > > Sincerely, > > > Kel > > > > > > PS I do not do anything special with my loader config files: > > > > > > $ cat loader.conf > > >... > > > > Kelly, > > > > the /boot/loader.conf file does not come into play at that stage. Early > > in the loader code, loader needs to figure out, which disk (BIOS device) > > has been booted from. Until loader knows which device was booted up, > > it's unable to access any files (even loader.conf) on your boot device. > > > > As I've never seen such a problem while upgrading any system, I suspect > > your problem must be settings specific. Can you show me your kernel > > config or are you using a plain vanilla GENERIC? Which arch are we > > talking about? > > > > As I'm currently investigating another boot problem (but earlier in the > > boot chain), I'll check boot logic in the source code and may check for > > your issue, too, at that time, so it's just one effort. But please stay > > patient for some days, as I'm currently too busy. > > We just got hit by this. The loader never loads and nothing boots. But a > system admin discovered that the problem disappeared if the /boot.conf > file was deleted. It just contained '-P'. > > Once this file was removed, the system just booted up as expected. When > he changed it to -D or -h, the boot still locked up. I believe you mean /boot.config. :-) -P set the console to the serial port assuming no AT/PS2 keyboard is connected to the machine. -D and -h are described in more detail in the Handbook. Even with -P, -D, -h, or -Dh, the system *should* still actually boot up, you just won't see anything on the VGA console until the system is fully up and getty/login is run against ttyv0 (VGA console login). If Kelly has no /boot.config, then I'd say the issue you're reporting is a different bug/problem, but should still be investigated. -- | Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com | | Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ | | UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA | | Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB |