Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 00:24:26 +0900 From: Rob <spamrefuse@yahoo.com> To: John Hay <jhay@icomtek.csir.co.za>, freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 5.3-Beta7: diskless boot up does not show boot messages on screen. Message-ID: <4173E02A.7000308@yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <20041018053823.GB8116@zibbi.icomtek.csir.co.za> References: <417336FA.7080708@yahoo.com> <20041018041324.GA5799@zibbi.icomtek.csir.co.za> <41735184.5060302@yahoo.com> <20041018053823.GB8116@zibbi.icomtek.csir.co.za>
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John Hay wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 18, 2004 at 02:15:48PM +0900, Rob wrote:
>
>>John Hay wrote:
>>
>>>>I am now successfully booting a diskless PC with 5.3-Beta7,
>>>>using an etherboot floppy. I can see the initial boot up
>>>
>>>>from floppy, followed by the downloading of the kernel
>>>
>>>>("..................done"). But after that no more messages
>>>>on the screen anymore, until after a while the login prompt
>>>>appears.
>>>>
>>>>The diskless PC does produce a legitimate /var/run/dmesg.boot.
>>>>So I can inspect the bootup process after a successful boot.
>>>>
>>>>However, if there's a boot problem, I do not at all get a
>>>>clue what's going wrong. A verbose boot up on the screen
>>>>is then of vital importance.
>>>>
>>>>So why do i not get any verbose boot up of the kernel
>>>>messages with the diskless boot?
>>>
>>>
>>>Uncomment the hints line in your kernel config file or a hints line
>>>looking at the example in the GENERIC config and rebuild your kernel.
>>
>>I'm not sure I get your point. Just double check for me:
>>
>>Currently I have in my DISKLESS kernel configuration file these lines
>>
>>#To statically compile in device wiring instead of /boot/device.hints
>>#hints "GENERIC.hints" # Default places to look for
>>devices.
>>
>>
>>Are you suggesting that I have to comment out the hints line here
>>to get the kernel messages and bootup sequence printed on my screen?
>
>
> You have to uncomment that hints line, remove the # in front of the
> line. Normally the loader will load the hints file for you, but
> etherboot doesn't do that for you.
>
>
>>Do I have to manually copy /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC.hints to
>>/boot, or will that be done automatically?
>
> If you use pxe to netboot, pxeloader will load the hints file for you
> but etherboot isn't clever enough to do it, so you have to compile it
> into your kernel.
OK, that works indeed, but only for the screen.
I have created an etherboot floppy, that puts its messages on the
serial console. So on the serial port, I get:
master# cu -l /dev/cuaa0
Connected.
ROM segment 0x0000 length 0x0000 reloc 0x00020000
Etherboot 5.2.4 (GPL) http://etherboot.org Tagged ELF (FreeBSD) a.out for [RTL8139]
Relocating _text from: [00010070,00023200) to [01eece70,01f00000)
Boot from (N)etwork or (Q)uit?
Probing pci nic...
[rtl8139] - ioaddr 0X6000, addr 00:A0:B0:0E:3A:95 100Mbps full-duplex
Searching for server (DHCP)...
..Me: 192.168.123.1, Server: 192.168.123.254, Gateway 192.168.123.254
Loading 192.168.123.254:boot/diskless/kernel ..(ELF/FreeBSD)... .....
.....................................................................
.....................................................................
.......................................................done
And then nothing. The root of the diskless PC has the file boot.config,
which contains just "-P". This should force the kernel boot messages
to the serial port when the keyboard is not connected. However, this
does not work; kernel boot messages always go to the video console.
This seems to be a bug, but where? In the kernel, in etherboot, or
elsewhere?
Regards,
Rob.
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