From owner-freebsd-current Thu Nov 19 08:48:25 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id IAA18733 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 08:48:25 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from duke.cs.duke.edu (duke.cs.duke.edu [152.3.140.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id IAA18705 for ; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 08:48:09 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from gallatin@cs.duke.edu) Received: from grasshopper.cs.duke.edu (grasshopper.cs.duke.edu [152.3.145.30]) by duke.cs.duke.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id LAA26074; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 11:47:33 -0500 (EST) Received: (from gallatin@localhost) by grasshopper.cs.duke.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id LAA16874; Thu, 19 Nov 1998 11:47:24 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from gallatin@cs.duke.edu) From: Andrew Gallatin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 11:47:24 -0500 (EST) To: Robert Nordier Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG, adrian@ubergeeks.com Subject: Re: /boot/loader & comconsole In-Reply-To: <199811190902.LAA03790@ceia.nordier.com> References: <13907.20799.296610.678439@grasshopper.cs.duke.edu> <199811190902.LAA03790@ceia.nordier.com> X-Mailer: VM 6.43 under 20.4 "Emerald" XEmacs Lucid Message-ID: <13908.18678.322099.46359@grasshopper.cs.duke.edu> Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Robert Nordier writes: > [I see Adrian has already responded to this, so I've added him to the > cc list.] > > Andrew Gallatin wrote: > There seem to be two separate, and possibly unrelated issues, here. > > The first is that the *old* boot blocks are still being used, as shown > by the actual messages displayed: >  > > I see the following on console before it hangs: > > > > >> FreeBSD BOOT @ 0x10000: 638/65532 k of memory, serial console > [ ... ] > > The corresponding line, for the new boot blocks, is simply > > >> FreeBSD/i386 BOOT > > Installing the new boot blocks at this stage is probably a good idea > (and I think this was your intention), so you'll need to do a > > disklabel -B -b /boot/boot1 -s /boot/boot2 > > (as disklabel still installs from /usr/mdec rather than /boot by > default). Thanks for reminding me. My install script read 'disklabel -B $slice' I've just fixed it to install the real new bootbocks from /boot. <...> > One difference between boot loader and the old/new boot blocks, is > that boot loader uses PC BIOS services (int 0x14) for comms; both > lots of boot blocks do direct port I/O, instead. > > The trouble with using the BIOS is that the int 0x14 services (which > tend to be used only to talk to serial printers under DOS) expect to > do hardware handshaking. > > They therefore impose fussier cabling requirements than the boot > blocks or the kernel have. (They don't work with the sloppy 2-wire, > 9-pin null modem cables I have here, for instance.) That was it! Well, sort of. The cabling was OK, but the terminal server (AlphaServer w/a Digiboard) was slightly misconfigured on the port that failed. Everything's working great now! Thanks! Drew ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Andrew Gallatin, Sr Systems Programmer http://www.cs.duke.edu/~gallatin Duke University Email: gallatin@cs.duke.edu Department of Computer Science Phone: (919) 660-6590 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message