From owner-freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Dec 9 17:20:02 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-bugs@hub.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 193981065672 for ; Tue, 9 Dec 2008 17:20:02 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from gnats@FreeBSD.org) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (freefall.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::28]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EADC78FC12 for ; Tue, 9 Dec 2008 17:20:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from gnats@FreeBSD.org) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (gnats@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id mB9HK1Qu021751 for ; Tue, 9 Dec 2008 17:20:01 GMT (envelope-from gnats@freefall.freebsd.org) Received: (from gnats@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id mB9HK1SK021750; Tue, 9 Dec 2008 17:20:01 GMT (envelope-from gnats) Resent-Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2008 17:20:01 GMT Resent-Message-Id: <200812091720.mB9HK1SK021750@freefall.freebsd.org> Resent-From: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org (GNATS Filer) Resent-To: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org Resent-Reply-To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org, Hiroharu Tamaru Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CD9EF1065672 for ; Tue, 9 Dec 2008 17:10:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from nobody@FreeBSD.org) Received: from www.freebsd.org (www.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::21]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BD5E68FC1D for ; Tue, 9 Dec 2008 17:10:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from nobody@FreeBSD.org) Received: from www.freebsd.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by www.freebsd.org (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id mB9HAQJ3067016 for ; Tue, 9 Dec 2008 17:10:26 GMT (envelope-from nobody@www.freebsd.org) Received: (from nobody@localhost) by www.freebsd.org (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id mB9HAQqK067015; Tue, 9 Dec 2008 17:10:26 GMT (envelope-from nobody) Message-Id: <200812091710.mB9HAQqK067015@www.freebsd.org> Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2008 17:10:26 GMT From: Hiroharu Tamaru To: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org X-Send-Pr-Version: www-3.1 Cc: Subject: kern/129526: pxeboot fails to load kernel / modules X-BeenThere: freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Bug reports List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:20:02 -0000 >Number: 129526 >Category: kern >Synopsis: pxeboot fails to load kernel / modules >Confidential: no >Severity: serious >Priority: low >Responsible: freebsd-bugs >State: open >Quarter: >Keywords: >Date-Required: >Class: sw-bug >Submitter-Id: current-users >Arrival-Date: Tue Dec 09 17:20:01 UTC 2008 >Closed-Date: >Last-Modified: >Originator: Hiroharu Tamaru >Release: 7.1-RC1-i386 >Organization: The University of Tokyo >Environment: Pentium 4 (pre EM64T), Supermicro M/B, Award BIOS, onborad em NIC >Description: PXE booting the 7.1-RC1-i386 installer fails to boot the kernel. The setup is 7.1-RC1-i386-disc1.iso extracted on an ftp server, and boot/pxeboot included in this image served by a tftp server. The DHCP server instructs the target machine to pick this pxeboot and mount the ftp exported iso image as root. With older releases like 6.x, breaking out into loader prompt at the beastie menu, and typing: set vfs.root.mountfrom="ufs:/dev/md0c" followed by 'boot' would start the kernel and invoke the installer. However, with 7.1-RC, at the time the loader tries to load mfsroot, it fails and says that root filesystem is not found. lsdev or ls at this point locks the system up. It turns out that replacing the pxeboot binary served by tftp to pxeboot in 6.4-RELEASE-i386-bootonly.iso allows the installer to boot properly, but pxeboot from 7.0-RELEASE also fails. It then turned out that by unzipping the /boot/mfsroot.gz image on the ftp server allows the kernel to boot, for any of the pxeboot's mentioned above. Thus it seems likely that the unzipping routines in pxeboot, or more precisely, the loader included in the pxeboot, is corrupting some part of the device table or such. This could be system BIOS / PXE BIOS dependent issue, but I have not investigated any further at this moment. Further details / tests / trials available on request. >How-To-Repeat: Setup a PXE boot environment described as above, and try to boot into the installer. >Fix: Workarounds are to gunzip the boot/mfsroot.gz file, or to use pxeboot from 6.4-RELEASE. >Release-Note: >Audit-Trail: >Unformatted: