Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 16:49:00 -0500 From: "Mike Newell" <MNewell@HQ.NASA.GOV> To: "Tony Frank" <tfrank@optushome.com.au>, "Mike Newell" <mnewell@spottydogs.org> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: Boot loop in FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE after install - FIXED! Message-ID: <OCEOIMLMPEGCFKFPPJEOAEKICKAA.MNewell@HQ.NASA.GOV> In-Reply-To: <20040220030817.GA25852@marvin.home.local>
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Well THAT'S weird... I wondered if there might be some strange data left on the drive (I had a 4.7-RELEASE install on it prior to this), so I stopped the system in POST and entered the Adaptec system utilities. I then did a low-level format of the drive. Reinstalled and Hey Presto - booted up fine! I wonder if the /boot/loader program found some bad data left over from a prior install that it didn't validate and that corrupted the boot process? Dunno, but it's up now. THANKS!! Mike > -----Original Message----- > From: Tony Frank [mailto:tfrank@optushome.com.au] > Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 10:08 PM > To: Mike Newell > Cc: Tony Frank; freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Subject: Re: Boot loop in FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE after install > > > Hi, > > On Thu, Feb 19, 2004 at 09:48:04PM -0500, Mike Newell wrote: > > On Wed, 18 Feb 2004, Tony Frank wrote: > > tfrank> While I cannot perhaps comment on your problem, you can > try either pressing > > tfrank> 'pause' key or 'scrolllock' which might help depending > on where the problems > > tfrank> are occuring. > > They don't work. Fortunately I was able to: > > > > 1. Hook a null modem to the serial port and my laptop. > > 2. Run hyperterm on my laptop to view serial port data. > > 3. During the initial boot load hit ESC to get the "Boot:" promt, > > then do "-h" to switch to serial console. > > 4. Capture the stuff on the serial console. > > > > What it does is repeatedly go through the BTX boot loader, saying > > something like (this is from memory): > > > > BTX loader... > > BIOS Drive A is disk 0 > > BIOS Drive C is disk 1 > > BIOS Drive D is disk 2 > > > > BTX loader... > > BIOS Drive A is disk 3 > > BIOS Drive C is disk 4 > > BIOS Drive D is disk 5 > > > > BTX loader... > > > > and so on. Eventually it runs out of drive numbers and starts saying > > "Can't figure out our boot device" a few times, then crashes with an > > assert error. Looks like the loader is just looping until it > runs out of > > heap. > > That suggests that it may be confused somehow. > I saw the crash/assert type scenario if the boot blocks are not installed > properly. > Ie the MBR is updated with the bootmgr (F1 .. bit) but the 2nd/3rd stages > were corrupted somehow. > (In my case I accidentally overwrote the blocks with some > experiementation) > You can reinstall boot blocks using bsdlabel (or disklabel on 4.9) > If you can boot from floppy/CD, get into fixit mode. > Then run: > bsdlabel -B da0s1 (assuming da0 is the disk you are trying to boot from) > > > If I try to boot directly into the kernel the cursor changes from a > > blinking underscore to a solid block and the system just locks up. > > > > In no case is there an error message or any other indication that > > something is weird. > > Have you tried 4.9-RELEASE on this system? > > I understand that 5.2.1-RC2 ISO is also available which might be > another option. > > Regards, > > Tony >
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