From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 19 18:48:06 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 34F5016A4CE for ; Thu, 19 Feb 2004 18:48:06 -0800 (PST) Received: from rikers.spottydogs.org (rikers.spottydogs.org [66.93.82.162]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id B36C643D1D for ; Thu, 19 Feb 2004 18:48:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mnewell@spottydogs.org) Received: (qmail 96829 invoked by uid 2010); 20 Feb 2004 02:48:04 -0000 Received: from localhost (sendmail-bs@127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 20 Feb 2004 02:48:04 -0000 Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 21:48:04 -0500 (EST) From: Mike Newell To: Tony Frank In-Reply-To: <20040218121144.GF289@marvin.home.local> Message-ID: References: <20040218121144.GF289@marvin.home.local> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Boot loop in FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE after install X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 02:48:06 -0000 On Wed, 18 Feb 2004, Tony Frank wrote: tfrank> Hi there, tfrank> tfrank> > Can anyone help? Is there any way to slow the bootup process so I can at tfrank> > least read the errors? tfrank> 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. 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. tfrank> Do you get past the "F1 FreeBSD" part to the loader? tfrank> ie do you see a "-" appear on screen? Yes. This happens after the "F1 FreeBSD" prompt. tfrank> Can you perhaps try a serial console? tfrank> If you can get into the boot loader you should be able to set com1 as tfrank> your console. Did it. Didn't help... :-( Thanks! Mike