From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 19 19:09:59 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 3419016A4CE for ; Thu, 19 Feb 2004 19:09:59 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail008.syd.optusnet.com.au (mail008.syd.optusnet.com.au [211.29.132.212]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3ABB843D1D for ; Thu, 19 Feb 2004 19:09:58 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tfrank@optushome.com.au) Received: from marvin.home.local (c211-28-241-189.eburwd5.vic.optusnet.com.au [211.28.241.189])i1K38Jd15696; Fri, 20 Feb 2004 14:09:53 +1100 Received: by marvin.home.local (Postfix, from userid 1001) id D85E41CD; Fri, 20 Feb 2004 14:08:18 +1100 (EST) Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 14:08:17 +1100 From: Tony Frank To: Mike Newell Message-ID: <20040220030817.GA25852@marvin.home.local> References: <20040218121144.GF289@marvin.home.local> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2i cc: Tony Frank 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 03:09:59 -0000 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