Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2013 21:20:18 -0800 From: Eric Dynamic <ecsd@transbay.net> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: concerning loader.conf(5) Message-ID: <52AD3C12.301@transbay.net>
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There's the issue where you move disks from installed system A to a different motherboard and the system can't boot because it remembers the old system's device names. Where is the fix for this documented? I examined /boot/defaults/loader.conf and I believe the lines in question - for a /boot/loader.conf file I would create as the override for the problem are these: #currdev="disk1s1a" # Set the current device #root_disk_unit="0" # Force the root disk unit number #rootdev="disk1s1a" # Set the root filesystem I'll guess that "rootdev" is all I need to specify, or possibly "currdev" as well. I have this nit to pick: the loader.conf man page does NOT describe these labels at all, and the Online Manual in describing the boot process makes no mention of this mechanism, either. Moreover, there is no "/boot/loader.conf" file because by default it isn't needed until it is needed; but in looking at /boot/defaults/loader.conf it contains all commented-out lines line the ones above, and I can't tell where the system is making the determination as to what device it was installed on to begin with - namely, where IS the system storing the memory of what disk it wishes to try to load the system from? If the system calculated that based on the (in-disk-label) stated identity of the disk the boot process boots from, then the paradox is that even though the system's CPU-level boot came from the device, e.g. /dev/ad1s1a, even if the disk is internally labeled as e.g. "ad0s1a", why would not the loader just automatically assume that ad1s1a is now "the cheese"? I've looked from time to time for the writeup about this issue and have never been able to find it a second time. Thanks in advance for any clarification or references you can offer. -ecsd (Eric Dynamic)
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