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Date:      Wed, 8 Aug 2018 18:59:49 +0100
From:      Kaya Saman <kayasaman@gmail.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Fresh install of 11.2 hung at boot - no login prompt reached
Message-ID:  <6afd9eb9-982a-66e1-4641-2fe846592d92@gmail.com>

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Hi,


I've just performed a fresh install of 11.2: 11.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 
11.2-RELEASE #0 r335510: Fri Jun 22 04:32:14 UTC 2018


Basically as I have a custom partition layout I decided to install ZFS 
on Root manually.


# gpart show ada0
=>       40  468862048  ada0  GPT  (224G)
          40       1024     1  freebsd-boot  (512K)
        1064    2097152     2  freebsd-swap  (1.0G)
     2098216   14679256        - free -  (7.0G)
    16777472  233292168     3  freebsd-zfs  (111G)
   250069640  218792448     4  freebsd-zfs  (104G)


This is mirrored with ada1 in the zroot:


# gpart show ada1
=>       40  468862048  ada1  GPT  (224G)
          40       1024     1  freebsd-boot  (512K)
        1064    2097152     2  freebsd-swap  (1.0G)
     2098216   14679256        - free -  (7.0G)
    16777472  233292168     3  freebsd-zfs  (111G)
   250069640  218792448     4  freebsd-zfs  (104G)


The zpool has been constructed as such:


# zpool status zroot
   pool: zroot
  state: ONLINE
   scan: none requested
config:

     NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
     zroot       ONLINE       0     0     0
       mirror-0  ONLINE       0     0     0
         ada0p3  ONLINE       0     0     0
         ada1p3  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors


As there seems to be little documentation on customized or manual 
install of ZFS on root as the installation medium partitioner utilizes 
the whole disk, I am a little lost!


The information on the Fbsd wiki: 
https://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/ZFSBootPartition is outdated and 
later steps are not relevant any more as there is no more 'sysinstall'.


The steps I followed are off a thread in the forum: 
https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/installing-freebsd-manually-no-installer.63201/


This works so long as I boot the kernel from my installation USB drive 
using the steps:


ok unload
ok load /boot/kernel/kernel
ok load /boot/kernel/opensolaris.ko
ok load /boot/kernel/zfs.ko

<any extra modules> <-- for me iscsi.ko, if_lagg.ko, iscsi_initiator.ko, 
ctl.ko, cfiscsi.ko

ok set vfs.root.mountfrom="zfs:zroot"

ok boot


Now if I try to boot directly from the system (I have already installed 
the kernel and issued: gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot 
-i 1 ada(x) for both drives ada0 & ada1)

the system I think at Boot Stage 2? following: 
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/boot-introduction.html

comes up with:

BIOS drive [...]

read 264 from 384 to 0x7c0f5f80 .... until final message: error: 0x10

Then finally shows the Beastie pic with menu which I think is Stage 3? 
then boots the kernel.


I get messages complaining about some /dev devices not being accessible 
or writable then it complains about not being able to read the 
/etc/defaults/devfs rules file.

Afterwards I see the standard kernel messages until the date/time is 
shown after which the boot process hangs and no login prompt appears.


Is there anyone who is familiar with the boot process who can help me 
out here....?? I'm not sure if I missed configuring something in the 
boot loader or if I need to map /dev to the system or something.....


Anyway, it is a fresh install so nothing I think is corrupted, as the 
pool is fine. Just something to do with booting and loading things I think??


Many thanks in advance.


Kaya










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