Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 10:48:05 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: Neil Brown <neilbrown65536@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: freebsd 4.8-STABLE hangs on boot with no error message Message-ID: <20031128104805.GD26910@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <20031128092823.25941.qmail@web25202.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <20031128092823.25941.qmail@web25202.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
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--gE7i1rD7pdK0Ng3j Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Fri, Nov 28, 2003 at 09:28:23AM +0000, Neil Brown wrote: > I'm running freebsd 4.8-STABLE, I installed it a > little while ago and it has been running fine as my > broadband router for a few weeks now, no problems. >=20 > This morning there was a powercut, and when I came to > the machine and attached a monitor, I discovered that > it was making it through the BIOS, getting to the > spinning -\|/-\|/ prompt, where it freezes on the > first | every time. Uh-oh. That's bad. That shows the system is trying and failing to read the kernel from your hard drive. =20 =20 > If I press enter quick enough at the right moment I > can get the boot prompt, but then the | appears and it > freezes. I can still turn numlock on and off (a sign > I've gone by for years that the PC hasn't totally > locked...) and ctrl-alt-del still reboots but it's > clear that the machine is not going anywhere further. >=20 > I can chuck a CD drive in and boot from the freebsd > install disk or knoppix or whatever will help me, does > anyone have any idea as to how I can fix it or what > log file I should examine etc? Can you boot to single user mode from Disk2 of the 4 CD set? (Alternately, you can use the install and fixit floppy images from ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/4.8-RELEASE/floppies/) If so, first thing to try is running fsck on your root partition: # fsck -y /dev/ad0s1a (Assuming you're using IDE disks and you've got FreeBSD installed into the first slice -- adjust as necessary) If you can fsck the filesystem, then try mounting it: # mount -t ufs -o rw /dev/ad0s1a /mnt If you can get this far, then you're in fairly good shape and can probably recover the system without doing a full restore-from-backup. If not, then it seems that you've had a really bad disk crash: at best you'll be able to reinstall and things will work well enough. At worst, the disk is completely toast. If you can access the drive, then check that you've got a kernel image available on the drive (/kernel would be good, or /kernel.old or /kernel.GENERIC). If necessary try copying the kernel image from the CD. Once you've got that far, try booting again from your hard drive. Once you've got the system booting up again, then going through a full buildworld cycle would be a good idea. Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK --gE7i1rD7pdK0Ng3j Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQE/xyfldtESqEQa7a0RAnZoAJ9FwtFnXu9cXrVQR/5Wt71gGlDIKQCfdB88 isabCkHXe5t0LEklrAoOaYQ= =ih3t -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --gE7i1rD7pdK0Ng3j--
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