Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 12:11:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Simon Shapiro <shimon@simon-shapiro.org> To: Jesse <j@lumiere.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE: changing root device to st0s1a Message-ID: <XFMail.980611121129.shimon@simon-shapiro.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980611030036.15687A-100000@leaf.lumiere.net>
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On 11-Jun-98 Jesse wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> My system is pretty screwed. I really need to get this working. I just
> tried to install FreeBSD 2.2.6-RELEASE from CD on a Pentium 200MMX, Intel
> Etherexpress pro 100 b, stealth64 video and DPT 2144UWR RAID SCSI card. I
> have 3 drives in there, two in a mirrored array and one as a hot spare.
> All DPT diagnostics show no problems.
>
> I got through the FreeBSD install, nothing fancy happens, same as I've
> installed in a half dozen other systems. I do dangerously dedicated
> partitions. I reboot when it's done, startup, right after the Pentium
> F00F
> bug fix, it says
>
> changing root device to st0s1a
> cannot mount root: panic
>
> I've tried reinstalling and not doing dangerously dedicated. When I do
> that, after a reboot, it says Missing operating system. If I use a boot
> disk to load the kernel off 0:sd(0,a)kernel it gives the changing root
> device error.
>
> When looking at the drive booted off a fixit CD, it mounts fine.
> kernel.config and boot.config are empty. /etc/fstab shows normal
> /dev/sd0s1a type stuff.
>
> I really have no idea what to do now. Any help at all would be
> appreciated.
The only DPT related issue, of the top of my head are:
* Have you told the dptmgr to initialize both disks, when the RAID-1 array
was created? If not, you might have trash in the boot record
* What are the target IDs of the disks in the RAID array? What is the
target ID of the hot spare? What is the target ID of the RAID array?
RAID arrays appear to Unix as a single disk. This ``disk'' has its own
bus, target and LUN address. If it is not appearing as bus 0 target 0,
LUN 0, the BIOS may get confused.
Most of my machines boot exactly off the same configuration (two disks in a
RAID-1 appearing as b0t0u0, mapped to sd0), or RAID-5 mapped the same way.
FreeBSD routinely installs fine, although I saw cases where either
sysinstall or some such get very confused, leaving trash behind, and making
booting (or trying to trace the logic in the failure to boot) very
frustrating.
If all fails, try to boot and then:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rsd0s1 bs=1024 count=1
and then install again.
NOTE!!! The above dd command will wipe out the boot record, the partition
table, rendering your disk totally useless. Only use when you are ready to
destroy your disk's contents and start all over!
Simon
---
Sincerely Yours,
Simon Shapiro Shimon@Simon-Shapiro.ORG
770.265.7340
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