From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Apr 21 19:17:08 2005 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 EF03416A4CE for ; Thu, 21 Apr 2005 19:17:08 +0000 (GMT) Received: from engine140.deployzone.net (engine140.deployzone.net [193.17.85.140]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 2115B43D3F for ; Thu, 21 Apr 2005 19:17:08 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from chris@czv.com) Received: from adsl-212-90-218-5.cybernet.ch [212.90.218.5] by engine140.deployzone.net; Thu, 21 Apr 2005 21:13:11 +0200 In-Reply-To: <5af4153cc97abfa75d403f30eb8e9963@czv.com> References: <5af4153cc97abfa75d403f30eb8e9963@czv.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v622) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Message-Id: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Chris Zumbrunn Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 21:17:05 +0200 To: questions@freebsd.org X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.622) Subject: Re: Stuck in bootstrapping hell - how do I troubleshoot? 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: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 19:17:09 -0000 I repeated the setup attempt on another machine with different hardware and got stuck with the same problem. Does anybody have a idea regarding the obvious that I could be missing in order to get these systems to boot? Otherwise I'll get someone to sit in front of the machine and look at the screen during a boot attempt :-) /czv On Apr 17, 2005, at 8:31 PM, Chris Zumbrunn wrote: > I'm having a hell of a time trying to get a new development server to > boot FreeBSD. > > The disk contents are an exact mirror from what I have running on a > production server, except for a different IP number in rc.conf. The > hardware is identical as far as I can tell. > > The server is in a datacenter and I can only access it via ssh and > boot either from the local disks or via network (freebsd or linux) - > no serial console, so I can't see where it gets stuck during the > bootstrap. > > Any attempt to boot from the local disks fails. I can't ping the > server for several minutes, until I give up and reboot again via > network. Nothing is written to /var/log/messages during the local boot > attempt. > > I've reinstalled the bootstrap code several times both using > sysinstall to install a standard mbr and using fdisk -B -b /boot/boot0 > ar0 and disklabel -B -b /boot/boot1 -s /boot/boot2 ar0s1 > > I seem to run into this same kind of problem over and over again. > Usually I somehow get it to work eventually, without being able to > tell anymore what fixed it because of the mass of stuff I tried before > it just suddenly works :-) > > How can I verify that I have a valid boot sector and mbr on that disk > (other than by attempting to boot)? Any tips on how to troubleshoot > these kinds of bootstrapping problems without sitting in front of the > box or having console access? > > I'm happy to provide any additional infos regarding the details of the > setup. I'm mirroring a server that is running FreeBSD 4.11. > > chris@czv.com +41 329 41 41 41 > Chris Zumbrunn Ventures - http://www.czv.com/ > Internet Application Technology - Reduced to the Maximum > > chris@czv.com +41 329 41 41 41 Chris Zumbrunn Ventures - http://www.czv.com/ Internet Application Technology - Reduced to the Maximum