From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 29 06:41:20 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 92E5D1065678 for ; Wed, 29 Jun 2011 06:41:20 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kurt.buff@gmail.com) Received: from mail-wy0-f182.google.com (mail-wy0-f182.google.com [74.125.82.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2C3968FC1C for ; Wed, 29 Jun 2011 06:41:19 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wyg24 with SMTP id 24so871057wyg.13 for ; Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:41:19 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; bh=NFA1uIIAQByoEfUnlI5EEDRejcWZIYwFenFHE3ltFOg=; b=o1ASfyJ2BIm8N6vc9A5+hqmpvbTYhqckGCv7satA5rZAX2AbRrloqt+WZCIqtGQoEk d2WO/BX4RbkPZbayYdY8AuRXiD7Hj8lXlJPJyrY8RLtgX2HrYhPtn2LMoMVirE5Da/oI FW2Q+wD0hoMxvDAdgQqN46ryqOEoKJAUqaSwQ= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.217.7.3 with SMTP id z3mr333841wes.68.1309329678811; Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:41:18 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.216.46.7 with HTTP; Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:41:18 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20110628052446.89911e0a.freebsd@edvax.de> References: <4E08558A.7000101@my.gd> <20110628052446.89911e0a.freebsd@edvax.de> Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:41:18 -0700 Message-ID: From: Kurt Buff To: Polytropon Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: fubar'ed it good this time... X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2011 06:41:20 -0000 On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 20:24, Polytropon wrote: > On Mon, 27 Jun 2011 06:40:27 -0700, Kurt Buff wrote: >> Your advice sounds reasonable, but that site seems devoted to zfs bootables. >> >> I wonder if an 8.1 livefs iso will do the trick... > > Check if you can download FreeSBIE somewhere. It's a live system > using the 5.x and 6.x kernel which should be fine. Next to two > GUI modes (light, heavy) it also has a versatile "maintenance mode" > for such operations. I have already successfully used this system > for solving similar situations, for diagnostics, and for data > recovery preparation. The 7.4 livefs CD finds the hardware, and there was much rejoicing! I mounted the hard drive under /mnt, and I looked at /mnt/etc/fstab, and it's clean, and I also looked at /mnt/boot/loader.conf, and it's clean as well. So is /mnt/boot/loader.rc. However, during the boot process from the hard drive, I still saw scrolling by a reference to a syntax error, but it went too fast and I can't see what file was referenced. So, I started looking at the handbook to see if I could figure out which file might have been updated incorrectly. One was boot/device.hints - there was a string of equal signs as the first line of that file. How they got there I don't know, but I deleted that line, and that seems to have helped, because now I don't see the syntax error - but I'm still getting the mountroot prompt, and it's very possible that some other error is occuring in the quick boot process before the user-selectable menu is displayed. It's late, so I'm going to bed now, but I'll keep working it tomorrow. Kurt