Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2005 20:31:00 +0200 From: Chris Zumbrunn <chris@czv.com> To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Stuck in bootstrapping hell - how do I troubleshoot? Message-ID: <5af4153cc97abfa75d403f30eb8e9963@czv.com>
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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
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