printing boot probe messages

[Chuck Robey]

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Dag-Erling Smørgrav wrote:
> Chuck Robey <chuckr at chuckr.org> writes:
>> Anyhow, in the midst of all the screwing around, I now find that, on the
>> Ascii-graphics FreeBSD loader UI, if I choose Option #5 (verbose loading)
>> then the printing of the regular probe messages starts back up (this is NOT
>> the verbose probe messages, it's the printing of the regular probing
>> messages.)  I have to admit, I don't clearly know the difference, in
>> setting the variables, between verbose loading the verbose probing.  I know
>> the difference in what prints, but I don't know how to set this up
>> permanently without getting me that verbose probing, which I would like to
>> avoid.
> 
> I have absolutely no idea what "verbose loading" and "verbose probing"
> mean.  All I know of is the boot_verbose loader variable, which enables
> additional kernel messages.  It does not affect the way the kernel is
> loaded, or the way devices are probed.
> 
> DES

I'm sorry, Dag, but I am myself having problem describing it.  I have been
asking for names, but while I get some guesses about the loss of printing,
they haven't given me names to use.  I see two items that I can get, when
booting.  If I stick "-v" in /boot.config, then when the kernel probes, all
the probes are verbose.  Stuff like my HDaudio card print incredibly
verbose listings.  OK, that's what I will call here Print#1

The other thing is what I can see if I see the ascii-graphical loader (the
picture, in ascii-graphics, either of a BSDaemon, or of the letters
"FreeBSD", and a list of about 9 options for booting.  If I select item #5,
then I get a listing.  The listing is quite distinct from what I identify
as Print#1, so I'll call this Print#2.  If I either hit return at that
ascii booting menu (to get the default) or select item #1, then when it
boots, I get no print at all: I see the very first spinner character (but
it never prints the second one), and the next thing I see, it's printing
"Login:".  This Print#2 looks like the old non-verbose booting messages
that I used to see, before I lost the printing of all booting messages.

So, what do you call Print#1 and Print#2?  Sure would help out, if folks
would answer these, and not only answer the real question, which is why my
 ordinary non-verbose printing of booting messages went away.  If you want,
I can tell you, referencing the "verbose loading", that's my Print#2  When
I talked about "verbose probing" I am talking about the Print#1.  The
reason I grabbed those definitions (clearly in desperation) is because it
seems to me that Print#1 is called out as device probing is starting, and
Print#2 is called out before all loading has begun. Yes, I know that those
two times abut one another, and aren't particularly good names.   BUT note
that when you supply a name, that one I guarantee I will stick with,
religiously, for now on.

I'm beginning, right now, to wonder: I increased the dmesg-buffer to 64K, I
wonder if maybe that might possibly cause the bug?  I know it shouldn't,
but it wouldn't be the first time this week that I found weird behaviour in
the kernel: if you set the number of vtys from the default 16 down to 8,
that caused me to lose keyboard input to my X11.  I got REALLY lucky to
find that one, but it's a testable fact.
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