printing boot probe messages

[Erik Trulsson]

On Sat, Dec 29, 2007 at 01:58:32PM -0500, Chuck Robey wrote:
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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.

Using 'boot -v' from /boot.config or choosing "Boot FreeBSD with verbose
logging" from the loader's menu are both supposed to do exactly the same
thing:  Enable verbose messages from the kernel.


If you do not see any boot messages at all, then my guess is that you
probably have messed around with /boot/device.hints (or compiled in a hints
file in the kernel) and removed or disabled the hints for the video
adapter/system console.
 (At least that is what I had done the one time I lost the boot messages
from the kernel. As soon as I restored the hints to normal the normal boot
messages returned.)

(Without the hints the kernel apparently cannot print to the console until
after it has probed and configured the video hardware, which is among the
last devices to be probed.)


> 
> 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.

There are two different kinds of output you get at boot time.
The first is all the messages from the kernel as probes and configures all
the hardware.  The second is the output from the startup scripts that run
after the kernel has finished loading. (The kernel can output some
messages at this stage too, when the scripts do things like bringing up or
down network interfaces, etc.)

Enabling verbose boot messages makes the kernel messages more verbose.  The
output from the startup scripts is not affected by that.





-- 
<Insert your favourite quote here.>
Erik Trulsson
ertr1013 at student.uu.se