Installation preparation questions

[Marcel Moolenaar]

On May 12, 2008, at 9:17 AM, Ross Gohlke wrote:

>
>>
>> On May 11, 2008, at 10:26 PM, Ross Gohlke wrote:
>>
>>> Q1: What is the difference between
>>> www.freebsd.org/~grehan/ppc-root-latest.tbz2 and
>>> http://people.freebsd.org/~grehan/ppc_iso/latest.iso and the  
>>> downloads
>>> available at www.freebsd.org/where.html? Is ppc-root-latest.tbz2
>>> FreeBSD7.0?
>>
>> I would expect those to be old. You probably want to use the
>> official releases and/or snapshots.
>>
>>> Q3: Once I have set the mountvolume in OpenFirmWare (OFW), can the
>>> machine
>>> be rebooted remotely?
>>
>> The problem with FreeBSD and the Xserve in this particular
>> case is that you cannot power-cycle. You can do everything
>> else remotely.
>> The problem with FreeBSD and the Xserve in this particular
>> case is that you cannot power-cycle. You can do everything
>> else remotely.
>
> What is "this particular case"? Xserve? G4? OFW version?

Your case of doing things remotely :-)

> Just to clarify:
> If I log in via ssh and issue shutdown -r now, will the machine come  
> back
> up without someone being physically at the machine's keyboard?

Yes, it will. But if FreeBSD hangs hard or you have a power failure,
someone will have to be on-site to press the power button.

> If I use Remote Reboot (power cycle) through my provider, I assume  
> it will
> not come back up, correct?

Correct.

> This is disheartening news. My goal is to build a server that can be
> completely controlled remotely. I have had STELLAR success with  
> FreeBSD on
> i386.

The problem with FreeBSD on Apple hardware is that we don't have a
driver for the power management unit. The PMU needs to be programmed
every time on reboot so that the machine will power-up after a power
failure. We can't do this yet. I consider it a flaw in the hardware,
but such is the state of affair.

A hardware solution is called for...

> The Xserve is still a heck of a box. Is there any hope this  
> situation will
> be remedied in a near-future release?

Well, I started working on this but fail to have time. Others have
done some work as well. Bottom line: I have no idea when this will
be implemented.

FYI,

-- 
Marcel Moolenaar
xcllnt at mac.com