Skipping "F1 FreeBSD" prompt on boot

[Pieter de Goeje]

On Sunday 13 May 2007, David Landgren wrote:
> Sam Lawrance wrote:
> > On 13/05/2007, at 6:15 PM, Matthew Seaman wrote:
> >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >> Hash: SHA256
> >>
> >> Sam Lawrance wrote:
> >>> On 12/05/2007, at 8:59 PM, Matthew Seaman wrote:
> >>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >>>> Hash: SHA256
> >>>>
> >>>> David Landgren wrote:
> >>>>> I have a disk that has only FreeBSD on it, and so I would like to
> >>>>> skip the initial F1/FreeBSD prompt. boot0cfg -v ad0 says:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> options=nopacket,update,nosetdrv
> >>>>> default_selection=F1 (Slice 1)
> >>>>>
> >>>>> ... what do I have to do to say JFDI instead of prompting? This is
> >>>>> not the sort of thing I want to fiddle around experimenting, so a
> >>>>> little guidance would be most appreciated.
> >>>>
> >>>> fdisk -B -b /boot/mbr /dev/ad0
> >>>>
> >>>> You installed the FreeBSD boot sector stuff, which gives you the
> >>>> 'press F1'  business.  Replace that with the standard mbr, which just
> >>>> boots straight up.
> >>>
> >>> Rather than replacing it, you can use boot0cfg to set a really short
> >>> timeout instead; in case you might want that functionality one day.
> >>
> >> Heh.  It's not like you only get one chance to rewrite the boot blocks
> >> on any particular drive.  If anyone needs to (re-)install the FreeBSD
> >> boot
> >> blocks, then you can do very simply it by:
> >>
> >>    boot0cfg -B -b /boot/boot0 /dev/ad0
> >>
> >> or even
> >>
> >>    fdisk -B -b /boot/boot0 /dev/ad0
> >>
> >> Or if you need to boot from a serial console you can change /boot/boot0
> >> to /boot/boot0sio
> >
> > Sure, but why get rid of it, when leaving it in with a short timeout
> > costs you nothing.
>
> A fair point, but in this particular case, FreeBSD is the only thing on
> the drive, and likely to remain that way until the disk dies of
> mechanical failure. I just don't need that prompt, especially the
> annoying beep it makes.
The beep was removed since May 2006 (6.2-RELEASE, 6-STABLE, HEAD).
A simple
#boot0cfg -B /dev/adX
should get rid of it.

Cheers,
Pieter de Goeje