Re: Disk setup X5000

On Sat, 11 Dec 2021 17:52:56 -0500
Al <al@datazap.net> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I have worked for the last few months on this issue without any real 
> solution. I think I may have eliminated some things, but that is it.
> At first I thought maybe it was that the bootloader could see the 
> partition, but the kernel could not see it, but after much testing I 
> don't think that is the case. Then I thought because we have switched
> to mbr, that maybe I needed to setup the drives on an i386 system. I
> don't really own much in the way of i386, but I was able to use the
> school's laptop to setup a drive, but even the bootloader could not
> load the kernel from that partition. It really looks like adding
> bootargs: vfs.root.moutnfrom=ufs:/dev/ada0s2a to uboot does nothing,
> but doesn't hurt anything either. I think the problem is still with
> the disk setup. What it really looks like is that it finds the disk,
> but then later on it tries to remount it and then things go wrong.
> Before the kernel would look at: the ada disk first, but now it looks
> at mmcsd0: 4GB first. I guess that I thought a disklabel would fix
> this.

You *could* put ubldr on the SD card, but I've not tried that and you
need to be careful with the partitioning so you don't erase the uboot.

> 
> I have looked at many howto's on using gpart to setup disks. Nothing
> has helped me.
> 
> 1. What should be in fstab?
> 2. Is there a gpart howto somewhere that explains what needs to be
> done to partition the drives on an X5000?

I think the u-boot on these systems only supports MBR partitioning, so
you're stuck with that.  There should be many HOWTOs scattered over the
internet about using gpart to setup FreeBSD on an MBR system

> 3. Should the disklabel be added with newfs and is there anything
> else that I need to know?

The boot partition should be a small FAT partition that just has ubldr
and your dtb. Everything else can go on the rootfs which should
be in the disklabel.

My X5000 has the following layout from 'gpart show':

=>        63  1000215153  ada0  MBR  (477G)
          63      262144     1  fat16  (128M)
      262207   999953009     2  freebsd  (477G)

=>        0  999953009  ada0s2  BSD  (477G)
          0   62914560       1  freebsd-ufs  (30G)
   62914560   16777216       2  freebsd-swap  (8.0G)
   79691776  920261233       4  freebsd-zfs  (439G)

> 4. Does the slice of the root partition need to be marked active?

I don't think so.

> 5. Should I be creating a UFS1 or UFS2 partition?

UFS2.  You can also run ZFS on these systems.  My setup has a rootfs
that's UFS2, and dedicates the entire rest of the disk to ZFS.

> 6. Should -T option be set with newfs?

Trim?  If you're using an SSD it's a good idea.

> 7. Could there be something missing in the kernel?

What other issues are you running into?


For reference, relevant U-Boot environment variables (transcribed):

bootargs_sata=vfs.root.mountfrom=ufs:/dev/ada0s2a
bootcmd=run bootcmd_sata
bootcmd_sata=sata start; fatload sata 0:1 ${loadaddr} ${bootfile};
fatload sata 0:1 ${fdtaddr} ${fdtfile}; fdt addr ${fdtaddr}; fdt
boardsetup; bootelf ${loadaddr}
bootfile=ubldr
fdtfile=cyrus_p5020.dtb

> 
> I really need to verify at this point that my setup is correct. I
> guess it could be something set in uboot, but I don't see how. If I
> can't figure this out, then maybe someone on this list could help me.
> I would be willing to pay $100 an hour, or what you make at your day
> job per hour, or what ever seems reasonable to you to get this issue
> resolved. I think this could be done remotely by ssh into another
> computer and then using the serial console, or I can send you a disk,
> or maybe I could buy time on a working FreeBSD X5000, or I am sure
> there are other options. I just don't want it to be 2025 and I am
> still stuck on this issue.
> 
> Kind Regards,
> Al
> 
> 

The easiest way to install would be to gpart from another powerpc
machine, mount the rootfs, mount the bootfs to ${rootfs}/boot/uboot,
then extract the base.txz and kernel.txz, that you can find on the
download server, in the mounted rootfs.  You can then use bsdconfig to
configure it.

- Justin