i386/125516: 7.0-RELEASE install dies (probably same problem as PR 113160)

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <200807112010.m6BKAsnC085231 at freefall.freebsd.org>, you wrote:

>Synopsis: 7.0-RELEASE install dies (probably same problem as PR 113160)
>
>State-Changed-From-To: open->feedback

See below regarding this change of state.

>State-Changed-By: gavin
>State-Changed-When: Fri Jul 11 20:06:16 UTC 2008
>State-Changed-Why: 
>To submitter:  Firstly, is there any chance you could get a copy
>of the boot messages?

If you give me a workable methodology to do that... i.e. capture ALL OF
THEM... then I will certainly try.

>If you can't obtain them through a serial console,

Given the other alternative you proposed, I _would_ like to try to do
this, but I don't know how.  Can you help to guide me?

I have just skimmed this:

   http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/serialconsole-setup.html

but it fails to answer two key questions:

   1) How does one get set to use COM1 as the serial consol during a boot
      from an install CD?  (Must I get to a boot prompt and then type in
      the command 'set console="comconsole"' and the 'boot'?)

   2) Assuming that the only thing approximating a serial "dumb terminal"
      that I have on hand is another UNIX box which also is running FreeBSD
      and which also has a serial port, and assuming that I have obtained
      and installed an appropriate nukll modem serial cable between the
      two serial ports on the two machines, then what command or commands
      should or must I execute on the second system in order to talk to
      the serial port (like a dumb terminal) _and_ capture its output to
      a disk file?

> uploading good quality digital photos should be enough.

This was not my first prefrence, but it is obviously faster than the
alternative.  But I am not fast enough to capture everything as it all
goes scollling by.  Stiil I hope these photos may be helpful, particularly
the final one:

	http://www.tristatelogic.com/freebsd/p7110151.jpg
	http://www.tristatelogic.com/freebsd/p7110152.jpg
	http://www.tristatelogic.com/freebsd/p7110154.jpg


>Secondly, are you able to confirm if 6.2 and 6.3 CDs boot on
>this machine?

I just did, yes.  Apparently, I _can_ get past booting and do an entire
install (onto a blank harddrive) from a set of 6.3-RELEASE CDs.  No problem.
I just can't seem to make that happen on this system for 7.0-RELEASE.

Perhaps in cases where the md memory disk cannot be successfully set up,
_somebody_ should be writting _some_ sort of message to the console so
that we all can have a prayer of figuring out what exactly went wrong.

>the results may well go a long way to
>figuring out exactly what was changed to cause this issue.

I hope so.


Regards,
rfg


P.S.  May I ask why you elected to close this PR?  I am having trouble under-
standing how that is appropriate, given that the problem has not actually been
solved.

P.P.S.  I will be away from my desk until at least next Thrusday, but if
you have more questions, I will be happy to respond when I return.