freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 71, Issue 15

[Spumonti]

> Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 19:21:15 -0500
> From: Spumonti <spumonti at gmail.com>
> Subject: installation of FreeBSD 4.10 on Dell PowerEdge 650 fails
>        after   reboot with mountroot
> To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Message-ID: <a4ea7e7a04080617215d9df1a8 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> 
> Just tried installing FreeBSD 4.10 on a Dell PowerEdge 650.   No
> problems with the install, tried creating a partition with
> "dangerously dedicated" and also, just using the entire disk with
> standard bootmanager.
> 
> Each time, after the initial reboot I get an error:
> 
> Mounting root from ufs:ad0s1a
> Root mount failed: 6
> Mounting root from ufs:ad0a
> Root mount failed: 6
> 
> Manual root filesystem specification:
> <fstype>:<device> Mount <device> using filesystem <fstype>
> eg. ufs:/dev/da0s1a
> ? List valid disk boot devices
> <empty line> Abort manual input
> 
> mountroot>
> 
> I tried:
> 
> mountroot> ufs:/dev/ad4s1a
> 
> but that fails too.
> 
> The disk is a Seagate 120GB and it's actually ad4, not ad0.  If I
> interrupt the boot process at:
> 
> >>FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
> Default: 0:ad(0,a)/kernel
> boot:
> 
> and enter:
> 
> >>FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
> Default: 0:ad(0,a)/kernel
> boot: 0:ad(4,a)/kernel
> 
> the machine will boot properly.   I've tried two things I found while
> checking on this:
> 
> 1.  Adding to loader.conf:
> rootdev="disk4s1a"
> root_disk_unit=0"
> 
> 2.  Rebuilding the kernel and adding:
> options        ROOTDEVNAME=\"ufs:ad4s1a\"
> 
> Neither of which worked.    Is there something I'm missing while doing
> the installation?   If I look in  /dev   the devices are there ad4,
> ad4s1, ad4s1a, ad4s1b, etc.
> 
> About at wit's end ... any help would be great.
> 


I've been reading the booting section in the FreeBSD and have a
thought.   If during booting, I interrupt the process at:

>> FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/kernel
boot:

and manually type in:

>> FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/kernel
boot: 0:ad(4,a)/kernel

designating the device ad4 as the boot device, the computer boots
properly.  So in the handbook I see:

Example 12-2. boot2 Screenshot

>> FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/kernel
boot:

so I would have to make a change to boot2.   Yes?  No?   And I
followed the instructions, first writing a new mbr with:

fdisk -B -b /boot/boot0 ad4

and then:

disklabel -B /dev/ad4


But no joy ... machine still doesn't boot properly.  How can I
correctly change boot2 so it boots off of  ad4  instead of ad0 ?  What
am I missing?  I have a few other machines configured the same way so
I would like to learn what the problem is ... not just looking for an
easy answer.

Any information would be appreciated.