Boot loop in FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE after install - FIXED!

[Mike Newell]

Well THAT'S weird...

I wondered if there might be some strange data left on the drive (I had a
4.7-RELEASE install on it prior to this), so I stopped the system in POST
and entered the Adaptec system utilities.  I then did a low-level format of
the drive.  Reinstalled and Hey Presto - booted up fine!  I wonder if the
/boot/loader program found some bad data left over from a prior install that
it didn't validate and that corrupted the boot process?

Dunno, but it's up now.  THANKS!!

Mike

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tony Frank [mailto:tfrank at optushome.com.au]
> Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 10:08 PM
> To: Mike Newell
> Cc: Tony Frank; freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: Boot loop in FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE after install
>
>
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, Feb 19, 2004 at 09:48:04PM -0500, Mike Newell wrote:
> > On Wed, 18 Feb 2004, Tony Frank wrote:
> > tfrank> While I cannot perhaps comment on your problem, you can
> try either pressing
> > tfrank> 'pause' key or 'scrolllock' which might help depending
> on where the problems
> > tfrank> are occuring.
> > They don't work.  Fortunately I was able to:
> >
> >   1. Hook a null modem to the serial port and my laptop.
> >   2. Run hyperterm on my laptop to view serial port data.
> >   3. During the initial boot load hit ESC to get the "Boot:" promt,
> >      then do "-h" to switch to serial console.
> >   4. Capture the stuff on the serial console.
> >
> > What it does is repeatedly go through the BTX boot loader, saying
> > something like (this is from memory):
> >
> >   BTX loader...
> >   BIOS Drive A is disk 0
> >   BIOS Drive C is disk 1
> >   BIOS Drive D is disk 2
> >
> >   BTX loader...
> >   BIOS Drive A is disk 3
> >   BIOS Drive C is disk 4
> >   BIOS Drive D is disk 5
> >
> >   BTX loader...
> >
> > and so on.  Eventually it runs out of drive numbers and starts saying
> > "Can't figure out our boot device" a few times, then crashes with an
> > assert error.  Looks like the loader is just looping until it
> runs out of
> > heap.
>
> That suggests that it may be confused somehow.
> I saw the crash/assert type scenario if the boot blocks are not installed
> properly.
> Ie the MBR is updated with the bootmgr (F1 .. bit) but the 2nd/3rd stages
> were corrupted somehow.
> (In my case I accidentally overwrote the blocks with some
> experiementation)
> You can reinstall boot blocks using bsdlabel (or disklabel on 4.9)
> If you can boot from floppy/CD, get into fixit mode.
> Then run:
> bsdlabel -B da0s1 (assuming da0 is the disk you are trying to boot from)
>
> > If I try to boot directly into the kernel the cursor changes from a
> > blinking underscore to a solid block and the system just locks up.
> >
> > In no case is there an error message or any other indication that
> > something is weird.
>
> Have you tried 4.9-RELEASE on this system?
>
> I understand that 5.2.1-RC2 ISO is also available which might be
> another option.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tony
>