Install bug - 4.9 stable - post install circular reboot

[Stuart Barkley]

On Tue, 17 Apr 2018 at 09:10 -0400, Kevin Berrien wrote:

Check your system clock.  Its way off.

> I can confirm an issue posted Dec 3rd, freebsd-stable maillist,
> titled "4.9 install buglet".
>
> I experience this bug running the install (various configurations)
> 100% of the time.  After install, after system reboot, the boot
> loader comes up with F1: FreeBSD, and reboots continually forever.
> To test, I made 3 installs without issue using 4.8.  So first, I'd
> like to confirm the bug report, and ask the following.

I have also seen this problem on two of my systems when installing
4.9-RELEASE.

> In his "buglet" post, Ian noted the following work around.
>
> > Work around.  Force write in label screen (or rewrite MBR and
> > label post reboot)

Yes, I found this workaround also and it works for me.

> Looking at fdisk, and the label utility I see nothing option along
> these lines.  Could someone explain to me what/how to do this?

(From memory, YMMV) Reboot for the installation CD into sysinstall.
Select "Configure"  then "Fdisk".  In fdisk select "W" this will cause
the MBR to be rewritten correctly (I always select the FreeBSD boot
manager, I don't know if that is necessary).

> Has anyone else seen this apparently prevalent issue?  Is a fix
> likely, or do these kind of things just slip by?  I did not expect
> this from a 'stable' release.

I'm not running stable so don't know if the problem is fixed there, or
even if a fix in known.

I'm using an ASUS P4B533-E motherboard with the original BIOS (Rev
1008 08/06/02).  There is an updated BIOS available and I hope to be
able to give it a try soon (it also fixes another minor problem I've
seen: booting from floppy which doesn't work currently).

Stuart
-- 
I've never been lost; I was once bewildered for three days, but never lost!
                                        --  Daniel Boone