FreeBSD 6.2 Boot Issue

[youshi10 at u.washington.edu]

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 jhall at vandaliamo.net wrote:

>> On Thu, Apr 26, 2007 at 06:31:05PM -0000, jhall at vandaliamo.net wrote:
>>
>>>> At 01:16 PM 4/26/2007, jhall at vandaliamo.net wrote:
>>>>> > At 12:52 PM 4/26/2007, jhall at vandaliamo.net wrote:
>>>>> >>Both of those checked OK.  Is it possible I have specified the
>>> C/H/S
>>>>> >>incorrectly during setup?
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >>Thanks,
>>>>> >
>>>>> > What is your type and model hard drive?  Did you specify the
>>> geometry
>>>>> when
>>>>> > you ran sysinstall?
>>>>> >
>>>>> > How did you partition and slice the hard drive?
>>>>> >
>>>>> >
>>>>> >          -Derek
>>>>> >
>>>
>>>>> >
>>>>>
>>>>> Derek,
>>>>>
>>>>> In the server I currently have three 376595-001 drives (146 GB serial
>>>>> SCSI) and three 432146-001 drives (300 GB serial SCSI).  These drives
>>> are
>>>>> configured as a single drive in a RAID 5 configuration.
>>>>>
>>>>> I did not specify any geometry during the installation.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have the hard drive configured as a single partition with the
>>>>> appropriate lables (/, /var, /usr, /tmp and a swap area).
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for your help.
>>>>
>>>> Sounds like your system is not booting, but you're not getting any
>>> error
>>>> message.  Check the boot order in your BIOS, and turn on diagnostic
>>> boot
>>>> messages if they are not turned on.
>>>>
>>>> Does they system boot from a CD ok?
>>>>
>>>>          -Derek
>>>
>>> Yes, the system boots from CD just fine.  And, it is able to run newfs
>>> during the install without any problems.
>>>
>>> The total size of the drive is 683.5 GB.
>>>
>>> The boot order in the BIOS is CD and then E200i controller.
>>
>> One question you didn't quite answer.   Someone asked 'how did you
>> partition the device.   I think the intent was to ask what process
>> did you use - for example sysinstall or manual fdisk/bsdabel/newfs?
>>
>> Did you first create a single slice on the drive and then divide
>> that slice in to partitions?
>>
>> In either case, you must tell either sysinstall or fdisk & bsdlabel
>> to make the drive and slice bootable, to write either a generic
>> boot record or the FreeBSD MBR in fdisk or the fdisk portion of
>> sysinstall and then select make the slice bootable in bsdlabel or
>> the bsdlabel part of sysinstall.   If you don't, it won't find a
>> bootable device there.
>>
>> If you have done those things, then, back to the drawing board.
>>
>> ////jerry
>
> I used sysinstall to partition the device.  And, I selected boot mgr for
> the boot manager.  When the system booted, it would boot to the point to
> where I had to press F1 to boot FreeBSD.  When F1 was pressed, or the
> timeout was waited for, the system would just beep, the drive lights would
> flash, and nothing else would happen.
>
> Sorry for the confusion.
>
>
>
> Jay
>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>>
>>> Jay
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Jay
>>>>>
>>>>> >>Jay
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> > At 10:49 AM 4/26/2007, jhall at vandaliamo.net wrote:
>>>>> >> >>I have installed FreeBSD 6.2 on an HP Proliant G5 server with an
>>>>> E200i
>>>>> >> >>Smart Controller installed.  The installation was flawless.
>>>>> >> >>
>>>>> >> >>When I reboot the server after the installation, the boot loader
>>>>> >> screen
>>>>> >> >> is
>>>>> >> >>displayed.  I press F1 and the system beeps and comes back to
>>> the
>>>>> boot
>>>>> >> >>loader prompt.
>>>>> >> >>
>>>>> >> >>What should I be looking at?  I am at a loss since I usually end
>>> up
>>>>> >> with
>>>>> >> >>leftover hardware and this time I acutally got to purchase new
>>>>> >> hardware
>>>>> >> >>just for this project.
>>>>> >> >>
>>>>> >> >>Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>>>>> >> >>
>>>>> >> >>Thanks for your help.
>>>>> >> >
>>>>> >> > Check your BIOS that you are ALLOWING the boot sector to be
>>>>> written.
>>>>> >> >
>>>>> >> > If that is OK, try disabling hyperthreading if that is turned on
>>> in
>>>>> >> your
>>>>> >> > BIOS.
>>>>> >> >
>>>>> >> >          -Derek

Jay,
      Try another bootloader, such as GAG (http://gag.sf.net) or Grub (this requires a BSD slice write capable LiveCD unfortunately to install grub via ports). I've come across some cases with some computers where GAG worked where Grub and the BSD That isn't a long term solution to your problem, but it's a workaround until the actual root cause can be determined.
      HTT shouldn't be the cause, unless the hardware architects that designed your PATA EIDE controller did something fubar'ed in the design, I'd think.
      Also, please bottom-post, not top-post on this list.
Thanks!
-Garrett