Fwd: FreeBSD Sparc 11.0 RC1 Install Problem

[Marius Strobl]

On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 03:11:53PM +0000, Chris wrote:
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: FreeBSD Sparc 11.0 RC1 Install Problem
> Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2016 15:07:21 +0000
> From: Chris <xxx.syseng.yyy at gfsys.co.uk>
> Reply-To: syseng at gfsys.co.uk
> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Have just installed the above on a V215 with a minor issue.
> After install shutdown, then reboot, the system hangs after
> the UHUB2 line. An earlier messages says:
> 
> nexus0: <syscons> type unknown, no driver attached
> 
> Have been trying out various earlier releases over the
> past few months and one of the tips to solve an Xorg
> problem with console was to include the line:
> 
> kern.vty=vt, in /boot/loader.conf
> 
> This didn't solve the problem in the previous case,
> but was the clue here.
> 
> When this is included, the system boots as normal. Don't
> know if this is a bug that has already been fixed, but
> syscons appears to be needed to run Xorg, isn't present
> and the system, and 11rc2 defaults to it. Just where is the
> code for syscons and how can it be included ?. A complete
> newbie to all this, embedded systems here, but the build
> procedures and Makefiles are well above my pay grade at
> present.
> 

Hi,

while syscons(4) and vt(4) don't play well together on sparc64 when
both are compiled into the same kernel (as it's the case for 11.0-RC2
GENERIC), I can't actually trigger a boot hang with that combo.
Unfortunately, the information provided above also doesn't make much
sense; e. g. vt(4) already is the default with 11.0-RC2 GENERIC so
setting it via loader.conf is redundant and it remains unclear what
vt(4) is doing, i. e. whether it is driving some hardware (or at
least trying to).
How did you obtain the nexus0 line or see that the boot hangs after
uhub2; are you using LOM or serial console? Is there actually a
graphics card in that machine? What happens if you use a custom
built kernel without vt(4)?

Marius