9.2 Boot Problem

[Chris H]

>
> On 4 April 2014, at 21:08, Doug Hardie <bc979 at lafn.org> wrote:
>
>> I put this out on Questions, but got no responses. Hopefully someone here has some ideas.
>>
>> FreeBSD 9.2.  All of my systems are hanging during boot right after the screen that has
>> the picture.  Its as if someone hit a space on the keyboard.  However, these systems have
>> no keyboard.  If I plug one in, or use the serial console, and enter a return, the boot
>> continues properly.
>>
>> The boot menu is displayed along with Beastie.  However, the line that says Autoboot in n
>> seconds… never appears.  It just stops there.  These are all new installs from CD systems.
>>  I just used freebsd-update to take a toy server from 9.1 to 9.2 and it doesn't exhibit
>> this behavior.  It boots properly.  I have updated one of the production servers with the
>> latest 9.2 changes and it still has the issue.  I first thought that some config file did
>> not get updated properly on the CD.  I have dug around through the 4th files and don't see
>> anything obvious that would cause this.  I have now verified that all the 4th files in
>> boot are identical (except for the version number.  They are slightly different).  I don't
>> believe this is a BIOS setting issue as FreeBSD 7.2 didn't exhibit this behavior.  All 4
>> systems are on totally different motherboards.
>>
>> I tried setting loader_logo="none" in /boot/config.rc and that eliminated the menu and
>> Beastie.  I think the system completed booting, but the serial console was then dead.  It
>> did not respond or output anything.  I had to remove that and reboot to get the console
>> back again.
>>
>> I need to get this fixed as these are production servers that are essentially unmanned so
>> its difficult to get them back up again.
>
>
> No response here either.  Surely someone must know the loader.  I have been digging through
> the code, and can't find any differences between the systems that work and those that don't.
>  Is there any way to debug this?  Is there a way to find out where the loader is sitting
> waiting on input from the terminal.  That might give a clue as to why it didn't autoboot.
>
OK. This is the first I've seen of your post. I'm not going to profess
being an expert. But I might suggest adding the following to
loader.conf(5)

verbose_loading="YES"
boot_verbose="YES"

This raises the "noise level". Maybe that will help to provide you with
a bit more information, as to what, or if, your booting. DO have a look
through /boot/defaults/loader.conf for more hints, as to what, and how
you can control the boot process. As well as /etc/defaults/rc.conf.
In fact, you can pre-decide what, and how, to boot. Even passing by the
boot menu entirely.

--Chris

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