[nycbug-talk] Help getting FreeBSD current to boot (5.2.1 release does work)

[pete wright]

On Jun 13, 2004, at 3:06 PM, Jonathan wrote:

> pete wright wrote:
>
>> On Jun 13, 2004, at 2:21 PM, Jonathan wrote:
>>> pete wright wrote:
>>>> On Jun 13, 2004, at 11:44 AM, Jonathan wrote:
>>>>> Dan Langille wrote:
>>>>>> On 13 Jun 2004 at 11:08, Jonathan wrote:
>>>>>>> Wold anyone be willing to help me get a -current kernel to boot  
>>>>>>> on my computer?  As the subject says 5.2.1-release boots fine  
>>>>>>> but any recent (within a month +) -current fails
>>>>>>>  to boot successfully.  I can test any patches etc. the machine  
>>>>>>> is just sitting right now while I try to get it to work.  I  
>>>>>>> don't have a null modem cable and really don't want to pay  
>>>>>>> Radioshack prices for one but I will if I need to.  I'm located  
>>>>>>> on FT Drum if anyone is willing to help in
>>>>>>>  person and lives nearby or knows someone nearby who may help.  
>>>>>>> I'd really like to get FreeBSD -current running because I want  
>>>>>>> to stick with 5.x and 5.2.1 release has several known security  
>>>>>>> issues.  I will probably switch to -stable when it becomes  
>>>>>>> 5-stable.
>>>> i'm game to help you out but i think the folks on the list would  
>>>> need a bit more info your setup, like hardware specs etc.  also if  
>>>> you could post the output of a "dmesg."  also, are you trying to  
>>>> boot off GENERIC or is this a custom kernel?  If custom, try  
>>>> booting off GENERIC.  finally, i would post the "uname" of the  
>>>> release that boots fine. -p
>>> Booting GENERIC 5.2.1 and trying GENERIC -current
>>> The computer is a Pentium I 233MHz with 128MB RAM (My desktop has  
>>> problems too but the 233 computer will be dedicated to FreeBSD so I
>>>  want to get it working first).  I have a site I can post anything  
>>> on to avoid large on-list messages as well if that would be better  
>>> for this list.  I will post a transcription of the error messages  
>>> and a boot -v later but I'm in the middle of a 12 hour  
>>> buildworld/buildkernel (trying -current dated 5 May 2004 to see if  
>>> that works).
>> thanks for the info, also when you boot with newer builds where does  
>> the boot process hang?  I noticed some error messages relating to an  
>> ATA disk, altho i am not sure those are just diagnostics or what yet.
> The ATA messages may have something to do with the fact I have a pair  
> of
> hard drives on an IDE cable but not powered, just guessing there.  I  
> can
> actually make it into single user mode but as soon as I try ANY  
> command, valid or otherwise, sh crashes.

stupid question, does this happen when you try csh instead of sh?  also  
when sh crashes what happens, hard lockup core dump etc.?

>   It crashes on its own going into multiuser mode.  How hard would it  
> be to do a buildworld for a Pentium 233 on my Athlon XP desktop?  I  
> should just need to NFS mount /usr/obj and /usr/src to do the  
> installkernel and installworld correct?


it is possible to do that, altho i have not done it.  if you search the  
FreeBSD mailing list archives, or search on google.com/bsd there are  
walkthroughs on this topic.  sorry no links :(  generally it seems you  
are on the correct path tho...

> Also my messages seem to not be properly wrapped when I send them but  
> they look fine while composing are they OK (Using Thunderbird 0.6)?

the messages look good to me, altho i'm using "mail" on my OSX box.   
thanks for mentioning that i just checked my setting and realized that  
mail defaults to RTF message composing...lame.

you may want to check out the FreeBSD current list from the past couple  
months if you have not done so already.  there is a *ton* of  
development going on on the 5.x branch and if you do not see anyone  
else reporting these problems it may be worth a shot posting a detailed  
report to the list.  altho granted given the info so far i really don't  
know what is happening on your box.

if you do go this route i'd suggest reading this link first.
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports/ 
article.html