Hi Nick,
Thanks for your detailed analysis of my situation.
I started first with updating my AMI BIOS firmware and now have the latest
version available from July 2014, before it was a version of February 2014.
So what I tried is to format my USB key as MS-DOS/FAT (using the Disk Utility
of Mac OS X) and then install OpenBSD via PXE onto that USB key as suggested by
not using the whole disk at fdisk but by using the (E)dit the MBR option. You
will find the details of my actions in fdisk below in this mail. This
unfortunately did not work but I might have done something wrong in the fdisk
config (see below).
The option of rebooting the hardware after installing OpenBSD and then using a
boot disk with Windows and run an "FDISK /MBR" is simply not possible due to
the fact that as soon as OpenBSD is installed on a media on that serer it does
not boot anymore, it gets stuck at the AMI BIOS screen. I have to remove the
device containing the OpenBSD installation in order to get past the BIOS screen
again.
Regards
ML
Available disks are: sd0.
Which disk is the root disk? ('?' for details) [sd0]
Use DUIDs rather than device names in fstab? [yes]
Disk: sd0 geometry: 958/255/32 [7821312 Sectors]
Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: 0B 0 0 3 - 958 125 32 [ 2: 7821310 ] Win95 FAT-32
1: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
Use (W)hole disk or (E)dit the MBR? [whole] E
You will now create a single MBR partition to contain your OpenBSD data. This
partition must have an id of 'A6'; must *NOT* overlap other partitions; and
must be marked as the only active partition. Inside the fdisk command, the
'manual' command describes all the fdisk commands in detail.
Disk: sd0 geometry: 958/255/32 [7821312 Sectors]
Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: 0B 0 0 3 - 958 125 32 [ 2: 7821310 ] Win95 FAT-32
1: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
Enter 'help' for information
fdisk: 1> edit 0
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: 0B 0 0 3 - 958 125 32 [ 2: 7821310 ] Win95 FAT-32
Partition id ('0' to disable) [0 - FF]: [B] (? for help) A6
Do you wish to edit in CHS mode? [n]
Partition offset: [2]
Partition size: [7821310]
fdisk:*1> flag 0
Partition 0 marked active.
fdisk:*1> write
Writing MBR at offset 0.
fdisk: 1> quit
On Wednesday, September 24, 2014 3:57 AM, Nick Holland
<[email protected]> wrote:
On 09/23/14 11:55, ML mail wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am trying in vain to install OpenBSD 5.5 (amd64) on a Nexcom NSA
> 5150 network appliance but as soon as I have installed it the system
> does not boot. In fact it hangs at the AMI BIOS screen and does not
> go further. I even need to disconnect/remove the storage in order to
> get it back working (and access the BIOS again).
>
>
> So far I have tried to install on the following media:
>
> - Apacer SSD flash 8 GB
> - WD 250 GB SATA hard drive
> - SanDisk Cruzer 4 GB USB key
>
> I also tried to install OpenBSD 5.6 current from the snapshots
> (releases from the 18th and 22nd of September) without any success
> neither.
>
> Could this be a bug in a driver of OpenBSD?
If your description is accurate, no.
OpenBSD isn't loading -- you say you hang at the BIOS screen. Can't be
an OS flaw if the OS isn't loading.
HOWEVER, it may well be an OpenBSD MBR issue, where the BIOS is looking
for a Microsoft (and maybe some Linux was tested too) boot loader, and
choking over something it is seeing.
If so (and it sure sounds like it is), it is clearly a BIOS problem, as
it shouldn't be doing that, no matter what is in the MBR. The only
question in my mind is if that's true, how'd you do the install? A: you
PXE booted it (yay dmesg!), which doesn't involve an MBR code, so I'm
still good with my theory.
Good news, you don't HAVE to use OpenBSD's MBR.
Put a standard MS MBR on your flash drive, hard drive, or SSD. How you
do this is between you and your tools at hand -- I'd probably use a
windows 98 boot floppy or CD. You could also try FreeDOS or similar.
When you install OpenBSD, don't do the "use entire disk" option,
manually enter fdisk, create your partition, make it OpenBSD type, flag
it as active, continue on with the install. (or boot an DOS/win9x OS on
the machine and do a "FDISK /MBR" to load the MS MBR on the disk after
install -- this would fix what is on the disk now, assuming your bios is
convinced it is broken).
Another wild guess is maybe this BIOS doesn't like the OpenBSD "start at
sector 64" default, standard used to be 63, maybe this bios didn't get
the message that 4k disks work better starting at a 4k boundary. If the
above suggestion doesn't work, try manually creating your fdisk
partitions starting at sector 63 (this would also be clearly a BIOS bug).
Oh. Maybe I should suggest starting with "check for updated BIOS" first. :)
Nick.
