Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On 2012.10.18 18:44, Rainer Duffner wrote: Thus erasing grub when someone is attempting to install FreeBSD alongside Linux? How many people actually do that, now that there are so many virtualization-options? At least I do. As invaluable and paradigm-shifting as virtualization is, I still like to run different OSen on bare hardware. For example right now I'm working on a prototype FreeBSD NAS, troubleshooting problematic disc controllers, and being able to run a Linux kernel is very useful to compare how both systems see and use the hardware, or access some programs I'm more familiar with. I'm not saying I expect bsdinstaller to hold my hand ; I'm comfortable using gpart, fdisk, grub and dd to get what I want, but it would be nice if things were clear on what is going to happen (through user dialog or even simply in the FreeBSD Handbook). ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
Am Fri, 19 Oct 2012 20:14:01 -0400 schrieb Glen Barber g...@freebsd.org: The grub prompt for (Open)Solaris? Or do you use grub on FreeBSD? I thought it was a linux grub (the Firmware-Update DVD is linux-based and I thought it had gone postal. But I came to realize that it was the Solaris grub. We only use FreeBSD on servers and it's always the only OS on the disks. I _think_ at this point, you've hit the same problem I hit, the only difference is that in my case, 9.1-PRERELEASE was installed twice, because the paritions were not ideal. So, my guess is if you were to boot the install cd and select 'Live CD' or 'Shell' from the first menu option, and wrote the GPT bootcode to da0p1 (assuming da0 is the drive) and reboot, it would have booted fine. I don't think this is what a user is expecting from an OS installation routine It's a bug. Rainer ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On Sat, Oct 20, 2012 at 07:04:02PM +0200, Rainer Duffner wrote: Am Fri, 19 Oct 2012 20:14:01 -0400 schrieb Glen Barber g...@freebsd.org: The grub prompt for (Open)Solaris? Or do you use grub on FreeBSD? I thought it was a linux grub (the Firmware-Update DVD is linux-based and I thought it had gone postal. But I came to realize that it was the Solaris grub. We only use FreeBSD on servers and it's always the only OS on the disks. Ok, thank you. I did not want to assume anything here. I _think_ at this point, you've hit the same problem I hit, the only difference is that in my case, 9.1-PRERELEASE was installed twice, because the paritions were not ideal. So, my guess is if you were to boot the install cd and select 'Live CD' or 'Shell' from the first menu option, and wrote the GPT bootcode to da0p1 (assuming da0 is the drive) and reboot, it would have booted fine. I don't think this is what a user is expecting from an OS installation routine It's a bug. Oh, I agree. For what it is worth, when I ran into this, I just merely thought I did something wrong during the install, so writing the gptboot code to the drive was my quick fix. I originally didn't bother reproducing it, until about an hour later when I saw this thread start. The frustrating part now is I have had zero luck reproducing the problem... Glen pgphxMV76cJHy.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 10:21:54PM -0600, Warren Block wrote: I don't know if this is the problem, but it is worth pointing out that graid(8) is now included in GENERIC. Leftover hardware RAID metadata could make for unexpected results. For example, http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=35168 Definitely worth noting. GEOM_MIRROR can do this too, iirc. In my case, however, the target installation disk was not previously part of any RAID configuration, software or otherwise. Glen pgp8wbcOjFYRp.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
Guys/girls/etc, I do suggest that someone actually spends some time coming up with a table of what the current state is, what we could do, what would happen if we did that. Right now there's a lot of possibilities (new drive, drive with windows, drive with linux, drive with linux/windows, drive with legacy freebsd MBR, etc) and as an outsider trying to figure out what is actually the right sounding behaviour, it's difficult for me to sit down and digest all these emails that chip away at a bit of the problem at a time. So if you'd like to see this fixed, I really do suggest that one of you dumps some time into coming up with a basic table like I said above, work with others who can correct/flesh out the various options to take into account, and then we can come up with a real solution. Then 9.1 can go out the door. Adrian ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On 10/19/2012 1:32 PM, Adrian Chadd wrote: Guys/girls/etc, I do suggest that someone actually spends some time coming up with a table of what the current state is, what we could do, what would happen if we did that. Right now there's a lot of possibilities (new drive, drive with windows, drive with linux, drive with linux/windows, drive with legacy freebsd MBR, etc) and as an outsider trying to figure out what is actually the right sounding behaviour, it's difficult for me to sit down and digest all these emails that chip away at a bit of the problem at a time. So if you'd like to see this fixed, I really do suggest that one of you dumps some time into coming up with a basic table like I said above, work with others who can correct/flesh out the various options to take into account, and then we can come up with a real solution. Then 9.1 can go out the door. Adrian In my opinion, I think that the installer should be able to determine whether or not there is an existing partition table, either MBR or GPT, and at that point, ask the user about replacing MBR. But if there is no existing partition map on the drive, then there is no need for prompting about MBR over-writing. Basically: detect if map exists, if not, proceed as usual, if part-table/map is detected, prompt user Existing partitions detected, Should we replace any existing MBR boot code? Only advanced users who know what they're doing should say No here, as this could leave you with an unbootable system: Yes/No (Recommended: Yes) -- Chuck Burns brea...@gmail.com ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
Am Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:32:49 -0700 schrieb Adrian Chadd adr...@freebsd.org: Guys/girls/etc, I do suggest that someone actually spends some time coming up with a table of what the current state is, what we could do, what would happen if we did that. Right now there's a lot of possibilities (new drive, drive with windows, drive with linux, drive with linux/windows, drive with legacy freebsd MBR, etc) and as an outsider trying to figure out what is actually the right sounding behaviour, it's difficult for me to sit down and digest all these emails that chip away at a bit of the problem at a time. So if you'd like to see this fixed, I really do suggest that one of you dumps some time into coming up with a basic table like I said above, work with others who can correct/flesh out the various options to take into account, and then we can come up with a real solution. Then 9.1 can go out the door. If I select the entire disk for FreeBSD, I think it's a reasonable assumption that the MBR should replaced, too. Please don't make people install FreeBSD 9.0 first on disks with non-FreeBSD MRRs and then upgrade to 9.1. ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 10:38:41PM +0200, Rainer Duffner wrote: Am Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:32:49 -0700 schrieb Adrian Chadd adr...@freebsd.org: Guys/girls/etc, I do suggest that someone actually spends some time coming up with a table of what the current state is, what we could do, what would happen if we did that. Right now there's a lot of possibilities (new drive, drive with windows, drive with linux, drive with linux/windows, drive with legacy freebsd MBR, etc) and as an outsider trying to figure out what is actually the right sounding behaviour, it's difficult for me to sit down and digest all these emails that chip away at a bit of the problem at a time. So if you'd like to see this fixed, I really do suggest that one of you dumps some time into coming up with a basic table like I said above, work with others who can correct/flesh out the various options to take into account, and then we can come up with a real solution. Then 9.1 can go out the door. If I select the entire disk for FreeBSD, I think it's a reasonable assumption that the MBR should replaced, too. Please don't make people install FreeBSD 9.0 first on disks with non-FreeBSD MRRs and then upgrade to 9.1. Can you outline for me in detail what you did when you partitioned your drive during the installation? I have seen your specific issue exactly once, and reliably reproducing the problem has not been successful so far. BTW, what was on the drive before you did the install, if anything? Glen pgpgqmYglawAJ.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 10:38:41PM +0200, Rainer Duffner wrote: Am Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:32:49 -0700 schrieb Adrian Chadd adr...@freebsd.org: Guys/girls/etc, I do suggest that someone actually spends some time coming up with a table of what the current state is, what we could do, what would happen if we did that. Right now there's a lot of possibilities (new drive, drive with windows, drive with linux, drive with linux/windows, drive with legacy freebsd MBR, etc) and as an outsider trying to figure out what is actually the right sounding behaviour, it's difficult for me to sit down and digest all these emails that chip away at a bit of the problem at a time. So if you'd like to see this fixed, I really do suggest that one of you dumps some time into coming up with a basic table like I said above, work with others who can correct/flesh out the various options to take into account, and then we can come up with a real solution. Then 9.1 can go out the door. If I select the entire disk for FreeBSD, I think it's a reasonable assumption that the MBR should replaced, too. I think it should still prompt clearly for permission to splat the boot record. There could be an OS (or multiple OSs) on other disks which the boot loader can reference. Just because you have complete ownership of *one* disk is not indicative of being able to take over the entire boot record. There are probably too many edge cases here to make a reliable automated decision, hence the necessity of a question. Please don't make people install FreeBSD 9.0 first on disks with non-FreeBSD MRRs and then upgrade to 9.1. Gary ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
Am Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:11:30 -0400 schrieb Glen Barber g...@freebsd.org: On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 10:38:41PM +0200, Rainer Duffner wrote: If I select the entire disk for FreeBSD, I think it's a reasonable assumption that the MBR should replaced, too. Please don't make people install FreeBSD 9.0 first on disks with non-FreeBSD MRRs and then upgrade to 9.1. Can you outline for me in detail what you did when you partitioned your drive during the installation? I chose entire disk, then deleted all partitions-suggestions except the first one and created my own partitioning scheme. (/, swap, var, usr, maybe /var/log and /home, too) I have seen your specific issue exactly once, and reliably reproducing the problem has not been successful so far. BTW, what was on the drive before you did the install, if anything? It had a version of Solaris. Maybe Opensolaris. I don't know exactly. And I don't know if it had zfsroot or not. I created a HW-RAID1 with the HP P400 controller on it. The drives were previously used in another server. I tried to install 9.1RC2 twice on these disks and it always went back to the grub-prompt after reboot. Then I installed 9.0 and it's running now. ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On Sat, Oct 20, 2012 at 02:06:03AM +0200, Rainer Duffner wrote: Am Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:11:30 -0400 schrieb Glen Barber g...@freebsd.org: On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 10:38:41PM +0200, Rainer Duffner wrote: If I select the entire disk for FreeBSD, I think it's a reasonable assumption that the MBR should replaced, too. Please don't make people install FreeBSD 9.0 first on disks with non-FreeBSD MRRs and then upgrade to 9.1. Can you outline for me in detail what you did when you partitioned your drive during the installation? I chose entire disk, then deleted all partitions-suggestions except the first one and created my own partitioning scheme. (/, swap, var, usr, maybe /var/log and /home, too) Ok, this is similar to my case. I have seen your specific issue exactly once, and reliably reproducing the problem has not been successful so far. BTW, what was on the drive before you did the install, if anything? It had a version of Solaris. Maybe Opensolaris. I don't know exactly. And I don't know if it had zfsroot or not. I created a HW-RAID1 with the HP P400 controller on it. The drives were previously used in another server. Ok, as long as they were not new drives. Thank you. I tried to install 9.1RC2 twice on these disks and it always went back to the grub-prompt after reboot. Then I installed 9.0 and it's running now. The grub prompt for (Open)Solaris? Or do you use grub on FreeBSD? I _think_ at this point, you've hit the same problem I hit, the only difference is that in my case, 9.1-PRERELEASE was installed twice, because the paritions were not ideal. So, my guess is if you were to boot the install cd and select 'Live CD' or 'Shell' from the first menu option, and wrote the GPT bootcode to da0p1 (assuming da0 is the drive) and reboot, it would have booted fine. In my case, the disk originally had an older FreeBSD install, so had an existing MBR. The odd thing though is that the system was bootable before the second installation. Glen pgpHsNFOoxOFQ.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On Sat, 20 Oct 2012, Rainer Duffner wrote: Am Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:11:30 -0400 schrieb Glen Barber g...@freebsd.org: On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 10:38:41PM +0200, Rainer Duffner wrote: If I select the entire disk for FreeBSD, I think it's a reasonable assumption that the MBR should replaced, too. Please don't make people install FreeBSD 9.0 first on disks with non-FreeBSD MRRs and then upgrade to 9.1. Can you outline for me in detail what you did when you partitioned your drive during the installation? I chose entire disk, then deleted all partitions-suggestions except the first one and created my own partitioning scheme. (/, swap, var, usr, maybe /var/log and /home, too) I have seen your specific issue exactly once, and reliably reproducing the problem has not been successful so far. BTW, what was on the drive before you did the install, if anything? It had a version of Solaris. Maybe Opensolaris. I don't know exactly. And I don't know if it had zfsroot or not. I created a HW-RAID1 with the HP P400 controller on it. The drives were previously used in another server. I tried to install 9.1RC2 twice on these disks and it always went back to the grub-prompt after reboot. Then I installed 9.0 and it's running now. I don't know if this is the problem, but it is worth pointing out that graid(8) is now included in GENERIC. Leftover hardware RAID metadata could make for unexpected results. For example, http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=35168 ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
Brandon Allbery allbery.b at gmail.com writes: On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 4:56 PM, Rainer Duffner rainer at ultra-secure.dewrote: I tried to install 9.1-RC2 amd64 on two disks that previously had some version of Solaris installed (with grub as boot-manager). The installation would always be successful, but it would just boot to grub and then sit there. RC1 wasn't very good at it either. I installed RC2 yesterday and noticed that there was no question asked where to install boot loader (MBR or FB root slice/partition). That's something needing a fix. jb ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 11:05 AM, jb jb.1234a...@gmail.com wrote: Brandon Allbery allbery.b at gmail.com writes: On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 4:56 PM, Rainer Duffner rainer at ultra-secure.dewrote: I tried to install 9.1-RC2 amd64 on two disks that previously had some version of Solaris installed (with grub as boot-manager). The installation would always be successful, but it would just boot to grub and then sit there. RC1 wasn't very good at it either. I installed RC2 yesterday and noticed that there was no question asked where to install boot loader (MBR or FB root slice/partition). That's something needing a fix. jb Such question does not make sense if the disk is GPT partitioned which is the default now. The boot loader is installed on a separate freebsd-boot partition and the MBR of the disk contains a special protective MBR. ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 5:31 AM, Kimmo Paasiala kpaas...@gmail.com wrote: Such question does not make sense if the disk is GPT partitioned which is the default now. The boot loader is installed on a separate freebsd-boot partition and the MBR of the disk contains a special protective MBR. And what is supposed to happen if the disk has an existing MBR and existing partitions? -- brandon s allbery kf8nh sine nomine associates allber...@gmail.com ballb...@sinenomine.net unix/linux, openafs, kerberos, infrastructure http://sinenomine.net ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On 10/18/2012 11:05 AM, Brandon Allbery wrote: On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 5:31 AM, Kimmo Paasiala kpaas...@gmail.com wrote: Such question does not make sense if the disk is GPT partitioned which is the default now. The boot loader is installed on a separate freebsd-boot partition and the MBR of the disk contains a special protective MBR. And what is supposed to happen if the disk has an existing MBR and existing partitions? Besides which.. Do you want FreeBSD to overwrite the MBR? Thus erasing grub when someone is attempting to install FreeBSD alongside Linux? If you do not want GRUB, you must remove GRUB and revert to a proper MBR. -- Chuck Burns brea...@gmail.com ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Fwd: Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On 10/18/2012 11:05 AM, Brandon Allbery wrote: On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 5:31 AM, Kimmo Paasiala kpaas...@gmail.com wrote: Such question does not make sense if the disk is GPT partitioned which is the default now. The boot loader is installed on a separate freebsd-boot partition and the MBR of the disk contains a special protective MBR. And what is supposed to happen if the disk has an existing MBR and existing partitions? With a -proper- existing MBR, it doesn't matter, since it will still pass boot off to the proper partition. But when you install an MBR partition manager that overrides the standard MBR code, you must also then uninstall it when you want to revert back to an OS that knows how to boot with a normal MBR. -- Chuck Burns brea...@gmail.com -- Chuck Burns brea...@gmail.com ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
Am Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:31:56 -0500 schrieb Chuck Burns brea...@gmail.com: On 10/18/2012 11:05 AM, Brandon Allbery wrote: On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 5:31 AM, Kimmo Paasiala kpaas...@gmail.com wrote: Such question does not make sense if the disk is GPT partitioned which is the default now. The boot loader is installed on a separate freebsd-boot partition and the MBR of the disk contains a special protective MBR. And what is supposed to happen if the disk has an existing MBR and existing partitions? Besides which.. Do you want FreeBSD to overwrite the MBR? Yes. I've long since given up on FreeBSD for workstations - I simply don't have the time to get everything right. Thus erasing grub when someone is attempting to install FreeBSD alongside Linux? How many people actually do that, now that there are so many virtualization-options? If you do not want GRUB, you must remove GRUB and revert to a proper MBR. And how do you remove GRUB? The original OS did no longer boot in my case Do I need to file a PR for this? ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
jb jb.1234abcd at gmail.com writes: ... I installed RC2 yesterday and noticed that there was no question asked where to install boot loader (MBR or FB root slice/partition). That's something needing a fix. jb I filed a PR: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=bin/172847 jb ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On 10/18/12 11:44, Rainer Duffner wrote: Am Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:31:56 -0500 schrieb Chuck Burns brea...@gmail.com: On 10/18/2012 11:05 AM, Brandon Allbery wrote: On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 5:31 AM, Kimmo Paasiala kpaas...@gmail.com wrote: Such question does not make sense if the disk is GPT partitioned which is the default now. The boot loader is installed on a separate freebsd-boot partition and the MBR of the disk contains a special protective MBR. And what is supposed to happen if the disk has an existing MBR and existing partitions? Besides which.. Do you want FreeBSD to overwrite the MBR? Yes. I've long since given up on FreeBSD for workstations - I simply don't have the time to get everything right. Thus erasing grub when someone is attempting to install FreeBSD alongside Linux? How many people actually do that, now that there are so many virtualization-options? If you do not want GRUB, you must remove GRUB and revert to a proper MBR. And how do you remove GRUB? The original OS did no longer boot in my case Do I need to file a PR for this? Simply zero out first few MB of the drive, when you create a new partition map, a new MBR is created. Chuck ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
Hi, I tried to install 9.1-RC2 amd64 on two disks that previously had some version of Solaris installed (with grub as boot-manager). The installation would always be successful, but it would just boot to grub and then sit there. It's a rather old G1 BL460C blade, but 9.0 installs flawlessly. I didn't have time to really test it through because the server needed to get installed and it had taken me some time to realize what had happened. Maybe someone might want to look into this. ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: 9.1-RC2 - could it be that the installer does not write the MBR?
On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 4:56 PM, Rainer Duffner rai...@ultra-secure.dewrote: I tried to install 9.1-RC2 amd64 on two disks that previously had some version of Solaris installed (with grub as boot-manager). The installation would always be successful, but it would just boot to grub and then sit there. RC1 wasn't very good at it either. -- brandon s allbery kf8nh sine nomine associates allber...@gmail.com ballb...@sinenomine.net unix/linux, openafs, kerberos, infrastructure http://sinenomine.net ___ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-stable-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
