6.2 Headless Installs Don't Seem to Work.
Hi Martin, If you are still having trouble with headless installs here is a link to instructions for setting up a bsd.iso that outputs to serial for a headless installation. http://default-information.blogspot.com/2007/12/headless-freebsd-installation-cd.html hope this helps, Phil ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: 6.2 Headless Installs Don't Seem to Work.
Jonathan McKeown writes: (tar now does this, I believe), add the line console=comconsole to boot/loader.conf in the directory which is the root of the CD, and then make a new ISO and burn a new serial install CD. When I do tar vxf 6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso It mostly works as expected except for the following strange error message observed while extracting: x INSTALL.HTM x INSTALL.TXT x README.HTM x README.TXT x RELNOTES.HTM x stand x sys tar: Ignoring out-of-order file x RELNOTES.TXT x .cshrc x root/.cshrc There is only that one error and I wonder, A. What did I miss? B. Is there a way to work around this? As always, thanks. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: 6.2 Headless Installs Don't Seem to Work.
Hi Martin I often use the serial console for installs just to save digging out a screen and keyboard - especially on servers which are going to run headless anyway. What I do whenever I download release ISOs is unpack the disc-1 image to disk (tar now does this, I believe), add the line console=comconsole to boot/loader.conf in the directory which is the root of the CD, and then make a new ISO and burn a new serial install CD. Booting from this CD switches to the serial console sometime after the boot loader but before the boot menu, from which you can drop back down to the boot loader if needed. I've used this method to do a successful remote install: a technician on site linked the serial ports of two boxes with a null-modem cable, put the serial boot CD in one of them, and I logged into the other over ssh and used tip to see the serial port. He powered up the spare box with the CD in it and I did the rest from 1000 miles away - which for some reason impresses the heck out of a Windows technician. HTH Jonathan ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: 6.2 Headless Installs Don't Seem to Work.
Watanabe Kazuhiro writes: Try: console=comconsole,vidconsole boot instead of boot -h. First, thanks for an excellent suggestion. I tried it and have not been successful so far. During the pause, I hit 6 and got control of the boot process. I typed console=comconsole,vidconsole, hit Enter and then the word boot at which time the booting process resumed. It came up in video console mode, completely ignoring the directive. The FreeBSD Handbook has a chapter on Setting up the Serial Console (24.6), which explains the -h and -D flags, the -D flag allowing for a Duel video and serial console. It also has a very interesting passage, quoted here: -D Toggles single and dual console configurations. In the single configuration the console will be either the internal console (video display) or the serial port, depending on the state of the -h option above. In the dual console configuration, both the video display and the serial port will become the console at the same time, regardless of the state of the -h option. However, note that the dual console configuration takes effect only during the boot block is running. Once the boot loader gets control, the console specified by the -h option becomes the only console. End of quote. That hard lockup I described in an earlier message is not what I thought it was. It isn't a lockup for the whole booting process, but a lockout of the serial console. It is as if the -h flag gets turned off after the boot block runs. Either the -h or the -D flags produce exactly the same results. You do get the serial console during the kernel boot as expected and then it reverts back to the local video console just after the message I quoted in an earlier message that says, Trying to mount /root on /dev/md0. This makes a certain amount of sense even if it is the wrong behavior. The documentation says that only the duel mode should behave this way and then the kernel goes to whatever mode -h told it to use. That is apparently what is not happening. If I do just the console=comconsole,vidconsole I get nothing serial at all. When I install a 6.2 kernel and put that command in /boot/loader.conf, it works on the serial port perfectly. All versions of FreeBSD up to 6 did continue to work via the serial port so that one could do the whole installation via that method so whatever broke was introduced in FreeBSD6 if that helps narrow things down any. Thanks for any further suggestions. I did go ahead and enlist the aid of a coworker on this system so the immediate problem is solved, but I have been experimenting with the CD this afternoon to see if the suggestion solved the problem. It should have so this is a bit strange. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: 6.2 Headless Installs Don't Seem to Work.
Hi, At Tue, 18 Sep 2007 06:32:07 -0500, Martin McCormick wrote: As a computer user who happens to be blind, I have always wanted to use the headless installation method to build FreeBSD systems. After FreeBSD version 5, things seemed to go a bit wrong and I am trying to figure out whether it is me not doing something right or if there is a bug. The sequence as I understand it from previous documentation is to boot the CD, wait for the lull in activity and then hit the number 6. After that, you type boot -h and the serial port usually comes up. On some systems, it comes up at the wrong speed which turns out to be 115,200 baud, but it does come up. What then happens after that is what I am writing this message about. The kernel on the CD boots but then it can't seem to find the hard drives and the whole process is dead on arrival with a spew of errors about not finding any media followed by a lockup. If I have a cowworker help me and run the install off the new system's video display, all is well and we get a good FreeBSD installation. Can anybody think of a way to get the headless install to work in FreeBSD 6.2? Many thanks. Try: console=comconsole,vidconsole boot instead of boot -h. --- Watanabe Kazuhiro ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) R.I.P. Colin McLae. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
6.2 Headless Installs Don't Seem to Work.
As a computer user who happens to be blind, I have always wanted to use the headless installation method to build FreeBSD systems. After FreeBSD version 5, things seemed to go a bit wrong and I am trying to figure out whether it is me not doing something right or if there is a bug. The sequence as I understand it from previous documentation is to boot the CD, wait for the lull in activity and then hit the number 6. After that, you type boot -h and the serial port usually comes up. On some systems, it comes up at the wrong speed which turns out to be 115,200 baud, but it does come up. What then happens after that is what I am writing this message about. The kernel on the CD boots but then it can't seem to find the hard drives and the whole process is dead on arrival with a spew of errors about not finding any media followed by a lockup. If I have a cowworker help me and run the install off the new system's video display, all is well and we get a good FreeBSD installation. Can anybody think of a way to get the headless install to work in FreeBSD 6.2? Many thanks. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: 6.2 Headless Installs Don't Seem to Work.
I posted the original message about the 6.2 headless installs. I tried again on an IBM Netfinity server with SCSI drives today and here is the last screen of boot messages from the CDROM burned from the 6.2 ISO image: sio1: configured irq 3 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0 sio1: port may not be enabled vga0: Generic ISA VGA at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa-0xb on isa0 Timecounter TSC frequency 996849208 Hz quality 800 Timecounters tick every 1.000 msec md0: Preloaded image /boot/mfsroot 4423680 bytes at 0xc0af6544 acd0: CDROM CRN-8241B/1.25 b at ata0-master PIO4 Waiting 5 seconds for SCSI devices to settle ses0 at ahc0 bus 0 target 8 lun 0 ses0: IBM FTlV1 S2 0 Fixed Processor SCSI-2 device ses0: 3.300MB/s transfers ses0: SAF-TE Compliant Device da0 at ahc0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0 da0: IBM-PSG DDYS-T09170M M S9HA Fixed Direct Access SCSI-3 device da0: 160.000MB/s transfers (80.000MHz, offset 63, 16bit), Tagged Queueing Enable d da0: 8678MB (17774160 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 1106C) da1 at ahc0 bus 0 target 1 lun 0 da1: IBM-ESXS DTN036C1UCDY10F S23J Fixed Direct Access SCSI-3 device da1: 160.000MB/s transfers (80.000MHz, offset 127, 16bit), Tagged Queueing Enabl ed da1: 34715MB (71096640 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 4425C) Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/md0 This is always the last message before a hard lockup at which time the party is over. If we reboot and do not do the headless install, the installation works properly. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
