Re: Booting from a USB disk
On 28/04/2020 11:23, Ilia Zykov wrote: I had such a case. The efi of my old server(it was Intel MB) only supported a 16 bit vfat boot partition. And if during installation I selected it over 128MiB, then the installer formatted it at 32 bit vfat and I could not boot in EFI mode. See the default parameters “mkfs.vfat –F”. That could be a difference. I was migrating an existing install onto a new disk so all my EFI partitions were created manually so I might well have overridden default arguments if thats what the instructions I was following said to do. It could also be dependent on the age of the EFI BIOS. With newer ones being more flexible about VFAT format. Mike
Re: Booting from a USB disk
On 27.04.2020 23:02, Vincent DEFERT wrote: > > I have also installed NetBSD on a server (Dell R610) previously running > FreeBSD. > The problem I had there is that NetBSD does not support EFI partition > sizes greater than 128 MB. > In this case also, I had to wipe the partition table, but I could do it > with NetBSD's gpt(8). > I had such a case. The efi of my old server(it was Intel MB) only supported a 16 bit vfat boot partition. And if during installation I selected it over 128MiB, then the installer formatted it at 32 bit vfat and I could not boot in EFI mode. See the default parameters “mkfs.vfat –F”. smime.p7s Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
Re: Booting from a USB disk
On 28/04/2020 09:26, Martin Husemann wrote: Now you deleted the FreeBSD boot stuff, and everything worked fine. Should be totally unrelated to the partition size. There is no limitation in NetBSD. My 9 STABLE machine EFI booting off an nvme device has a 256MB EFI partition and boots with no issue. Mike
Re: Booting from a USB disk
On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 09:31:31AM +0200, Vincent DEFERT wrote: > My first installation attempt consisted in deleting the FreeBSD > partition but keeping the EFI one. I went through the whole > installation without any trouble, but the system refused to > reboot (can't remember the message). This probably means you had a boot environment setup for FreeBSD (as their boot partition + contents was still there and registered with the firmware). What the installer does *not* do is zap any environment settings that other OSes could have done - it is possibel to use the same EFI partition for different boots (and internally we don't have the API to access EFI boot services/enviroment from userland). > However, after using the gpt command to destroy the GPT > table and create a new layout with a 128 MB EFI partition, the > installation works as well as before, but the system now boots > normally. Now you deleted the FreeBSD boot stuff, and everything worked fine. Should be totally unrelated to the partition size. Martin
Re: Booting from a USB disk
Here are the 3 use cases I tested: 1. The first disk, the one on which I have tried installboot, had FreeBSD on it using ZFS and I had trouble reusing it. The partition table was MBR. 2. The second disk had OpenBSD and installing NetBSD worked perfectly. The partition table was also MBR. 3. The server was previously running FreeBSD using ZFS. The R610 is a UEFI-only system, so the partition table was GPT. The size of the existing EFI partition was 200 MB. My first installation attempt consisted in deleting the FreeBSD partition but keeping the EFI one. I went through the whole installation without any trouble, but the system refused to reboot (can't remember the message). However, after using the gpt command to destroy the GPT table and create a new layout with a 128 MB EFI partition, the installation works as well as before, but the system now boots normally. On 28/04/2020 06:35, Martin Husemann wrote: On Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 10:02:41PM +0200, Vincent DEFERT wrote: The problem I had there is that NetBSD does not support EFI partition sizes greater than 128 MB. Can you explain this? What exactly goes wrong? Martin
Re: Booting from a USB disk
from Vincent DEFERT <20@defert.com>: > I've tried to install NetBSD onto another disk and it worked, so I made > further investigations on the disk having the issue. > I turned out it had a remaining zfs_member signature somewhere, which I > only saw after trying to recreate its partition table with fdisk under > Linux. > Once cleaned, the installation worked fine and the only manual operation > needed is to check /etc/fstab, and fix it if needed. > I have also installed NetBSD on a server (Dell R610) previously running > FreeBSD. > The problem I had there is that NetBSD does not support EFI partition > sizes greater than 128 MB. > In this case also, I had to wipe the partition table, but I could do it > with NetBSD's gpt(8). > A conclusion of this episode is that NetBSD works well, but is bad at > wiping disks. ;) > Fortunately, this is only needed at installation. :) This is the first time I see anything about NetBSD not booting by UEFI if the EFI system partition > 128 MB. EFI system partition is activated before any OS is booted. I read through the NetBSD wiki about UEFI booting, but where do I find something more comprehensive? Tom
Re: Booting from a USB disk
On Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 10:02:41PM +0200, Vincent DEFERT wrote: > The problem I had there is that NetBSD does not support EFI partition sizes > greater than 128 MB. Can you explain this? What exactly goes wrong? Martin
Re: Booting from a USB disk
I've tried to install NetBSD onto another disk and it worked, so I made further investigations on the disk having the issue. I turned out it had a remaining zfs_member signature somewhere, which I only saw after trying to recreate its partition table with fdisk under Linux. Once cleaned, the installation worked fine and the only manual operation needed is to check /etc/fstab, and fix it if needed. I have also installed NetBSD on a server (Dell R610) previously running FreeBSD. The problem I had there is that NetBSD does not support EFI partition sizes greater than 128 MB. In this case also, I had to wipe the partition table, but I could do it with NetBSD's gpt(8). A conclusion of this episode is that NetBSD works well, but is bad at wiping disks. ;) Fortunately, this is only needed at installation. :) On 27/04/2020 09:14, Martin Husemann wrote: On Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 08:53:16AM +0200, Vincent DEFERT wrote: No, I haven't changed anything else and no modules are listed in /boot.cfg. Is there any chance it worked due to a side-effect of not loading modules? Yes, and I am currently out of ideas what went wrong. I wonder if we should make the libsa version of "panic" wait for a key press on the console, so you have a chance to fully read the message. Martin
Re: Booting from a USB disk
On Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 08:53:16AM +0200, Vincent DEFERT wrote: > No, I haven't changed anything else and no modules are listed in /boot.cfg. > > Is there any chance it worked due to a side-effect of not loading modules? Yes, and I am currently out of ideas what went wrong. I wonder if we should make the libsa version of "panic" wait for a key press on the console, so you have a chance to fully read the message. Martin
Re: Booting from a USB disk
No, I haven't changed anything else and no modules are listed in /boot.cfg. Is there any chance it worked due to a side-effect of not loading modules? I have previously tried: installboot /dev/rsd0a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv2 (i.e. without the '-o modules') but it still had the 'Heap full' error. On 27/04/2020 06:53, Martin Husemann wrote: On Sun, Apr 26, 2020 at 10:23:03PM +0200, Vincent DEFERT wrote: Here is the output of modstat in single user mode: NAME CLASS SOURCE FLAG REFS SIZE REQUIRES aac driver builtin - 1 - pci So no modules loaded - and the installboot change was the only thing that you changed? Are there any modules listed in your /boot.cfg? Something (and I have no clue what that could be) must have tried to load modules, which then failed with the out of memory message. Now you have inhibited module loading and it works. However, nothing in a default install should cause modules to be loaded this early (AFICT). Martin
Re: Booting from a USB disk
On Sun, Apr 26, 2020 at 10:23:03PM +0200, Vincent DEFERT wrote: > Here is the output of modstat in single user mode: > > NAME CLASS SOURCE FLAG REFS SIZE REQUIRES > aac driver builtin - 1 - pci So no modules loaded - and the installboot change was the only thing that you changed? Are there any modules listed in your /boot.cfg? Something (and I have no clue what that could be) must have tried to load modules, which then failed with the out of memory message. Now you have inhibited module loading and it works. However, nothing in a default install should cause modules to be loaded this early (AFICT). Martin
Re: Booting from a USB disk
Yes, I now have a working system. :) Unfortunately, when I had the "Head full" error, I didn't have the time to read more than these words. I could reproduce it and try to press 'Scroll lock', or at worse film the display if it is helpful to you. Here is the output of modstat in single user mode: NAME CLASS SOURCE FLAG REFS SIZE REQUIRES aac driver builtin - 1 - pci accf_dataready misc builtin - 0 - - accf_httpready misc builtin - 0 - - acpiacad driver builtin - 0 - sysmon_envsys,sysmon_power acpibat driver builtin - 0 - sysmon_envsys acpibut driver builtin - 0 - sysmon_power acpicpu driver builtin - 0 - - acpidalb driver builtin - 0 - sysmon_power acpifan driver builtin - 0 - sysmon_envsys acpilid driver builtin - 0 - sysmon_power acpitz driver builtin - 0 - sysmon_envsys acpivga driver builtin - 0 - - acpiwdrt driver builtin - 0 - sysmon_wdog acpiwmi driver builtin - 4 - - aibs driver builtin - 0 - sysmon_envsys aio misc builtin - 0 - - amdsmn driver builtin - 1 - pci amdtemp driver builtin - 0 - sysmon_envsys amdzentemp driver builtin - 0 - sysmon_envsys,amdsmn amr driver builtin - 1 - pci asus driver builtin - 0 - sysmon_envsys,sysmon_power ataraid driver builtin - 1 - - ath misc builtin - 1 - ath_hal ath_hal misc builtin - 1 - - au8522 driver builtin - 1 - i2cexec audio driver builtin - 5 - - auvitek driver builtin - 0 - au8522,xc5k blowfish misc builtin - 2 - - bpf driver builtin - 1 - bpf_filter bpf_filter misc builtin - 2 - - bufq_disksort bufq builtin - 0 - - bufq_fcfs bufq builtin - 4 - - bufq_priocscan bufq builtin - 0 - - cac driver builtin - 2 - - cac_pci driver builtin - 0 - cac,pci camellia misc builtin - 1 - - cast128 misc builtin - 1 - - ccd driver builtin - 0 - dk_subr,bufq_fcfs cd9660 vfs builtin - 0 - - cgd driver builtin - 0 - blowfish,des,dk_subr,bufq_fcfs cir driver builtin - 1 - ir clockctl driver builtin - 0 - - coda vfs builtin - 0 - vcoda compat_16 exec builtin - 1 - compat_20 compat_20 exec builtin - 2 - compat_30 compat_30 exec builtin - 2 - compat_util,compat_40 compat_40 exec builtin - 2 - compat_50 compat_43 exec builtin - 2 - compat_sysctl_09_43,compat_util,compat_60 compat_50 exec builtin - 5 - compat_60 compat_60 exec builtin - 3 - compat_70 compat_70 exec builtin - 1 - compat_80 compat_80 exec builtin - 3 - - compat_crypto_50 exec builtin - 0 - crypto,compat_50 compat_linux exec builtin - 1 - compat_ossaudio,sysv_ipc,compat_util,compat_50,compat_43,exec_elf64 compat_linux32 exec builtin - 0 - compat_linux,sysv_ipc,compat_sysv_50,compat_netbsd32_50,compat_netbsd32_43,exec_elf32,compat_netbsd32,compat_netbsd32_sysvipc compat_netbsd32 exec builtin - 9 - ksem,coredump,compat_util,exec_elf32 compat_netbsd32_16 exec builtin - 0 - compat_netbsd32_20,compat_16 compat_netbsd32_20 exec builtin - 1 - compat_netbsd32_30,compat_20 compat_netbsd32_30 exec builtin - 1 - compat_netbsd32_40,compat_30
Re: Booting from a USB disk
On Sun, Apr 26, 2020 at 08:04:44PM +0200, Vincent DEFERT wrote: > In case anyone else would want to do the same, I've finally > found out that in order to boot from an USB disk, the > loading of modules must be enabled, i.e.: > > installboot -o modules /dev/rsd0a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv2 I don't understand why that would be needed or help (but I also don't understand what that option does, the documentation is... lacking). You now have a working setup? Can you boot single user and show output from modstat(8)? Martin
Re: Booting from a USB disk
On Sun, Apr 26, 2020 at 05:18:35PM +0200, Vincent DEFERT wrote: > I have the time to read is "Heap full". This is probably a message from the bootloader, it comes from here: https://nxr.netbsd.org/xref/src/sys/lib/libsa/alloc.c#202 It would be interesting to know what numbers it prints. Also this is pretty strange behaviour without special configurations, do you have a boot.cfg that maybe got corrupted? Martin
Re: Booting from a USB disk
In case anyone else would want to do the same, I've finally found out that in order to boot from an USB disk, the loading of modules must be enabled, i.e.: installboot -o modules /dev/rsd0a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv2 Vincent
Re: Booting from a USB disk
Thank you for answering, Greg. I've booted the installer from a USB key and installed NetBSD 9 on an USB disk known as /dev/sd0 (the key being /dev/sd1). The machine is an Intel NUC6CAYH with 8 GB RAM and an up-to-date BIOS. After successfully going the whole installation process (NetBSD installed on a single 235 GB partition + 8 GB swap), I reboot on my USB disk. I select choice 1 (boot multi-user) from the boot menu and the only message I have the time to read is "Heap full". The machine immediately continues with the only other available option, its internal disk with Void Linux. If I reboot again and select choice 3 (drop to boot prompt) and type: 'boot hd0':, NetBSD boots correctly. I have tried the UEFI installer, the other installer image, the standard kernel and the KASLR kernel, all give the same result. I don't know what other details could help you to help me, feel free to ask more precise questions. On 26/04/2020 14:46, Greg Troxel wrote: Vincent DEFERT <20@defert.com> writes: I've installed NetBSD on an external USB disk and made sure its /etc/fstab was correct. However, when I reboot on this disk, I have a "Heap full" error and the machine boots on its internal disk. It would help if you were much more precise about what you are doing to boot and exactly what happens. I can't tell if you are using the BIOS to boot the disk, or some EFI thing, and how far it gets. If I drop to the boot prompt and type "boot hd0:", NetBSD boots normally. This is also unclear - a key point is if that boot loader was loaded from the USB disk, or not. My guess is that I need to set some additional option in some configuration file. With FreeBSD, I need to set vfs.mountroot.timeout="10" in /boot/loader.conf, for instance. Many things are possible, but far more information is needed to help you. (Reply on list, not to me personally, as always.)
Re: Booting from a USB disk
Vincent DEFERT <20@defert.com> writes: > I've installed NetBSD on an external USB disk and made sure its > /etc/fstab was correct. > However, when I reboot on this disk, I have a "Heap full" error and > the machine boots on its internal disk. It would help if you were much more precise about what you are doing to boot and exactly what happens. I can't tell if you are using the BIOS to boot the disk, or some EFI thing, and how far it gets. > If I drop to the boot prompt and type "boot hd0:", NetBSD boots normally. This is also unclear - a key point is if that boot loader was loaded from the USB disk, or not. > My guess is that I need to set some additional option in some > configuration file. > With FreeBSD, I need to set vfs.mountroot.timeout="10" in > /boot/loader.conf, for instance. Many things are possible, but far more information is needed to help you. (Reply on list, not to me personally, as always.)
Booting from a USB disk
Hi, I've installed NetBSD on an external USB disk and made sure its /etc/fstab was correct. However, when I reboot on this disk, I have a "Heap full" error and the machine boots on its internal disk. If I drop to the boot prompt and type "boot hd0:", NetBSD boots normally. My guess is that I need to set some additional option in some configuration file. With FreeBSD, I need to set vfs.mountroot.timeout="10" in /boot/loader.conf, for instance. Can someone tell me what I should do for NetBSD in this case? Thanks in advance, Vincent
