Re: [Soekris] help in booting FreeBSD 9
On Aug 8, 2013, at 3:16 AM, Igalson Jacek - Korpo TP jacek.igal...@orange.com wrote: Hi Chris, Thank you for your suggestions concerning comconsole and speed. I set baudrate 9600 consitently in Soekris and server according to loppefaaret advice on this mailinglist. I also set boot_serial=-h according to hint by Jed Clear. The last status of my booting is: boot f0 NSC DP83815/DP83816 Fast Ethernet UNDI, v1.03 Copyright (C) 2002, 2003 National Semiconductor Corporation All rights reserved. Pre-boot eXecution Environment PXE-2.0 (build 082) Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Intel Corporation I've needed to update the FreeBSD install on a 2Gb flashcard in my net5501 for a bit so I figured it would be a good time to test this out. I found a set of instructions on the soekris wiki specific to the net6501 but there shouldn't bee much of a difference between the net6501 and the net5501. The source of the instructions is: http://wiki.soekris.info/Installing_FreeBSD under the heading Net Boot / Installing FreeBSD 9.1 on Soekris net6501 via PXE. The instructions linked here: http://pivotallabs.com/installing-freebsd-9-1-on-soekris-net6501-via-pxe/ I modified exactly one instruction. Under DOWNLOAD MOUNT FREEBSD at the bottom the instructions say: ... sudo vim /mnt/fbsd_boot/boot/loader.conf console=comconsole I changed this to: ... sudo vim /mnt/fbsd_boot/boot/loader.conf console=comconsole comconsole_speed=19200 due to my experience with terminal emulators and serial communications. In the past when I've worked with these devices I've noticed that the systems have a tendency to break if the baud rate changes mid session. How you address the baud rate problem is your call, more on that later. Following those steps just got me to the FreeBSD 9.1 installer in about 10 minutes. Regarding the baud rate problem, you can either bring the soekris to FreeBSD by changing the Baud Rate in ComBIOS or you can bring FreeBSD to the soekris by changing the baud rate in /boot/loader.conf. The best solution is to force them both to match so no matter which baud rate you choose I suggest you add the config to loader.conf ** CAVEATS ** At the end of the install process you need to make sure that the new system won't have a /boot/loader.conf file. You must create it again and specify the console and comconsole_speed settings that you choose to install with. Without those settings, your soekris will appear to hang on boot when the console switches to freebsd's default syscon device. As a safety precaution do all of the following things as a part of the install. * Enable the network on one of your soekris' interfaces. Choosing DHCP on the interface that you installed over works great here. * Create a user and put him/her in group 'wheel' as part of the install. * Enable ssh on the soekris as a part of the install. If you miss a step or make a mistake with the /boot/loader.conf file you won't have a console to boot into and fix the problem. Creating a user and enabling networking and ssh will allow you boot into the machine via ssh. Putting the user into group 'wheel' allows you to use su and fix issues. It's a BSDism that only users in group 'wheel' can use su and FreeBSD doesn't allow root to log in via ssh even if the only user on the system is root. (OpenBSD detects root only systems and does the right thing). Hope this helps, -- Chris ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] help in booting FreeBSD 9
First thing I do after installing the system is echo '-h -S115200' /boot.config which works for everything but boot0. If I'm feeling really ambitious, I stumble through the man page and find: boot0cfg -b /boot/boot0sio -B ad0 or some such depending on the boot device, but usually I don't bother with the latter since I rarely have a system that I multi-boot different partitions to need boot0's drive selection functionality... Since it is a hassle to remember, and buys me nothing unless I need it, maybe you'd be advised to skip it too :) On the first Soekris box I had, I used 38400 instead of 115200 above because the COMBIOS ran at that speed... Warner On Aug 8, 2013, at 2:42 PM, Jed Clear wrote: You should also review the FreeBSD handbook. There was a section on serial consoles. There may be new steps for version 9 that I haven't encountered as I'm sticking with 8.x for a bit. And you can double check the ones I did recall. You could also check the logs on your PXE and TFTP server(s) to see if all the expected files were requested and transferred successfully. -Jed On Aug 8, 2013, at 3:16 AM, Igalson Jacek - Korpo TP jacek.igal...@orange.com wrote: Hi Chris, Thank you for your suggestions concerning comconsole and speed. I set baudrate 9600 consitently in Soekris and server according to loppefaaret advice on this mailinglist. I also set boot_serial=-h according to hint by Jed Clear. The last status of my booting is: boot f0 NSC DP83815/DP83816 Fast Ethernet UNDI, v1.03 Copyright (C) 2002, 2003 National Semiconductor Corporation All rights reserved. Pre-boot eXecution Environment PXE-2.0 (build 082) Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Intel Corporation CLIENT MAC ADDR: 00 00 24 CF D8 F8. DHCP.|CLIENT IP: 192.168.1.45 MASK: 255.255.255.0 DHCP IP: 192.168.1.10 GATEWAY IP: 192.168.1.10 TFTP. TFTP.\|PXE Loader 1.00 Building the boot loader arguments Relocating the loader and the BTX Starting the BTX loader C o n s o l e s : i n t e r n a l v i d e o / k e y b o a r d B I O S d r i v e C : i s d i s k 0 P X E v e r s i o n 2 . 1 , r e a l m o d e e n t r y p o i n t @ 9 e 6 4 : 0 0 f 6 B I O S 6 3 9 k B / 1 3 0 0 4 8 k B a v a i l a b l e m e m o r y F r e e B S D / x 8 6 b o o t s t r a p l o a d e r , R e v i s i o n 1 . 1 ( r o o t @ o b r i a n . c s e . b u f f a l o . e d u , T u e J a n 3 0 6 : 4 0 : 0 1 U T C 2 0 1 2 ) p x e _ o p e n : s e r v e r a d d r : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 p x e _ o p e n : s e r v e r p a t h : / u s r / p u b l i c / f r e e b s d 9 0 / p x e _ o p e n : g a t e w a y i p : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 | / - \ | / end process hangs. My concern is about the message: Consoles: video/keyboard. Is it OK? Last message is from bootstrap loader: pxe_open:gateway ip: 192.168.1.10 192.168.1.10 is my file server (TFTP and NFS server) Characters | / - \ | / suggest that something is loaded to Soekris, but I may not see it. Could someone interpret the messages and explain what is the stage of installation? Regards, Jacek -Wiadomość oryginalna- Od: Christopher Hilton [mailto:ch...@vindaloo.com] Wysłano: 6 sierpnia 2013 17:42 Do: Igalson Jacek - Korpo TP DW: soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com Temat: Re: [Soekris] help in booting FreeBSD 9 On Aug 5, 2013, at 5:14 AM, Igalson Jacek - Korpo TP jacek.igal...@orange.com wrote: Hello, I am new to the Soekris. I try to install FreeBSD on Soekris 4801-48 with CF memory (8GB). I followed excellent guide for PXE booting FreeBSD 9.x: http://freebsd.so14k.com/freebsd9_pxe.shtml To communicate with Soekris I use terminal Minicom (19200baud and 8N1) on PC with FreeBSD 9.0. I got the following output on terminal: boot f0 Looks like you are getting caught out by a couple of issues with booting FreeBSD on a soekris. 1. The FreeBSD pxeboot infrastructure assumes you are booting onto a machine with a VGA card and keyboard. Once the kernel loads it transfers over to the syscons driver and you can't see the output anymore 2. The Soekris serial port defaults to 19200, 8n1 and the FreeBSD serial console assumes 9600, 8n1. In some of your instructions you'll find a section that has you writing modifying the file '/boot/loader.conf' to have the line: console=comconsole in it. That specifies that the kernel should use the serial port as a console. With just that you should expect to see the kernel boot and then the output will turn to hash because the serial speed is wrong. At this point you could drop out of minicom and restart it with a speed of 9600 baud. Alternatively you can add the line: comconsole_speed=19200 That will keep the console speed at the default for the soekris. There are lots
Re: [Soekris] help in booting FreeBSD 9
On Aug 8, 2013, at 3:16 AM, Igalson Jacek - Korpo TP jacek.igal...@orange.com wrote: Hi Chris, Thank you for your suggestions concerning comconsole and speed. I set baudrate 9600 consitently in Soekris and server according to loppefaaret advice on this mailinglist. I also set boot_serial=-h according to hint by Jed Clear. That's a valid solution to the problem. No matter what you do the baud rate switch is part of your problem. The last status of my booting is: boot f0 [snip] My concern is about the message: Consoles: video/keyboard. Is it OK? No, that is an indication from the FreeBSD kernel that it is using the syscons driver for keyboard and video. Your hardware doesn't have the required hardware to support this change. All new console messages will be directed to hardware that you don't have. This will appear as a hang to you. Once you get things running you will have a file called: /boot/loader.conf which configures the kernel. This file will have a line in it that reads: console=comconsole in addition to other configuration options. You need to figure out how to prime that in a pxeboot managed system. -- Chris ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] help in booting FreeBSD 9
You should also review the FreeBSD handbook. There was a section on serial consoles. There may be new steps for version 9 that I haven't encountered as I'm sticking with 8.x for a bit. And you can double check the ones I did recall. You could also check the logs on your PXE and TFTP server(s) to see if all the expected files were requested and transferred successfully. -Jed On Aug 8, 2013, at 3:16 AM, Igalson Jacek - Korpo TP jacek.igal...@orange.com wrote: Hi Chris, Thank you for your suggestions concerning comconsole and speed. I set baudrate 9600 consitently in Soekris and server according to loppefaaret advice on this mailinglist. I also set boot_serial=-h according to hint by Jed Clear. The last status of my booting is: boot f0 NSC DP83815/DP83816 Fast Ethernet UNDI, v1.03 Copyright (C) 2002, 2003 National Semiconductor Corporation All rights reserved. Pre-boot eXecution Environment PXE-2.0 (build 082) Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Intel Corporation CLIENT MAC ADDR: 00 00 24 CF D8 F8. DHCP.|CLIENT IP: 192.168.1.45 MASK: 255.255.255.0 DHCP IP: 192.168.1.10 GATEWAY IP: 192.168.1.10 TFTP. TFTP.\|PXE Loader 1.00 Building the boot loader arguments Relocating the loader and the BTX Starting the BTX loader C o n s o l e s : i n t e r n a l v i d e o / k e y b o a r d B I O S d r i v e C : i s d i s k 0 P X E v e r s i o n 2 . 1 , r e a l m o d e e n t r y p o i n t @ 9 e 6 4 : 0 0 f 6 B I O S 6 3 9 k B / 1 3 0 0 4 8 k B a v a i l a b l e m e m o r y F r e e B S D / x 8 6 b o o t s t r a p l o a d e r , R e v i s i o n 1 . 1 ( r o o t @ o b r i a n . c s e . b u f f a l o . e d u , T u e J a n 3 0 6 : 4 0 : 0 1 U T C 2 0 1 2 ) p x e _ o p e n : s e r v e r a d d r : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 p x e _ o p e n : s e r v e r p a t h : / u s r / p u b l i c / f r e e b s d 9 0 / p x e _ o p e n : g a t e w a y i p : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 | / - \ | / end process hangs. My concern is about the message: Consoles: video/keyboard. Is it OK? Last message is from bootstrap loader: pxe_open:gateway ip: 192.168.1.10 192.168.1.10 is my file server (TFTP and NFS server) Characters | / - \ | / suggest that something is loaded to Soekris, but I may not see it. Could someone interpret the messages and explain what is the stage of installation? Regards, Jacek -Wiadomość oryginalna- Od: Christopher Hilton [mailto:ch...@vindaloo.com] Wysłano: 6 sierpnia 2013 17:42 Do: Igalson Jacek - Korpo TP DW: soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com Temat: Re: [Soekris] help in booting FreeBSD 9 On Aug 5, 2013, at 5:14 AM, Igalson Jacek - Korpo TP jacek.igal...@orange.com wrote: Hello, I am new to the Soekris. I try to install FreeBSD on Soekris 4801-48 with CF memory (8GB). I followed excellent guide for PXE booting FreeBSD 9.x: http://freebsd.so14k.com/freebsd9_pxe.shtml To communicate with Soekris I use terminal Minicom (19200baud and 8N1) on PC with FreeBSD 9.0. I got the following output on terminal: boot f0 Looks like you are getting caught out by a couple of issues with booting FreeBSD on a soekris. 1. The FreeBSD pxeboot infrastructure assumes you are booting onto a machine with a VGA card and keyboard. Once the kernel loads it transfers over to the syscons driver and you can't see the output anymore 2. The Soekris serial port defaults to 19200, 8n1 and the FreeBSD serial console assumes 9600, 8n1. In some of your instructions you'll find a section that has you writing modifying the file '/boot/loader.conf' to have the line: console=comconsole in it. That specifies that the kernel should use the serial port as a console. With just that you should expect to see the kernel boot and then the output will turn to hash because the serial speed is wrong. At this point you could drop out of minicom and restart it with a speed of 9600 baud. Alternatively you can add the line: comconsole_speed=19200 That will keep the console speed at the default for the soekris. There are lots of instructions for pxebooting a soekris into FreeBSD 7, 8, and 9 on the net and there are differences in all of them because the different versions of FreeBSD have had various hangups. -- Chris ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] help in booting FreeBSD 9
On Aug 5, 2013, at 5:14 AM, Igalson Jacek - Korpo TP jacek.igal...@orange.com wrote: Hello, I am new to the Soekris. I try to install FreeBSD on Soekris 4801-48 with CF memory (8GB). I followed excellent guide for PXE booting FreeBSD 9.x: http://freebsd.so14k.com/freebsd9_pxe.shtml To communicate with Soekris I use terminal Minicom (19200baud and 8N1) on PC with FreeBSD 9.0. I got the following output on terminal: boot f0 Looks like you are getting caught out by a couple of issues with booting FreeBSD on a soekris. 1. The FreeBSD pxeboot infrastructure assumes you are booting onto a machine with a VGA card and keyboard. Once the kernel loads it transfers over to the syscons driver and you can't see the output anymore 2. The Soekris serial port defaults to 19200, 8n1 and the FreeBSD serial console assumes 9600, 8n1. In some of your instructions you'll find a section that has you writing modifying the file '/boot/loader.conf' to have the line: console=comconsole in it. That specifies that the kernel should use the serial port as a console. With just that you should expect to see the kernel boot and then the output will turn to hash because the serial speed is wrong. At this point you could drop out of minicom and restart it with a speed of 9600 baud. Alternatively you can add the line: comconsole_speed=19200 That will keep the console speed at the default for the soekris. There are lots of instructions for pxebooting a soekris into FreeBSD 7, 8, and 9 on the net and there are differences in all of them because the different versions of FreeBSD have had various hangups. -- Chris ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
