Really odd "BTX halted" problem booting - PXE/diskless
Danny Braniss
on a compaq deskpro workstation it's ok
on a dell-precision 420, it bombs.
both bioses are configured to boot via the network/pxe.
im using the same disks for both boxes.
i labeled the disks with:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rda0 bs=1k count=1
disklabel -Brw da0 auto
i then went ahead an played with vinum, all went fine on the Compaq,
i then wanted to do some comparisons, so i hooked up the disks to the Dell
and now BTX bombs.
is there a way, that when booting from the net, btx ignores the mbr/fdisk info?
danny
ps: im looking into the btx stuff, but will take me some time to remeber
assembler :-)
In message <XFMail.0010...@FreeBSD.org>you write:
}
}On 28-Oct-00 Matt Dillon wrote:
}>:> # optional dd if you are paranoid
}>:> # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da0 bs=32k count=4
}>:> fdisk -I da0
}>:> disklabel -w -r da0s1 auto
}>:>
}>:> That's much preferable to having to use sysinstall if all you want to
}>:> do is initialize a label on a slice.
}>:
}>:Yes, this is definitely the desired behavior.
}>:
}>:--
}>:
}>:John Baldwin <j...@FreeBSD.org> -- http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
}>
}> John, can you explain how the MBR bootstraps a slice? Should I make
}> disklabel zero-out the fdisk partition table area in the slice rather
}> then installing the dummy fdisk partition table? That is, for the
}> case where -B is used on a slice (da0s1) verses on the whole-disk (da0)?
}
}Just ignore the slice table within a slice. It is only used when boot1
}is splatted over top of the MBR for the dangerously dedicated mode. It is
}unused and ignored otherwise.
}
}> -Matt
}
}--
}
}John Baldwin <j...@FreeBSD.org> -- http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
}PGP Key: http://www.baldwin.cx/~john/pgpkey.asc
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John Baldwin
On 29-Jan-01 Danny Braniss wrote:
> im now being bitten by this one, but with a twist:
> on a compaq deskpro workstation it's ok
> on a dell-precision 420, it bombs.
> both bioses are configured to boot via the network/pxe.
>
> im using the same disks for both boxes.
>
> i labeled the disks with:
> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rda0 bs=1k count=1
> disklabel -Brw da0 auto
>
> i then went ahead an played with vinum, all went fine on the Compaq,
> i then wanted to do some comparisons, so i hooked up the disks to the Dell
> and now BTX bombs.
>
> is there a way, that when booting from the net, btx ignores the mbr/fdisk
> info?
BTX doesn't read your MBR, it sounds like the BIOS in the machine is crapping
itself out on the disks in question. If you are using dangerously dedicated
mode on these disks, don't. :)
Doug White
> im now being bitten by this one, but with a twist:
> on a compaq deskpro workstation it's ok
> on a dell-precision 420, it bombs.
> both bioses are configured to boot via the network/pxe.
>
> im using the same disks for both boxes.
>
> i labeled the disks with:
> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rda0 bs=1k count=1
> disklabel -Brw da0 auto
This is a bug in the adaptec BIOS. Don't do this for boot disks. Use
fdisk/real slices instead.
Doug White | FreeBSD: The Power to Serve
dwh...@resnet.uoregon.edu | www.FreeBSD.org
Fred Clift
On Thu, 1 Feb 2001, Doug White wrote:
> This is a bug in the adaptec BIOS. Don't do this for boot disks. Use
> fdisk/real slices instead.
Or possibly, dont do this for any disk in the system. Some bioses choke
even on non-boot disks with DD partitioning...
Fred
--
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force doesn't work, you're just not using enough.
Paul Saab
I suppose you really dont need to probe the disks when you are netbooting.
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