HP Probook 6550b not booting 14.3-RELEASE / 15.0-STABLE

MicJon · Nov 14, 2025

Hello,
One of my old laptops (HP Probook 6550b) was running FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE (amd64) perfectly fine, but upgrading to anything higher results in a boot that hangs at the line:
psm0: model Synaptics Touchpad, device ID 0

A while ago I tried upgrading to 14.1-RELEASE and run into this problem. Back then I decided to wait, hoping this glitch would be ironed out in a later release. But today experimenting with 14.3-RELEASE and 15.0-STABLE from 20251113 I got the same results.

It would be great to find a fix for this and would like to help troubleshooting this issue. I'm not even close to a kernel developer though, but perfectly capable of gathering all kinds of information (I'm a FreeBSD-user since version 4.4) and help testing.
What would be the best way to go about this?

T-Daemon · Nov 14, 2025

Try 16-CURRENT, make sure to download the image with the newest release date : https://download.freebsd.org/snapshots/ISO-IMAGES/16.0/

Start the system in verbose mode and post the output if the problem persists (at the boot menu choose "7. Boot Options -- > 6. Verbose).

MicJon · Sunday at 11:13 PM

16-CURRENT (image from 2025-11-10) suffers from the same issue.

I've been messing about trying to capture the console output up to the hang via serial but I'm unsuccessful so far. More on that further down. I did capture the screen content at the point of the hang (thanks OCR!) and it looks like this:

Code:

kbd0: atkbd0, AT 101/102 (2), config:0x0, flags: 0x1d0000
ioapich: routing intpin 1 (ISA IRQ 1) to lapic 4 vector 53
atkbd0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
psm0: unable to allocate IRQ
psmcpnp0: <PS/2 mouse port> irq 12 on acpi0
psm0: current command byte:0047
kbdc: TEST_AUX_PORT status:0000
kbdc: RESET_AUX return code:00fa
kbdc: RESET-AUX status: 00aa
kbdc: RESET_AUX ID:0000
kbdc: RESET_AUX return code:00fa
kbdc: RESET_AUX status:00aa
kbdc: RESET_AUX ID:0000
psm: status 00 02 64
psm: status 00 00 64
psm: status 04 47 17
psm: status 01 c0 b1
psm: status d0 47 71
psm: status 35 80 64
psm: status a4 00 00
psm: status 0a 04 00
psm: status ad 5c 95
psm: status 3b 47 40
psm: status 00 02 64
psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
ioapic0: routing intpin 12 (ISA IRQ 12) to lapic 0 vector 60
psm0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
WARNING: Device "psm" is Giant locked and may be deleted before FreeBSD 16.0.
psm0: model Synaptics Touchpad, device ID 0-00, 3 buttons
psm0: config:00004000, flags:00000008, packet size:6
psm: syncmask:c0, syncbits:00

Maybe this is enough, maybe not. Let me know.

On capturing the output via serial:
I have a serial cable, fully wired null-modem, DB9 to DB9. And I know this cable works: when I plug it in to one of my FreeBSD-servers, which is configured to accept a terminal at a serial port and hook it up to a laptop with Minicom I get the expected login prompt. Logging in to the system works fine. Connection settings in Minicom were VT100 terminal, 8N1 115200 with hardware flow control.
The tty-line on the server is ttyu0 "/usr/libexec/getty std.115200" vt100 on insecure

But no success capturing the boot of the laptop via serial. The screen in Minicom stays empty.
From the Beastie menu I escaped to a loader prompt and set the following variables:

Code:

boot_serial=YES
boot_verbose=YES
comconsole_port=0x3f8
comconsole_speed=9600
console=comconsole

I lowered the speed from 115200 down to 9600 to test if that made any difference but it didn't. I made sure to tell Minicom to use hardware flow control because that's what I used to get the serial connection to the server I tested the cable with. But I tried without flow control too. Still nothing. The screen stays empty. In the Minicom status bar you can see the online/offline status. When I switch the 6550b on, that status changes from offline to online. So apparently there is something happening on the serial connection.

I tried a few other variables too. Like setting boot_multicons=YES and console=comconsole,efi, together with the already mentioned other ones.
But I'm a bit out of ideas at the moment, trying to get this serial connection to work. Tips are welcome.

T-Daemon · Monday at 7:13 AM

MicJon said:
Maybe this is enough, maybe not. Let me know.

This might be related to acpi(4). Down below is the dmesg of my laptop (ThinkPad E15):

Rich (BB code):

kbd0: atkbd0, AT 101/102 (2), config:0x0, flags:0x1d0000
ioapic0: routing intpin 1 (ISA IRQ 1) to lapic 10 vector 49
atkbd0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
psm0: unable to allocate IRQ
psmcpnp0: <PS/2 mouse port> irq 12 on acpi0
psm0: current command byte:0047
kbdc: TEST_AUX_PORT status:0000
kbdc: RESET_AUX return code:00fa
kbdc: RESET_AUX status:00aa
kbdc: RESET_AUX ID:0000
kbdc: RESET_AUX return code:00fa
kbdc: RESET_AUX status:00aa
kbdc: RESET_AUX ID:0000
psm: status 00 02 64
psm: status 3c 03 00
psm: status 3c 03 00
psm: status 3c 03 00
psm: data 08 00 00
psm: status 7b f4 fc
psm: status 3c 03 00
psm: status 6f 30 01
psm: status 90 18 10
psm: status 00 11 06
psm: status 7b f4 fc
psm: status 00 02 64
psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
ioapic0: routing intpin 12 (ISA IRQ 12) to lapic 12 vector 50
psm0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
WARNING: Device "psm" is Giant locked and may be deleted before FreeBSD 15.0.
psm0: model Elantech Touchpad, device ID 0-00, 3 buttons
psm0: config:00004100, flags:00000000, packet size:6
psm0: syncmask:04, syncbits:00 (sync not checked)
battery0: <ACPI Control Method Battery> on acpi0
AcpiOsExecute: task queue not started
acpi_acad0: <AC Adapter> on acpi0
AcpiOsExecute: task queue not started
acpi_ibm0: <ThinkPad ACPI Extras> on acpi0
acpi_ibm0: Firmware version is 0x200

The psm messages are similar to your Probook, your machine is apparently locking hard at a point when acpi messages should appear, which suggests a ACPI problem. Of course, it could also be something completely different.

Have you tried letting the system run for a longer period of time, 15 -30 minutes?

If the system startup does not progress in that time, I can't help further to debug (no clue on the serial cable issue either).

You should then subscribe to the freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org mailing list and ask for support there. List all the versions you have tried.

One of the FreeBSD developers should know more how to proceed. They may advice you to open a PR ( https://bugs.freebsd.org ).

MicJon · Monday at 9:26 PM

T-Daemon said:
Have you tried letting the system run for a longer period of time, 15 -30 minutes?

That one didn't occur to me so I tried. It sat there for about 45 minutes, mainly because I went to do something else and then remembered I was testing something

Nothing changed on the screen so I went and subscribed to freebsd-current.

Thanks for the guidance!