Booting 13.1-RC5 problem on New Server

[rrsum]

I'm building a new server with an ASUS Prime B560-Plus motherboard and an Intel i5-11600K CPU (11th generation). My understanding is that 13.1 should be able to boot such a server.

Indeed, I already have 2 existing servers, one with the same motherboard but a different CPU, an Intel i7-10700K (10th generation), and the second with a different motherboard, a Gigabyte B560M-DS3H but the same 11th generation CPU. Both are running fine under 13.1-RC5.

However, I can't get the new server to boot with the 13.1-RC5 memstick, although the memstick will boot the two existing servers! I've been through the BIOS on the ASUS countless times, but there are many settings I don't understand! The symptoms are as follows: it gets to the BSD boot options screen and after that starts to boot, but then the screen goes blank, a solid cursor appears in the upper left hand corner, and it hangs. I have the feeling something is happening, because the LED on the memstick flashes for a while and eventually a mouse cursor appears, but one never sees the FreeBSD configuration screen.

Anyone see this before? Is there any way to debug? Thanks in advance.

 

[sidetone]

Your BIOS is set to boot up on BIOS and not UEFI? Then again, it got to the FreeBSD options bootscreen, so this isn't likely it.

Other possibilities. For what's not a memstick, or what's over a certain amount of GB, of which partition it's on can cause it not to boot. kern.vty=vt should be set in /boot/loader.conf, which would have to be done on the boot cd, and would likely be for if you were using a desktop and not server. That could be tried anyway. I had similar problems with the bootscreen, and these have solved it. It could be something similar, and likely related to a boot configuration.

ntpd can also hold up a system to cause a long wait if the network isn't up. A mistake in fstab can also hold up a bootup, but it would send it into single user mode instead of causing a wait.

Try booting it in single user mode.

 

[Ferrari-Dude]

Have you tried a different USB port? Specifically, try one of the USB 2.0 ports, if available.

 

[rrsum]

I should have pointed out that the memstick img is the recommended install memstick for 13.1-RC5 and I did try booting to single user mode with the same effect.

 

[sko]

Did you try a 12.3-RELEASE image? I'm using an ASUS B560M board /w 11th gen. i5 as a workstation and still use the 12.3 bootloader as the 13.0 one will hang. (haven't tried 13.1-RCx yet)

Also see this bug report regarding ASUS boards being unable to boot with 13.0+ boot loaders: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=209821

 

[grahamperrin]

… regarding ASUS boards being unable to boot with 13.0+ boot loaders: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=209821

209821 began long before 13.0 (I chose to make my 255073 a duplicate).

The fix was merged to stable/13 in August 2021, it's also in releng/13.1.

amd64 UEFI loader: stop copying staging area to 2M physical · freebsd/freebsd-src@1b33aa1

(cherry picked from commit f75caed644a5c8c342a1ea5e7a6d5251f82ed0b1)

github.com

Not yet in release notes; please see <https://forums.freebsd.org/posts/562015>

 

[grahamperrin]

13.1-RC5

Any different with 13.1-RELEASE? (I imagine not, but maybe worth a try.)

Any different with verbose boot? (I imagine the bug biting before verbosity begins, but in an edge case, verbose boot might make a difference.)

Safe boot?