Brutally slow booting speed on FBSD 7.2 high end server

O

okasion

Hi folks,

We bought a new high end server for our hosting; the server has a GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 motherboard with an Intel i3core CPU and 8 DDR3 GB RAM. The box has 2 TB hard disks in RAID1 and the FreeBSD installer detects both disks (ad10, ad12) and the hardware array. Im installing FBSD and the BTX loader on ad10.

I have installed FreeBSD 7.2 STABLE a few times so far, and the first times that I did set 100MB for /boot, the booting process (before the BTX loader, when you see the the 'boot: F1' label) would hangup at the first numeral "#".

In the latest reinstallation I assigned 500MB for /boot, and now the machine keeps printing numerals really slow, like:

boot: F1 ##################################

and so on. I am trying to reach an hour to test if it really ends the booting process.

Could somebody help me? as far as I googled, the motherboard supports *NIX fine.
Btw,
 
Why are you installing a bootmanager on a server that's going to boot only FreeBSD?
 
I set /boot to be dynamically sized within / with / having a value from 2-4G depending on disk space. The kernel folder itself with modules needs 150M. Remember that this is my opinion. Others may and probably will have better suggestions.
 
Is not mandatory to install the FreeBSD BTX boot loader after you create the partition?
and btw, the loader keeps echoing numerals... it does not boot.
It doesn't work FreeBSD 7.2 on this box? it is a must to install FreeBSD 8?
 
Yes, you need a bootloader.
You need a bootloader for all operating systems on most if not all architectures and hardware.
 
Basically you guys are saying that I should not install the "BTX boot loader", but instead the "Classic FreeBSD loader" in the installation options?
 
You need a boot loader, not a boot manager. If you plan on running nothing but FreeBSD, don't install a boot manager.
 
Isn't the "boot: F1" part of the boot loader, instead of the boot manager? doesn't the boot manager comes after the "boot: F1 #####..." part?
 
Okay.
A bootloader let's the OS load the kernel and then it can load the remaining system.
A boot manager let's you choose between two systems and how they load.

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I have reinstalled FreeBSD without the BTX loader, installing the "native boot loader" only, and yet, after the process finished I got the same process at boot up: it says boot: F1, and then it keeps printing '#' slowly.
This is the first time I have experienced a problem with FreeBSD regarding it booting process.
 
Start over from scratch.

Boot off a FreeBSD or Linux LiveCD and run # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/whatever bs=1M count=1 where /dev/whatever is the device for the harddrive. That will remove the MBR, the boot manager, the boot loader, all slices, and all partitions on the disk. Basically, return the disk to an unformatted state.

Boot the FreeBSD install CD, and start the install as per normal.

Use "a" (auto) in the FDISK screen to create a single slice on the entire disk.

When asked about a Boot Manager, Standard MBR, etc, select "STANDARD MBR (No boot manager)".

Carry on with the install as per normal.

When you boot off the disk, you will not get the "Boot: F1" menu any more (aka Boot Easy, the FreeBSD boot manager). You will get the BTX Loader (aka the first stage boot loader). And you will get the standard FreeBSD boot menu (aka the loader).
 
okasion said:
I have reinstalled FreeBSD without the BTX loader, installing the "native boot loader" only, and yet, after the process finished I got the same process at boot up: it says boot: F1, and then it keeps printing '#' slowly.
This is the first time I have experienced a problem with FreeBSD regarding it booting process.
Click to expand...

You're confusing terms.

Boot Easy is the FreeBSD boot manager. This gives you the "Boot: F1" menu. If you had multiple partitions on the disk, each with a different OS, the menu would expand (Boot: F1 FreeBSD, F2 Windows, F3 DOS, etc). You don't want or need this. (This is also known as boot0).

"BTX Loader" is part of the FreeBSD loader. I believe this is called the "first stage loader" (aka boot1). This finds the active partition, finds /boot/loader.conf, finds/loads /boot/kernel/kernel, loads kernel modules, and then present the loader menu.

Finally, /boot/loader hands control over to the kernel, and the OS boots.

Oh, and don't create a separate partition for /boot. Leave it as a normal directory under /. FreeBSD is not Linux, don't try to install it like a Linux system. :)
 
I don't think the bootloader is causing the problem here (NB: I could well be wrong, though, feel free to ignore my speculations), it sounds like you have something amiss in your bios or hardware (like a stuck key on your keyboard).
 
Well, /boot being a separate partition does sound like a genuine concern...
 
Well, I installed FreeBSD 8.0 REL without creating a /boot slice, and after booting, I got the same error.

I didn't know what to do, so I played a little with the BIOS configuration: disabled the "Intel Virtualization Technology", changed the "SATA mode" from IDE/SATA to AHCI and the "Onboard SATA mode" (?) to AHCI too.
Save & Exit Setup.
Rebooted.

FreeBSD booted successfully. I was stoned.

Hope this thread will help someone else too. Thank you guys.
 
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