Solved Device busy...

[KenGordon]

Do you really need if_re.ko before kernel is loades (for example, network booting)?

No.

If not, what happens if you load it by adding it to kld_list in /etc/rc.cof[.local] instead of in /boot/loader.conf?

Then it all works correctly. Thank you for the direction.

Ken

 

[smithi]

I just finished burning a bootable DVD with FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE on it, and will now go to work.

Side note: images for DVD rarely require a DVD.

Sadly the Handbook is now over 4 years out of date about this, far from the first resulting misunderstanding; some even insist that it's not true.

2.3.1. Prepare the Installation Media

Which says about all three .ISO files "This file should be burned to optical media." but still fails to point out what every release announcement since 12.1 has:

FreeBSD 12.1-RELEASE Announcement November 4, 2019

'Additionally, this can be written to an USB memory stick (flash drive) for the amd64 architecture and used to do an install on machines capable of booting off USB drives. It also supports booting into a "livefs" based rescue mode.'

Which is how I installed 12.3 from the DVD1.ISO dd'd to USB memstick as described.

 

[Cath O'Deray]

Hybrid CD/USB boot images​

Please see <https://old.reddit.com/r/freebsd/co...one_to_dl_from_the_website/k9ht662/?context=3>.

 

[KenGordon]

Well, Gang, it looks to me as though I am screwed.
First I booted the computer from a boot-only CD. Then chose the Shell.

First, I tried efibootmgr. The system returned that my unit was not capable of that.

So, next I did gpart show ada1. The result:

Then, I did bsdlabel -w -An /dev/ada1

​

Disk amnesiac? Innersting, to be sure. Next;

And every possible iteration of this returns the same: unknown disk type.

​

And the same thing happens here, no matter which partition I choose.

Then, I decide to follow this advice:

Solved - FreeBSD LiveCD - installing a small set of tools from packages on read-only file system

If you ever happen to use a LiveCD to restore or diagnose some computer and you have only the Bootable DVD you can use this method to install additional software that you need in the ram drive. In the following example i will show you how to boot and install sysutils/testdisk midnight-commander...

forums.freebsd.org

in order to attempt to install the driver for my Realtek NIC, but despite this

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being successful, and finding the file, if_re.ko, when I try to load it, the system returns that that file is already in the kernel:

​

In any case, I cannot get the NIC activated.

There may be a way to copy the bootstrap necessaries to a USB drive, and copy it from there to ada1. Otherwise, I have not been able to figure out how to get my ada1 to mount, nor boot.

Thanks for the help, folks.

Ken

 

[Cath O'Deray]

Are you aiming to perform a fresh installation, or reuse existing data?

 

[KenGordon]

Are you aiming to perform a fresh installation, or reuse existing data?

I had never had any chance to add any data to it. It was the operating system, some peripherals, X, and the MATE DE, and a few apps: LibreOffice, Firefox, Fldigi, Flamp, Flmsg. I had not yet even downloaded any e-mail. I was in the process of building the box and was only about 1/4 the way through with it.

So, it will be simply a fresh installation. I'll start with FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE. This will be the third time within the last month, so by now, I should be getting familiar with the process. After all, practice makes perfect, right?

The reason I kept getting the "Device Busy" response was that, for some reason, when I installed my working OPSYS on my second HDD, ada2, the system chose to use the boot partition from my first HDD, ada1, to boot from. At one time, a few months ago, I had begun an installation on that first HDD, ada1, but then due to becoming badly distracted from finishing it, I abandoned that and decided to build a new installation on my second HDD, which was ada2 at that time. Obviously, I did something wrong when I built the second install.

I'll mark this thread solved. Again, thanks.

Ken

 

[smithi]

So, next I did gpart show ada1. The result:

If you had added gpart show's -p switch, you may have noticed that this disk uses GPT scheme, not BSD, with partition names ada1p1, p2 and p3 ... in contrast to your previous ada1a which did use a raw BSD scheme.

Then, I did bsdlabel -w -An /dev/ada1

Please say where you saw a suggestion to use bsdlabel on a non-BSD scheme disk?

And in any case, gpart does a much better and less error prone job than bsdlabel on BSD disk slices on MBR disks.

And every possible iteration of this returns the same: unknown disk type.

Of course, it's a GPT disk.

Clearly I'm hindering and not helping, so I'll go. Good luck.

 

[KenGordon]

If you had added gpart show's -p switch, you may have noticed that this disk uses GPT scheme, not BSD, with partition names ada1p1, p2 and p3 ... in contrast to your previous ada1a which did use a raw BSD scheme.

Actually, I did know that the disk was a GPT disk. I used gpart show ada1 and got all the necessary info.

Please say where you saw a suggestion to use bsdlabel on a non-BSD scheme disk?

I couldn't find anything in the manual on how gpart could write the boot info to a disk that was missing it, so I tried bsdlabel, since, from the manual, it appeared that that was the only way to fix a missing boot.

And in any case, gpart does a much better and less error prone job than bsdlabel on BSD disk slices on MBR disks.

That sounds very good to me. Thanks.

Of course, it's a GPT disk.

Clearly I'm hindering and not helping, so I'll go. Good luck.

You are NOT hindering: I have found your advice and help to be very useful and valuable. Thank you.

I finally decided that since I really had no valuable data on my system, that the simplest thing for me to do, and in order to no longer load the forum with my ineptness, I would simply start over, and so far I am glad I did.

For one thing, my new system boots at least twice as fast as the previous system. And FYI, the darned Windoze system takes at least 15 minutes to get itself loaded and useful.

Again, thank you for the help. I appreciate it. Happy New Year. ?

Ken