Solved PXE boot mfsBSD onto Dell PowerEdge 1955

F

forquare

Evening all,

I'm attempting to PXE boot mfsBSD onto an old Dell PowerEdge 1955 blade. I've got as far as loading the image, but I get stuck here:

Code: 
MEMDISK 6.03 2014-10-06  Copyright 2001-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al
e820: 0000000000000000 00000000000a0000 1
e820: 0000000000100000 00000000cfea8000 1
e820: 00000000cffa8000 000000000000fc00 3
e820: 00000000cffb7c00 0000000000048400 2
Total size needed = 2513 bytes, allocating 3K
Old dos memory at 0x8a000 (map says 0xa0000), loading at 0x89400
1588: 0xffff  15E801: 0x3c00 0xcbba
INT 13 08: Success, count = 1, BPT = 0000:0000
Drive probing gives drive shift limit: 0x82         8000:
old: int13 = ca001da6  int15 = f000f859  int1e = f000efc7
new: int13 = 8940000a  int15 = 894003ba  int1e = f000efc7
Loading boot sector... booting...
Keyboard: yes
/boot/config: -D

FreeBSD/x86 boot
Default: 0:ad(0p2)/boot/loader
boot:
BTX loader 1.00  BTX version is 1.02
Consoles: internal video/keyboard
BIOS drive A: is disk0
BIOS drive C: is disk1
BIOS drive D: is disk2
BIOS 549kB/3353216kB available memory

FreeBSD/x86 bootstrap loader, Revision 1.1
(root@releng1.nyi.freebsd.org, Fri Mar 25 02:04:38 UTC 2016)
\oading /boot/defaults/loader.conf
  AMD Features2=0x1<LAHF>
  VT-x: HLT,PAUSE
  TSC: P-state invariant, performance statistics
real memory  = 4294967296 (4096 MB)
avail memory = 3986325504 (3801 MB)
Event timer "LAPIC" quality 400
ACPI APIC Table: <DELL   PE_SC3  >
FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 8 CPUs
FreeBSD/SMP: 2 package(s) x 4 core(s)
 cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID:  0
 cpu1 (AP): APIC ID:  1
 cpu2 (AP): APIC ID:  2
 cpu3 (AP): APIC ID:  3
 cpu4 (AP): APIC ID:  4
 cpu5 (AP): APIC ID:  5
 cpu6 (AP): APIC ID:  6
 cpu7 (AP): APIC ID:  7
random: <Software, Yarrow> initialized
ioapic0: Changing APIC ID to 8
ioapic1: Changing APIC ID to 9
ioapic2: Changing APIC ID to 10
ioapic0 <Version 2.0> irqs 0-23 on motherboard
ioapic1 <Version 2.0> irqs 32-55 on motherboard
▒▒▒▒

I'm on the console via the blade chassis console (telnet to blade chassis, connect to the blade). I believe the console baud rate is 57600, and I've edited the following files from the mfsBSD USB image:

etc/ttys (from inside mfsroot.gz)
Code: 
# $Id$
#
console none                            unknown off secure
#
ttyv0   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
# Virtual terminals
ttyv1   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
ttyv2   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  off secure
ttyv3   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  off secure
ttyv4   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  off secure
ttyv5   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  off secure
ttyv6   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  off secure
ttyv7   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  off secure
ttyv8   "/usr/local/bin/xdm -nodaemon"  xterm   off secure
# Serial terminals
ttyu0   "/usr/libexec/getty std.57600"  dialup  on secure
ttyu1   "/usr/libexec/getty std.57600"  dialup  on secure
ttyu2   "/usr/libexec/getty std.57600"  dialup  off secure
ttyu3   "/usr/libexec/getty std.57600"  dialup  off secure
# Dumb console
dcons   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   vt100   off secure

boot.config
Code: 
-D

And I've added the following to boot/loader.conf
Code: 
#
# BIL
#
boot_multicons="YES"
boot_serial="YES"
comconsole_speed="57600"
console="com console"

Is there somewhere else I should be setting the baud rate? Although I can change the rate on the console to 9600, the POST dialogue is then jibberish…

Any advice would be, as always, much appreciated.
 
I would suspect ACPI issues.

As a start, you may try disabling hyperthreading and/or the C3 low-power state (if your system supports it) in the BIOS.

I would recommend booting in verbose mode and posting that output here. It may provide more details on exactly what the system is doing when it freezes.

On a side note, there shouldn't be a space in console="com console", although it doesn't appear to affect anything in your case (your console is working, yes?). The -D is having the intended effect. That line should read:

console="comconsole"

Good luck.
 
Thanks coolhandluke, with verbose boot I get the following:
Code: 
Loading memdisk... ok
                                                         ok
e820: 0000000000000000 00000000000a0000 1
e820: 0000000000100000 00000000cfea8000 1
e820: 00000000cffa8000 000000000000fc00 3
e820: 00000000cffb7c00 0000000000048400 2
Total size needed = 2513 bytes, allocating 3K
Old dos memory at 0x8a000 (map says 0xa0000), loading at 0x89400
1588: 0xffff  15E801: 0x3c00 0xcbba
INT 13 08: Success, count = 1, BPT = 0000:0000
Drive probing gives drive shift limit: 0x82
old: int13 = ca001da6  int15 = f000f859  int1e = f000efc7
new: int13 = 8940000a  int15 = 894003ba  int1e = f000efc7
Loading boot sector... booting...
/boot/config: -D

FreeBSD/x86 boot
Default: 0:ad(0p2)/boot/loader
boot:
BTX loader 1.00  BTX version is 1.02
console comconsole failed to initialize
Consoles: internal video/keyboard  serial port
BIOS drive A: is disk0
BIOS drive C: is disk1
BIOS drive D: is disk2
BIOS 549kB/3353216kB available memory

FreeBSD/x86 bootstrap loader, Revision 1.1
(root@releng1.nyi.freebsd.org, Fri Mar 25 02:04:38 UTC 2016)
\oading /boot/defaults/loader.conf
lapic3: Routing NMI -> LINT1
lapic3: LINT1 trigger: edge
lapic3: LINT1 polarity: high
lapic7: Routing NMI -> LINT1
lapic7: LINT1 trigger: edge
lapic7: LINT1 polarity: high
MADT: Interrupt override: source 0, irq 2
ioapic0: Routing IRQ 0 -> intpin 2
MADT: Interrupt override: source 9, irq 9
ioapic0: intpin 9 trigger: level
ioapic0 <Version 2.0> irqs 0-23 on motherboard
ioapic1 <Version 2.0> irqs 32-55 on motherboard
ioapic2 <Version 2.0> irqs 192-215 on motherboard
cpu0 BSP:
     ID: 0x00000000   VER: 0x00050014 LDR: 0x00000000 DFR: 0xffffffff
  lint0: 0x00010700 lint1: 0x00000400 TPR: 0x00000000 SVR: 0x000001ff
  timer: 0x000100ef therm: 0x00010000 err: 0x000000f0 pmc: 0x00010400
wlan: <802.11 Link Layer>
snd_unit_init() u=0x00ff8000 [512] d=0x00007c00 [32] c=0x000003ff [1024]
feeder_register: snd_unit=-1 snd_maxautovchans=16 latency=5 feeder_rate_min=1 fe
eder_rate_max=2016000 feeder_rate_round=25
null: <null device, zero device>
nfslock: pseudo-device
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒

You can see the "▒" where I try to input (return, random keys, etc).

After hopping onto another server, and X forwarding firefox, I was able to get a VERY delayed console window on the blade. After about 10 minutes (it was incredibly slow), this image appeared:
screenshot_zpsxnlpmase.png


I'm guessing that the
Code: 
open /dev/ttyu0: No such file or directory
is probably my issue?

I've disabled ACPI from the boot menu and no difference. I can't find any hyperthreading or C3/lower-power/sleep options in the BIOS...
 
Did you get this issue resolved?

I saw a very similar posting on one of the mailing lists (-questions, I believe?) a few days ago and assumed it was you. If that is the case, please do share the solution you found here for the sake of future users who may stumble across this thread.

Alternatively, I'll try to find that the online archive of that thread and link to it here.

Thanks!
 
forquare said:
open /dev/ttyu0: No such file or directory
Click to expand...
mfsBSD normally shows something like that:
Code: 
login: Aug 13 13:05:30 mfsbsd getty[744]: open /dev/ttyu1: No such file or directory

At that point, I press enter to get a plain login: prompt, although it's not necessary.
 
coolhandluke said:
Did you get this issue resolved?

I saw a very similar posting on one of the mailing lists (-questions, I believe?) a few days ago and assumed it was you.
Click to expand...

It was, and apologies for not posting back here sooner.

The solution was to add the following to /boot/loader.conf:
Code: 
hw.uart.console="io:0x2f8,br:57600"

I saw the solution here and was initially not sure it would work (not properly understanding what it did), but giving it a try the console burst into life!
 
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