Re: Restart tries to boot from wrong disk, cold start is fine

[Jeff Ross]

On 06/18/10 22:59, Nick Holland wrote:
On 06/18/10 18:59, Jeff Ross wrote:
Hi all,
I'm building the first of a pair of firewalls to do carp and I'm running
into a little hitch in the gitalong.

These identical Silicon Mechanics iServ R200 servers have 1 72GB SCSI
disk each (dmesg below) that I intend to use to store local copy backup
files for pushing up to our Amazon S3 account.  I need about 40GB to
hold those files now, so I thought I'd use the real hard drive for data
only (except for a 500M altroot partition).

I installed the latest snapshot onto a 4GB SanDisk usb drive--no problem
there.  During the install I made the whole 4GB OpenBSD, and the same
for the 72 GB drive.

Warm reboots always fail because the server is tries to boot from the
SCSI hard drive.  All I get is the No Active Partition message.

If I power the server down, though, it boots just fine to the SanDisk
and everything works as it should until the next reboot.

I've gone through every option in the bios I can see--the SanDisk is
chosen as the first bootable device, then the two onboard nics, and I
don't even put the SCSI drive in at the 4th option.

Hopefully someone has an idea on how to work around this.  No floppy or
CD drive to put in a bootable with an /etc/boot.conf file, so that's out
unless that's the only way.

Well, obviously this is a hardware issue, not an OpenBSD issue, but a
work around may be fairly simple.  Disable the SCSI BIOS on the
system, and it won't be able to boot from the SCSI disk.  The only
question is, is your USB drive still there (to the bios) to boot.  The
problem may not be that the BIOS has a different warm boot vs. cold
boot boot order (yes, some do), but that the USB drive might have gone
"missing" to the BIOS on warm boot, so it picks something else to boot
from.  I've seen some pretty buggy BIOSs when it comes to booting off
USB devices...nothing surprises me here.

On some SATA and IDE interfaces which have given me booting issues, I
just peel the ROM chip off the board.  Assuming your SCSI interface is
on the main board, I don't think I'll suggest this solution. :)

However, you have made yourself a system of unnecessary complexity --
just skip the USB drive.  Your machines clearly need the SCSI drive to
be fully functional (note that if you pull sd0 (the SCSI disk) out,
sd1 (the USB drive) becomes sd0, and now your fstab won't work.  All
the flash disk has done is add a new failure point.

Also note that while you say you have an altroot setup in place, it is
obviously not set up properly, otherwise the altroot drive should be
booting when the system tries to boot from the HD (sounds like an
fdisk problem).  I tell people to test their altroot setup.  You did,
but it didn't work.

So..again, just create a 1g or 2g OS partition on your HDs, use the
rest as you had planned, and skip the USB flash disk.  The complexity
has already hurt you.  It will most likely do so again, AFTER it is in
production.

Nick.

Thanks for the reality check Nick!  The last thing I want is another 
point of failure--I obviously wan't thinking this through.

Interesting about the /altroot partition.  I hadn't yet edited 
/etc/fstab to change the altroot line but I sure did not know that
the system should automatically boot from /altroot if the root partition 
has gone missing--I thought that took human intervention.

Jeff


Jeff

OpenBSD 4.7-current (GENERIC.MP) #36: Thu Jun 10 00:25:28 MDT 2010
      dera...@i386.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC.MP
cpu0: Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz ("GenuineIntel" 686-class) 3.21 GHz
cpu0:
FPU,V86,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CFLUSH,DS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,SBF,SSE3,MWAIT,DS-CPL,CNXT-ID,CX16,xTPR
real mem  = 3757522944 (3583MB)
avail mem = 3653287936 (3484MB)
mainbus0 at root
bios0 at mainbus0: AT/286+ BIOS, date 03/29/05, BIOS32 rev. 0 @ 0xf0010,
SMBIOS rev. 2.3 @ 0xfa380 (61 entries)
bios0: vendor American Megatrends Inc. version "080010" date 03/29/2005
bios0: SiMech R200
acpi0 at bios0: rev 2
acpi0: tables DSDT FACP APIC OEMB
acpi0: wakeup devices PXHA(S4) PXHB(S4) EPA0(S4) EPA1(S4) EPB0(S4)
EPB1(S4) EPC0(S4) P0P1(S4) MC97(S4) USB1(S1) USB2(S1) EUSB(S4) PS2K(S4)
PS2M(S4) P0PC(S4) SLPB(S4)
acpitimer0 at acpi0: 3579545 Hz, 24 bits
acpimadt0 at acpi0 addr 0xfee00000: PC-AT compat
cpu0 at mainbus0: apid 0 (boot processor)
cpu0: apic clock running at 200MHz
cpu1 at mainbus0: apid 6 (application processor)
cpu1: Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz ("GenuineIntel" 686-class) 3.21 GHz
cpu1:
FPU,V86,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CFLUSH,DS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,SBF,SSE3,MWAIT,DS-CPL,CNXT-ID,CX16,xTPR
cpu2 at mainbus0: apid 1 (application processor)
cpu2: Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz ("GenuineIntel" 686-class) 3.21 GHz
cpu2:
FPU,V86,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CFLUSH,DS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,SBF,SSE3,MWAIT,DS-CPL,CNXT-ID,CX16,xTPR
cpu3 at mainbus0: apid 7 (application processor)
cpu3: Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz ("GenuineIntel" 686-class) 3.21 GHz
cpu3:
FPU,V86,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CFLUSH,DS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,SBF,SSE3,MWAIT,DS-CPL,CNXT-ID,CX16,xTPR
ioapic0 at mainbus0: apid 8 pa 0xfec00000, version 20, 24 pins
ioapic1 at mainbus0: apid 11 pa 0xfec10000, version 20, 24 pins
ioapic1: misconfigured as apic 9, remapped to apid 11
ioapic2 at mainbus0: apid 9 pa 0xfec80000, version 20, 24 pins
ioapic2: misconfigured as apic 10, remapped to apid 9
ioapic3 at mainbus0: apid 10 pa 0xfec80400, version 20, 24 pins
ioapic3: misconfigured as apic 11, remapped to apid 10
acpiprt0 at acpi0: bus 0 (PCI0)
acpiprt1 at acpi0: bus 1 (EPA0)
acpiprt2 at acpi0: bus 3 (PXHA)
acpiprt3 at acpi0: bus 2 (PXHB)
acpiprt4 at acpi0: bus 4 (EPA1)
acpiprt5 at acpi0: bus 6 (P0P1)
acpiprt6 at acpi0: bus 5 (P0PC)
acpicpu0 at acpi0
acpicpu1 at acpi0
acpicpu2 at acpi0
acpicpu3 at acpi0
acpibtn0 at acpi0: PWRB
acpibtn1 at acpi0: SLPB
bios0: ROM list: 0xc0000/0x8000 0xc8000/0x4000 0xcc000/0x1000 0xcd000/0x1000
ipmi at mainbus0 not configured
pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1 (bios)
pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0 "Intel E7320 Host" rev 0x0c
ppb0 at pci0 dev 2 function 0 "Intel E7520 PCIE" rev 0x0c
pci1 at ppb0 bus 1
ppb1 at pci1 dev 0 function 0 "Intel PCIE-PCIE" rev 0x09
pci2 at ppb1 bus 3
mpi0 at pci2 dev 5 function 0 "Symbios Logic 53c1030" rev 0xc1: apic 9
int 2 (irq 6)
scsibus0 at mpi0: 16 targets, initiator 7
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 0 lun 0:<IBM-ESXS, ST373307LC FN, B25F>  SCSI3
0/direct fixed
sd0: 70006MB, 512 bytes/sec, 143374000 sec total
mpi0: target 0 Sync at 160MHz width 16bit offset 63 QAS 1 DT 1 IU 1
ppb2 at pci1 dev 0 function 2 "Intel PCIE-PCIE" rev 0x09
pci3 at ppb2 bus 2
em0 at pci3 dev 1 function 0 "Intel PRO/1000MT (82546GB)" rev 0x03: apic
10 int 0 (irq 10), address 00:1b:21:15:6a:82
em1 at pci3 dev 1 function 1 "Intel PRO/1000MT (82546GB)" rev 0x03: apic
10 int 1 (irq 11), address 00:1b:21:15:6a:83
ppb3 at pci0 dev 3 function 0 "Intel E7520 PCIE" rev 0x0c
pci4 at ppb3 bus 4
ppb4 at pci0 dev 28 function 0 "Intel 6300ESB PCIX" rev 0x02
pci5 at ppb4 bus 5
em2 at pci5 dev 1 function 0 "Intel PRO/1000MT (82541GI)" rev 0x05: apic
11 int 2 (irq 9), address 00:30:48:87:2e:b0
em3 at pci5 dev 2 function 0 "Intel PRO/1000MT (82541GI)" rev 0x05: apic
11 int 3 (irq 9), address 00:30:48:87:2e:b1
uhci0 at pci0 dev 29 function 0 "Intel 6300ESB USB" rev 0x02: apic 8 int
16 (irq 10)
uhci1 at pci0 dev 29 function 1 "Intel 6300ESB USB" rev 0x02: apic 8 int
19 (irq 7)
"Intel 6300ESB WDT" rev 0x02 at pci0 dev 29 function 4 not configured
"Intel 6300ESB APIC" rev 0x02 at pci0 dev 29 function 5 not configured
ehci0 at pci0 dev 29 function 7 "Intel 6300ESB USB" rev 0x02: apic 8 int
23 (irq 5)
usb0 at ehci0: USB revision 2.0
uhub0 at usb0 "Intel EHCI root hub" rev 2.00/1.00 addr 1
ppb5 at pci0 dev 30 function 0 "Intel 82801BA Hub-to-PCI" rev 0x0a
pci6 at ppb5 bus 6
vga1 at pci6 dev 2 function 0 "ATI Rage XL" rev 0x27
wsdisplay0 at vga1 mux 1: console (80x25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 1-5 added (80x25, vt100 emulation)
ichpcib0 at pci0 dev 31 function 0 "Intel 6300ESB LPC" rev 0x02
pciide0 at pci0 dev 31 function 1 "Intel 6300ESB IDE" rev 0x02: DMA,
channel 0 configured to compatibility, channel 1 configured to compatibility
pciide0: channel 0 disabled (no drives)
pciide0: channel 1 disabled (no drives)
ichiic0 at pci0 dev 31 function 3 "Intel 6300ESB SMBus" rev 0x02: apic 8
int 17 (irq 0)
iic0 at ichiic0
lm1 at iic0 addr 0x2c: W83627HF
lm2 at iic0 addr 0x2f: W83792D rev D
spdmem0 at iic0 addr 0x51: 1GB DDR SDRAM registered ECC PC2700CL2.5
spdmem1 at iic0 addr 0x53: 1GB DDR SDRAM registered ECC PC2700CL2.5
spdmem2 at iic0 addr 0x55: 1GB DDR SDRAM registered ECC PC2700CL2.5
spdmem3 at iic0 addr 0x56: 1GB DDR SDRAM registered ECC PC2700CL2.5
usb1 at uhci0: USB revision 1.0
uhub1 at usb1 "Intel UHCI root hub" rev 1.00/1.00 addr 1
usb2 at uhci1: USB revision 1.0
uhub2 at usb2 "Intel UHCI root hub" rev 1.00/1.00 addr 1
isa0 at ichpcib0
isadma0 at isa0
com0 at isa0 port 0x3f8/8 irq 4: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo
com1 at isa0 port 0x2f8/8 irq 3: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo
pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60/5
pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot)
pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot
wskbd0 at pckbd0: console keyboard, using wsdisplay0
pmsi0 at pckbc0 (aux slot)
pckbc0: using irq 12 for aux slot
wsmouse0 at pmsi0 mux 0
pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61
midi0 at pcppi0:<PC speaker>
spkr0 at pcppi0
wbsio0 at isa0 port 0x2e/2: W83627HF rev 0x41
lm3 at wbsio0 port 0x290/8: W83627HF
lm1 detached
npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0/16: reported by CPUID; using exception 16
mtrr: Pentium Pro MTRR support
umass0 at uhub0 port 3 configuration 1 interface 0 "SanDisk Cruzer" rev
2.00/1.00 addr 2
umass0: using SCSI over Bulk-Only
scsibus1 at umass0: 2 targets, initiator 0
sd1 at scsibus1 targ 1 lun 0:<SanDisk, Cruzer, 1.00>  SCSI2 0/direct
removable
sd1: 3827MB, 512 bytes/sec, 7837696 sec total
vscsi0 at root
scsibus2 at vscsi0: 256 targets
softraid0 at root
root on sd1a swap on sd1b dump on sd1b


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