Re: Unable to boot Pi 3b+

Mark Millard wrote on 2023-08-18 10:12:
> On Aug 18, 2023, at 09:41, Peter G <list-freebsd-arm@box559.com> wrote:
> 
>> . . .
>>
>> Okay, finally working!
> 
> Cool.
> 
>> I replaced start.elf and fixup.dat, and only those two files, in 13.2-RELEASE with the ones from 14.0-ALPHA1, and that boots (usually).
> 
> So the old *.dtb is still in use vs. the newer one
> for using the pure 14.0-ALPHA* RPi* firmware. For
> what you report, both with the releng/13.2 kernel.
> 
> At some point I'll generate the 2 *.dts's from
> the *.dtb's in the sorted order and diff the
> outputs. (This does not deal with live adjustments
> that are also involved.)
> 
> Does 14.0-ALPHA* have a panic when not changed? In
> essence the comparison/contrast checks the older
> kernel ( releng/13.2 ) vs. the newer kernel for the
> modern *.dtb case.
> 
> (Unfortunatey, you have the only known test context.
> So I ask. But you may not want to be the tester for
> such questions.)
> 
>> I say usually because sometimes the boot hangs indefinitely between loading the keyboard USB device and bringing up the network stuff (lo0, mue0, and ue0), but usually it just pauses there and then continues. When it does hang, ctrl-alt-del works to try again.
> 
> Interesting.
> 
>> As expected, once it's up there are no apparent problems. The wired ethernet works fine for ssh and freebsd-update. I haven't stressed the system much so far, but still looks good after half a day of uptime.
> 
> As you have the only known panic context, could you
> gather the serial console output for a context that
> leads to a panic(/reboot loop) when using just the
> 14.0-ALPHA* firmware (modern *.dtb) and then report
> it someplace folks can have access to? Absent such
> evidence, the FreeBSD kernel will stay broken for
> your type of context using modern RPi* firmware and
> FreeBSD's kernel. (Presuming the evidence points to
> the kernel mishandling something badly to cause a
> reboot loop.)

Okay, duty calls ...  I dragged out some dusty boxes and scrounged 
around for old adapters and cables and hooked up the serial console. I 
booted the modified 13.2-RELEASE, 14.0-ALPHA1 and 14.2-ALPHA2 images. 
The logs are here:
https://box559.com/pi3Bconsole.tgz

But, now all three boot! I'm beginning to fear for my sanity after this 
whole thing. I know I didn't dream it, but the crash is not happening 
now. To check, I reverted to the HDMI console with 14.0-ALPHA1 where I 
had the looping crash before, and it booted fine (albeit with the 
zillion error messages you mentioned).

So, hmm... I'm puzzled by what happened, but I'm glad it works now.

Happy to send any other info that might be useful, but a working system 
probably isn't all that interesting. Mark, thank you for your kind 
assistance.

> 
> 
> ===
> Mark Millard
> marklmi at yahoo.com
> 
> 
>