after trivial update, 15.0 ARM64 system no longer boots Try a FreeBSD 14.0 Release Snapshot image on RasPi 4

 > From: Lexi Winter <lexi_at_le-fay.org>
 > Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2024 15:57:33 UTC
 >
 > hi lists,
 >
 > i have a FreeBSD 15.0/arm64 system, an RPi4, which was previously
 > running 15.0 with pkgbase.  i rebuilt main on my pkg server and updated
 > the RPi with 'pkg update', which only included ~2 commits neither of
 > which seemed like they had anything to do with booting, but after the
 > update, the system no longer boots.
 >
 > the problem seems to be a hang during kernel initialisation:
 >
 > https://www.le-fay.org/tmp/30d/9fE0NG.jpeg
 >
 > i am not really an expert on either ARM64 in general or on the RPi
 > hardware in particular.  could anyone suggest how i could debug this
 > problem, e.g. to get more information about why the system won't finish
 > booting?
 >
 >     thanks, lexi.
 >
It does not look like the boot code can find the loader file 
/EFI/BOOT/bootaa64.efi   Is your u-boot.bin set to boot into Aarch32 
bit?  But the file is /EFI/BOOT/bootaa64.efi , when you should be using 
a Aarch32 bit /EFI/BOOT/bootarm.efi  ??
https://download.freebsd.org/releases/arm/armv7/ISO-IMAGES/14.0/   These 
are the 32 bit ARMv7  images.  Is that what you are using?

So check your files in the ESP EFI FAT32 MSDOSFS partition /dev/da1p1
su -
mkdir -p /mnt/esp  /mnt/rootfs
mount -t msdosfs /dev/da1p1 /mnt/esp
cd /mnt/esp
ls -lh
cat config.txt
ls -lh  EFI/BOOT
ls -lh  EFI/freebsd


mount  /dev/da1p3  /mnt/rootfs
cd /mnt/rootfs
ls


I assume you are booting FreeBSD 15.0-CURRENT in aarch64 on a GPT scheme 
formatted USB Flash Drive Stick or a USB to SATA  ugen0.2  <vendor 
0x2109 USB2.0 Hub>

Check the ESP EFI MSDOSFS FAT16 or FAT32 for file /EFI/BOOT/bootaa64.efi 
or file
/EFI/freebsd/bootaa64.efi

https://download.freebsd.org/releases/arm64/aarch64/ISO-IMAGES/14.0/FreeBSD-14.0-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz


That looks for the kernel file /boot/kernel/kernel


Here is my shell script that will download the  FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE 
image from this link:

https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com/2024/01/january-19-2024-howto-download.html

http://ghostbsdarm64.hopto.org/packages/write_freebsd_img_dd_to_da1.sh




Is your ufs:/dev/ufs/rootfs [rw]....  able to be read?


put these lines in
/boot/loader.conf

Code:

boot_verbose="1"
verbose_loading="YES"

In file, add a couple lines
/etc/rc.conf

Code:

rc_debug="YES"
rc_info="YES"


Start with a bootable USB Flash drive with FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE write it 
into a USB Flash drive stick of 4GB or larger.  Boot that to examine 
your present disk setup and files on that present disk.
https://freebsd.org/where
https://download.freebsd.org/releases/arm64/aarch64/ISO-IMAGES/14.0/FreeBSD-14.0-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz

Look at the files in the FreeBSD-14.0-RELEASE snapshot compared to the 
files on your boot device.

Best of luck, looks like an easy file fix, Lexi.  You are welcome to 
email me directly or continue through the freebsd-arm mailing lists
https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-arm/2024-March/subject.html
https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-arm/2024-March/003797.html 
Lexi's email forum list post


Lexi and others,   Here is my Kernel Build setup to use 
KERNCONF=GENERIC-VCHIQ   to add HDMI Audio for the Raspberry Pi 4B hardware.
https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com/2024/01/hdmi-audio-sound-patches-into-ghostbsd.html#more

https://ghostbsd-arm64.blogspot.com/2023/12/zfs-boot-on-root-setup-for-usb-ssd.html 
  ZFS Boot on ROOT setup

-- 
Fred Finster
GhostBSD-Arm64.blogspot.com
t.me/ghostbsd  Telegram Channel
GhostBSD.org  website
ghostbsdarm64.hopto.org/packages