From nobody Tue Sep 10 09:46:20 2024 X-Original-To: stable@mlmmj.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mlmmj.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4X2zP23fNGz5VFVv for ; Tue, 10 Sep 2024 09:46:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pete@twisted.org.uk) Received: from toybox.twisted.org.uk (toybox.twisted.org.uk [178.250.76.50]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) server-digest SHA256) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4X2zP11Vdgz4Zjd for ; Tue, 10 Sep 2024 09:46:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pete@twisted.org.uk) Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; dkim=pass header.d=twisted.org.uk header.s=tbx-short header.b=IpOfA75p; dmarc=pass (policy=none) header.from=twisted.org.uk; spf=pass (mx1.freebsd.org: domain of pete@twisted.org.uk designates 178.250.76.50 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=pete@twisted.org.uk DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=twisted.org.uk; s=tbx-short; h=Content-Transfer-Encoding:Content-Type: In-Reply-To:From:References:To:Subject:MIME-Version:Date:Message-ID:Sender: Reply-To:Cc:Content-ID:Content-Description:Resent-Date:Resent-From: Resent-Sender:Resent-To:Resent-Cc:Resent-Message-ID:List-Id:List-Help: List-Unsubscribe:List-Subscribe:List-Post:List-Owner:List-Archive; bh=LBIO9C0rvWBH7tH81PDzi/2KyJkao0gms5+BYu34mYM=; t=1725961588; x=1726825588; b=IpOfA75p4/RfgsdDd3KjlP497mh+uCuFSUFtwzGrJB1cK78XXmjFQ9uFFux6HLiUqEzHfJzuW+o raRn1NxCQZlcF9VWaULZrMbJd9FE90YLoEgCxOmRKPSutfhXCBnoOLyqTGEi4LzInTf6mBS3bYUhN Fpz5fqXrinjglyiQyU4=; Received: from mailnull by toybox.twisted.org.uk with spamc-scanned (Exim 4.96.2 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1snxS0-000F2C-25 for stable@freebsd.org; Tue, 10 Sep 2024 09:46:21 +0000 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.0 (2022-12-14) on toybox.twisted.org.uk X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.7 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,TW_GP,TW_PM,TW_PT, TW_ZF,T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=4.0.0 X-Spam-Score: -0.7 () Received: from balta.twisted.org.uk ([2001:470:6cc4:1::57]) by toybox.twisted.org.uk with esmtpsa (TLS1.3) tls TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (Exim 4.96.2 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1snxS0-000F29-1i for stable@freebsd.org; Tue, 10 Sep 2024 09:46:20 +0000 Message-ID: Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2024 10:46:20 +0100 List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Archive: https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-stable List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.org MIME-Version: 1.0 User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Beta Subject: Re: 13.3R's installworld killed system--please help! To: stable@freebsd.org References: <6C9B265B-E315-4E88-B090-3B89C91C08A4.ref@yahoo.com> <6C9B265B-E315-4E88-B090-3B89C91C08A4@yahoo.com> <202409090714.4897EDwZ001861@sdf.org> <202409092119.489LJ7Op009237@sdf.org> Content-Language: en-GB From: Pete French In-Reply-To: <202409092119.489LJ7Op009237@sdf.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-spamc-toybox: true X-transport-toybox: lookuphost X-Spamd-Bar: --- X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-3.51 / 15.00]; NEURAL_HAM_MEDIUM(-1.00)[-1.000]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-1.00)[-1.000]; NEURAL_HAM_SHORT(-0.52)[-0.521]; DMARC_POLICY_ALLOW(-0.50)[twisted.org.uk,none]; R_SPF_ALLOW(-0.20)[+ip4:178.250.76.50/32]; R_DKIM_ALLOW(-0.20)[twisted.org.uk:s=tbx-short]; MIME_GOOD(-0.10)[text/plain]; XM_UA_NO_VERSION(0.01)[]; SUBJECT_ENDS_EXCLAIM(0.00)[]; MIME_TRACE(0.00)[0:+]; ASN(0.00)[asn:12290, ipnet:178.250.72.0/21, country:GB]; RCVD_VIA_SMTP_AUTH(0.00)[]; RCPT_COUNT_ONE(0.00)[1]; MLMMJ_DEST(0.00)[stable@freebsd.org]; ARC_NA(0.00)[]; FROM_EQ_ENVFROM(0.00)[]; FROM_HAS_DN(0.00)[]; MID_RHS_MATCH_FROM(0.00)[]; RCVD_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2]; TO_MATCH_ENVRCPT_ALL(0.00)[]; TO_DN_NONE(0.00)[]; RCVD_TLS_LAST(0.00)[]; DKIM_TRACE(0.00)[twisted.org.uk:+] X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 4X2zP11Vdgz4Zjd > And so I still have no clue what destroyed my system's ability to boot > except that it appears to have happened as part of "make installworld". I > also still have no idea how to fix it. :-( ...and fixing it is the important bit. This is old enough that its using BIOS and MBR boot, yes ? What do you have that you can actually boot into on the machine which would let you access the discs ? I understand that a USB stick doesn't work, but do you have a CD drive maybe you could use to boot it ? What I would try, assuming you can get access to the discs, it to rewrite both the boot sector and the boot partition. I got bitten by this once, and since then I have a little script which I run after every update which does this: $ cat /root/update_boot_blocks #!/bin/sh for DRIVE in ada0 ada1 do     /sbin/gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ${DRIVE} done That's specific to my disc layout of course. But the point is I make sure I always update both the MBR and the boot partition which goes away to find the zpool I boot from. So, obviously you cant do directly that if you cant boot the machine - but if you can boot some kind of FreeBSD from a CD you have (I think you said you couldnt burn a new one, but do you have an older version lying around?) then you could boot that, download the latest pmbr and gptzfsboot files from the internet, and write them to the discs. This is what I ended up having to do when I got into a similarly unbootable state a few years ago. Mine was slightly easier than yours though, as I could boot form a USB stick. -pete.