Re: 13.3R's installworld killed system--please help!

How big is your pool? Could it be that installworld installed files above > 2TB or some other old BIOS limit so it is unable to read it. 

Sorry if I talk about something that was already discussed. I don’t have the full thread anymore. 

Regards,
Ronald. 

Van: Scott Bennett <bennett@sdf.org>
Datum: 9 september 2024 23:19
Aan: marklmi@yahoo.com
CC: ax61@disroot.org, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Onderwerp: Re: 13.3R's installworld killed system--please help!

> 
> 
> Mark Millard  wrote:
> 
> > On Sep 9, 2024, at 00:14, Scott Bennett  wrote:
> >
> > > Mark Millard  wrote:
> > > 
> > >     Thanks much for this reply.  It looks quite interesting.
> > > 
> > >> Scott Bennett  wrote on
> > >> Date: Mon, 09 Sep 2024 02:13:19 UTC :
> > >> 
> > >>> ax61@disroot.org wrote:
> > >>> 
> > >>> Thank you for replying!
> > >>> . . .
> > >>>> 
> > >>>> Looks like did not update the boot loader.
> > >>> 
> > >>> Looks like what did not update it?
> > >>> My understanding was that rewriting the boot code was a step incorporated
> > >>> into installworld at least a couple of major releases ago.
> > >> 
> > >> Nope.
> > >> 
> > >> It looks like the 13.* UDPATING text never got the additional
> > >> wording that was added to help avoid confusions, including
> > >> 13.4-RC3 not having it.
> > >> 
> > >> So, quoting from 14.1's UPDATING . . .
> > >> [See the "2)" and "3) . . . New bootblocks . . ." wording and
> > >> the later "The EFI boot loader . . . For ZFS booting  . . ."
> > >> wording. They indicate, for a ZFS boot "drive"/partition/. . .,
> > >> explicitly upgrading bootblocks (if any) and/or boot loaders
> > >> before doing a zpool upgrade.]
> > >> 
> > >> QUOTE
> > >> ZFS notes
> > >> ---------
> > >> When upgrading the boot ZFS pool to a new version (via zpool upgrade),
> > >> always follow these three steps:
> > >> 
> > >> 1) recompile and reinstall the ZFS boot loader and boot block
> > >> (this is part of "make buildworld" and "make installworld")
> > > 
> > >     So does 13.3-RELEASE include the above in its buildworld and
> > > installworld make(1) targets?  In my tower's case, no pools have been
> > > "zpool upgrade"d past 12.4-RELEASE-p2.
> >
> > So no updating would be required until you are preparing for later
> > doing a "zpool upgrade" of some sort.
> >
>      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. :-(
> 
> > > Also, as noted in my previous
> > > posting, I've run "gpart bootcode" to install the 13.3-RELEASE version
> > > of the boot loader and boot block onto both of the boot drives, but
> > > nothing changed in what happens when (trying to) boot the system.
> >
> > "gpart bootcode" only copies over the boot block as I understand. For
> > this old-sty;e BIOS context, as I understand, that boot block finds
> > and uses the boot loader that is in the ZFS based /boot/ . (But I do
> > not deal with old style BIOS contexts, as it happens.)
> >
>      Almost.  It copies the boot block from /boot/pmbr, and it copies the next
> stage of the loader from /boot/gptzfsboot in my case into the tiny partition
> of type freebsd-boot.  The initial boot block is too small to understand ZFS,
> but can load the next stage from that boot partition, and that stage can
> understand enough of ZFS to load files from /boot.
> 
> > >> 
> > >> 2) update the ZFS boot block on your boot drive (only required when
> > >> doing a zpool upgrade):
> > >> 
> > >> When booting on x86 via BIOS, use the following to update the ZFS boot
> > >> block on the freebsd-boot partition of a GPT partitioned drive ada0:
> > >> gpart bootcode -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i $N ada0
> > >> The value $N will typically be 1. For EFI booting, see EFI notes.
> > > 
> > >     So done.
> > >> 
> > >> 3) zpool upgrade the root pool. New bootblocks will work with old
> > >> pools, but not vice versa, so they need to be updated before any
> > >> zpool upgrade.
> > > 
> > >     As pointed out above, no pools on the tower have been upgraded since
> > > the installworld that killed the system.
> > >> 
> > >> Non-boot pools do not need these updates.
> > > 
> > >     Okay and good to know.
> > >> 
> > >> [remainder deleted --SB]
> 
>      All this is fair warning for the future, but still leaves me at square 1
> with no solution in sight.  If anybody has any other ideas that might help
> resurrect the system on my tower, please offer them.
> 
>                     Scott
> 
> 
> 
> 
>