Running FreeBSD-ppc/ppc64 on emulators? [.iso based CD boot problems exist for PowerMac G5's too]

[Mark Millard]

You are welcome.

You may run into another G5 (PowerPC64) problem that I've not reported because I've so little evidence and it has been very intermittent. Also it is a normal boot issue, not an installation-media specific issue.

Normally one goes through open firmware and either types boot or one lets it autoboot (explicit return or timed out) and the screen changes to black and the white text starts to show up, starting with the copyright notice.

But some of the time on the G5's it instead hangs after going black but before any part of the copyright text shows up. This has happened on all 3 G5's, two being 7,11's (NVIDIA video) and one being a 7,2 (Radeon video). The fans gradually wind up when this happens. (Unlikely if only the video display was messed but it actually went through the normal steps otherwise.)

I've had a wild mix: At times I've gone bunches of boots without the problem. On rare occasion I've had to reboot up to a dozen times to finally not have it hang. Normally once the problem happens I have to retry at most a few times.

[I do not have access to a single-processor PowerMac G5 system. So I can not compare/contrast behavior with those. All my PowerMac G5 notes are multi-processor G5 notes.]




===
Mark Millard
markmi at dsl-only.net

On Jul 26, 2014, at 11:40 PM, Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn at freebsd.org> wrote:

Interesting. It seems loader is broken. I just tried with a 10.0-STABLE image and can reproduce the problem -- 11 oddly is OK. What really perplexes me is that the powerpc and powerpc64 loaders are identical, since loader is built 32-bit in either case. Super weird. I'll try to get it fixed. Thanks for the problem report and reminder!
-Nathan

On 07/26/14 23:33, Mark Millard wrote:
> 
> To make clear about the "/" in the line:
> 
> and stops while displaying "/" from its progress indicator. The fans then gradually spin up.
> 
> This "progress indicator" is the repeating sequence -, \, |, /. It always stopped with / as I remember. But I've no clue for if that is from the repeating sequence or is the leading / from /boot/kernel/kernel. At this point I'm limited to reporting just the visual result, not the internal stage it is tied to.
> 
> ===
> Mark Millard
> markmi at dsl-only.net
> 
> On Jul 26, 2014, at 7:53 PM, Mark Millard <markmi at dsl-only.net> wrote:
> 
> First I quote what I wrote about when the hangups occur on the G5's (combining quotes from the two messages so the overall notes are easier to understand):
> 
>> For a C-key style boot it hangs shortly after displaying
>> 
>> loading /boot/defaults/loader.conf
>> 
>> and stops while displaying "/" from its progress indicator. The fans then gradually spin up.
>> 
>> In other words: It hangs just before it would normally display the line that includes the text: /boot/kernel/kernel
> 
> The original messages were:
> 
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ppc/2014-June/007029.html
> and
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ppc/2014-June/007056.html
> 
> Even the /b prefix from /boot/kernel/kernel did not show up even though /boot/defaults/loader.conf did show up just fine.
> 
> 
> 
> As for trying 11-CURRENT: I've not tried 11-CURRENT for anything yet. And, unfortunately, I'm now away from the PowerMacs for weeks so I will not be doing new experiments for several weeks. I can try once I get back.
> 
> All the 9.2/9.3-STABLE's that I tried worked. And 10.0-RELELASE worked. Any 10.0-STABLE from before about Apr-27 I've never tried: Late April is about when I started the experiments with PowerMacs.
> 
> Also: I had no troubles with 10.0-STABLE for powerpc on PowerMacs. PowerPC64 on PowerMac G5's is where I had problems. (I do not have other kinds of PowerPC equipment available.)
> 
> 
> 
> ===
> Mark Millard
> markmi at dsl-only.net
> 
> On Jul 26, 2014, at 2:23 PM, Mark Millard <markmi at dsl-only.net> wrote:
> 
> This boot issue from .iso's (burned to CDs) is not specific to emulation (assuming it is the same problem in both places).
> 
> I'm afraid that it sounds like PowerMac G5's hang the same way/place whenever I've tried a fairly modern PowerPC64 10.0-STABLE .iso burned to a CD. I was able to boot 10.0-RELEASE's .iso burned to a CD. I've not tried emulation.
> 
> Having an initial FreeBSD running I tend to use the MANIFEST and .txz files with "bsdinstall auto" to make new from-scratch (not buildworld/buildkernel) installations when I want such.
> 
> My notes on the G5 boot issue for the .iso's burned to CD's were reported in: (I'm not near the PowerMacs, unfortunately)
> 
> FreeBSD 10-STABLE powerpc64 r266807 CD PowerMac7, 2 (and 7, 11) boot hangs very early in the process
> 
> Has anyone booted a G5 PowerMac from a recent 10.0-STABLE .iso burned to CD? A multi-processor one?
> 
> ===
> Mark Millard
> markmi at dsl-only.net
> 
> 
>