Stuck in bootstrapping hell - how do I troubleshoot?

[Alex Zbyslaw]

Chris Zumbrunn wrote:

>
> On Apr 22, 2005, at 2:01 PM, Alex Zbyslaw wrote:
>
>> I.e. you can boot some OS which is not the one of the local disk?  If 
>> so, then boot the network FreeBSD, mount your local disks and look at 
>> /var/log/messages.  If the machine was at least booting FreeBSD when 
>> it died then you should see something.
>
>
> I did check that. Nothing is written to /var/log/messages during a 
> local boot attempt. So, the boot fails before that.

Could it be that the boot manager is fine but that the partition it tries to boot from by default does not exist, or has windows or something?  E.g. you have three partitions, FreeBSD is on the second but it is trying to boot from the first?  So if you were sat in front of it you could press e.g. F2, but since you're not, you can't!  (I.e. partitions in the "windows" sense).

If that's plausible then I believe there is a way to change the boot manager's idea of which partition to boot from, but I don't know it offhand -- check the handbook.

Clutching at straws for you here.  Just how hard is it to get someone to sit in front of the console?  (I mean that as a genuine question; not being sarcastic).  It seems like you could have your answer in five minutes if only someone was watching...

--Alex