From jdc@parodius.com Tue Jan 29 20:25:03 2008 Return-Path: Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 254C416A4CB for ; Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:25:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jdc@parodius.com) Received: from mx01.sc1.parodius.com (mx01.sc1.parodius.com [72.20.106.3]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17D2213C465 for ; Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:25:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jdc@parodius.com) Received: by mx01.sc1.parodius.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 06BEC1CC07B; Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:25:03 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: <20080129202503.06BEC1CC07B@mx01.sc1.parodius.com> Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:25:03 -0800 (PST) From: Jeremy Chadwick Reply-To: Jeremy Chadwick To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org Cc: Subject: Loading of gzip'd mfsroot from pxeboot(8) causes loader reload/reset X-Send-Pr-Version: 3.113 X-GNATS-Notify: >Number: 120127 >Category: kern >Synopsis: [loader] Loading of gzip'd mfsroot from pxeboot(8) causes loader reload/reset >Confidential: no >Severity: non-critical >Priority: low >Responsible: freebsd-bugs >State: closed >Quarter: >Keywords: >Date-Required: >Class: sw-bug >Submitter-Id: current-users >Arrival-Date: Tue Jan 29 20:30:01 UTC 2008 >Closed-Date: Sat Aug 28 10:18:39 UTC 2010 >Last-Modified: Sat Aug 28 10:18:39 UTC 2010 >Originator: Jeremy Chadwick >Release: FreeBSD 7.0-PRERELEASE i386 >Organization: >Environment: FreeBSD icarus.home.lan 7.0-PRERELEASE FreeBSD 7.0-PRERELEASE #0: Sat Jan 26 08:08:30 PST 2008 root@icarus.home.lan:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/ICARUS i386 >Description: During my recent adventure to get FreeBSD 7.0 to install by PXE booting and using serial console, I came across a bug where loading a compressed mfsroot.gz results in the machine "reloading" the loader and bombing out to an OK prompt. It also loses all loader environment variables at that point, and has some strange device ID-related messages on the screen. For others, it apparently reboots their box. The problem happens even when manually doing "load -t mfs_root /boot/mfsroot" from the VGA console via pxeboot(8) and TFTP. A few others have also touched on this subject in the past, which implies the problem exists in older versions of FreeBSD as well: http://typo.submonkey.net/articles/2006/2/12/having-a-bad-day http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/FreeBSD/questions/2004-02/2170.html http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/FreeBSD/questions/2004-01/2115.html http://lists.soekris.com/pipermail/soekris-tech/2007-July/012530.html http://lists.soekris.com/pipermail/soekris-tech/2004-January/004858.html https://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=409972 And so on... I describe the problem in Step 7 of my document: http://jdc.parodius.com/freebsd/pxeboot_serial_install.html#step7 I can easily reproduce this problem, and can provide a remote serial console for anyone willing to take it on. But keep in mind that once the problem happens, all serial console access is lost, which will require me to have to physically take a picture of the VGA screen and reboot the box. I'll work on getting a video as well as a screenshot of the problem, so people can see what's going on. I've only confirmed this happens on i386; no idea about amd64. >How-To-Repeat: Boot a machine via Intel's PXE protocol, using pxeboot(8) as the downloaded loader and TFTP + DHCP from another machine. When given the choice to drop to boot2/loader, do so. Type 'load -t mfs_root /boot/mfsroot' which should load /boot/mfsroot.gz via TFTP from the TFTP server. Machine will reload the loader, or possibly reboot. >Fix: None known. >Release-Note: >Audit-Trail: State-Changed-From-To: open->feedback State-Changed-By: linimon State-Changed-When: Sun Mar 2 23:21:08 UTC 2008 State-Changed-Why: Note that submitter has been asked for feedback. http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=120127 From: "Dylan Cochran" To: bug-followup@freebsd.org, "Jeremy Chadwick" Cc: Subject: Re: kern/120127: [pxe] Loading of gzip'd mfsroot from pxeboot(8) causes loader reload/reset Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2008 18:20:10 -0500 Is this the error you are referring to? http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/865/blajsa7.png I am able to reproduce it deterministically, it seems to be a loader memory management issue; too many objects, compressed or uncompressed, and the bug is triggered, kept below a roughly 32MB compressed data and uncompressed data threshold, it does not trigger. Reproduced with both gzip and bzip2 (bzip2 makes it quicker to trigger due to the algorithms memory requirements). From: Jeremy Chadwick To: Dylan Cochran Cc: bug-followup@freebsd.org Subject: Re: kern/120127: [pxe] Loading of gzip'd mfsroot from pxeboot(8) causes loader reload/reset Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2008 16:00:32 -0800 On Sun, Mar 02, 2008 at 06:20:10PM -0500, Dylan Cochran wrote: > Is this the error you are referring to? > http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/865/blajsa7.png Yup, that's it -- the "Guessed BIOS device 0xffffffff not found" message! :-) -- | Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com | | Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ | | UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA | | Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB | State-Changed-From-To: feedback->open State-Changed-By: vwe State-Changed-When: Sat May 10 18:12:01 UTC 2008 State-Changed-Why: Feedback has been provided. http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=120127 From: "Mars G Miro" To: bug-followup@FreeBSD.org, koitsu@FreeBSD.org Cc: Subject: Re: kern/120127: [loader] Loading of gzip'd mfsroot from pxeboot(8) causes loader reload/reset Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 14:54:46 +0800 Heya, I have a working PXE environment, w/c I use from time to time. Today was the first time I tried installing FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE/amd64 (on a sun x4100 w/ 8G of RAM) over PXE and I can say that I never had to gunzip mfsroot.gz nor experience this problem at all. FYI. cheers mars From: Jeremy Chadwick To: Mars G Miro Cc: bug-followup@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: kern/120127: [loader] Loading of gzip'd mfsroot from pxeboot(8) causes loader reload/reset Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 00:50:55 -0700 I haven't tried using amd64, only i386. I'm willing to bet the bug only happens to some people based on memory configurations or some hardware differences. -- | Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com | | Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ | | UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA | | Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB | From: "Mars G Miro" To: "Jeremy Chadwick" Cc: bug-followup@freebsd.org Subject: Re: kern/120127: [loader] Loading of gzip'd mfsroot from pxeboot(8) causes loader reload/reset Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 18:19:35 +0800 On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 3:50 PM, Jeremy Chadwick wrote: > I haven't tried using amd64, only i386. I'm willing to bet the bug only > happens to some people based on memory configurations or some hardware > differences. > If and when I'll be bootstrapping to other lower-end hardware in my PXE environment, I'll surely report back from time to time if this bug occurs or not. Thanks. > -- > | Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com | > | Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ | > | UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA | > | Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB | > > cheers mars From: John Baldwin To: bug-followup@freebsd.org, koitsu@freebsd.org Cc: Subject: Re: kern/120127: [loader] Loading of gzip'd mfsroot from pxeboot(8) causes loader reload/reset Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 12:11:37 -0500 Is this still a problem on recent versions of FreeBSD 7 or 8? -- John Baldwin State-Changed-From-To: open->feedback State-Changed-By: linimon State-Changed-When: Mon Dec 7 17:54:19 UTC 2009 State-Changed-Why: note that feedback was requested. http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=120127 State-Changed-From-To: feedback->closed State-Changed-By: vwe State-Changed-When: Sat Aug 28 10:18:23 UTC 2010 State-Changed-Why: feedback timeout http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=120127 >Unformatted: