I'm trying to set up a PXE booted FreeBSD 5.3 for the purposes of
disaster recovery.

I've set up a tftp and nfs environment, and the kernel/mfsroot are
both transferred. In fact, if I use a FreeBSD supplied mfsroot, I can
actually boot it right up into sysinstall.

The only problem is, nothing is displayed from the second the FreeBSD
kernel takes over until sysinstall appears. This is pretty much
useless to me, since I don't really want sysinstall; I want to roll my
own mfsroot that gives me a prompt so I can work on fixing the machine
in the event that it dies.

I'm not going to be able to do an awful lot until I can see something
going on without having to use sysinstall. So my question is this:
where are the kernel/init messages going?

---

Clarification of Question by caesium-ga on 04 Oct 2004 13:35 PDT

In case it helps you, I'm having the exact same problem as the guy in this post:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/2004-January/032742.html

Helpfully, there's no follow-ups to his question either. I mailed him
asking if he ever got it working, but no response yet :(

Hi caesium,

"... there is no kernel configuration menu in the installation of 5.0."
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/2003-May/007097.html

hummer

Hi Hummer,

Even if there's no configuration menu, I should still be able to see
the kernel boot messages as the system is coming up. And that's what
I'm missing - along with any text at all on the console after the
system is booted.

Hi caesium,

Can you see the sysintall Main Menu? 

Blank screen:
Could be a video IRQ assignment problem.
Do you have two cd-rom drives? If so, try unplugging one (for example,
the cd-writer).

hummer

Hi again,

Yes, I can see the sysinstall screen - while the kernel is booting, I
can still see the previous PXE and DHCP messages, but then nothing
further appears until sysinstall pops up. The bit in the middle is
what I'm missing (and need - if I only wanted to install FreeBSD then
I'd be all set, as I have sysinstall up, but I don't - I actually want
a disaster recovery setup for which I just need a simple prompt).

To be honest if someone can answer this I'll be very pleasantly
surprised - I couldn't find any answers after days of searching
mailing list archives etc :/

"To be honest if someone can answer this I'll be very pleasantly
surprised - I couldn't find any answers after days of searching
mailing list archives etc :/"

Ah, now that sounds like a real challenge that GA researchers just love! 8-)

Will keep trying...
hummer

Hi 

4.1 Repairing an Existing FreeBSD Installation
"FreeBSD features a ``Fixit'' option in the top menu of the boot
floppy. To use it, you will also need either a fixit.flp image floppy,
generated in the same fashion as the boot floppy, or the ``live
filesystem'' CDROM; typically the second CDROM in a multi-disc FreeBSD
distribution.
To invoke fixit, simply boot the kern.flp floppy, choose the ``Fixit''
item and insert the fixit floppy or CDROM when asked. You will then be
placed into a shell with a wide variety of commands available (in the
/stand and /mnt2/stand directories) for checking, repairing and
examining filesystems and their contents. Some UNIX administration
experience is required to use the fixit option.

4.2 Common Installation Problems for IA-64 Architecture Users:
This file, and other release-related documents, can be downloaded from:
http://snapshots.jp.FreeBSD.org/
For questions about FreeBSD, read the documentation before contacting:
<questions@FreeBSD.org>.
All users of FreeBSD 5-CURRENT should subscribe to the:
<current@FreeBSD.org> mailing list.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail:
<doc@FreeBSD.org>.

Good luck - I hope something there helps.
hummer