Re: misc/106091: Keyboard disabled at mountroot> prompt

[Jed Donnelley <jed_(_at_)_nersc_(_dot_)_gov>]

At 09:28 AM 12/4/2006, Kris Kennaway <kris_(_at_)_obsecurity_(_dot_)_org> wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 01, 2006 at 02:30:17AM +0000, Kris Kennaway 
> <kris_(_at_)_obsecurity_(_dot_)_org> wrote:
> > The following reply was made to PR misc/106091; it has been noted by GNATS.
> >
> > From: Jed Donnelley <jed_(_at_)_nersc_(_dot_)_gov>
> > To: Ruslan Ermilov <ru_(_at_)_FreeBSD_(_dot_)_org>
> > Cc: bug-followup_(_at_)_FreeBSD_(_dot_)_org
> > Subject: Re: misc/106091: Keyboard disabled at mountroot> prompt
> > Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 18:23:39 -0800
> >
> >  At 06:17 PM 11/30/2006, Ruslan Ermilov <ru_(_at_)_FreeBSD_(_dot_)_org>  wrote:
> >  >On Thu, Nov 30, 2006 at 08:42:48PM +0000, Jed Donnelley wrote:
> >  > > In the process of setting up a gmirror I messed up my fstab.
> >  > > When the boot process couldn't find a / to mount it dropped to the:
> >  > >
> >  > > mountroot>
> >  > >
> >  > > prompt.  However, I found at that point that keyboard input was not
> >  > > accepted.  I ended up having to start a system from a CD in "rescue"
> >  > > mode, mount the / file system from the hard drive and edit /etc/fstab
> >  > > that way.
> >  >
> >  >Was it observed over a serial console?
> >
> >  No, KVM.  Is there some reason that facility is only available over
> >  a serial console?  The output displayed properly on the monitor
> >  and of course with a proper boot off a CD or HD the keyboard input
> >  worked properly.
> >
> >  Thanks for considering this problem.
>
> No, but it's known that on a serial console input at the mountroot
> prompt is mostly ignored (i.e. if you press the key enough times it
> eventually does get accepted).  This wouldn't apply to a KVM though.
>
> Does the keyboard work in the boot loader?  i.e. if you tell the boot
> menu to escape to the loader.  If not, it's something about your KVM
> that is the problem.

The keyboard and display work fine in the boot loader - from the boot
prompt (before the mountroot> prompt), from the CD (whether in rescue
mode or when I was initially building the system) and of course from the
running system both before and after I corrected the fstab problem.

I believe testing this problem is as simple as building a system (or even
using an existing system) and commenting out the / entry in the fstab.
Then reboot.  After the system fails to come back up and presumably
waits in the mountroot> prompt, can you interact with it using the keyboard?

I just did another test of such a change on another system with a distinct
KVM configuration and different hardware.  The behavior was the same.  I
did notice that if I booted in SafeMode then I was able to use the keyboard
to mount the root file system (e.g. mountroot> ufs:/dev/mirror/gm0s1a ).
That's a helpful work around.

--Jed http://www.nersc.gov/~jed/ 


_______________________________________________
freebsd-bugs_(_at_)_freebsd_(_dot_)_org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-bugs
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-bugs-unsubscribe_(_at_)_freebsd_(_dot_)_org"