zfs discuss - Nov 2010 - Booting fails with `Can not read the pool label'' error

I''m still trying to find a fix/workaround for the problem described in

	Unable to mount root pool dataset 
        http://opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=492460

Since the Blade 1500''s rpool is mirrored, I''ve decided to
detach the
second half of the mirror, relabel the disk, create an alternative rpool
(rpool2) there, copy the current BE (snv_134) using beadm create -p
rpool2 snv_be-pkg143, activate the new BE and boot from the second disk.

Unfortunately, this doesn''t work: the kernel panics with

	Can not read the pool label from <device>
        spa_import_rootpool: Error 5

I''ve booted under kmdb, set a breakpoint in zfs`zfs_mountroot, and
found
that this happens because

		zfs_devid = spa_get_bootprop("diskdevid");

returns NULL.  I''ve no idea how/why this can happen, and found no code
in the OpenSolaris sources that sets diskdevid for SPARC, so I must
assume that this is directly from OBP (there''s only some code in Grub,
which of course is irrelevant here).

Any suggestions what can cause this or what I''m doing wrong?

There''s a second machine suffering from the same problem (a Sun Fire
V880 serving as fileserver for the GCC-on-Solaris project), so it would
be extremely valuable to get this fixed/worked around.

Thanks.
	Rainer

-- 
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Rainer Orth, Center for Biotechnology, Bielefeld University

Hi Rainer,

I haven''t seen this in a while but I wonder if you just need to set the
bootfs property on your new root pool and/or reapplying the bootblocks.

Can you import this pool booting from a LiveCD and to review the
bootfs property value? I would also install the boot blocks on the
rpool2 disk.

I would also check the grub entries in /rpool2/boot/grub/menu.lst.

Thanks,

Cidny


On 11/11/10 14:15, Rainer Orth wrote:
> I''m still trying to find a fix/workaround for the problem
described in
> 
> 	Unable to mount root pool dataset 
>         http://opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=492460
> 
> Since the Blade 1500''s rpool is mirrored, I''ve decided to
detach the
> second half of the mirror, relabel the disk, create an alternative rpool
> (rpool2) there, copy the current BE (snv_134) using beadm create -p
> rpool2 snv_be-pkg143, activate the new BE and boot from the second disk.
> 
> Unfortunately, this doesn''t work: the kernel panics with
> 
> 	Can not read the pool label from <device>
>         spa_import_rootpool: Error 5
> 
> I''ve booted under kmdb, set a breakpoint in zfs`zfs_mountroot, and
found
> that this happens because
> 
> 		zfs_devid = spa_get_bootprop("diskdevid");
> 
> returns NULL.  I''ve no idea how/why this can happen, and found no
code
> in the OpenSolaris sources that sets diskdevid for SPARC, so I must
> assume that this is directly from OBP (there''s only some code in
Grub,
> which of course is irrelevant here).
> 
> Any suggestions what can cause this or what I''m doing wrong?
> 
> There''s a second machine suffering from the same problem (a Sun
Fire
> V880 serving as fileserver for the GCC-on-Solaris project), so it would
> be extremely valuable to get this fixed/worked around.
> 
> Thanks.
> 	Rainer
>

Hi Cindy,
> I haven''t seen this in a while but I wonder if you just need to
set the
> bootfs property on your new root pool and/or reapplying the bootblocks.
I''ve created the new BE using beadm create, which did this for me:

$ zpool get bootfs rpool2
NAME    PROPERTY  VALUE                       SOURCE
rpool2  bootfs    rpool2/ROOT/snv_134-pkg143  local

I''m pretty sure I''ve applied the bootblock since I''ve
booted off the
second disk.
> Can you import this pool booting from a LiveCD and to review the
> bootfs property value? I would also install the boot blocks on the
> rpool2 disk.
I''ll try that.  Will have to burn a LiveCD (probably snv_151a) first.
> I would also check the grub entries in /rpool2/boot/grub/menu.lst.
Looks good to me:

title snv_134-pkg143
bootfs rpool2/ROOT/snv_134-pkg143

Thanks.
	Rainer

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rainer Orth, Center for Biotechnology, Bielefeld University

Hi Cindy,
> I haven''t seen this in a while but I wonder if you just need to
set the
> bootfs property on your new root pool and/or reapplying the bootblocks.
>
> Can you import this pool booting from a LiveCD and to review the
> bootfs property value? I would also install the boot blocks on the
> rpool2 disk.
>
> I would also check the grub entries in /rpool2/boot/grub/menu.lst.
I''ve now repeated everything with snv_151a and it worked out of the box
on the Sun Fire V880, and (on second try) also on my Blade 1500: it
seems the first time round I had the devalias for the second IDE disk
wrong:

/pci at 1e,600000/ide at d/disk at 0,1 instead of /pci at 1e,600000/ide at
d/disk at 1,0

I''m now happyling running snv_151a on both machines (and still using
Xsun on the Blade 1500, so still usable as a desktop :-)

	Rainer

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rainer Orth, Center for Biotechnology, Bielefeld University