Paul Mather
2013-Jan-02 17:49 UTC
Upgrade of RELENG_8 ZFS boot pool leads to unbootable system
Yesterday, I updated my RELENG_8 ZFS-only system that has worked like a champ
for ages. After a successful install{kernel,world} and reboot, I noticed the
20121130 entry in /usr/src/UPDATING and upgraded my ZFS pool via "zfs
upgrade -a". I also upgraded my boot blocks as requested, and as per the
"ZFS notes" section of /usr/src/UPDATING.
Unfortunately rebooting with the upgraded pool failed. The "windmill"
boot spinner spins for a tiny amount of time and then stops dead. :-( I
don't get to the boot loader menu at all.
I downloaded a very recent RELENG_8 snapshot
(FreeBSD-8.3-RELENG_8-r244923-JPSNAP-amd64-amd64-memstick.img) from
pub.allbsd.org and was able to boot successfully from USB using that. I entered
Fixit Mode and tried to write the boot blocks on the memstick image onto my hard
drives but the resultant system still wouldn't boot. The commands I used
(from Fixit Mode) are these:
gpart bootcode -b /dist/boot/pmbr -p /dist/boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ad4
gpart bootcode -b /dist/boot/pmbr -p /dist/boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ad6
(ad4 and ad6 are my two hard drives.)
If I "load zfs" before booting the USB memstick then I can see my old
pool listed when I do "zfs import". I haven't tried importing the
pool because I'm not sure if that would make the problem worse.
Does anyone have any advice in restoring this system to bootability? I followed
the standard "root on ZFS" recipe using a two drive mirror when
installing the system initially. Each drive uses GPT with three partitions:
freebsd-boot, freebsd-swap, and freebsd-zfs in that order. Like I said at the
start, all this worked for a long time until just now when I upgraded the pool
to enable "feature flags" support. :-(
Any help is appreciated.
Cheers,
Paul.
Matthew Seaman
2013-Jan-02 19:10 UTC
Upgrade of RELENG_8 ZFS boot pool leads to unbootable system
On 02/01/2013 17:49, Paul Mather wrote:> Yesterday, I updated my RELENG_8 ZFS-only system that has worked like a champ for ages. After a successful install{kernel,world} and reboot, I noticed the 20121130 entry in /usr/src/UPDATING and upgraded my ZFS pool via "zfs upgrade -a". I also upgraded my boot blocks as requested, and as per the "ZFS notes" section of /usr/src/UPDATING. > > Unfortunately rebooting with the upgraded pool failed. The "windmill" boot spinner spins for a tiny amount of time and then stops dead. :-( I don't get to the boot loader menu at all. > > I downloaded a very recent RELENG_8 snapshot (FreeBSD-8.3-RELENG_8-r244923-JPSNAP-amd64-amd64-memstick.img) from pub.allbsd.org and was able to boot successfully from USB using that. I entered Fixit Mode and tried to write the boot blocks on the memstick image onto my hard drives but the resultant system still wouldn't boot. The commands I used (from Fixit Mode) are these: > > gpart bootcode -b /dist/boot/pmbr -p /dist/boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ad4 > gpart bootcode -b /dist/boot/pmbr -p /dist/boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ad6 > > (ad4 and ad6 are my two hard drives.) > > If I "load zfs" before booting the USB memstick then I can see my old pool listed when I do "zfs import". I haven't tried importing the pool because I'm not sure if that would make the problem worse. > > Does anyone have any advice in restoring this system to bootability? I followed the standard "root on ZFS" recipe using a two drive mirror when installing the system initially. Each drive uses GPT with three partitions: freebsd-boot, freebsd-swap, and freebsd-zfs in that order. Like I said at the start, all this worked for a long time until just now when I upgraded the pool to enable "feature flags" support. :-( > > Any help is appreciated.I think you may be running into problems with zpool.cache. This has been fixed in current, which now has the ability to find the root zpool without a valid zpool.cache, but that I suspect is faint comfort for you. To recover from a toasted zpool.cache, you need to boot from alternate media and then import your root zpool. It's easiest to do that to a temporary directory. The important bit is to copy the zpool.cache onto your actual zroot device: -- Boot from install media to 'Live CD' and log in as root (no password) # kldload zfs -- should load opensolaris.ko automatically # cd /tmp -- this should be a writable MFS; you'll need to arrange something similar if not. # zpool import -o cachefile=/tmp/zpool.cache -R /tmp/zroot zroot -- this should create a zpool.cache file # cp zpool.cache /tmp/zroot/boot/zfs/ # zfs umount -a # shutdown -r Eject the install media, and the system should boot up from your root zpool. Cheers, Matthew -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey JID: matthew at infracaninophile.co.uk -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 266 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/attachments/20130102/218dc716/attachment.sig>