Re: boot0sio working for anyone?

On Sat, 09.02.2008 at 14:18:13 +0100, Dag-Erling Smørgrav wrote:
> "Ulrich Spoerlein" <uspoerlein_at_gmail.com> writes:
> > Can you boot from different disks and slices using this approach?
> 
> No, but I don't need to :)
> 
> > Or can the loader be tricked into chain-booting another loader on
> > another disk and slice?
> 
> You know you can use Grub to boot FreeBSD, right?  Including multiple
> installations on multiple disks / slices.

Thank you Dag-Erling! Somehow I did not consider GRUB. I'm now using the
following menu.lst which gives me *exactly* what I wanted.

igor# cat /boot/grub/menu.lst 
serial --unit=0 --speed=9600
terminal --timeout=10 serial console

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)

title FreeBSD 8
root (hd0,1,a)
kernel /boot/loader -Dh

title FreeBSD 7.0
root (hd1,2,a)
kernel /boot/loader -Dh

title FreeBSD 6.0
root (hd1,1,a)
kernel /boot/loader -Dh

title FreeBSD 5.5
root (hd1,3,a)
kernel /boot/loader -Dh

title FreeBSD 4.11
root (hd1,0,a)
kernel /boot/loader -Dh


On Sat, 09.02.2008 at 06:10:41 -0800, David Wolfskill wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 09, 2008 at 02:17:06PM +0100, Ulrich Spoerlein wrote:
> I'm a bit hesitant to chime in, as my approach appears to differ both in
> means and ends from yours, but perhaps the ends aren't all that
> different after all, and it might help, so:
> 
> For my "build machine," which I run headless, I also use the regular
> boot0.  However, my /boot/loader.conf is empty.
> 
> Rather, I created /boot.config; it contains
> 
> 	-DP
> 
> and  I have its sio0 connected to one of the serial ports of the
> nearest other machine (a SPARCstation 5/170) via a "null MODEM" cable.
> 
> I also configured the BIOS to use "serial redirection" (so I have access
> to poke at BIOS stuff when I'm physically distant form the machine) --
> though that doesn't matter for boot disk/slice selection.
> 
> I'm using the FreeBSD boot loader; hitting F[1-5] when the FreeBSD boot
> loader prompts does the usual disk & slice selection, though I only use
> that ability when I've forgotten to set the next boot slice via
> boot0cfg(8).

Are you doing this via keyboard or serial line? Is it possible to get
that F1-F5 output via serial *without* BIOS support?? I'm just curious,
although I found a pretty decent solution, thanks to Dag-Erling.


Cheers,
Ulrich Spoerlein
-- 
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool,
than to speak, and remove all doubt.