SOLVED S..l..o..w boot

[PBmax]

I'm an experienced Linux user -- new to *BSD. This is the strangest thing I've ever seen...

I upgraded from 9.2.0 to 9.2.1 via the web GUI. Everything seemed to work fine. The box didn't come back, so I hooked a display up to the box. It's booting, but displaying one byte every second or so!

In what world is this normal? The box can't be loaded per se, it's still booting. No idea where to start, since it's not up and I can't get a console. Will let it sit overnight and see what y'all have to say.

So weird.

 

[cyberjock]

No clue what the problem is. You gave no information to go on.. no hardware, no nothing except that it is "displaying one byte every second or so". I don't know what that even means, or why what is being displayed on the screen has to do with exactly. But ok.

 

[PBmax]

Hardware seems OK. I can boot a variety of other OSes from my normal thumbdrive.

* I used Mint to check some things, and to do a "dd if=/dev/$usb of=/dev/null" to read the entire original USB drive that had 9.2.0, no errors.
* To re-verify, I got a brand new USB drive, popped a fresh 9.2.1 image onto it. Booted fine, so I did a minimal configuration just to get the interface up. Runs as expected.
* I loaded a previously-backed-up 9.2.0 configuration.
* System reboots: problem is back.

I have a feeling nobody will actually believe what I'm seeing, so check this out ( I swear it's not doctored ):

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmLqgwxz0UU


So, the reloaded 9.2.0 configuration is suspicious, but it was running for months. It's full of credentials and private keys, so it will take some work for me to clean up. ( I'll do that if a developer thinks that it holds a clue. )

What really has me stumped is, even *if* the config that has run for months is bad -- how can the machine be this slow when it's only printing the very first copyright line? Nothing has loaded yet: no kernel, no ethernet, and certainly not any FreeNAS configuration.


Motherboard: Asus E35M-1 w/ BIOS 1602
CPU AMD E-350
8GB RAM
2TB Seagate Drives ( one pair )

 

[cyberjock]

I couldn't watch the video on youtube. All it says is "An error occurred, please try again later."

 

[PBmax]

There was horrible TV sound in the background, so I asked for a soundtrack overlay. Apparently, it was in a queue to rerender. I just checked and it worked...

I have no idea what to think. I looked for this problem w/ FreeBSD itself and came up empty, too. It's just freakish.

PS: This is *not* a serial console. This is straight VGA.

 

[cyberjock]

LOL. ROFL. ROFLCOPTER!

That music. That sounded like it came from a straight up porno! That was hilarious.... wait...

LOL some more!

Ok. I think it's out of my system now.

So yeah, you've definitely got a problem. My guess is hardware incompatibility.

Edit: You did give specs below the video. Not sure what your problem is. I know several people have used that CPU without a problem. What brand is your motherboard? Have you setup the BIOS settings appropriately?

 

[ECCfrenaslover]

hahahahaha!!!!


I had the same thought! Porno musik! What is the name of that audio track?

 

[PBmax]

The track is 'Niacin' by 'Alcajazz' -- it's a featured track on the YouTube audio overlay option. It is pretty funny though... <barrywhite>Baby, I'm gonna boot you good and slow...</barrywhite>

I think my next steps will be to:

1.) Build a 9.2.0 drive, so I can get back in operation
2.) Test plain 9.2.1 boots a few times, then load my config to confirm that the problem is there.
3.) Look for a SQLite editor, so I can clean that file up and post on a proper bug report.

 

[PBmax]

Got it.

I dug into my configuration with SQLite Manager, focusing on the system* tables, because they're the most likely culprits. I saw that system_advanced.adv_serialconsole was set to True. Light bulb! ( I even commented on it above, since it was so slow and it *looked* like a slow serial line. ) The system must have been waiting for serial interrupts and just timing out for each byte. I used the editor to make system_advanced.adv_serialconsole set to False and we're off to the races.

I'm not seeing a way to edit titles. Mod, please mark as 'Solved'.

 

[cyberjock]

Interesting. Marked as solved!

 

[DrKK]

So Cyberjock and I checked on this just now. Josh P. (one of the big cheeses) was in the IRC earlier, and stated that this db setting could not be changed in the GUI.

He appears to be mistaken.

Under system->advanced, "USE SERIAL CONSOLE" is exactly the GUI entry which changes this settings. We have verified it in our FreeNAS's. So, evidently, Josh/Jordan/whomever, when you guys forcibly upgrade people's db's to the new version, you're making some kind of mistake or over-writing some buffer or something inadvertently.

 

[jkh]

"Forcibly" - you make it sound as if the database upgrade is optional and we're just doing it because we're dicks!

Well, we are dicks, but that's not why we upgrade the database. We upgrade it because any bits of GUI change which also alter the schema (new fields, new defaults, etc) require a database upgrade to occur at the same time. What's also weird is that I have upgraded dozens of times on a non-trivial number of machines and I've yet to see the migration somehow, mysteriously, enable the serial console. I have to wonder if the folks seeing this aren't in fact enabling that themselves.

 

[fracai]

This seems as good a place as any to ask; though it could be split off it spawns discussion.

Why is a database used for the configuration instead of some text-based format? Configuration doesn't really seem to overlap that much with the solutions that a database provides. Plus, if the config was a text file, new settings wouldn't need to upgrade any schema, just insert a new line of configuration that could be ignored by earlier versions.

 

[cyberjock]

fracai,

I see your point with the text based format. But, many projects and many people consider SQL to be as trivial to use as text files. So while I see your point, I also see the other side of the coin. In many cases, SQL does much of the "administration" for you with regards to storing data.

For example, BSD uses a different carriage return than Windows. If you use the wrong one you'll get errors from config files related to those errors. Frankly, I'm glad it's used in an SQL format. Schema upgrades are pretty trivial to do.

Note: I'm not fluent in SQL, so I can't do much in the way of editing the database. A text file would be better for me. But let's be honest, if you are using FreeNAS as it's designed, there's virtually no reason to be editing the database itself. Even this problem appears to be a PEBKAC problem.

 

[fracai]

I'm sure there are plenty of problems that SQL solves that would have to be reimplemented with text files as well. Just curious in the behind the scenes discussions.

 

[DrKK]

We talked about this some more in the IRC, with some of the devs and stuff, and really, more than likely what happened here:

Perhaps the user set the console PREVIOUSLY to be enabled (which was wrong), but this did not bork the earlier version of FreeNAS. When the user upgraded, the setting was still in play, but now, for some new reason, it caused the massive hanging problem with the serial console. So, it's not that the new version *changed* the setting, more than likely, the user inadvertently set it previously, BUT, the new version doesn't behave well when it is accidentally set.

 

[QRikard]

Got it.

I dug into my configuration with SQLite Manager, focusing on the system* tables, because they're the most likely culprits. I saw that system_advanced.adv_serialconsole was set to True. Light bulb! ( I even commented on it above, since it was so slow and it *looked* like a slow serial line. ) The system must have been waiting for serial interrupts and just timing out for each byte. I used the editor to make system_advanced.adv_serialconsole set to False and we're off to the races.

I'm not seeing a way to edit titles. Mod, please mark as 'Solved'.

So, apparently there are more people with the same problem.
There is a risk that i turned this parameter on while trying to get my UPS up and running which is a whole different story...

So now after a reboot i'm STUCK in slow motion.
A major problem is that i'm a complete beginner to freenas/freebsd. So can you (or anyone) please give a detailed instruction on how to set the system_advanced.adv_serialconsole to False again? So i dont have to start over completely with the configurations again?

 

[cyberjock]

Well, you'll have to bootup either way, so I'd simply bootup and go into the WebGUI and disable it if enabled. You could do a CLI approach, but the risk of doing more damage(not to mention waiting for every character to appear) is very high.

 

[dlavigne]

If you can access the GUI, uncheck the box for the serial console in System -> Settings -> Advanced.

 

[QRikard]

Well, you'll have to bootup either way, so I'd simply bootup and go into the WebGUI and disable it if enabled. You could do a CLI approach, but the risk of doing more damage(not to mention waiting for every character to appear) is very high.

Thanks, bootup is in progress and i'm about 5 hour in. Any idea on how much time it will take? And will the web interface go in the same speed when (if) it's up and running?
Because in that case i assume i will get into trouble from the browser due to timeout...

dlavigne: Thanks problem is booting the server due to the slow speed not getting there.

Edit:
Since this is only seem to limit the update of the screen connected to the server. Could it be possible to disable the graphics in UEFI to make the boot faster? Because i don't need any graphics on the server to access the GUI though my browser.