Re: Boot from disk, serial console over IPMI help for DL160 G6

[Chavdar Ivanov <ci4ic4%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Mon, 19 Jul 2021 at 17:58, Jeff Rizzo <riz%tastylime.net@localhost> wrote:
>
> I have an HP Proliant DL160 G6 (probably about 10 years old) installed
> with -current as of last week and sort-of working; I'm hoping someone
> can clue me in on the best way to fix the stuff that's not working
> (remotely, so that I don't lock myself out and require a site visit)
>
>
> I'll start by expressing frustration with this system - the POST takes
> almost five minutes, after which there's about 15 seconds to get into
> the BIOS config/bootloader/whatever before the power cycle dance has to
> be done all over again. So, I've spent several hours over the last few
> days just waiting for this thing to boot. (UGH)
>
> Anyway, I have an IPMI setup over which I can power cycle the box, and
> get to the BIOS setup screen using serial-over-IPMI. And, I have the box
> able to PXE boot. So... I feel pretty safe from an "emergency"
> standpoint, but the long reboot cycle makes me super paranoid that every
> time I try to fix boot-related stuff (like I'm trying to do) means I
> need to spend a full hour booting-and-rebooting, so ideally I'd like to
> figure out what's going on and how to fix it with a minimum of retries.
> :)   The box itself has a NetBSD 9.99.86 install booting from a raid1
> (two disks, two spares) configured on the first 110GB of wd0-wd3, which
> are 4TB SATA drives.  Being 4TB, they're partitioned with GPT, and
> there's a "RAID" partition on each drive and root is set to "force".
> What _doesn't_ work (or I haven't gotten it to work yet) is booting from
> disk;  I used sysinst to install, but either the bootblocks didn't
> install correctly or "something else".  If this were an MBR/disklabel
> system, I'd know exactly how to fix it, but...  This is complicated by
> the fact that I *think* this machine doesn't actually support UEFI boot
> (I could be wrong there - I don't actually *understand* EFI boot, and
> would love a pointer to the nitty-gritty of how it works).  So, I've
> been loading the kernel with a special PXEboot dance (which is working,
> mostly, now that I've figure out that the IPMI serial console is both
> "com0" and "com1" but at separate times in the boot cycle).  I'd love to
> get some help loading the kernel _from disk_ which would greatly
> increase my confidence in this entire setup. I can boot an install
> kernel easily enough (with 5-minute round-trips) if I get stuck, but I'm
> not entirely sure how to approach fixing this by hand - I knew the old
> MBR routine well enough, but things have changed enough in the last
> couple releases that I no longer feel like I understand how it works.
>
> (Aside - I wish the pxe bootloader knew how to boot from disk! or at
> least load bootxx_ffsv2! - would make testing things faster in a case
> like this)
>
> In case it clarifies anything, here's what the GPT looks like on all the
> disks (more or less):
>
>         start        size  index  contents
>             0           1         PMBR
>             1           1         Pri GPT header
>             2          32         Pri GPT table
>            34   230686720      1  GPT part - NetBSD RAIDFrame component
>     230686754  7583350381      2  GPT part - ZFS
>    7814037135          32         Sec GPT table
>    7814037167           1         Sec GPT header

For the EFI boot to work, you need a FAT16/FAT32 partition, I don't
see one. The default GPT sysinst partitioning will create one and copy
the netbsd.efi file, which then should be selectable for boot - if EFI
is enabled of course. Not much else - no boot blocks or anything of
the type, just a partition with some .efi files available. On my HP
(laptops only) I have several of these, booting different systems, one
of them being NetBSD-current:

┌───────────────────◀▶
│C:/Temp
└─▶ dir e:\EFI\BOOT\

    Directory: e:\EFI\BOOT

Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
d----          30/06/2018    01:16                icons
-ar--          29/05/2018    17:02         215855 bootia32.efi
-a---          30/06/2018    01:17         205874 bootx64-netbsd.efi
-ar--          29/05/2018    17:02         205874 bootx64.efi
....

In my case I have to interrupt the default boot process and select an
.efi file to boot (in one of the last BIOS/UEFI updates HP removed the
option of setting an .efi file as the default boot option - prior to
that I had refind setup as the default, which then let me boot
graphically another 7-8 different systems).

Of course I don't know if this somewhat old server has UEFI at all.
For this to work with NetBSD, it should support UEFI in CSM mode
without trusted boot being enabled.

>
>
> Anyone care to help?  :)  Thanks in advance!
>
> +j
>

Chavdar


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