r1~beta3_hrev55181_57 breaks boot on Dell Optiplex 780 USTC

[bronzie94]

After upgrading to hrev1~beta3_hrev55181_57 my Dell Optiplex 780 USTC (Core 2 Duo 2.9GHz / 4GB / 300 SATA / Intel Series 4 Chipset) - refused to boot. It gets past post, engages in a very small amount of disk activity, then sits there with a black screen.

I had to recover via a previous state, and then downgrade to hrev1~beta3_hrev55181_56-1

tag: hrev55181

[bronzie94]

Syslog from before the upgrade/boot crash

[bronzie94]

syslog from after the upgrade/crash (including later downgrade, pre reboot)

[waddlesplash]

There were not any changes to the bootloader or kernel merged to the beta3 branch since the release that I can see, so this is extremely strange...

[vidrep]

I have the same PC here. I’ll see if I can duplicate the problem.

[bronzie94]

That is odd @waddlesplash - don’t think I changed anything else that could impact boot (AFAIK)…. Was just playing with DOSbox… Thanks @vidrep! I’m loving Haiku on this machine (it is effectively my daily driver!) so would be sad if it was killed off.

[waddlesplash]

It almost sounds like you got a corrupted bootloader package. Try just deleting all of your states and upgrading again.

[waddlesplash]

Sorry, I should rephrase: only delete all your states after having permanently downgraded. Otherwise you will not be able to boot at all, of course.

[vidrep]

I did a clean install of Beta 3, then an update to hrev55181+57. No problem booting. Does your Dell have any cards in the PCI or USB slots that may be causing your “no boot” condition?

[bronzie94]

Ok - will further experiment per advice - thanks for your help 😁 PA @vidrep - no cards, no nothing. I owe you a debt of gratitude for trying to replicate!

[bronzie94]

No Dice :( ... So I:

1. Deleted previous system states with FilWip
2. Changed back to the r1beta3/x86_64/current repo
3. Did a "pkgman update" - it upgraded from the repository (ie downloaded new files)

Same behaviour on reboot - disk light flash and black screen - no more activity.

Once again restored from previous (single remaining, just pre upgrade) state, switched to hrev1~beta3_hrev55181_56 repo and downgraded via pkgman full-sync (it took this from the prev. state) and all is happy again...

@vidrep - which model is your Optiplex 780 - mine is the Ultra Compact model with no PCI slots - I think the larger ones may have a slightly different architecture? I was looking at them when buying this one and weighing up the pros and cons.

NB: I have no idea if the problem comes from the bootloader or kernal or whatever (outta my league on that conversation) I just took a punt on classification. I do have a power-on BIOS password @vidrep if you want to try adding that into the mix. There are a few status light flashes that occur after password is accepted (they always happen) so I assumed that was coming from the BIOS. After that is a pause, screen black, single <0.2 second HDD light flash, then nothing (where usually I would very promptly see the statup icons and logo).

So I am stumped. Maybe I should wait unti the next update to the beta and see what happens?

[bronzie94]

UPDATE: Curiouser and curiouser...

Deciding I didn't have too much to lose, I jumped track to the nightlies and updated to that - hrev55362 works fine - no issues on boot. Go figure. Maybe just leave it be unless someone comes up with the same issue.

I really appreciate yoour assistance @vidrep and @waddlesplash - love the community spirit in Haikuland!

[bronzie94]

Interestingly on the same hardware

• upgrading from 55399 (which worked) to hrev55402 broke boot again, same symptoms
• Downgrading to 55399 via boot menu and then upgrading to hrev55403 - boot worked again

[bronzie94]

Broke again with hrev55414 (reverted to 55410, which works)

[bronzie94]

Boot still broken with hrev55419 (reverted to 55410, which is last known hrev that boots on this machine)

[vidrep]

Odd. I just updated to hrev55421 x86_64 from hrev55181+57 on my Dell Optiplex 780 and it's working fine.

[bronzie94]

Replying to vidrep:

Odd. I just updated to hrev55421 x86_64 from hrev55181+57 on my Dell Optiplex 780 and it's working fine.

You don't have the ultracompact model (like 25cm across at the front), < 10cm high), do you? Yours has PCI card slots etc, yes? If so you have a different mother board and chipset...

[bronzie94]

Nightly hrev55425 still broken for boot - have reverted to 55410 as it is the last known working build for me.

[bronzie94]

hrev55427 boots fine on this machine (go figure ;)

[diver]

Could you try to install haiku_loader package from a nightly that doesn't boot on your working system?

[bronzie94]

Replying to diver:

Could you try to install haiku_loader package from a nightly that doesn't boot on your working system?

Will research how to do that - if you can steer me toward any reference on how, that would be awesome :)

[bronzie94]

Nightly hrev55438 broken for boot - have reverted to 55427 as it is the last known working build for me.

[waddlesplash]

You can just install a haiku_loader package of the correct hrev from one of the "state_" folders, by using "pkgman install path/to/haiku_loader...hpkg".

[bronzie94]

Replying to waddlesplash:

You can just install a haiku_loader package of the correct hrev from one of the "state_" folders, by using "pkgman install path/to/haiku_loader...hpkg".

Awesome! thanks @waddlesplash. hrev55444 is booting for me, so I will try that on the next build that doesn't work, and report my findings here :)

[bronzie94]

hrev55457 will not complete boot for me, this time with a different symptom - boot progresses up to "Chip" icon (it does not "light") and then machine stalls/freezes. Have reverted to hrev55449 which is the last known bootable hrev for me.

I will not try a previous bootloader in this particular case, as this appears to likely be a different problem.. To note, hrevs 55444, 55448 and 55449 all boot successfully on this machine.

[waddlesplash]

Yes, it is a different problem, tracked in #17289.

[bronzie94]

hrev55464 did not boot - due to time constrainst I just reverted to a working build without trying an older boot loader on that build; hrev55489 boots fine, so I will stick on nightlies until I hit an issue again, at which time I will try a bootloader reversion test if time permits.

[bronzie94]

hrev55507 presents black screen and no disc activity on boot (freeze) - have reverted to hrev55500 which is last known bootable hrev on this machine - will try using earlier bootloader when time permits and report back.

[bronzie94]

APPEARS TO NOT BE THE BOOTLOADER. On hrev555007 (which black screens and freezes on boot for me) I replaced the bootloader with haiku_loader-hrev1~beta3_hrev55500-1-x86_64.hpkg (a build that boots for me) and the same problem occured - the machine has a few flashes of HDD activity then freezes on a black screen. Have reverted to 555000 for now.

[bronzie94]

hrev55555 boots perfectly on this machine :)

[bronzie94]

hrev55614, hrev55608 and hrev55607 fail to boot on this machine - Black screen after BIOS password, no logo/icons; flash of disk activity then "dead". hrev55606 boots successfully and I have force-reverted to this build for now.

[bronzie94]

hrev55621 boots successfully on this machine :)

[bronzie94]

hrev55633 does not boot - freezes on black screen immediately after BIOS screens with no disk activity. Have reverted to hrev55632 which boots fine

[bronzie94]

hrev55639 boots fine

[bronzie94]

hrev55643 freezes on black screen / no disk activity immediately after BIOS messages and brief disk flash, before Haiku logo appears. Have reverted to hrev 55639 which boots fine.

[diver]

This looks like a kernel build issue which weirdly only manifests itself on your hardware. To confirm this you can extract non-working haiku package with:

mkdir haiku_extracted
package extract -C haiku_extracted /path/to/haiku-r1~beta3_hrev55643-1-x86_64.hpkg

then copy your running kernel to extracted folder:

cp /system/kernel_x86_64 haiku_extracted/system

and then re-create haiku hpkg with:

package -C haiku_extracted haiku-r1~beta3_hrev55643-1-x86_64.hpkg

If the resulting package boots then it would point to a problem with the kernel.

[bronzie94]

hrevs 55650 and 55655 are working, so I will do so next time I encounter the issue upon upgrade :)

Replying to diver:

This looks like a kernel build issue which weirdly only manifests itself on your hardware. To confirm this you can extract non-working haiku package with...

[bronzie94]

hrev55667 breaks boot again (black screen post BIOS / freeze) - I will try individual package swaps when I have some time to do so and will report back

[diver]

Swapping individual packages wouldn't make a difference since the system lives in only two packages: haiku_loader and haiku.

[waddlesplash]

Please retest on a recent nightly.