Install USB freezes on Brocade BFA FC/FCOE SCSI driver

spiralofhope · 11-09-2016, 03:52 AM

updated in a reply to this thread:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...5/#post5633077

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Slackware 14.2 32bit, dd'ed to a USB stick.

Booting up, my system always freezes on

Code:

Brocade BFA FC/FCOE SCSI driver - version: 3.2.23.0

I tried booting with 'hugesmp.s noscsi' but that didn't change anything.

I'm not sure what else to explore.

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Possibly-related:

1) I've had inconsistent issues booting with my existing 14.1 on-HDD install. At apparently-random moments during its bootup, it'll freeze, but tapping my power button wakes it back up and the boot continues as usual. This tactic has not worked with this installer USB stick.

I have never had issues during actual use, this is just a startup quirk.

2) [edit] probably solved, ignore.

[edit] - This is probably solved via being explicit about having a USB keyboard - something like -m usb-storage:ehci-hcd:usbhid for mkinitrd.

Experimenting with LVM/dm-crypt encryption as per the official Slackware "current" textfiles, I am able to complete the entirety of the install with apparent success. However, booting into that finished setup lands me at a password prompt which appears to be locked-up. I'll likely make a separate thread on this once I can consistently boot into a setup prompt.

3) I've had issues booting up on both a 64bit and 32bit 14.2 install, where they would freeze and at best I could power off, then on again and it would work again. I've had odd issues where this is what I'd have to do to even boot from a USB stick in the first place.

I'm posting on this specific "Brocade" issue because that seems most reproducible at this moment.

I've had on-and-off issues booting any distribution, not just Slackware 14.2. I've tried multiple USB sticks, though perhaps I should have been trying multiple separate USB ports too.

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I do suspect hardware issues.

I've got an older computer with USB 2.x and just got a USB 3.1 card which is recognized and works with Slackware 14.1, but I'm unable to boot a USB stick with it. I only vaguely fiddled with boot devices and such in BIOS but have had no success. I do wonder that if I can boot via this card perhaps things will be different.

business_kid · 11-09-2016, 10:36 AM

Code:

Brocade BFA FC/FCOE SCSI driver - version: 3.2.23.0

That's not an error - that's an announcement. This is what is loading at the moment. A bit of context would be useful, as well as checking the logs for errors.

So the Brocade driver starts to load, and the system stops. On the occasions when you get it to boot, what comes next?

spiralofhope · 11-21-2016, 01:27 PM

I did a lot of exploration, and then got frustrated and took a break. With some advice I'd like to take another crack at this.

I'm being fairly thorough just in case the chain of events has any significance. Again, I think it's interesting that 14.1 has its own semi-freeze issue.

I'm willing to do everything from scratch again, as I have a new hard drive just for this. I've been nearly-exactly following

http://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackwa...ADME_CRYPT.TXT

(The section "Combining LUKS and LVM" and also the later "USB keyboards and LUKS" section)

I've also been rewriting that documentation to be far more explicit and clear. On my next pass I'll be combing through everything and updating it so others can see *exactly* what steps I'm following.

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Booting from the 14.2 USB setup stick:

When I say it freezes on Brocade, I now understand that it could be freezing *after* that message:

Code:

Brocade BFA FC/FCOE SCSI driver - version: 3.2.23.0

I've seen the system freeze after:

Code:

clocksource: Switched to clocksource tsc

There are some cases where I am able to get past when it freezes after a different point, by tapping my power button. One message where I saw that worked is:

Code:

Triggering udev events: /sbin/udevadm trigger -- action=add

Upon this latest success, I checked `dmesg | less` and what's after Brocade is:

Code:

Failed initialization of WD-7000 SCSI card!

(My motherboard does not support SCSI, and I do not have a SCSI card.)

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Rebooting on an installation:

Since I was able to boot onto the USB stick in that case, I installed, did the dm-crypt install instructions and froze on that same Brocade message.

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Booting on the setup USB:

This time it froze elsewhere:

Code:

MX-protecting the kernel data: 6088k

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Rebooting again worked. I checked dmesg as before, and after the above MX-protecting message was:

Code:

loop: module loaded
random: (stuff)
> udevd [373]: (stuff)

.. no I did not note the bunches of code, sorry.

Re-installed:

At this point I assumed I needed to re-do mkinitrd to add missing bits related to having a USB keyboard. I instead learned that I misunderstood the lilo.conf editing instructions and properly changed a line near the *top* of the file:

Code:

  append = "vt.default_utf8=0 resume=/dev/cryptvg/swap"

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For what it's worth, at this point my 14.1 installation, the one I am now on which has no dm-crypt (or LVM) froze on:

Code:

microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.00 <tigran at aivazion REMOVE fsnet dot co dot uk>, Peter Oruba

I had been playing with a USB 3.1 card during my dm-crypt adventure and I had removed that just before that reboot and the above microcode message:

Just as I now write this I do have that card back in and decided to check dmesg in case it's relevant. Perhaps the card is at the top of this list, so I included more of dmesg:

Code:

 [    6.212951] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.00 <tigran@aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>, Peter Oruba
 [    6.234152] usb usb5: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0001
 [    6.234276] usb usb5: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
 [    6.234467] usb usb5: Product: OHCI Host Controller
 [    6.234587] usb usb5: Manufacturer: Linux 3.10.17-smp ohci_hcd
 [    6.234707] usb usb5: SerialNumber: 0000:00:12.0
 [    6.234977] hub 5-0:1.0: USB hub found
 [    6.235100] hub 5-0:1.0: 3 ports detected
 [    6.235436] ohci_hcd 0000:00:12.1: OHCI Host Controller
 [    6.235594] ohci_hcd 0000:00:12.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 6
 [    6.235805] ohci_hcd 0000:00:12.1: irq 16, io mem 0xfe02d000
 [    6.246776] kvm: Nested Virtualization enabled

(tapping my power button progresses)

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I continued my adventure and rebooted back on the 14.2 setup usb:

rebooted, froze on 'Triggering udev events', as above.

(tapping power a few times worked)

Did the install process again, but did not reformat, to save some time. I froze on:

Code:

usbhid: USB HID core driver

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My notes now say "TODO - try again --the next step is the password prompt".

I have not yet checked dmesg on that installation attempt. Should I do that to learn where I'm freezing? Inserting the hard drive (which I was using to do this experimentation) into a dock, and using my 14.1 install to look at it, I have no idea how to get access to the LVM.

Code:

# lvscan
No volume groups found
# pvscan
No matching physical volumes found
# vgscan -dv
  Wiping cache of LVM-capable devices
  Wiping internal VG cache
Reading all physical volumes.  This may take a while...
  Finding all volume groups
No volume groups found
# vgscan --cache
Cannot proceed since lvmetad is not active.

Now that I'm trying this an unable to, this is a huge warning sign that I shouldn't even use LVM until I can solve this. Once this dm-crypt-LVM-14.2 install is done I can revisit this problem. If it's important to get at this dmesg, then I'm happy to work to solve this here and now.