zfsbootmenu issues booting stucks?

[Waterdevil]

Hello world,

I have root on zfs!

when I found zfsbootmenu I tried it immediately.
Grub has unsolvable (for me?) issues. Can not boot any more with each and any kernel on both of my two machines.

so zfsbootmenu:
I booted, =>
Tearing down USB 0...14...
no message, no action.

I made a new kernel with chroot, booted, =>
Tearing down USB 0...14...
no message, no action.
I struggled a week only to realize, that when I waited more than 2 minutes it booted successfully.

QUESTION:

How can I see messages from booting like
Loading initramfs, vmlinux and their messages
or at least set a progress indicator (like penguins)?

Many thanks in advance,
Best regards

[pingtoo]

Waterdevil,

Using zfsbootmenu you essentially booted twice, first time is the the in memory system (initrd), which in turn locate kernel and zfs-root and use kexec with newly mounted zfs-root to reboot.

So which part you not seeing messages?

If you are talking your firmware loading zfsbootmenu image and not seeing anything about the zfsbootmenu's execution than you need to review how you got the zfsbootmenu image. It is very possible your kernel binary in zfsbootmenu need to re-configure to support correct linux console setting for your firmware. You could search gentoo forums for those talk about black screen after boot.

[Waterdevil]

Hi pingtoo,

I use /efi/EFI/boot/zbmBOOTX64.EFI, which I downloaded from https://docs.zfsbootmenu.org/en/v2.3.x/

The initramfs I generated with dracut.

I chrooted in LiveCD and did:

Code: Select all

zcat /proc/config.gz > /usr/src/linux/.config -v

With this I tried to make a kernel (this worked with grub), but now is a black screen.

A second kernel which I copied from actual Gentoo LiveCD can boot and displays messages.

I can't recognize two boots, so I don't know which part.

/etc/dracut.conf

Code: Select all

# PUT YOUR CONFIG IN separate files
# in /etc/dracut.conf.d named "<name>.conf"
# SEE man dracut.conf(5) for options
#
nofsck="yes"
add_dracutmodules+=" zfs "
omit_dracutmodules+=" btrfs resume "
#
# Choose compression program for the image
compress="gzip"

Hope this informations help to find a solution.

Thank you for fast response
Best regards

[pingtoo]

With this I tried to make a kernel (this worked with grub), but now is a black screen.

grub vs EFI. both grub and efi have their own way of initialling display system. so you can see gtub/efi menu, once the execution pass on to linux kernel it will have to choose a device driver that match grub/efi's setting in order for linux continue to display messages.

Have a look a this thread, it may help you understand your situation. (note, I am not saying it give you solution, I mean it give you why)

In your case it is efi that initialling the display system, so your first kernel need to support EFI's setup.

Your first kernel is in the zbmBOOTX64.efi, I am not sure if there is a different image you can download that will support your firmware.

As far as I know zfsbootmenu can be build. you can get it from several overlay, for example GURU overlay::sys-boot/zfsbootmenu

A second kernel which I copied from actual Gentoo LiveCD can boot and displays messages.

Since your second kernel seems work ok, please keep it so it will not create confusion later.