Re: Problems with amd64 -current - bootloader cannot load modules?

[Paul Goyette <paul%whooppee.com@localhost>]

On Wed, 9 Oct 2013, Paul Goyette wrote:

> > > If I boot, and just wait in the boot menu for the 5-second timeout, the 
> > > boot fails with the "heap full" message.
> > >
> > > However, if I interrupt the boot menu and drop to the prompt, and then 
> > > enter "boot netbsd -s" it boots just fine!
> > >
> > > As I recall, there were some recent changes to the boot-loader code for 
> > > command processing - perhaps something there has not correctly free()d 
> > > some heap?
> >
> > One more example, which would tend to confirm that the boot-loader is not 
> > correctly free()ing memory?
> >
> > 1. Boot
> > 2. Interrupt the countdown, and go to the prompt
> > 3. Execute the 'ls' command (to see what I called my saved kernel!)
> > 4. boot <old-kernel> -s
> >
> > Fails.
> >
> > But if I omit the 'ls' command (step 3), it boots successfully.
>
> Yet one more data-point....
>
> I was suspecting the recent changes to the boot code from Havard (in July) or 
> Jared (in August), so I re-installed the old bootblocks from another machine. 
> Yet even with the old bootblocks, the bad behavior occurs.
>
> Note that in all failure cases, the "heap full" message occurs after loading 
> all the kernel sections, but before the kernel prints its ID line.

Well, that last test did install some older bootblocks, but not the ones 
that were actually in use!  (I copied from an older /usr/mdec/boot 
rather than from /boot itself.)

I've now managed to narrow the problem down a bit further...

With a /boot from 6.99.17, everything works fine.

But with a /boot from 6.99.23 it fails with the 'heap full' error.

Unfortunately, I don't have any other versions of /boot so I cannot 
narrow down any closer.



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