Firebox X core-e perpetually trying to boot os

[imolaragazzo]

I have two firebox x core-e boxes that I'm trying to install pfsense on. I've flashed the bios successfully and have been trying to get pfsense running now with no luck. I have two 80gig hard drives which I connected to my desktop via usb and installed pfsense to both of them, however when I place them into the boxes and try to boot up it just says "booting os" and never actually boots. Everything looks to be recognized correctly in the bios. Putty doesn't seem to work for me in windows 8 so I am using Realterm. Does anyone have any helpful insight for this?

If it matters I first tried b7 but currently have b8 flashed.

These are the cables I am using:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007T27H8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006B8BJ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[stephenw10]

"Booting OS…" is the last thing the BIOS writes to the LCD before handing control to the bootloader. The display will continue to read that until something else writes to it. Since you haven't yet booted into pfSense I assume you haven't installed the lcdproc package so nothing will have written to the LCD. That's normal behaviour.
What did you install to the HD and from what? If you installed to the drives from an ISO that you booted the laptop with did you either select the embedded kernel or enable the serial console? If you didn't then there will be no output on the serial port. A second problem is that if you installed to a USB connected drive when you move it to the firebox it will still look via USB for the drive to mount the root filesystem and it won't be there. The boot sequence will fail to the 'mountroot>' prompt but you're not seeing it in order to correct it.
Is it booting the drive at all? Even using the, much more flexible, B8 bios the firebox is still fussy about drives. Do you see harddrive activity on the front panel drive LED after booting?
Since you have tried the B7 bios I assume you are able to access it via the serial console? That would prove you have the correct serial cable and terminal setup.

If you haven't then try re-installing to one of your drives and selecting the embedded kernel. That should give you a serial console to work with.

Steve

[imolaragazzo]

Thanks for the help! Have made some progress, I did not have the embedded kernel installed. Now I do get output on the console, but I get an error while it is trying to boot:

ROOT MOUNT ERROR:
If you have invalid mount options, reboot, and first try the following from the loader prompt:

set vfs.root.mountfrom.options=rw

and tehn remove invalid mount options from /etc/fstab.

Loader variables:
vfs.root.mountfrom-ufs:/dev/da0s1a
vfs.root.mountfrom.options=rw

Manual root filesystem specification:
   <fstype>: <device>Mount <device> using filesystem <fstype>
                                      eg. ufs:/dev/da0s1a
                                      eg. cd9660:/dev/acd0
                                      This is equivalent to: mount -t cd9660 /dev/acd0 /

?                                   List valid disk boot devices
<empty line="">                Abort manual input

mountroot></empty></fstype></device></device></fstype>

[stephenw10]

Type ? at the prompt to see what's available.
It's probably going to appear on ad0s1a but it depends how it installed.

Steve

[imolaragazzo]

That was it! Thank you so much for your help. It seems to all be working now, just have to go through and configure everything.

[stephenw10]

To make the changes permanent edit /etc/fstab, change the entries appropriately.

Steve