Boot Problem - Itanium

[Phill Latham]

When I attempt to boot my rx6600 (HPUX 11.23) from either the primary or secondary path I receive the following error...

Loading.: HP-UX Primary Boot: 0/4/1/0.0.0.0.0
Starting: HP-UX Primary Boot: 0/4/1/0.0.0.0.0
No valid HPUX filesystem found in HPUX partition

then the boot loader errors with...

Could not open file vmunix to check for a directory

Could not open vmunix


I had mirrored the root disk (which uses LVM) following the process in the docs...
(i.e. idisk mkboot lvestend lvlnboot setboot etc)
tested booting the alternative - it worked , rebooted from the primary - it worked.

Since then I have installed the June 07 patch bundles (which also involved a reboot - no problems)

Yesterday I was just modifying a couple of kernel parameters and the reboot failed as above (just maxdsiz etc for an oracle install - nothing out of the ordinary)

Nothing else other than this has changed / been done

I have since found an alternate document on mirroring the root disk which mentions an additional step that I didn't perform - editing the file /stand/bootconf...

I don't understand why the boot process is failing now - any ideas?

Since this system is in the process of being built - a reinstall is a possible option for fixing - however I'd like to bottom out what's gone wrong so I don't run into this again.

Cheers
Phill

[Ivan Krastev]

Try to recreate boot configuration from EFI shell (Boot Configuration). See also EFI boot commands - http://docs.hp.com/en/A5201-90017/apbs02.html#aes-npar-287a

regards,
ivan

[Berd]

Phyliss,

Are you breaking boxes again ???

Have you tried booting of your previous kernel, vmunix.prev or whatever it was called.

Berd

[Phill Latham]

Yes Berd - I've still got the magic touch!

Thanks for the tip though I can't get that far... It's as if the HPUX partition can't be seen so there is no /stand

[Berd]

Are your boot disks internal or on the SAN ?

I think I've come across this before, but only on SAN boot disks ?

Berd

[Phill Latham]

The boot disk(s) are internal (SAS) disks..

[Torsten.]

Can you see any "fsx" entries when running "map" from the EFI shell prompt?

If yes, try to find and run the hpux OS loader. This will try to access /stand.
Any results?

fs0:\EFI\HPUX> ls
Directory of: fs0:\EFI\HPUX

09/28/06 12:55p 4,096 .
09/28/06 12:55p 4,096 ..
09/28/06 01:12p 644,703 HPUX.EFI
09/28/06 12:55p 24,576 NBP.EFI
09/28/06 12:55p 12 AUTO

[Phill Latham]

Hi Torsten,

Yes I can access the EFI partition on both primary and alternate disks and run HPUX.EFI from the EFI shell but I get the same error ...


Could not open file vmunix to check for a directory

Could not open vmunix

using map command in efi shell i can see a ...HD PART 2.. 'device' - I'm guessing this should be the HPUX partition (cxtxdxs2) - but this is not 'mounted' on an fsx 'filesystem'. Using mount command works but I get errors (no mapping) if I try to ls
- Its as if something has made the hpux partition unreadable...

[Torsten.]

Run the OS loader:

fs0:\EFI\HPUX> hpux

(C) Copyright 1999-2006 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
All rights reserved

HP-UX Boot Loader for IPF -- Revision 2.028

Press Any Key to interrupt Autoboot
(interrupt here)

Can you run "ls" here?

[Phill Latham]

No -

I get 'no such file or directory'

[Torsten.]

Sounds like this symptoms:

OTHER: system will not boot. If encountered, the boot
loader will issue the following output:
"Could not open file vmunix to check for a directory"
"Could not open vmunix"
"kernel loading failed"

Fixed in PHKL_35426
http://www4.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/patchDetail.do?patchid=PHKL_35426&sel={hpux:11.23,}&BC=main|search|

This is only 1 possible reason.
Of course yor file system may became corrupt anyhow. You may try to transfer the new boot loader to the disk or attempt to repair the system using the install media or finally recover the system from the backup.

[Phill Latham]

Thanks for this Torsten -

I've recovered from my ignite tape

It seems that particular patch is already installed but as you say it could be anything!

I've repeated the mirroring process (this time with the extra step to edit /stand/bootconf..) and have rebooted several times now (from primary and alternate) so far so good...

Hopefuly it was just one of those things!

Thanks for the swift response!