# Upgrade 11.2 to 12.0, /boot/entropy fail!



## nwarner (Dec 14, 2018)

After following instructions to the letter, upgrading 11.2-p5/6 to 12.0, I hit the step of "shutdown -r now" [using amd64 version]




The machine comes up with this and locks up. Can't hit a key, can't alt-ctrl-del, have to physically turn machine off/on, does same thing on restart, both single and multi user mode.

Something obviously ruined something. Any hints, anybody?

Actually, the main question is, is there something I can do to save this computer, or am I at a total loss, looking at a fresh install from CD?


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## nwarner (Dec 18, 2018)

Well, I figured the machine was gone, so:

- I re-installed 11.2(amd) from CD, totally fresh system, worked.
- Immediately upgraded to latest 11.2 patch levels, worked.
- Immediately upgraded to 12.0 following directions exactly. When I hit the re-boot step, it did the EXACT SAME THING as the screenshot above: it hangs after the /boot/entropy/ line. And I did absolutely NOTHING to this system, got no error messages when I ran the 3-hr install, answered Y to all the 'does this look reasonable' questions.

Folks, this does not work. I'm at a loss.

[Dell PowerEdge 2850, installing 64-bit amd system.]


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## Vull (Dec 18, 2018)

Since you're doing a fresh install anyway, have you considered installing 12.0-RELEASE from scratch? At this point I've done two install-from-scratch installations with no problems. When installing from USB, including all the optional packages and also downloading the Handbook, the whole install takes me less than 30 minutes, and then I can test the reboot step right away.

When I initially load the installer, it reports that it can't find /boot/entropy but then when I do the reboot it's there, and the reboot proceeds without error. Everything works well and the system is totally usable.


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## nwarner (Dec 18, 2018)

That is my next step...to try a fresh install of 12.0. I want to determine if it's the upgrade that's an issue, or 12.0 itself has a problem with Dell PowerEdge 2850s.
I still have two concerns:

(1) You state that the installer had a problem with /boot/entropy. I think, with all the posts I've seen, that there is _definitely _an "entropy" issue with 12.0, whether upgrading or installing fresh.

(2) I have another 11.2 (i386) on another PowerEdge (2650), *in service,* that I fear is no longer upgradeable. I can't afford to have this machine go belly-up.


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## SirDice (Dec 18, 2018)

2) Nobody is forcing you to upgrade to 12.0 now. FreeBSD 11.x will continue to be supported to at least 2021/2022. If you don't trust 12.0 yet (quite understandable) then don't upgrade and keep the machine on 11.x. Have another look when 12.1 is released. 

The whole point of .0 releases is to get the kinks out. If you don't want to be in the line of fire, don't upgrade to it.


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## nwarner (Dec 18, 2018)

I am fully aware that nobody is FORCING me to upgrade. But I also understand the costs of not keeping current. I've been in positions before whereby because we were not current, we could no longer update third-party applications.

How are the kinks going to get worked out if they're not reported? That's all I'm doing, just reporting the 'kinks' I've experienced.
If I stepped on anyone's toes, my apologies.


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## SirDice (Dec 18, 2018)

nwarner said:


> But I also understand the costs of not keeping current. I've been in positions before whereby because we were not current, we could no longer update third-party applications.


That's my point. FreeBSD 11.x _is_ current and will continue to be for the next 3-4 years. 

For some unknown reason everybody seems to think that keeping current means always running the latest and greatest version. It's not. Keeping current means keeping everything up to date with _supported_ versions.



nwarner said:


> How are the kinks going to get worked out if they're not reported? That's all I'm doing, just reporting the 'kinks' I've experienced.


Yes, and that's excellent. I was just referring your existing _in service_ machine. It looked like you were worried about not being able to upgrade to 12.0 on it. 



> If I stepped on anyone's toes, my apologies.


I have exceptionally small feet, you're not likely to tread on them


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## nwarner (Dec 18, 2018)

My word was 'concerned', not 'worried'...[oops, I guess I did say 'fear..my bad] not gonna lose any sleep over it. It's not so much upgrading to 12.0 as it is upgrading it to _anything _in the future.

Anyway, all's well, I appreciate the prompt feedback. Nice to know there are some very knowledgable folks out there that are willing to take the time to share their knowledge!


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## bplipschitz2 (Dec 26, 2018)

Would like to know how this turns out, as I am trying to install 12.0 from scratch on a Dell 2850 and having the "/boot/entropy" not found failure.

I guess I can try and install of 11.2 to see if that goes any better.


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## scottro (Dec 26, 2018)

11.2 shouldn't cause problems.   For myself and a couple of others, choosing MBR partitions also helped with 12.0 boot problems, i.e., if I  chose MBR partitioning scheme, I had no errors on reboot after install.


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## Vull (Dec 26, 2018)

I have GPT partitioning and no errors on reboot after 4 separate 12.0-RELEASE i386 32-bit installs done at different times over the past two weeks. Dell Dimension 4700 with a broken 3-1/2 " floppy drive, a 1 TB SATA replacement hard drive, and no other SATA or IDE devices attached. As good or better performance overall as I enjoyed with 11.2-RELEASE. Wouldn't be afraid to go live with 12.0 on this hardware. For untested hardware I'd probably stick with 11.2 just to be on the safe side, but 12.0 has tested out very well indeed on this host, for Apache 2.4, PHP 7.2.10, PostgreSQL 9.5, Plasma5, Firefox, etc. However, I haven't tested any upgrades, and am only doing fresh installs using memstick images.


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## bplipschitz2 (Dec 31, 2018)

scottro said:


> 11.2 shouldn't cause problems.   For myself and a couple of others, choosing MBR partitions also helped with 12.0 boot problems, i.e., if I  chose MBR partitioning scheme, I had no errors on reboot after install.


In the end, that is what I did (install 11.2 instead).

I do, however, disagree with SirDice.  I've been doing FreeBSD installs with *-RELEASE versions since 3.0, and would say that a RELEASE version is just that -- ready for prime time.  Most have been.  This is the first one I've run across that wouldn't boot at all. If the devs position is that the *.0-RELEASE isn't quite ready for prime time, then IMO it shouldn't be a release.  That's what -CURRENT is for.


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## Spartrekus (Jan 2, 2019)

bplipschitz2 said:


> In the end, that is what I did (install 11.2 instead).
> 
> I do, however, disagree with SirDice.  I've been doing FreeBSD installs with *-RELEASE versions since 3.0, and would say that a RELEASE version is just that -- ready for prime time.  Most have been.  This is the first one I've run across that wouldn't boot at all. If the devs position is that the *.0-RELEASE isn't quite ready for prime time, then IMO it shouldn't be a release.  That's what -CURRENT is for.



You can make it work with the kernel here https://github.com/spartrekus/freebsd-13-entropyfix


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## gnath (Oct 12, 2019)

nwarner said:


> just reporting the 'kinks' I've experienced


On my old laptop I tried to install 12.1-BETA3 from USB memstick which stuck at


> autoloading kernel module if_bwn.ko


Same story for 12.0-RELEASE memstick. Earlier on same laptop I upgraded 11.3-RELEASE to 12.1-BETA3 which completed well. On reboot the system stuck at "bwn_pci0". I had to restore the system back. But on another box the same memstick installed well,rebooted & upgraded to 12-STABLE. This may be problem for old BCM wireless firmware. I shall install 11.3-RELEASE memstick on free space of laptop and try to upgrade again.


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## gnath (Oct 16, 2019)

On upgraded 12.1-BETA3 system which failed to boot, I did as 





tobik@ said:


> "blacklist" by


mv /boot/kernel/if_bwn.ko /boot/kernel/if_bwn.ko.blacklist  from live memstck or another system and then reboot which went fine.


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## gnath (Oct 19, 2019)

The problem for 12.1-XX is due to auto loading of module 





> if_bwn.ko


 without any firmware loaded. This need user intervention or the firmware to be included in boot image.


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