auto-set-conf-var: /boot/loader.conf does not exist

[grahamperrin]

FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE.

9.. Lumina Lightweight Desktop (Recommended outside VirtualBox) … /usr/local/sbin/auto-set-conf-var: /boot/loader.conf does not exist.

https://github.com/outpaddling/auto-admin/blob/master/Scripts/auto-set-conf-var

[grahamperrin]

Maybe:

touch $LOADER_CONF

– at or under yesterday's

https://github.com/outpaddling/desktop-installer/blob/b7493315c0aa74b495216a74c9cfa7ef4cb8ce86/desktop-installer#L2339

[outpaddling]

A touch is probably the right solution, but I've never seen this issue before. Can you share your bsdinstall and desktop-installer responses? Most of the latter are stored in /root/.config/auto-ask-responses. thanks. And note that Lumina is recommended OUTSIDE vbox. It does not redraw the desktop properly when vbox resizes the screen.

[grahamperrin]

… Lumina … does not …

Noted, thanks. (It was this type of thing that I aimed to investigate before reporting this issue.)

… bsdinstall and

I can't tell; I did not perform the installation.

I used a FreeBSD-provided image of an installed system; https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/VM-IMAGES/

desktop-installer responses …

Sorry, I reverted to a saved state (pre- desktop-installer) before seeing your comment.

[outpaddling]

Odd that it has no loader.conf. Every pristine install I've ever done has one, even if it's empty. I added test -r $LOADER_CONF || touch $LOADER_CONF The WIP port is here: https://github.com/outpaddling/freebsd-ports-wip/tree/master/desktop-installer I assume you used the vmdk?

[grahamperrin]

The same with FreeBSD-12.2-RELEASE-amd64.vhd:

I assume you used the vmdk?

No, https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/VM-IMAGES/README.txt directs users of VirtualBox to use .vhd files.

---

Attempting to use FreeBSD-13.0-RELEASE-amd64.vmdk for VMWare produces the following error in VirtualBox 6.1.22:

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE vmdk.

Could not open the medium '/Volumes/t500/VirtualBox/BSD/FreeBSD/FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE vmdk/FreeBSD-13.0-RELEASE-amd64.vmdk'.

VMDK: incorrect ordering of entries in descriptor in '/Volumes/t500/VirtualBox/BSD/FreeBSD/FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE vmdk/FreeBSD-13.0-RELEASE-amd64.vmdk' (VERR_VD_VMDK_INVALID_HEADER).

VD: error VERR_VD_VMDK_INVALID_HEADER opening image file '/Volumes/t500/VirtualBox/BSD/FreeBSD/FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE vmdk/FreeBSD-13.0-RELEASE-amd64.vmdk' (VERR_VD_VMDK_INVALID_HEADER).

Result Code:	NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:	MediumWrap
Interface:	IMedium {ad47ad09-787b-44ab-b343-a082a3f2dfb1}

[outpaddling]

I was able to use either the vmdk of vhd image. Both booted fine, but honestly I don't see any advantage to using these images under VirtualBox vs doing a fresh install from the ISO. A fresh install takes a few minutes and lets the user choose the disk size and many FreeBSD configuration settings up-front. The VM images require resizing the root disk using VBox + gpart + growfs (or adding another disk and reconfiguring mounts) and then investigating the settings you may want to tune.

It may be a different story under other hypervisors where installation is not as convenient.

At any rate, I did test the latest WIP desktop-installer on an installation from the vhd and will commit it shortly.

Thanks for the heads-up.

[grahamperrin]

Thanks. I manually edited an installation (added the relevant line) and found it working.

One of the benefits of using a FreeBSD-provided image is that it can be a shared baseline for troubleshooting.

---

Incidentally, I use a routine that's condensed (compared to the FreeBSD Handbook):

1. expand the virtual disk, but not to the maximum
2. boot in single user mode
3. gpart recover ada0
4. service growfs start
5. exit

[outpaddling]

Fix committed, thanks!