[OpenIndiana-discuss] No rootfs module provided

[Nikola M]

On 09/ 8/17 03:34 PM, Gary Mills wrote:
> I just put together a system with a ASUS B350M-A system board, an AMD
> Ryzen 3 1200 CPU and an ASUS HD 6450 Silent video card.
>
> When I attempt to boot the OI-hipster-gui-20170502 DVD on this system,
> I get the boot menu normally, but it's followed by these three lines:
>
>      Loading unix...
>      Loading /platform/186pc/amd64/boot_archive...
>      Loading /platform/186pc/amd64/boot_archive.hash...
>      Booting...
>      No rootfs module provided, aborting

Welcome to no-booting land of illumos/OI hipster snapshots.

First see if your motherboard is set to behave like BIOS and not like 
UEFI for booting, because as far as I know illumos can't be booted off 
an EFI.

Then I would like to know wither you are using USB image or DVD .iso, 
because there can be some differences - few months ago I tried many USB 
images and couldn't boot (non-conclusive tests so I might be wrong). So 
try DVD/.iso.

Also it *could* be something with Ryzen/illumos for support (you could 
ask on illumos ML if anyone is working on it) but I suspect it is not 
about that just for booting.

It also may be the case of non-booting bug reported before pushing, but 
included inside 20170502 snapshot.
(https://www.illumos.org/issues/8169#change-20512) It was about bug that 
was already fixed just before pushing snapshot, but wasn't in it.
Sounds like a waking call for a wider testing of hipster snapshots 
BEFORE pushing them for public use. (Instead of testing them in VMware 
or something)
Newest testing images are under bug for enabling fresh install on a new 
BE, currently I couldn't log in after install to a new BE and needs 
'zpool import -fN' before install, so you can also test that. 
(https://www.illumos.org/issues/8209)

HD 6450 video card is probably not going to be supported and working 
under illumos, for the lack of drivers (anyone with more info can chap 
in to add more).
Some parts of illumos support are done, but not the open source drivers 
porting, that is a challenge and a very nice project. AMD looks like 
real good candidate for long term driver support because it's drivers 
are open source.
In a doubt use Nvidia graphics right now, because it has _great_ binary 
driver support and drivers targeting 'Solaris' still works on illumos, 
regarding driver version per supported card (

Btw, are you using Unbuffered ECC RAM with Ryzen? (That ASUS B350M-A 
supposedly supports UDIMM).
I recently contacted ASUS support and they confirmed that every 
motherboard they make supoports ECC UDIMMs AND is working in ECC mode 
with Ryzen. Yet they lack official or other pointing testing , injecting 
and reporing application so this is where OS support might come.
I contacted (proprietary) Memtest86 support and they wanted to send me 
their test builds, that would try out their testing program working on 
Ryzen , but I can't afford right now to buy a new Ryzen Machine.
Can you contact me privately, so we can work out ECC RAM testing on 
Ryzen with those test builds, since you already have a hardware (Asus MB 
supports it)?