On 2020-08-28, Henry W. Peterson <henrywillpeter...@outlook.com> wrote: > Hello, > > I have several Asus A320M-K motherboards with AMD Ryzen 3 1200 (which does > not include a GPU) in very simple computers. > > I installed OpenBSD on them using a GigaByte GT710 graphics card. After > reboot, everything works perfectly. > > My idea was to install and configure the systems with the graphics card and > then remove it and control them by SSH (I only have one card). > > I disabled at the BIOS the "Wait for F1 if Error" option so it continues > booting without the GPU. I am pretty sure it does: > > I encrypted the disk during installation with bioctl and softraid; if I do > nothing, type intentionally a wrong password or simply press enter, the "num > lock" led stays on and pressing the power button shut the system down in > immediately. If I type the correct password, after 10 seconds the "num lock" > led turns off and the power button only works if pressed for 5 seconds. > > So I assume the kernel panics because the GPU is missing.
After typing the password, you should be at a boot prompt, so at that point try typing blind "boot -c", "disable radeondrm", "quit" and see if that lets it boot. (I am wondering if there is enough hardware to trigger attaching the drm driver but it then goes on to fail; without dmesg this is hard to tell). If that works, to get them booting automatically you can either build a custom kernel with radeondrm disabled, or modify the on-disk one with "config -ef /bsd", "disable radeondrm", "quit". Note this would need repeating after updating the kernel (e.g. for installing syspatches) so I'd consider it a temporary measure until more information can be obtained from the system to find a better fix. (You can also try a different OS version, if you are running 6.7 then try a -current snapshot or vice-versa, changes in the DRM code may have made this behave differently.) > Do I need a graphics card installed all the time? > > The motherboard has pins for a COM serial port, during installation I was > asked if I wanted "com0" to become the default console. I said no. > > Could I be booting the system had I said yes (without actually using the > port, again, I would use ssh)? I suspect it would also fail, but (with a serial port connected to another machine) would let you see information about the crash which may help someone fix it. > If so, can I change this after installation? This changes two things; /etc/boot.conf is set to add "stty com0 <baudrate>" and "set tty com0" (these can alternatively be typed at the boot loader prompt), and /etc/ttys to enable a getty on the serial console. If you're able to connect up a serial port (so, whatever is needed to connect to the port header, plus a null modem cable to another machine) then just typing the stty/set boot loader commands would be enough to see any panic messages or see where it hangs, and so provide information which might be enough to identify the problem.
