Re: Problems installing FreeBSD with 3ware 9500S-4LP

On Sat, 19 Jun 2004 11:27:34 -0700 (PDT)
Doug White <dwhite_at_gumbysoft.com> wrote:

> well you replied to yourself and made this a mess, I'll see what I can do
> to trim it down :)
> 
> On Fri, 18 Jun 2004, Patrick Hurrelmann wrote:
> 
> > > > Whats the RAID config?
> > >
> > > I forgot to include that. Shame on me.
> > > 4x 120GB, 7200rpm, 8mb chache WesternDigital Disks are configured as one Raid 5 array.
> >
> > Disk details: WDC WD1200JB-75GBB0
> 
> So 1 4-disk raid5. ok.
> 
> > > > > 5.1-Release
> > > > > w ACPI: Loading twa.ko (binary distribution of 3ware.com for 5.2) in 		sysinstall failes.
> > > > > w/o ACPI: same as w ACPI.
> > > >
> > > > I wouldn't expect this to work.
> > >
> 
> > > I tried that, as download page on 3ware says (FreeBSD 5.1, but i
> > > excpect that this is an error)
> 
> Yeah, I don't think thats right; Vinod said its been qualified on 5.2.
> The kernel ABI's changed since 5.1.
> 
> > > > > 5.2-Release
> > > > > w ACPI: loaded twa.ko in sysinstall.
> > > > > 	install went ok, on next reboot it just halts after BTX-Loader.
> > > > > 	I cannot load twa.ko in loader.
> > > > > w/o ACPI: same as w ACPI.
> > > >
> > > > Hm, sounds like the loader is getting corrupted. Try booting the install
> > > > CD, breaking out of the loader countdown and run these commands
> > > > (untested):
> > > >
> > > > unload
> > > > set rootdev=disk1s1a (or whatever disk you put freebsd on)
> > > > boot /boot/kernel/kernel
> > >
> > > No, i think i didn't make it clearly enough. It halt on BTX-Loader.
> > > I don't to the "real" loader. I don't see what modules it loads, etc.
> > > I'll reboot an post the exact message i see.
> 
> I was asking if you can boot off a different media here.  Since you can
> boot off the CDROM okay, I wanted you to use the CD's loader to boot the
> on-disk system.  If that worked then the loader binary on disk was
> probably corrupted.

I don't understand excatly what you mean.
I can indeed boot of floppy, cdrom and an old-fashioned ide-disk. only booting from raid does not work.
Do you mean that i have to boot with installation cdrom, escape to loader-prompt of cdrom and do some testings?
Sorry for annoying you, but i'm a real newbie :/

> > > twa.ko from 3ware dowload-site included new firmware. The controller
> > > has been updated automatically.
> > >
> > twa firmware is 2.02.00.011
> > twa bios is 2.02.01.037
> 
> Ah, they split it into runtime firmware and BIOS.  I was curious if there
> was a new BIOS available, but it appears its a part of the driver package
> now. Thats annoying; if you can't boot due to a BIOS problem, you can't
> boot to upload a new BIOS.  Nice chicken-&-egg problem.

yeah, i'd like to do updates by myself, but ok, that's their decision...

> > > I have second ide-disk with a some day old current. I can mount the partitions created during install. All seems to be ok.
> > >
> > > I tried a install with twa.ko of current, but it panics with an
> > > page-fault everytime i load the module through sysinstall.
> 
> Sounds like the module and kernel are mismatched here.
> 
> I'd suggest contacting 3ware at this point, since there is obviously a bug
> in the 3ware BIOS.

I will do so. Thanks for your help!
Asus does not provide any support for the A7M266-D anymore...
I flashed the motherboard's bios to the newest beta (1011 beta 5),
as i would need it, when i want to upgrade to 2 Athlon XP 2400+ anyway.
But it didn't change anything.

I hate that. My Promise raid5 did not work, so i sold it.
Now i bought a 3ware and it does not boot. :/

-- 
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www.bytephobia.de          |  the Universe is winning."         - Rich Cook