Re: T40 bootloop on CAM status: Command timeout on both 10.1 and -CURRENT

On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 2:27 AM, Wolfgang Zenker <wolfgang_at_lyxys.ka.sub.org>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> * bsdml <pietro.bsdml_at_gmail.com> [150329 01:34]:
> > since I tried to install FreeBSD 10.1 on my recently purchased T40 I got
> > stuck at this annoying bootloop that says
> > "ATAPY_IDENTIFY. ACB: a1 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 etc etc.. CAM status:
> > Command timeout". I have also tried latest 11-CURRENT snapshot and it
> > did not make any difference at all, it is affected from the same exact
> > bootloop.
> > [..]
> > It seems like there might be an issue with the CAM ATA stack that is
> > clashing with the PATA controller on my T40.
>
> I had the same problem on an ancient T42p. In my case, disabling the
> second ata channel allowed me to boot.
>
> I added the following line to /boot/device.hints:
> hint.ata.1.disabled="1"


This is an annoying side-effect of the brain-dead SATA-PATA converter in
that generation of ThinkPads. The Intel ICH6 chipset is SATA, but, for
reasons known ot IBM/Lenovo, the systems used PATA drives! So they has a
SATA-PATA converter built in that screwed up a LOT of things, mostly
compromising performance and generating assorted log entries. Looks like
that also is broken in modern ATA support if a drive is not present.

This was always my biggest complaint with this laptop (T42) which I used
for several years until I retired and returned to so it could be excessed
legally as it was government property (and, I didn't really want it, even
if I could have kept it). Not an awful system, but this one issue was
really annoying to me.
--
Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer, Retired
E-mail: rkoberman_at_gmail.com