3ware 9500 twa driver support

[Phillip Steinbachs]

> If anyone has suggestions regarding the most stable software
> configuration for this hardware, it would be most appreciated.
>

Just to recap from my E-mail on July 1st, I have a Tyan S2882 board and a
3ware 9500S-8.  Everything works fine with 5.2.1-RELEASE (amd64) except
the 3ware card.  5.2-CURRENT (amd64) won't boot because of the ata/SATA
getrootbyname problem, and 5.2.1-RELEASE (i386) panics when booting from
the installer CD.

Does anyone on this list have suggestions, or am I being ignored
because I mentioned that Solaris was my preference? :)  I'm relatively new
to FreeBSD and this list, but my understanding was that amd64 is Tier1.
I thought that reporting problems was encouraged, and was hoping to get
feedback of some kind.  At this point, I'd gladly accept negative
feedback, as it would help me to make a decision.

If it's going to be months before a usable 3ware 9500 driver is available
for the amd64 port, either from 3ware or efforts from the FreeBSD team,
then using FreeBSD is pointless for me.  If someone who is using similar
hardware has already figured this out, I would appreciate hearing from
you.  If you're using your hardware successfully with 5.2.1-RELEASE i386
or 5.2-CURRENT (amd64), please tell me what you had to do to make it work
(if anything).  I've searched the mailing lists and haven't found a
definitive solution.

Thanks.

-phillip