More about the 9500S-4 issues with the MoBo and FreeBSD...
Olaf Greve
o.greve at axis.nl
Wed Nov 30 08:57:00 GMT 2005
Hi,
> Are you sure you have the installation CD for amd64? The error messages
> make me think you might be using an i386 version of the CD.
????
Well, I D/L-ed it from the French (I think) FreeBSD mirror from the
AMD64 directory... Having said that, I did notice the CDs bootstrap
loader mentions freebsd/i386 (I meant to ask about that one).
If indeed I somehow was totally numb (a thing which I cannot entirely
exclude given some of the following I'm about to type) and made such a
stupid mistake myself, then that could certainly explain a lot.
However.... that still wouldn't explain why FreeBSD 5.4-release AMD64
also chokes on it; and on that CD I am 100% positive it's the AMD64
version, as I have installed it on my own AMD64 machine from the very
same CDs. Also, really, I am about 99% (if not 100%) sure that I made
very certain to D/L the AMD64 version. The ISO images also reflected
that name (I think), so it's not very likely it's the i386 version.
Then: I'm amased. Really I am.
As the client needs this machine to be up an running this Friday,
yesterday evening I decided to opt for a different strategy: install
this machine using the on-board RAID controller, then in the meantime
ask the client to order an Opteron (or dual Opteron) with a Tyan MoBo,
install, tune and test that one at ease and then when it's all set-up
swap that with the machine I'm currently working on.
So, just when I thought I had a workable strategy again, look at what
horrors were bestowed upon me next: the Sil 3114 on-board RAID
controller recognises the drives, enters the BIOS, but when confirming
the total RAID array size it totally hangs! And that's the controller's
BIOS; it didn't even get to the point where one could install FreeBSD
(or anything else for that matter). So, with "Plan B" out, there was
even a "Plan C": use the nVidia on-board RAID controller. O.k., I
plugged over the SATA controllers, configured the MoBo's BIOS to do
this, and what do ya guess? Indeed, another full blown controller hang.
Nice. :(
Well, over the past 15 years I must have installed dozens of machines
(several of them including Asus boards, in combination with Adaptec SCSI
RAID controllers and various different versions and flavours (i.e.
1386/amd64) of FreeBSD), with OS-es ranging from MS-DOS, through the
full array of W*nd*wses, FreeBSDs, Linuxes, and I can hardly recall any
more troublesome installation process than this time; really, it reminds
me of the good 'ole MS-DOS days where one had to jumper each and every
ISA board and then tweak memory configurations in order to get the lot
going. :((((((
Actually, I think something is simply b*ll*xed up on the board, but I
just can't put my finger on what it is. Surele even if it is primarily a
gaming board, still these type of errors should not have occurred. I
spent the better part of late last evening and the wee hours on reading
the MoBo's docs, and checking if we perhaps missed something.
I didn't spot anything, but something MUST be off... :((((
Dunno. Time for a "plan D" I guess; I'll ask if the client can somehow
get a working machine, and then I'll pull two more late nighters to at
least get the bit I was supposed to do done: installing and tuning
FreeBSD and MySQL. At present it's highly frustrating that I can't even
really reach the OS installation part...:((((
OK, guys thanks for hanging in there with me. I'm sure some day in the
future I can laugh out loud at it too, just not right now....;)
Cheers!
Olafo
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