More about the 9500S-4 issues with the MoBo and FreeBSD...

[Vinod Kashyap]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Olaf Greve [mailto:o.greve at axis.nl] 
> Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 12:56 AM
> To: Vinod Kashyap
> Cc: Nathan Vidican; ray at redshift.com; amd64 at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: More about the 9500S-4 issues with the MoBo and 
> FreeBSD...
> 
> 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.
> 

I am sorry about the question, but the error messages looked
like ones that could get printed if the driver was running in a 64-bit
environment, but thought it was running in a 32-bit environment.

Anyways, please know that you can always contact 3ware support for help.

> 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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