Sony Vaio TR2A install problems

[Lamont Lucas]

Following up to my own email, I found the following patch submitted
to gnats on freebsd:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-i386/2003-September/000325.html

Applying the 4 line patch to ata-dma.c and ata-pci.c and making my
own custom ISOs I was able to get my TR2A to boot and install
onto a second partition on the machine.

But this is when it falls apart.  

The boot loader comes up, lets me select the freebsd partition
but then seems to power cycle right back to the boot loader screen
after flashing the bios screen at me for a second.  I can still boot
onto the primary windows XP partition, however.

I know that my root slice is well above the 1024 limit, so I'd followed
the instructions in boot0cfg and reloaded the boot manager with the
-o packet option.  

Can anyone suggest any debugging that I can do in order to figure out
why I can't proceed to the next boot stage?

(When I get back to San Francisco I'm going to try scrubbing the 
entire machine and rebuilding with freebsd in a lower partition, just
to make sure that it's the 1024 cylinder boot issue, and not something
more nefarious.  I'd try it here, but I'm visiting my folks for christmas
and can't afford to accidently brick the entire laptop without a backup
computer)

I'm going to ask a similar question on -stable, but thought that -mobile
was more appropriate.

Have a happy holiday, folks.


On Mon, Dec 15, 2003 at 03:34:07PM -0800, Lamont Lucas wrote:
> The kernel config portion of the install reports no conflicts, but
> during the rest of the install kernel boot, it ends with:
> 
> ata1-slave: ATAPI identify retries exceeded
> ad0: READ command timeout tag=0 serv=0 - resetting
> ata0: resetting devices .. 
> 
> And then just hangs forevermore with the drive icon lit up.
> 
> Windows XP, which came with the machine, says the ATA controller
> is an Intel 82801DBM UltraATA Storage Controler 24CA, with
> the primary using irq 14.  
> 
> It's a pentium M processor built into this thing, built in wireless
> (which, because I am a superstitious man, I attempted to boot with
> both disabled and enabled) and would be the best laptop I've ever
> owned if only I could get FreeBSD on it.  I'm trying to install vmware now
> which seems happier (at least the install completes) but I'd rather
> have a true dual boot system that I could use via vmware or standalone
> rather than letting freebsd ride shotgun.
> 
> I've found some bugs submitted against freebsd-current (5.1ish) that
> seem like small and reasonable patches into sys/dev/ata/ata-dma.c
> to include detection for this specific controller.  My best guess
> so far as to what I should do will be to compile these fixes
> in (if I can) to my -stable.  Then build install media off of the
> new and modified source tree.
> 
> Any other suggestions or ideas?
> 
> -- 
>  - Lamont
> "I am not an atomic playboy."
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-- 
 - Lamont
"I am not an atomic playboy."