Bug Report: IBM x3650M4 (32GB, 2x4-core Xeon E5-2600, IBM ServeRaid M5110e): fails in install with NMI

[Mike A]

On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 12:38:47PM -0400, John Baldwin wrote:
> 
> When the loader menu pops up, choose the "escape to loader prompt" option,
> then type 'set hint.mpt.0.msi_enable=0' followed by 'boot'.  There's no
> guarantee this will help, btw, just something to try out first.
> 
> If that doesn't work, you can also try setting 'machdep.kdb_on_nmi=0' using
> the same trick.
> 
> If that still doesn't help, please boot another OS that does and get the
> output of 'lspci -v' or 'pciconf -lvb' or equivalent so we can see exactly
> which mpt adapter it is.  I think there is one class of mpt(4) cards that
> we do not yet support properly.  Ah, yes, this PR:
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=149220
> 
> I think this may in fact be your adapter.  This was fixed after 9.0, so try
> a 9.1-RC1 install disk instead and see if it works better.

No joy. In sober fact, neither 9.1 nor 9.0 will even boot reliably to the
point where the usual dmesg contents are displayed. About 90% of the time,
9.0 will hit the DVD reader for a while, then go quiescent, followed by
the yellow LED signaling an NMI or other serious problem and the bright
blue flashing LED signaling a halted machine. I have yet to get any display
out of 9.1 at all. I have changed all the changeables I can: booted from a
complete power-down, booted from a halted system, etc. I can't see anything
that always leads to a display or to a failure to display.

It is interesting that a RedHad Enterprise Linux 5.1 (ancient!) DVD booted
up first crack off the bat. It couldn't find any discs to install to,
however, though it did inventory the SATA drives in its dmesg output.

I'm about to try a Knoppix DVD, and will post what PCI data I can get
from that. 

I've entered the first loader hint and got no change in symptoms; since
then, I have not been able to get another display in about 10 tries, and
hence been unable to enter the first and second loader hints. At about 7
minutes per try, this is enormously frustrating.

If there is a way to instrument the CD/DVD boot process itself, so that I
can see what leads up to the failure to display, I am greatly interested
in doing this. My employer has about $40K invested in these boxes, and
is interested in getting some good out of them; I'm at least equally
interested in not annoying my boss. You can have pretty much 100% of my
work time until I get them on the air or give up and run some flavor of
Linux; I'd really rather not run Linux.

At this point I don't know whether the problems stem from the RAID adapter
hosing the CD/DVD boot process, or from some other impediment. It may be
that this belongs in the amd64 group, instead of the scsi group. I don't
see a way to tell until I (or you) can determine the cause of the CD/DVD
boot problems.

Thanks so much for your help so far. 

-- 
Mike Andrews, W5EGO
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin