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Date:      Tue, 22 Aug 2006 09:25:16 -0700 (PDT)
From:      "Freddie Cash" <fcash@ocis.net>
To:        "Carroll Kong" <me@carrollkong.com>
Cc:        hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: LSI-MegaRAID 150-4 BTX Halted on 5.4, 5.5, 6.1
Message-ID:  <51859.192.168.0.10.1156263916.squirrel@webmail.sd73.bc.ca>
In-Reply-To: <20060822041250.2244F43D46@mx1.FreeBSD.org>
References:  <20060822041250.2244F43D46@mx1.FreeBSD.org>

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On Mon, August 21, 2006 9:12 pm, Carroll Kong wrote:
> I am trying to install FreeBSD on a new Intel Server SE7230NH1-E
> using a PCI-X riser card on the Intel S1475 chassis, pentium D 3.2
> gig dual core proc 940.
>
> Whenever I try to install using the CDROM for 5.4, 5.5, and 6.1...
> BTX halts immediately.
>
> The second I remove the card, the system boots up fine.  In fact, I
> was able to install 6.1 on one of the SATA disks on there.  However,
> once I put the card back, BTX Halts.
>
> BTX Halts even if I remove all logical drives on the array (making it
>  completely empty and it does not show up as a disk at all in the BTX
>  Bios). I even disabled the card's BIOS mode, and it still halts.
>
> Since FreeBSD 5.4 supports the LSI Megaraid 150-4, I suspect it might
>  be the riser card doing interesting things.

We had no end of trouble getting LSI MegaRAID 150-6 cards working with
Tyan K8SD (S2882) motherboards when using riser cards.  Didn't matter
if we used Debian (stable and testing with the 2.6.12 and 2.6.15
kernels) or FreeBSD 6.0.  If we plugged the RAID controller directly
into a PCI-X slot on the motherboard, no problems whatsoever. 
Everything installed and ran correctly.  But, if we plugged the RAID
controller into a riser card on the same motherboard, nothing worked. 
The controller would lose disks, would lose arrays, would report read
and write errors, and would rarely let us complete an install of
either Debian or FreeBSD.

We gave up trying to get the MegaRAID cards to work with riser cards,
and returned them all to the vendor in exchange for 3Ware Escalade
9550SX cards.  These have been working great plugged into the same
riser cards that gave the MegaRAID controllers so many problems.

Considering the ATA controllers on the MegaRAID cards (they're SiI
chipsets), and all the issues we had with them, my suggestion would be
either not use a riser card with that controller, or get a better RAID
controller.

----
Freddie Cash
fcash@ocis.net




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