From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 22 16:25:28 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B65E416A4E5 for ; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:25:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fcash@ocis.net) Received: from smtp.sd73.bc.ca (smtp.sd73.bc.ca [142.24.13.140]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EDB6A43D53 for ; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:25:27 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from fcash@ocis.net) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.sd73.bc.ca (Postfix) with ESMTP id E7FD418CCCC; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 09:33:32 -0700 (PDT) X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new using ClamAV at sd73.bc.ca Received: from smtp.sd73.bc.ca ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.sd73.bc.ca [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 4uLGVkNgtBw7; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 09:33:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: from webmail.sd73.bc.ca (unknown [10.10.10.17]) by smtp.sd73.bc.ca (Postfix) with ESMTP id 54B2018CD0C; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 09:33:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: from webmail.sd73.bc.ca (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by webmail.sd73.bc.ca (Postfix) with ESMTP id 91CBE9000617; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 09:25:16 -0700 (PDT) Received: from 192.168.0.10 (SquirrelMail authenticated user fcash) by webmail.sd73.bc.ca with HTTP; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 09:25:16 -0700 (PDT) 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> Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 09:25:16 -0700 (PDT) From: "Freddie Cash" To: "Carroll Kong" User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.5.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: LSI-MegaRAID 150-4 BTX Halted on 5.4, 5.5, 6.1 X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: fcash@ocis.net List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:25:28 -0000 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