From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 1 12:12:25 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D113E10656A6 for ; Mon, 1 Nov 2010 12:12:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from judmarc@fastmail.fm) Received: from out1.smtp.messagingengine.com (out1.smtp.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.25]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8E7EC8FC1B for ; Mon, 1 Nov 2010 12:12:25 +0000 (UTC) Received: from compute1.internal (compute1.nyi.mail.srv.osa [10.202.2.41]) by gateway1.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF87B668 for ; Mon, 1 Nov 2010 08:12:24 -0400 (EDT) Received: from web3.messagingengine.com ([10.202.2.213]) by compute1.internal (MEProxy); Mon, 01 Nov 2010 08:12:24 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=messagingengine.com; h=message-id:from:to:mime-version:content-transfer-encoding:content-type:subject:date; s=smtpout; bh=M2ZrOqwgzGAbWwI+vsXgppijjyU=; b=EnBUkteKTGa4UnxBwruqv/uKR9os/+/oRGYpnuk6CVS3d1RcbHrmRG740TuV076LbIqRUD4BRIN6uixnW5xyoVkEiLg1wl+P4VFzU/kR4FKtD4TfZN8zCTTx6n2OkZsTOOpbcfNsTkqos5Jq0zj68Xac3ZxLlneE2lf1StSebUo= Received: by web3.messagingengine.com (Postfix, from userid 99) id B3B09AA19C2; Mon, 1 Nov 2010 08:12:24 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <1288613544.13669.1402968563@webmail.messagingengine.com> X-Sasl-Enc: j0kJZTnNzNryDhp0mbOTImrU2el6N4CDJG/wqwFPjvf9 1288613544 From: "Jud" To: "freebsd-questions" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Mailer: MessagingEngine.com Webmail Interface Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2010 08:12:24 -0400 Subject: FreeBSD Doesn't "See" Crucial C300 SSD on Marvell Controller X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:12:26 -0000 The old desktop gave up the ghost after many years of use (memory problems plus a hard drive with an increasing number of bad sectors), and I've just finished putting together a new one. Win7 x64 and Ubuntu amd64 are running on it, and I would dearly love to install FreeBSD. Hardware is an ASUS Rampage III Formula motherboard with a Crucial C300 256GB SATA 6GB/s-capable SSD connected to one of the motherboard's two internal SATA 6GB/s ports. These two ports use a Marvell 88SE9128 onboard chip as the controller. The controller is supposed to support (hardware) RAID, but of course with one drive I am using it in "normal" non-RAID mode. (To say this particular controller chip has a problematic reputation at the moment is a bit of an understatement. I've personally seen some weirdness, including the Crucial drive not showing up in the BIOS boot priority menu a time or two. Nevertheless, as I said Winders and Ubuntu are running and I'm really looking forward to having my favorite OS on my new box.) I also have two Hitachi Deskstar drives and a USB stick. I tried the October amd64 DVD snapshot of -CURRENT from the snapshots page, guessing it would have the latest hardware support. The DVD boots into the installer, but sysinstall only shows me the Deskstars and the USB stick as options to install to. Puttering around the lists trying to find something that has any chance of being relevant, I ran across this excerpt from a post to the freebsd-current list in October: **************************************************************************** >> In an attempt to get more information about this issue, I'd like to ask >> people on freebsd-current if they're using any Sandforce-based SSDs with >> FreeBSD. So far, it appears not a lot of people do, making it hard to >> debug this issue (http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=151608). > > MCP5x SATA are not the best controllers for compatibility testing. They > have enough problems on their own, even without Sandforce. > > When you tested Marvell, have you tried to use mvs(4) driver? No, I only tried to use ata(4). I tried using mvs(4) now, and that works! mvs0: port 0x4000-0x40ff mem 0xb0100000-0xb01fffff irq 11 at device 2.0 on pci1 mvs0: Gen-II, 8 3Gbps ports, Port Multiplier supported mvsch0: at channel 0 on mvs0 mvsch1: at channel 1 on mvs0 mvsch2: at channel 2 on mvs0 mvsch3: at channel 3 on mvs0 mvsch4: at channel 4 on mvs0 mvsch5: at channel 5 on mvs0 mvsch6: at channel 6 on mvs0 mvsch7: at channel 7 on mvs0 ada0 at mvsch0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0 ada0: ATA-8 SATA 2.x device ada0: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA6, PIO 2048bytes) ada0: Command Queueing enabled ada0: 85857MB (175836528 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C) **************************************************************************** I don't know enough to understand whether "using mvs" has a chance of working for me. If it might, how do I "use mvs" when attempting to install? (The DVD does have the fixit environment available.) Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions, Jud -- "I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams