From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Oct 11 10:09:51 2008 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 53F4B1065686 for ; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:09:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jdc@koitsu.dyndns.org) Received: from QMTA06.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net (qmta06.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net [76.96.30.56]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3A1CF8FC0C for ; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:09:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jdc@koitsu.dyndns.org) Received: from OMTA14.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net ([76.96.30.60]) by QMTA06.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net with comcast id RN9E1a0041HpZEsA6N9qXg; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:09:50 +0000 Received: from koitsu.dyndns.org ([69.181.141.110]) by OMTA14.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net with comcast id RN9p1a00K2P6wsM8aN9qA4; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:09:50 +0000 X-Authority-Analysis: v=1.0 c=1 a=6I5d2MoRAAAA:8 a=QycZ5dHgAAAA:8 a=HehKXJD7uoPwdYJcbzAA:9 a=qRHPTrql_ijVNZEj4LwA:7 a=-OJPkaGF6z2lWmzR8EiMEIlMq54A:4 a=EoioJ0NPDVgA:10 a=LY0hPdMaydYA:10 Received: by icarus.home.lan (Postfix, from userid 1000) id CE330C9419; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:09:49 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:09:49 -0700 From: Jeremy Chadwick To: "Conrad J. Sabatier" Message-ID: <20081011100949.GB57170@icarus.home.lan> References: <48EFE00B.32391.87A6C@conrads.cox.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <48EFE00B.32391.87A6C@conrads.cox.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.18 (2008-05-17) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Need help installing on SATA 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: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:09:51 -0000 On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 11:06:51PM -0500, Conrad J. Sabatier wrote: > Does anyone know the magic incantation that will permit me to install > FreeBSD on this new machine of mine (nVidia chipset, SATA1 disk > controller)? This information is too vague. We need to know *exactly*: 1) What motherboard model, 2) What SATA controller you're using ("nVidia chipset" is too vague), 3) If you're using BIOS-level RAID or not, 4) What version of "7.x" you're trying to install. Please note that FreeBSD often does not support brand-spanking-new hardware. For example, there are Asus motherboards out right now which use a Marvell ATA/PATA controller which FreeBSD does not have support for. Linux adopts brand-spanking-new hardware much quicker than we do. Finally, these problems are difficult to solve; it's a chicken-and-egg problem. Even if you can get into the Fixit CD's "Fixit#" prompt and type "dmesg", you probably don't have serial console or anything hooked up, so getting us the dmesg output would be very difficult. > I've been trying for a week or so now, with no luck. Just out of > curiosity, I downloaded and ran Ubuntu 8.x, and it recognized all of > my hardware automatically. The FreeBSD installer (both in 7.x and > 8.x), though, can't find my hard drive or CD-ROM. There have been *tons* of changes to the ATA/SATA layer between different 7.x versions. I would urge you to try 7.1-BETA (do not let the term "BETA" scare you away) and see if it works for you: ftp://ftp4.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/7.1/ ftp://ftp4.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/ISO-IMAGES/7.1/ There are some of us which have this problem on CURRENT (8.0). For example, in my case, my Promise TX4310 card is not even seen on the PCI bus during boot-up, while it works just fine in RELENG_7. > I *really* don't want to have to resort to Linux, not after using > FreeBSD for 12 years now, but if I can't find a solution to this > problem, I'll have no choice. :-( I'm not sure why people resort to saying things like this, like somehow they're committing a sin by using another operating system. Open source is about freedom of choice -- if FreeBSD doesn't work for you or get the job done, and Linux does, then use Linux! If Windows works for you, use Windows! There's absolutely no shame in that. Blind, one-sided advocacy only harms open source projects. -- | Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com | | Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ | | UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA | | Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB |