From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Mar 16 14:11:49 2011 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 059F9106564A for ; Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:11:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bf1783@googlemail.com) Received: from mail-gx0-f182.google.com (mail-gx0-f182.google.com [209.85.161.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B809D8FC1C for ; Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:11:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: by gxk28 with SMTP id 28so751604gxk.13 for ; Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:11:48 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:reply-to:date:message-id:subject :from:to:content-type; bh=APmzI1WYy8REctr+P5CLf9l3FUYfKmqQt90uNHwLVRQ=; b=nR4D+Ic1Xc5aRzNAkj+MPnhfpG3NZBAYW6/BFjf2tAUAZxC+XhQu3JYIupfTZ9U/Si z8/NBO1vuh64GmSCq5d8GbPtf5+spLARj7jcJSgbRbRQx+4ITJZAjSVF85bXTnf5R91e fmzDmDBZEelu0z06LHyFHRJixZltM+AgIlopw= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:reply-to:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; b=FT3b1uBK2SY43JNahk6TtTJ6VGy9bldtHEAl+mzIK2dPwJnjFvtpmLCbufYxN+Y4y6 /BvtSYmFU3dIPkO5iVqKDaZq6gj6rmcRZwdiAuwsXaO+5f627i1nSfDsYKoh/ZAzqL9h fBItK+mz8WkZ5LaqzfdGSqFNmz3hqARrYLdEs= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.236.192.234 with SMTP id i70mr49052yhn.126.1300284708070; Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:11:48 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.236.103.16 with HTTP; Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:11:48 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:11:48 +0000 Message-ID: From: "b. f." To: Ilya Kazakevich , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: Subject: Re: Booting from firmware RAID X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: bf1783@gmail.com List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:11:49 -0000 > This is probably more PC-specific than freebsd-specific question. I have > intel firmware raid. OS needs drivers to work with it. FreeBSD sees it as > ar0, so it has drivers. > But I want my OS to be installed on this drive and boot from it. It is not > good idea, but I really want to do it:) > Is it possible? > > boot0 and boot1 both work with HDD via BIOS interrupts and CHS, right? So, > how do they know how to access RAID? They has no drivers. > Or BIOS supports interrupts to access RAID with out of drivers? If so -- > what for drivers are needed? To access drive via ATA interface? > > Is it possible to boot freebsd from "firmware raid"? Sometimes: it depends on the firmware, and your bios. I had a add-in PCIe SATA RAID controller based on a Marvell SE9128 chipset, and using a Marvell firmware. The bios and the FreeBSD 9-CURRENT bootloader were able to boot from a JBOD drive attached to the controller, up until the point where the ahci driver tried to take control of the drive. Then the Marvell firmware presented a fictitious configuration to the ahci driver and returned invalid device signatures, so the boot process failed. On the same machine, however, I was able to boot without problems from a JBOD drive attached to a PCI-X SATA RAID controller based on the Silicon Image SiI3124 chipset, using a Silicon Image firmware. b.