From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Apr 19 14:18:49 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 220D1106564A for ; Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:18:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Received: from sola.nimnet.asn.au (paqi.nimnet.asn.au [115.70.110.159]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 33ADB8FC08 for ; Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:18:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sola.nimnet.asn.au (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id q3JEIHHU038090; Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:18:18 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:18:17 +1000 (EST) From: Ian Smith To: Andy Dills In-Reply-To: <20120418140842.P34903@shell.xecu.net> Message-ID: <20120419234841.H36310@sola.nimnet.asn.au> References: <20120417195749.L89206@shell.xecu.net> <20120418140842.P34903@shell.xecu.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Cc: "freebsd-stable@freebsd.org" , "Harris, James R" Subject: RE: FreeBSD 8.3-R sysinstall does not "see" disks that are recognized during boot X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:18:49 -0000 On Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:17:31 -0400 (EDT), Andy Dills wrote: > On Wed, 18 Apr 2012, Harris, James R wrote: > > > > Andy and I worked this out offline - workaround was to go to > > Options|Re-scan which caused the devices to show up in the sysinstall > > menu. I'm adding details here for future reference. > > > > 1) C60x chipsets have the 6 traditional SATA ports, plus 4 or 8 SAS > > ports. Only the latter are controlled by the isci(4) driver. > > 2) The IDE/AHCI/RAID modes apply only to the traditional SATA ports. > > 3) In Andy's case, going to Options|Re-scan Devices caused the disks to > > show up. This problem seems to be system or platform-dependent, as I > > was not able to reproduce with 8.3 memstick image on my C600 systems. > > 4) There was a problem with initial device scan using isci(4) on > > 7-STABLE, which necessitated r233371. This was MFC'd back to 8-STABLE, > > but after 8.3 was released. I'm fairly convinced this is the root cause > > of Andy's problem, but don't have any easy way to verify. > > First, I want to thank James and the other responders for help getting me > squared away. > > Something that may be of specific use for others (James has covered the > most relevant points...at blazing speed, what an asset to the community), > is that the isci support in 8.3-R will now enable FreeBSD compatibility > with most of the new Supermicro server platforms. > > And a new lesson was learned....first thing to try when sysinstall fails > to recognize hardware is to re-scan devices. Never needed that across > thousands of installs (dating to 2.2.8), and didn't even know it existed. Yes. This same thing happen{s,ed} in sysinstall with memstick installs - and perhaps other SCSI over USB devices? - with some sticks and/or on some boxes; in particular after happily booting into sysinstall from a memstick, then not finding the same daX thereafter to install from. Bruce Cran added a message to the 'No disks found' dialog suggesting trying Options/Rescan Devices, which 'solved' the problem for that then quite commonly reported problem, for 8.1-R or so. Apparently the dialog message was only updated specifically for USB-based da devices .. cheers, Ian