From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 9 13:51:39 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 AEB3010656B6 for ; Thu, 9 Sep 2010 13:51:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions@pp.dyndns.biz) Received: from smtprelay-h31.telenor.se (smtprelay-h31.telenor.se [213.150.131.4]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 63BCB8FC15 for ; Thu, 9 Sep 2010 13:51:39 +0000 (UTC) Received: from ipb2.telenor.se (ipb2.telenor.se [195.54.127.165]) by smtprelay-h31.telenor.se (Postfix) with ESMTP id 43182EBF29 for ; Thu, 9 Sep 2010 15:51:38 +0200 (CEST) X-SENDER-IP: [85.226.59.55] X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AhgxAJuDiExV4js3PGdsb2JhbACDGZ4XDAEBAQE1LawmkWaBIoMndASNHA X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.56,339,1280700000"; d="scan'208";a="127647010" Received: from c-373be255.107-1-64736c10.cust.bredbandsbolaget.se (HELO gatekeeper.pp.dyndns.biz) ([85.226.59.55]) by ipb2.telenor.se with ESMTP; 09 Sep 2010 15:51:37 +0200 Received: from [192.168.69.67] (phobos [192.168.69.67]) by gatekeeper.pp.dyndns.biz (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id o89DpYiW036203 for ; Thu, 9 Sep 2010 15:51:35 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd-questions@pp.dyndns.biz) Message-ID: <4C88E666.2030208@pp.dyndns.biz> Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:51:34 +0200 From: =?UTF-8?B?TW9yZ2FuIFdlc3N0csO2bQ==?= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.7) Gecko/20100906 Lightning/1.0b2 Thunderbird/3.1.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: FreeBSD Questions References: <4C8825E7.5080000@pp.dyndns.biz> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: Re: Any way to force AHCI mode on ICH8? 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: Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:51:39 -0000 On 2010-09-09 13:04, Ivan Voras wrote: > On 09/09/10 02:10, Morgan Wesström wrote: >> I run FreeBSD 8.1 on an old Asus P5B-VM motherboard with ICH8. Its AMI >> BIOS lacks an option to enable AHCI mode. Intel's datasheet for the ICH8 >> family specifies that this feature exists on the ICH8, and the option is >> available in the BIOS for the identical (apart from form factor) P5B >> motherboard. >> >> http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/313056.pdf >> >> I've contacted Asus support for an updated BIOS but I don't have much >> hope I will ever see one. Would it be possible to patch the FreeBSD >> kernel to enable AHCI mode somehow during boot? > > You mean except adding: > > ahci_load="YES" > > to /boot/loader.conf ? > Yes, I meant if there was a way to programmatically switch the ICH8 into AHCI mode before loading ahci(4). The BIOS on this motherboard only provides a "legacy" and an "enhanced" option for the SATA controller. Neither option turns on AHCI mode so ata(4) attaches to the controller. There's also a JMicron controller, providing an eSATA connector, on this motherboard. It is AHCI compatible and ahci(4) attaches correctly to it. It would've been nice to be able to use NCQ and hotplug on the other SATA connectors too since the ICH8 has those features. Regards Morgan