From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 29 06:27:46 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3863516A41C for ; Wed, 29 Jun 2005 06:27:46 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from dwhite@gumbysoft.com) Received: from carver.gumbysoft.com (carver.gumbysoft.com [66.220.23.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2147943D48 for ; Wed, 29 Jun 2005 06:27:46 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from dwhite@gumbysoft.com) Received: by carver.gumbysoft.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id A557A72DD4; Tue, 28 Jun 2005 23:27:45 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by carver.gumbysoft.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9F20F72DCB; Tue, 28 Jun 2005 23:27:45 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 23:27:45 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug White To: Mark Kirkwood In-Reply-To: <42BDF580.3040400@paradise.net.nz> Message-ID: <20050628232336.S3088@carver.gumbysoft.com> References: <200506251540.50639.doconnor@gsoft.com.au> <200506251733.24574.doconnor@gsoft.com.au> <42BD30D3.4000203@paradise.net.nz> <200506252127.07387.doconnor@gsoft.com.au> <42BDF580.3040400@paradise.net.nz> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 5.4 Installer + Promise FT100TX2 = Loader crash 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: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 06:27:46 -0000 On Sun, 26 Jun 2005, Mark Kirkwood wrote: > Daniel O'Connor wrote: > > > > > I find even disconnecting the drives so no RAID is detected works - ie it's > > not the presence of the card per se that is a problem. > > > > Good test - I had not tried that. > > In addition, I can confirm your observation that merely deleting the > array makes the loader work reliably again. Try: . Zero off the first megabyte or so of the subdisks with dd or similar tool. . Force an array initialize from the controller BIOS. Wait for it to finish. . Install some other OS that recognizes the array, write the MBR and partition table, then install FreeBSD over it. Some controller BIOSen have been known to peek at the DOS partition table, and it may be jumping off into space if its seeing half a table from one disk, or something like that. These actions should blow away any bogus underlying data. -- Doug White | FreeBSD: The Power to Serve dwhite@gumbysoft.com | www.FreeBSD.org