Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2012 08:18:20 -0400 From: John Baldwin <jhb@freebsd.org> To: Mike A <mikea@mikea.ath.cx> Cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Bug Report: IBM x3650M4 (32GB, 2x4-core Xeon E5-2600, IBM ServeRaid M5110e): fails in install with NMI Message-ID: <201208290818.20990.jhb@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <20120828210618.GD69985@mikea.ath.cx> References: <20120827203817.GB44988@mikea.ath.cx> <201208281238.48041.jhb@freebsd.org> <20120828210618.GD69985@mikea.ath.cx>
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On Tuesday, August 28, 2012 5:06:18 pm Mike A wrote: > On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 12:38:47PM -0400, John Baldwin wrote: > > > > When the loader menu pops up, choose the "escape to loader prompt" option, > > then type 'set hint.mpt.0.msi_enable=0' followed by 'boot'. There's no > > guarantee this will help, btw, just something to try out first. > > > > If that doesn't work, you can also try setting 'machdep.kdb_on_nmi=0' using > > the same trick. > > > > If that still doesn't help, please boot another OS that does and get the > > output of 'lspci -v' or 'pciconf -lvb' or equivalent so we can see exactly > > which mpt adapter it is. I think there is one class of mpt(4) cards that > > we do not yet support properly. Ah, yes, this PR: > > > > http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=149220 > > > > I think this may in fact be your adapter. This was fixed after 9.0, so try > > a 9.1-RC1 install disk instead and see if it works better. > > No joy. In sober fact, neither 9.1 nor 9.0 will even boot reliably to the > point where the usual dmesg contents are displayed. About 90% of the time, > 9.0 will hit the DVD reader for a while, then go quiescent, followed by > the yellow LED signaling an NMI or other serious problem and the bright > blue flashing LED signaling a halted machine. I have yet to get any display > out of 9.1 at all. I have changed all the changeables I can: booted from a > complete power-down, booted from a halted system, etc. I can't see anything > that always leads to a display or to a failure to display. > > It is interesting that a RedHad Enterprise Linux 5.1 (ancient!) DVD booted > up first crack off the bat. It couldn't find any discs to install to, > however, though it did inventory the SATA drives in its dmesg output. > > I'm about to try a Knoppix DVD, and will post what PCI data I can get > from that. > > I've entered the first loader hint and got no change in symptoms; since > then, I have not been able to get another display in about 10 tries, and > hence been unable to enter the first and second loader hints. At about 7 > minutes per try, this is enormously frustrating. > > If there is a way to instrument the CD/DVD boot process itself, so that I > can see what leads up to the failure to display, I am greatly interested > in doing this. My employer has about $40K invested in these boxes, and > is interested in getting some good out of them; I'm at least equally > interested in not annoying my boss. You can have pretty much 100% of my > work time until I get them on the air or give up and run some flavor of > Linux; I'd really rather not run Linux. > > At this point I don't know whether the problems stem from the RAID adapter > hosing the CD/DVD boot process, or from some other impediment. It may be > that this belongs in the amd64 group, instead of the scsi group. I don't > see a way to tell until I (or you) can determine the cause of the CD/DVD > boot problems. > > Thanks so much for your help so far. Humm, that is bizarre. All the early bootstrap code just relies on the BIOS to perform disk I/O, etc. Can you PXE boot these machines? That might be a way to get the CD out of the picture. I haven't seen any machines with your symptoms. At the least, if a machine does have a problem with the boot process due to a bug or some such, it is consistent in having the problem every time, not suddenly failing after working. Also, to be honest, the original NMI in itself is a bit odd. If you are having these problems now I do wonder if there isn't an underlying hardware issue. Regardless, I think netbooting would be a good thing to look to get the CD/DVD bit out of the way. -- John Baldwin
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