VIA M1000 mini-itx system installation woes - WRITE_DMA error - cabling?

[Jose M Rodriguez]

El Martes, 26 de Abril de 2005 23:31, W C escribió:
> Hi all,
>
> I am attempting to install 5.3-R from cd (iso image download)  and
> sysinstall is failing
> to write the chosen (Auto Layout) filesystem to disk, the Toshiba 80G
> on the primary ide channel as master.   The error on vty1 is (from
> memory) ad0: WRITE_DMA, error=84.
> The drive is detected by BIOS as a UDMA100 device.  There is nothing
> else on this IDE channel, and only a cd drive on the other IDE slot.
>
> A search of -questions reveals this error is a UDMA mismatch,
> possible caused by 80-pin cabling, and fixable with atacontrol ad0
> udma33 pio bla bla bla.  However, I do not yet have a running system
> to run atacontrol from, as I am installing.  I have rooted around in
> the bios for an option to force the drive to UDMA33 speed, to no
> avail.  Does anyone know how I can work around this problem and 
> install FreeBSD to this neat little system?  Do I have bad cabling, a
> bad drive, or ???
>

Ther're two types of 80pins ribbons, and found that you can interchange 
them in some scenarios.

As a first aid, try change the cable, loocking for the presence (or not) 
of a cut cable.

Also, you may use a 40pins ribbon, that will get you in UDMA33 .

--
  josemi