FreeBSD 4.9-RC4 vs 5.1-CURRENT-20031021-JPSNAP

[David Boyd]

Hardware: 	Soekris Net4801 (ComBIOS 1.21), SanDisk 512MB Ultra Compact Flash
Software: 	5.1-CURRENT
Symptom:	ad0: FAILURE - SET_MULTI status=51<READY,DSC,ERROR>
error=4<ABORTED>
		GEOM: create disk ad0 dp=0xc47ffb70
		ad0: 488MB <SanDisk SDFCH-512> [993/16/63] at ata0-master PIO4
Result:	system boots normally and runs without problems

Hardware: 	Soekris Net4801 (ComBIOS 1.21), SanDisk 512MB Ultra Compact Flash
Software:	4.9-RC4
Symptom:	Read error (BIOS? initiated)
Result:	hung

Note:		Hardware in scenario #1 and scenario #2 are the same pieces of
equipment
		(not just similar).

Analysis(feeble):
		This Compact Flash card does not support multi-sector transfers
		required to boot.  5.1-CURRENT is compensating for this effect and
continues.
		4.9-RC4 punts (returning an error to the BIOS?).

The recent delay of 4.9-RELEASE may indicate that there is some small window
in which to
obtain a fix for this problem in a "STABLE" release (before 5.2).  I hope.