FreeBSD/amd64 on machine without ACPI BIOS?

[Garrett Cooper]

On Dec 11, 2011, at 11:12 AM, Andriy Gapon <avg at FreeBSD.org> wrote:

> on 11/12/2011 11:27 Lev Serebryakov said the following:
>> Hello, Freebsd-current.
>> You wrote 9 декабря 2011 г., 14:10:18:
>> 
>>>  Soekris ("famous" developer of small x86-compatible appliance-like
>>> hardware) released net6501 some time ago, which is based on Atom (E6xx)
>>> CPU.
>>>  It seems, that 64-bit version of Linux could run on it without
>>> problems.
>>>  But FreeBSD/amd64 can not. It stops after kernel detect some
>>> devices without any errors or panics.
>>>  This box has one big difference from billions other Intel-based
>>> boxes on market: it has very special BIOS without ACPI at all. Someone
>>> says, that it could be reason why FreeBSD/amd64 could not be boot on
>>> this box.
>>> Is it true? Is it possible to have FreeBSD/amd64 without ACPI?
>>  It seems, that "device mptable" in kernel config helps.
>>  Why is it not in GENERIC kernel?
> 
> Just a guess, maybe because GENERIC kernel is for "generic" hardware.

Sounds like we need a SOEKRIS generic KERNCONF and an installer that can install the right kernel (or at least select between different variants) :).. Sounds like a worthwhile enhancement to me!
-Garrett