FreeBSD on IBM BladeCenter?

[nahthan subramanian]

Hi there,
 
  Any success stories out there of getting FreeBSD running on IBM BladeCenter hardware?
It's not officially supported.  It's designed to run Linux/*doze.
 
Here's a document of my attempts:
 
---------------------------
 
Hardware Information
general: http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/bladecenter/
  chassis: http://tinyurl.com/4gcbw
  blade: http://tinyurl.com/6js9m
HS20 blade machine type: 8843
HS20 blade model number: 11U
Chassis model number: 8677-3XU
Chassis machine type: 8843
Chassis model number: 11U
basic blade config:
Dual Intel Xeon 3.0Ghz
  hyper threading and EM64T support
4096MB memory
----------------
FreeBSD Installation media tried:
tried with freebsd 5.3 i386 from floppy & CD
tried with freebsd 4.ii i386 from floppy & CD
--
tried with BIOS 1.2 on blade.
tried with BIOS 1.0 on blade.
--
tried with an extrenal USB keyboard connected, and without.
--
tried with hyperthreading disabled in BIOS.
tried with CPU cache enabled/disabled in BIOS.
tried with CPU write back cache enabled/disabled in BIOS.
tried with CPU prefetch queue enabled/disabled in BIOS.
tried with CPU Execute Disable bit enabled/disabled in BIOS.
--
tried with ACPI enabled/disabled from the installation prompt.
 
nothing.
 
Here are the crashes and error messages:
-------
FreeBSD 5.3 boot from CD/floppy crash/panic:
 
atapci0: <Intel 6300ESB UDMA 100 controller> port 0x376,0x170-0x177,0x3f6,0x1f0-0x1f7 at drvice 31.1 on pci0

fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode
fault virtual address   = 0x5
fault code              = supervisor read, page not present
instruction pointer     = 0x8:0xc06200d0
stack pointer           = 0x10:0xc1021914
frame pointer           = 0x10:0xc1021914
code segment            = base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b
                        = DPL 0, pres 1, def32 1, gran 1
processor eflags        = interrupt enabled, resume, IPOL=0
current process         = 0 (swapper)
trap number             = 12
panic: page fault
uptime: 1s
shutting down ACPI
stray IRQ 11
Automatic reboot in 15 seconds - press a key on the console to abort
Rebooting...
Keyboard reset did not work, attempting CPU shutdown
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FreeBSD 5.2.1 booting from CD, hangs on boot:
 
acpi0: <IBM   SERBLADE> on motherboard
pcibios: BIOS version 2.10
acpi_bus_number: can't get _ADR
acpi_bus_number: can't get _ADR
acpi_bus_number: can't get _ADR
acpi_bus_number: can't get _ADR
acpi_bus_number: can't get _ADR
acpi_bus_number: can't get _ADR
acpi0: Power Button (fixed)
Timecounter "ACPI-safe" frequency 3579545 Hz quality 1000
(...hangs here forever... machine completely locks up...)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FreeBSD 4.11, booting from CD:
 
Uncompressing ... done
BTX loader 1.00 BTX version is 1.01
Console: internal video/keyboard
BIOS drive C: is disk0
BIOS 629/3275513kB available memory
FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 0.8
(root at perseus.cse.buffalo.edu, Fri Jan 21 15:42:07 GMT 2005)
Can't work out which disk we're booting from.
Guessed BIOS device 0x0 not found by probes, defaulting to disk0:
Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt.
Booting [kernel]...
can't load 'kernel'
can't load 'kernel.old'
Type '?' for a list of commands, 'help' for more detailed help.
ok
-------------
FreeBSD 4.11, booting from floppy:
Uncompressing ... done
BTX loader 1.00 BTX version is 1.01
Console: internal video/keyboard
BIOS drive C: is disk0
BIOS 629/3275513kB available memory
FreeBSD/i386 bootstrap loader, Revision 0.8
(root at perseus.cse.buffalo.edu, Fri Jan 21 15:42:07 GMT 2005)
/kernel text=0x289d91 data=0x30170+0x32d04 zf_read: fill error
elf_loadexec: archsw.readin failed
can't load module '/kernel': input/output error
-
Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt.
booting [kernel]...
/kernel text=0x289d91 data=0x30170+0x32d04 zf_read: fill error
elf_loadexec: archsw.readin failed
can't load 'kernel'
can't load 'kernel.old'
Type '?' for a list of commands, 'help' for more detailed help.
ok
----------------------------

I can't think of much else to try for now.  Any clues?  Thanks.
 
-Nate

		
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