LG combo drive and Attansic Technology ethernet card on Asus P5Q Pro

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Thu, Oct 02, 2008 at 06:32:20PM +0200, Giuseppe Pagnoni wrote:
> I am trying to install FreeBSD 7.0 on a new i386 machine with no OS
> installed yet.  I start the install process with the 1st CD of the
> distribution, and I go through the partition phase with no problem.
> However, when I get to the point where I select the installation media
> (CD/DVD) it says that it cannot find the CD/DVD.
> 
> I read on the FAQ list on the FreeBSD site that this can happen when
> the drive is configured as a slave with no master.  So I opened up the
> box, and I saw that the drive has its own ATAPI/IDE cable/slot on the
> motherboard and the jumpers on  the drive are set as MASTER.
> 
> The drive is a new LG combo drive, I believe GH22LP20 or something close to it.
> 
> I also tried to install Ubuntu and it works fine (but I really would
> like to have FreeBSD!).

The only thing I can think of is that the P5Q boards use a Marvell
ATA/IDE controller (yes, you read that correctly).  I wonder if FreeBSD
somehow lacks support for this...

What confuses me is that you can boot the CD media, and FreeBSD will
load kernel modules and a copy of the mini filesystem into memory off
the CD, yet it can't actually find the CD come installation time.

> On an unrelated topic, does anybody know whether the network card
> Attansic Technology on Asus P5Q Pro motherboard is compatible with
> FreeBSD?

Asus was somewhat vague as to what model of Attansic/Atheros IC they
used on the P5Q series.  I have one of these boards, so I can assure
you it's an Attansic L1E.  It's sometimes referred to as an Atheros
AR8121, AR8113, or AR8114.

FreeBSD 7.1-PRERELEASE has support for this NIC; age(4) is the driver.
7.0 will very likely not support this NIC.

Please download the 7.1-PRERELEASE ISO from here, and try installing
using it instead.

ftp://ftp4.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/200809/

If finding the CD/DVD media still does not work, let us know and I will
try to reproduce the problem on my P5Q SE.

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.              PGP: 4BD6C0CB |