Easier way to install on 3ware 9550 card?

[John Nielsen]

On Wednesday 03 January 2007 12:34, Dan Mahoney, System Admin wrote:
> On Wed, 3 Jan 2007, Per olof Ljungmark wrote:
> > Dan Mahoney, System Admin wrote:
> >> Hey all,
> >>
> >> I have a new system with NO FLOPPY CONTROLLER and a 3ware 9550 card. 
> >> It's a 1u system -- sticking extra things into PCI slots as a workaround
> >> is likely to be impossible.
> >
> > I don't think you need a driver - it's already there.
> > apropos 3ware
> > twa(4)- 3ware 9000/9500/9550 series SATA RAID controllers driver
> > twe(4)- 3ware 5000/6000/7000/8000 series PATA/SATA RAID adapter driver
>
> Oh I'm sorry, then why didn't I just install the OS?  Because it said "no
> drives found!"
>
> The card doesn't probe at boot, and there's an elaborate howto on 3ware's
> site that describes HOW to get it to probe at boot.
>
> While I myself stated that the driver DOES appear to be in the base, for
> whatever reason the kernel on the install CD doesn't include it, nor the
> ability to kldload a module from anyplace easy.

You were on the right track with the emergency shell, but the "Fixit" mode 
(now included on disk 1 for your convenience) gives you a lot more 
flexibility (inclusion of "ls" is just the start!). Have you tried something 
like this?

1) Boot to complete install CD
2) Go into "Fixit" mode (not just the emergency shell)
3) # sysctl kern.module_path="/dist/boot/kernel"
4) # kldload twa
5) # exit
6) proceed with installation

This shouldn't be necessary though, since twa is included in GENERIC for both 
FreeBSD 6.1 and 6.2 (did you say what version you were trying to install?).

Now, if your controller is too new to be included in the shipping version of 
twa then that's another matter. If you have a binary kernel module that uses 
a different driver name from the vendor you could use the same general 
approach, but you'd want to configure your network interface and set up your 
NFS mount prior to step 3, and include the appropriate NFS path in the sysctl 
command in step 3.

HTH,

JN