problem booting a new server on FreeBSD

Fri Jan 7 16:30:37 UTC 2011

Hello,

We have purchased a brand new server running an Intel Motherboard
which boots fine on Linux but not on FreeBSD, I have tried FreeBSD 8.1
and 8.2-RC1 without success. The motherboard is a S5500HCV (Version:
E40912-455). It has 2 SATA drives connected in compatible mode in the
BIOS (also tried AHCI without success). It also hosts a 3ware RAID
controller (9750 series, 16 ports).

When booting, i get to the screen where I can select which boot
process i want for FreeBSD (normal, without ACPI, debug, single,
etc...). Regardless of the option I select, it starts flickering the
rotating cursor (\|/-) then freezes completely with no information.

I have disabled a few options in the BIOS including advanced ACPI
states for the CPU (Intel Xeon E5620), disabled HT and speedstep
without much success.

Any hint welcome, this server with be an NFS box and I don't fancy
having Linux running on it.

I am including the linux lspci to show what's on the box:

[root at localhost ~]# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 5500 I/O Hub to ESI Port (rev 22)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI
Express Root Port 1 (rev 22)
00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI
Express Root Port 3 (rev 22)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI
Express Root Port 7 (rev 22)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI
Express Root Port 9 (rev 22)
00:10.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Physical and Link Layer
Registers Port 0 (rev 22)
00:10.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Routing and Protocol
Layer Registers Port 0 (rev 22)
00:11.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500 Physical and Link Layer
Registers Port 1 (rev 22)
00:11.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500 Routing & Protocol Layer
Register Port 1 (rev 22)
00:13.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub I/OxAPIC
Interrupt Controller (rev 22)
00:14.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub System Management
Registers (rev 22)
00:14.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub GPIO and Scratch
Pad Registers (rev 22)
00:14.2 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Control Status
and RAS Registers (rev 22)
00:14.3 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Throttle Registers (rev 22)
00:15.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Trusted Execution
Technology Registers (rev 22)
00:16.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset
QuickData Technology Device (rev 22)
00:16.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset
QuickData Technology Device (rev 22)
00:16.2 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset
QuickData Technology Device (rev 22)
00:16.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset
QuickData Technology Device (rev 22)
00:16.4 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset
QuickData Technology Device (rev 22)
00:16.5 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset
QuickData Technology Device (rev 22)
00:16.6 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset
QuickData Technology Device (rev 22)
00:16.7 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset
QuickData Technology Device (rev 22)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB
UHCI Controller #4
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB
UHCI Controller #5
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB
UHCI Controller #6
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2
EHCI Controller #2
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI
Express Root Port 1
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI
Express Root Port 5
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB
UHCI Controller #1
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB
UHCI Controller #2
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB
UHCI Controller #3
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2
EHCI Controller #1
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 4 port
SATA IDE Controller #1
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 2 port
SATA IDE Controller #2
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82575EB Gigabit Network
Connection (rev 02)
01:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82575EB Gigabit Network
Connection (rev 02)
03:00.0 RAID bus controller: 3ware Inc 9750 SAS2/SATA-II RAID PCIe (rev 05)
06:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200e
[Pilot] ServerEngines (SEP1) (rev 02)
fe:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series QuickPath
Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 02)
fe:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series QuickPath
Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 02)
fe:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series QPI Link 0 (rev 02)
fe:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series QPI Physical 0 (rev 02)
fe:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Mirror Port
Link 0 (rev 02)
fe:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Mirror Port
Link 1 (rev 02)
fe:02.4 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series QPI Link 1 (rev 02)
fe:02.5 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series QPI Physical 1 (rev 02)
fe:03.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Registers (rev 02)
fe:03.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Target Address Decoder (rev 02)
fe:03.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller RAS Registers (rev 02)
fe:03.4 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Test Registers (rev 02)
fe:04.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 0 Control (rev 02)
fe:04.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 0 Address (rev 02)
fe:04.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 0 Rank (rev 02)
fe:04.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 0 Thermal Control (rev 02)
fe:05.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 1 Control (rev 02)
fe:05.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 1 Address (rev 02)
fe:05.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 1 Rank (rev 02)
fe:05.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 1 Thermal Control (rev 02)
fe:06.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 2 Control (rev 02)
fe:06.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 2 Address (rev 02)
fe:06.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 2 Rank (rev 02)
fe:06.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 2 Thermal Control (rev 02)
ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series QuickPath
Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 02)
ff:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series QuickPath
Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 02)
ff:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series QPI Link 0 (rev 02)
ff:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series QPI Physical 0 (rev 02)
ff:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Mirror Port
Link 0 (rev 02)
ff:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Mirror Port
Link 1 (rev 02)
ff:02.4 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series QPI Link 1 (rev 02)
ff:02.5 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series QPI Physical 1 (rev 02)
ff:03.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Registers (rev 02)
ff:03.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Target Address Decoder (rev 02)
ff:03.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller RAS Registers (rev 02)
ff:03.4 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Test Registers (rev 02)
ff:04.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 0 Control (rev 02)
ff:04.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 0 Address (rev 02)
ff:04.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 0 Rank (rev 02)
ff:04.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 0 Thermal Control (rev 02)
ff:05.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 1 Control (rev 02)
ff:05.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 1 Address (rev 02)
ff:05.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 1 Rank (rev 02)
ff:05.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 1 Thermal Control (rev 02)
ff:06.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 2 Control (rev 02)
ff:06.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 2 Address (rev 02)
ff:06.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 2 Rank (rev 02)
ff:06.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5600 Series Integrated
Memory Controller Channel 2 Thermal Control (rev 02)

Cheers,
Steph