unable to boot 7.0-RELEASE cdrom on supermicro 5015b-mt

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 06:47:34PM +0100, ian j hart wrote:
> On Tuesday 22 July 2008 17:37:24 Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 05:27:52PM +0100, ian j hart wrote:
> > > Same hardware as my other thread.
> > > http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1U/5015/SYS-5015B-MT.cfm
> > >
> > > [using 2Gb RAM and SATA in legacy mode]
> > >
> > > I'd like to focus only on making the CDROM boot complete.
> > >
> > > Summary: hangs just after the CPUs are launched.
> > >
> > > 6.2-RELEASE	works okay, no AHCI support
> > > 6.3-RELEASE	works okay
> > > 7.0-RELEASE	hangs
> > > 7.0-STABLE-200806-SNAPSHOT	hangs
> > > 8.0-CURRENT-200806-SNAPSHOT	hangs
> > >
> > > I thought I could do a binary search using the current snapshot boot-only
> > > CDs but they only go back to March. Are there any older ones available?
> >
> > Have you tried disabling ACPI to see if it makes any sort of difference?
> 
> Yes, but I'm happy to re-try.
> 
> Which method is "best"? Or is it 1 + 2 or 3?
> 
> 1) BIOS
> 2) Beastie menu option
> 3) loader prompt set hint

Item #2 is the easiest.  You should really be able to leave the BIOS
settings at their defaults (Factory Defaults) and have this system work
on FreeBSD.

Items #2 and #3 are the same.  The loader menu option for disabling ACPI
simply sets the hint.

> > Also, AHCI should work just fine on those systems -- I know because I
> > have fairly extensive experience with Supermicro hardware, although what
> > you're using is newer than what I presently have.  I don't know why
> > you're setting Compatible/Legacy mode on your controller (you mention
> > doing this in your other thread as well).
> 
> Because I don't know what's wrong yet and AHCI support is newer than SATA 
> support and this is a newish board? [At least 6.2 doesn't seem to support it 
> and it has an AHCI legacy option!]
> 
> I'd be happy to swap this over. Slight problem; the drives get renumbered, so 
> I'd rather not swap back and forth.

You *absolutely* should have AHCI enabled.  There's a lot of reasons
why, too.  I highly recommend avoiding the "SATA Compatible" mode.

AHCI should work fine on FreeBSD 6.3 as well as 7.0 -- I know, because
we have many Supermicro boards running those versions which do have AHCI
enabled.  Please use it, and stick with it.

Here's added proof that AHCI works fine on 6.3:

$ dmesg -a | grep -i ahci
atapci1: <Intel AHCI controller> port 0x30e8-0x30ef,0x30dc-0x30df,0x30e0-0x30e7,0x30d8-0x30db,0x30b0-0x30bf mem 0xe0000400-0xe00007ff irq 19 at device 31.2 on pci0
atapci1: AHCI Version 01.10 controller with 4 ports detected
$ uname -r -s
FreeBSD 6.3-PRERELEASE

The adX device renumbering is expected.  There are workarounds for this,
but I recommend you simply enable AHCI.  Do not keep toggling it on/off.

> > Below is what we use on our systems; factory defaults, then make the
> > following changes.  (The G-LAN1 OPROM option you can do whatever you
> > want with -- it's specific to our environment).
> >
> > * Main
> >     * Date
> >          --> Set to GMT, not local time!!!
> >     * Serial ATA
> >          --> SATA Controller Mode --> Enhanced
> >          --> SATA AHCI --> Enabled
> >
> > * Advanced
> >     * Boot Features
> >          --> Quiet Mode --> Disabled
> >          --> Enable Multimedia Timer --> Enabled
> >     * PCI Configuration
> >          --> Onboard G-LAN1 OPROM --> Disabled
> >          --> Large Disk Access Mode --> Other
> >     * Advanced Processor Options
> >          --> Intel(R) Virtualization Technology --> Enabled
> >          --> C1 Enhanced Mode --> Enabled
> 
> I've got as close as I can to this.
> 
> This board also has an AHCI legacy option [disabled] which hides ports 5 and 
> 6. I also disabled quickboot and POST errors. I assume multimedia timer is 
> the same as HPET. Doesn't seem to be any disk translation option. I took the 
> fans off 'flat out'.

Okay, I've had a chance to review the board manual that comes with the
X7SBi.  You should set the following:

Serial ATA: Enabled
Native Mode Operation: Serial ATA
SATA AHCI: Enabled
SATA AHCI Legacy: Disabled

The name "SATA AHCI Legacy" a horrible name for what it does.  The ICH9
itself has support for 6 SATA ports, but (if I remember correctly, based
on reading some Intel design documents) there are extra registers you
have to tweak to get those ports to work, and the OS has to be fully
aware of how to do that.  The BIOS option simply disables SATA ports 5
and 6 altogether; the underlying OS never sees them.  I'd recommend
keeping that setting Disabled (the default) unless you have disks on
those ports (I don't see how, since it's a 4-disk system!).

I don't think this option is what's causing you problems, though.

"Multimedia Timer" is indeed HPET.  Looks like they changed the name to
be more reflective of what it actually is.

The "Large Disk Access" mode does appear to be missing from that BIOS,
probably for a good reason.  I can enable/disable it on our boards with
no repercussions (the options are "DOS" and "Other", which is why I
choose "Other").  I'm not entirely sure what it does.

As for your problem...

If the CDROM is the problem (which would be odd, since the disc does
boot and load the kernel successfully), can you try going into the BIOS
and setting IDE Channel 0 Master (which I think is the CDROM -- I could
be wrong here) and set "Transfer Mode" to PIO1 and "Ultra DMA Mode" to
Disabled?

I have a feeling the problem isn't related to the CDROM, but I'm not
entirely sure how to debug it.

There are other users using the X7SBi with success:

http://groups.google.com/group/mailing.freebsd.current/browse_thread/thread/d0a2d20f8965361a
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=666686

Also, can you make sure your BIOS revision is 1.1a, just to rule out any
BIOS-related issues?

-- 
| 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 |