Installing 7.1 amd64 on Dell powerEdge 2950

[Olivier Nicole]

Hi,

As a follow-up...

> I recently posted the message bellow on FreeBSD question, but I did
> not get much reply.
> 
> As suggested by in a reply, I updated the BIOS, and PERC and Board
> control management, but it did not go any further in the boot process.
> 
> I ran tests:
> 
> R6.4 amd64: works
> R7.0 amd64: does not work
> R7.1 i386: works
> R7.1 i386+PAE: does not work (I had to remove fdc and some other 
>                devices before it could complete the boot)
> 
> I plan to install R6.4 amd64, csvup to 7.1 and rebuild everything. I
> am pretty sure it will be working with a custom kernel, but not with
> default SMP kernel.
> 
> I can do some testing on that machine for a couple more weeks, but I
> would need to be guided on what to do.
 
I managed to install Release 6.4 amd64.

I cvsup'ed to RELENG 7.1 amd64.

I trimed down the kernel to keep only the devices needed by the
hardware.  It appreas that device sio is among the ones that hang the
load of GENERIC kernel.

"make kernel" would produce a bunch of lines like:
     kldxref: unknown metdata record 0 in file if_zyd.ko.symbols
     kldxref: unknown metdata record 0 in file if_zyd.ko.symbols
     kldxref: unknown metdata record 0 in file if_zyd.ko.symbols
but 7.1 would boot nevertheless.

After installing world on 7.1, the make kernel runs cleanly.

Best regards,

Olivier