interesting problem

[David Leimbach]

So... I have this nice SATA drive and controller which I believe is 
supported
by FreeBSD but not in the default build for releases.

What is the best way to cross-build a version of FreeBSD's release ISOs 
that
will include drivers not included in the default distribution?  Or is 
it possible
to supply a driver during sysinstall time to have FreeBSD recognize my 
hard disk?

Currently I can only get Mandrake linux 9.1 to install on this disk as 
it has the
2.4.21[pre release I assume] linux kernel that does recognize this 
controller [even
Windows XP Pro does not recognize this newer hardware  and I didn't get 
a floppy
drive yet for the new machine].

Can I cross compile FreeBSD 5.1 [RC or otherwise] from Mandrake Linux 
to include the
necessary support then burn a CD of the generated ISO images?

It would be super-cool if I could :) and a decent learning 
experience....  Might be
worth documenting it if I can figure it out.

Dave