Problems installing FreeBSD with 3ware 9500S-4LP

[Doug White]

Please don't crosspost -questions and other lists. I've removed it from
the cc:.

On Fri, 18 Jun 2004, Patrick Hurrelmann wrote:

> finally i received my new raid-controller, bu i have problems installing
> FreeBSD on it :/
>
> I tried different releases and current snapshots...

The twa driver is still very new. It just came out a few weeks ago, I
think. I haven't seen one of those cards yet and we have a lot of 3ware
here.

Whats the RAID config?

> 5.1-Release
> w ACPI: Loading twa.ko (binary distribution of 3ware.com for 5.2) in 		sysinstall failes.
> w/o ACPI: same as w ACPI.

I wouldn't expect this to work.

> 5.2-Release
> w ACPI: loaded twa.ko in sysinstall.
> 	install went ok, on next reboot it just halts after BTX-Loader.
> 	I cannot load twa.ko in loader.
> w/o ACPI: same as w ACPI.

Hm, sounds like the loader is getting corrupted. Try booting the install
CD, breaking out of the loader countdown and run these commands
(untested):

unload
set rootdev=disk1s1a (or whatever disk you put freebsd on)
boot /boot/kernel/kernel

>
> 5.2.1-Release
> identical to 5.2 Release.
>
> 5.2-CURRENT-20040420
> w ACPI:	install went ok, on next reboot the following message scrolls 		the screen and it reboots:
> 	"Console internal keyboard/video" (or sth. like that)
> w/o ACPI: same as w ACPI.
>
> 5.2-CURRENT-20040504
> identical to 5.2-CURRENT-20040420
>
> 5.2-CURRENT-20040617
> identical to 5.2-CURRENT-20040420
>
> I attached a normal and a verbose-dmesg.

I'm suspecting two problems:

1. Volume was not created correctly so the loader binary is corrupted
2. The twa Int13 handler doesn't like how boot2 is loading the loader
binary, which shouldn't happen.

I'd check for a twa firmware update; these sound like firmware or
firmware/BIOS issues.

-- 
Doug White                    |  FreeBSD: The Power to Serve
dwhite at gumbysoft.com          |  www.FreeBSD.org