Annoying FreeBSD > 4.11 ASUS PSCH-SR/SATA mobo incompability

[Mark Kirkwood]

Kimmo Alm wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> My ASUS PSCH-SR/SATA won't work in FreeBSD versions over 4.x. I have 
> tested 5.x, 6.x and even a current 7.x one.
> 
> CD: "bootonly".
> Problem: Loads kernel, and then basically freezes, overwriting 
> characters on the screen (at the boot menu with the options).
> 
> Among the zillions of things I've tested to solve this problem include: 
> Testing another videocard (PCI -- not on-board), testing without the 
> S-ATA enabled, updated BIOS to the latest version (hardware made in 2004 
> and last BIOS update in late 2005), changing a ton of settings in the 
> BIOS, installing the OS on another box and moving the HDD... Nothing works.
> 

Have you tried installing 4.11 and upgrading via source to 5.4 (see
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.4R/migration-guide.html)?

I ran into cases a bit like this with some Tyan mobos and Promise RAID 
cards,  (however I normally saw the freeze as the kernel was loading, 
rather than afterwards). They would boot fine from disk after 5.x was 
installed.


Cheers

Mark