i386/121454: Promise SuperTrak SX6000 does not load during boot in 7.0-RELEASE

[Marc Muncke]

>Number:         121454
>Category:       i386
>Synopsis:       Promise SuperTrak SX6000 does not load during boot in 7.0-RELEASE
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    freebsd-i386
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Thu Mar 06 23:10:06 UTC 2008
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Marc Muncke
>Release:        7.0-RELEASE
>Organization:
computer1020
>Environment:
FreeBSD www1.trackseller.com 7.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE #0: Sun Feb 24 19:59:52 UTC 2008     root at logan.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386

>Description:
I was successfully using 6.2-RELEASE until I had sudden System freezes and I wonder where these came from.
I suspected a hd failure or a compromised system.
I took off the machine from public network to a private segment and it was running ok for one day.
So I suspected a compromised system and I decided to upgrade to 7.0-RELEASE.
I followed the guidelines in
http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2007-11-11-freebsd-major-version-upgrade.html
but after first reboot I had this problem :
The Promise SuperTrak RAID controller is detected but it does not initialize :
it writes this (typed manually, cannot boot) :
pst0: <Promise Supertrak RAID on pstpci0>
pst0: 1430511MB <PROMISE TECH. I20 RAID DEVICE> [182364/255/63] on pstpci0
pstpci0: [THREAD]
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a4dd0 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a5070 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a5310 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a5850 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a5af0 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a5d90 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a6030 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a62d0 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a6570 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a6810 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a6ab0 cmd=0x01
etc...etc... and never stops -> boot never finished

During system startup the cntroller BIOS starts ok and displays the RAID as functional
When I boot the system in "safe mode", the controller is detected and initialised and booting works fine.
----snip
ad0: 286168MB <WDC WD3000JB-00KFA0 08.05J08> at ata0-master PIO4
acd0: CDROM <SONY CD-ROM CDU5221/0.30> at ata1-slave PIO4
pst0: <Promise SuperTrak RAID> on pstpci0
pst0: 1430511MB <PROMISE TECH. I2O RAID DEVICE> [182364/255/63] on pstpci0
pstpci0: [ITHREAD]
Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a
----snip
This is the workaround but I do not want to run a production server in safe mode.(why shouldnt I?) 
All data is present on the mounted RAID directories when I booted in safe mode
also the File Systems are shown as CLEAN in safe mode

I rebooted in verbose mode :
It added lines like this :

pst0: 1430511MB <PROMISE TECH. I20 RAID DEVICE> [182364/255/63] on pstpci0
pstpci0: [MPSAFE]
pstpci0: [THREAD]
ATAPseudoRAID loaded
GEOM new disk pst0
fdc0: output ready timeout
fdc0: input ready timeout
fdc0: output ready timeout
fdc0: input ready timeout
fdc0: output ready timeout
fdc0: input ready timeout
fdc0: output ready timeout
fdc0: input ready timeout
fdc0: output ready timeout
fdc0: input ready timeout
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a4dd0 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a5070 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a5310 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a5850 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a5af0 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a5d90 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a6030 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a62d0 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a6570 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a6810 cmd=0x01
pst: timeout mfa=0x002a6ab0 cmd=0x01
etc...etc... and never stops

Before the upgrade-reboot-problem started, I was able to reboot the system im 6-2RELEASE without any problems.

Thank you for your investigation
M.Muncke

>How-To-Repeat:
reboot in default mode
>Fix:
boot in safe mode

>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: