IBM 325 Server install - hangs on scsi settle

[fbsd_user]

Yep those pre Y2K boxes are an real pain in the ass when it comes to
their bios.

it's time to replace your bio's
chip with an modern one.

Check out www.unicore.com   800-800-2467 for new bio chip.
They will give you instruction on how to get the technical info on
your bio chip,
so they can price the replacement.
I have replaced 3 over the past 4 years and each time it cost me
$70.00 each.
This is the only way to extend the life of old PC's.

Good luck

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Clements [mailto:awc at candhsoftware.com]
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 4:13 PM
To: fbsd_user at a1poweruser.com
Cc: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
Subject: Re: IBM 325 Server install - hangs on scsi settle

fbsd_user wrote:

>Changes to PC Bios before installing FBSD
>
unfortunately, the BIOS on the machine is from 1997.  It's IBM's
SureBIOS.  I've tried finding a update on IBM's site but no luck.

>Virus Warning=, set this option to disable. It's a firmware check
of
>the hard drive boot sector looking for MS/Windows boot virus. This
>will stop FBSD booting from the install CDROM.
>
set to disable

>plug-n-play=,  set this option to disable. FBSD is not sensitive to
>Microsoft plug-n-play standard and may refuse to install, or cause
>PCI cards not to be found.
>
not available on BIOS

>Disable or set to auto any Bio's option to assign irq numbers to
PCI
>expansion slots.
>
>
all set to auto

>Disable any ISA expansion slots.
>
>
not available on BIOS

>Operating system type=, set to 'other' or any Unix type of
operating
>system, don't set to MS/Windows.
>
>
not available on BIOS

>Check to see if the cdrom drive is the slave to the IDE master Hard
>drive you are installing to, if so then move the cdrom drive to the
>secondary IDE controller as master. There should not be any cdrom
>drive sharing the primary IDE controller with the master Hard
Drive.
>
>
The HDDs and CDROM are on SCSI, so I don't think they have any IDE
controller.  Anyone can feel free to correct me on this issue if I
am
incorrect.

>boot sequence=, set this option to (CDROM,C) Since you are
>installing FBSD from CDROM you must tell the PC what I/O device to
>look at to boot from. Keep in mind that some older CD-ROMs drives
>and older PC bios do not support booting off CD-ROM. Generally with
>PC manufactured after 1999 this is not the problem.
>
>
BIOS is old so the old boot option I have is floppy.  The SCSI BIOS
had
a boot option, which I tried.  That failed however, and brought
error
codes from the PC BIOS because it moved the floppy drive to B: and
took
over the a: slot.

When FreeBSD attempts to boot the machine, ahc0 driver (for the
Adaptec
AIC-7880 controller) is loaded but throws the weirdest error:
ahc0: Illegal Configuration. Only two connectors on the adapter can
be
used at one time.
which means nothing to me.  Does anyone know what it is asking for?
I
even tried removing the CDROM from the SCSI and booting , but the
same
error appears.

Others have loaded 4.9 on 325 PC Servers, however there is something
about my configuration that is giving the ahc0 driver fits.

again, please cc with your response as I am not on the list.

Thanks,
Andy Clements

original request:

>I have IBM 325 PCServer with one 200 Pentium Pro CPU and two SCSI
>HDD
>drives and a SCSI CDROM.  I'm installing FreeBSD 4.9 via floppy and
>it
>hangs when it says:
>
>Waiting 15 seconds for drives to settle
>
>
>I notice that it is accessing the cdrom, during the wait, but
>nothing
>else happens.  I've checked the mailing list and all I see is to
>turn
>the bios virus detect off.  It seem that quite a few people are
>having
>this problem...
>
>any ideas? interrupt problem?
>
>