FreeBSD 9.0 ICH8M trouble, no HDD found, unable to install.

[Jasper Valentijn]

Mike wrote:
> I do not have this hardware, so these are just a couple of wild guessses
> from the blue on my part.  I am also looking only at 64 bit platforms here,
> so if there is any signifigant difference with 32 bit I can't look/see.

Just to be on the safe side I've also tried the 9.0 amd64 image. Same
results though.

> First, you might try using the "2" option on the boot menu and then 'load acpi_sony' followed by 'boot'.

No change here, on both i386 and amd64.

> You may try disabling AHCI by switching to Legacy IDE mode and see what
> changes. If it works when you do this it confirms this to be where the > problem lies.
> Also ensure you are not using any BIOS config for AHCI+RAID.

Sony has completely stripped the bios, no options to set here.

> You may be able to play around a little using the loader (press "2") to set and unset various variables.
> For example, hint.ahci.X.msi=0 would turn off MSI support.

No luck with this either. Have tried your suggestion and some others
'hint.ata.0.*'.

> As far as specific settings for controlling ATA_CAM and/or other AHCI support I'm fuzzy on this.
> Perhaps if you reach this point someone more knowlegable can chime in.

Same here.

> As far as what I can tell from the PR you mentioned, if you saw the exact same behavior after
> having installed FBSD 8.1 and then subsquently trying to upgrade to 8.2 it would nail it to matching
> the PR.

I have tried the 8.1 i386 memstick image and it does see the drive.
I have tried the 8.2 i386 memstick image and it does not see the drive.
I have tried the 9.0 i386 memstick image and it does not see the drive.
I have tried the 9.0 amd64 memstick image and it does not see the drive.

Didn't do an install of 8.1 and upgrade to 8.2 though. If needed I
could try that, but I'd prefer to do a clean 9.0 install.

> Hope this helps any, as it's just basically just a couple of wild guesses to maybe get you started.

Well, still no FBSD 9.0 on the box but it kept me busy. Thanks anyways!

Jasper

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