Install 5.4 CD, Adaptec 2120S, aac0: Command <hex> Timeouts

[Scott Long]

Glen Van Lehn wrote:
> Hi,  I'm new to the FreeBSD lists, and still uncertain on protocol.  
> 
> I posted this today on the freebsd-hardware list, but from the discussion I'm seeing today, it may better apply to  5-stable than hardware.
>                                                    -----
> I'm installing 5-STABLE from the 5.4 CDset onto a new HP DL140 G2 with an Adaptec 2120S RAID controller that someone else had already installed with a Linux OS. Two HDD are config'd as RAID1 set.  After the probes for VGA & mouse, the boot stuck on a repeated series of messages:
> 
> aac0: COMMAND 0xc39ef000 TIMEOUT AFTER xxx SECONDS
> # 16 diff hex offsets per set .. each set repeating every 20 seconds
> aac0: COMMAND 0xc39ef708 TIMEOUT AFTER xxx SECONDS
> 
> A different boot has a different hex prefix, 0xc3a16, but the same sequence of 16 trailing digits, 000 to 708.
> 
> Searching this list, I found a similar post from Chris Knight in January, but he was on 6 and that was apparently right at a change to the aac driver.  Searching FreeBSD.org turned up a similar problem back in March 2004 [5.2.1].   Scott Long responded to that one as a known issue being resolved.  
> 
> The BIOS firmware was 'Build 7244' from May 2004, but I updated that to Build 8205 [latest for that chipset] and still had the same problem.
> 
> Would the pre-existing different OS install mess up the aac0 driver?  like format the array first?
> I broke the array, re-inited the disks and recreated RAID 1..  but didn't format drives ..  still had problem.
> 
> something else?    I was able to install Fedora4 after failing on 5.4, but I'd like to use FreeBSD for this project.
> 
> comments appreciated, 
> 
> glen van lehn
> 

Does the 'Safe mode' boot option work?  This is likely an interrupt 
routing problem.

Scott