From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Apr 1 07:32:55 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2E3AD16A4CE for ; Thu, 1 Apr 2004 07:32:55 -0800 (PST) Received: from enema.egg.net (enema.egg.net [198.206.140.9]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 11EF443D41 for ; Thu, 1 Apr 2004 07:32:55 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tomg@egg.net) Received: by enema.egg.net (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 2471534A; Thu, 1 Apr 2004 07:32:56 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by enema.egg.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1CA8645; Thu, 1 Apr 2004 07:32:56 -0800 (PST) Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 07:32:56 -0800 (PST) From: Tom Glover To: Freddie Cash In-Reply-To: <1620.24.71.128.221.1080804901.squirrel@mailtest.sd73.bc.ca> Message-ID: References: <1620.24.71.128.221.1080804901.squirrel@mailtest.sd73.bc.ca> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Promise SX6000 controller X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 15:32:55 -0000 On Wed, 31 Mar 2004, Freddie Cash wrote: > > Before I go beat my head against the proverbial wall - again .... > > > Any tips on installing 5.2.1 using this controller? Any tricks to > > making it bootable? In fact is it possible to make it bootable? Interestingly I can install 5.2.1 just fine on a RAID 1 using the sx6000. However it won't boot - just stops after the "Verifying DMI Pool Data" prompt. I can however boot on floppy and it sees the sx6000 as pst0: Then I can specify usb:pst0s1a as the boot device at the mountroot> prompt at which time it boots off the sx6000. I wonder if I have a BIOS issue. Anyone have any ideas? > > Last time I looked at the Promise cards, they weren't actually > hardware RAID cards. Instead, they were a hybrid software / hardware > card that did most of the RAID work in the driver. IOW, you had to > load a kernel, load a driver, then mount the drive array in order to > get the RAID array accessible. This meant you couldn't put / (or at > least /boot) onto the RAID array. > > There may be tricks to get around this but I didn't spend much time on > it. I just returned the Promise cards and replaced them with 3Ware > Escalade cards which do real hardware RAID and let you put / onto the > RAID array. I believe the sx6000 is a hardware RAID solution. > > -- > Freddie Cash > fcash-ml@sd73.bc.ca > -- Tom Glover