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Date:      Fri, 3 Oct 2008 16:50:36 +0200
From:      "Giuseppe Pagnoni" <gpagnoni@gmail.com>
To:        "Jeremy Chadwick" <koitsu@freebsd.org>
Cc:        freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: LG combo drive and Attansic Technology ethernet card on Asus P5Q Pro
Message-ID:  <92056ebc0810030750g7275e60fw147983fb9efa7ab6@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20081002231848.GA13467@icarus.home.lan>
References:  <92056ebc0810020932w680c593er585dd865ef8af538@mail.gmail.com> <20081002231848.GA13467@icarus.home.lan>

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Dear Jeremy,

thank you very much for your help.  I downloaded the 7.1 prerelease,
but unfortunately didn't solve the problem with the CD/DVD.  As for
the ethernet card, it's a kind of catch 22: to see if the card is
working I should install the OS, but I cannot from the DVD. I cannot
even install over FTP, because the institution I am in wants my MAC
address to allow this pc to connect to internet and I cannot get to
the MAC address without installing an OS (at least, I don't know
how... I tried an Ubuntu LiveCD, but it doesn't recognize the ethernet
card, either).

Since I have other problems with this machine, I am thinking about
returning it. I wonder whether you could point  me to some sure
FreeBSD compatible hardware which is in the ballpark of this machine
in terms of configuration. I tried to look in the Release Hardware
note, but it's a bit difficult for me to match all the hardware codes
to their physical counterparts!  This is what I have currently:

    Motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro
    Processor: INTEL Core 2 Duo E8500
    CD/DVD: LG GH22LP20
    Graphics: nVidia GeForce 8500GT (512Mb PCI-E)
    Controller EIDE PCI + SATA 2 RAID (500Gb each)

    RAM: 4 GB, 800 Mhz (by the way, I never understood if the
processor can address or not 4GB... should I just get 3GB?)

Thank you very much for any advice, but please ignore this if it takes
too much of your time.

very best

   giuseppe


On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 1:18 AM, Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@freebsd.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 02, 2008 at 06:32:20PM +0200, Giuseppe Pagnoni wrote:
>> I am trying to install FreeBSD 7.0 on a new i386 machine with no OS
>> installed yet.  I start the install process with the 1st CD of the
>> distribution, and I go through the partition phase with no problem.
>> However, when I get to the point where I select the installation media
>> (CD/DVD) it says that it cannot find the CD/DVD.
>>
>> I read on the FAQ list on the FreeBSD site that this can happen when
>> the drive is configured as a slave with no master.  So I opened up the
>> box, and I saw that the drive has its own ATAPI/IDE cable/slot on the
>> motherboard and the jumpers on  the drive are set as MASTER.
>>
>> The drive is a new LG combo drive, I believe GH22LP20 or something close to it.
>>
>> I also tried to install Ubuntu and it works fine (but I really would
>> like to have FreeBSD!).
>
> The only thing I can think of is that the P5Q boards use a Marvell
> ATA/IDE controller (yes, you read that correctly).  I wonder if FreeBSD
> somehow lacks support for this...
>
> What confuses me is that you can boot the CD media, and FreeBSD will
> load kernel modules and a copy of the mini filesystem into memory off
> the CD, yet it can't actually find the CD come installation time.
>
>> On an unrelated topic, does anybody know whether the network card
>> Attansic Technology on Asus P5Q Pro motherboard is compatible with
>> FreeBSD?
>
> Asus was somewhat vague as to what model of Attansic/Atheros IC they
> used on the P5Q series.  I have one of these boards, so I can assure
> you it's an Attansic L1E.  It's sometimes referred to as an Atheros
> AR8121, AR8113, or AR8114.
>
> FreeBSD 7.1-PRERELEASE has support for this NIC; age(4) is the driver.
> 7.0 will very likely not support this NIC.
>
> Please download the 7.1-PRERELEASE ISO from here, and try installing
> using it instead.
>
> ftp://ftp4.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/200809/
>
> If finding the CD/DVD media still does not work, let us know and I will
> try to reproduce the problem on my P5Q SE.
>
> --
> | Jeremy Chadwick                                jdc at parodius.com |
> | Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
> | UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
> | Making life hard for others since 1977.              PGP: 4BD6C0CB |
>
>



-- 
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Sezione Fisiologia
Univ. di Modena e Reggio Emilia
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I-41100 Modena, Italy
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