Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 09:34:12 -0700 From: Aaron VanAlstine <aaronvan@comcast.net> To: Kevin Kinsey <kdk@daleco.biz> Cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Why won't FreeBSD boot from hard drive?? Message-ID: <C0A07094.2E4B%aaronvan@comcast.net> In-Reply-To: <447A00AC.7020109@daleco.biz>
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The SATA controller chip is the Intel ICH7R Southbridge RAID Controller. Th= e hard is selected as the boot device; however, it seems to default back to the DVD/CD upon reboot. Even when I disconnect the DVD/CD it doesn't look t= o the hard drives. I wonder if there is a problem booting the OS from the RAID array? The motherboard manual states "If you want to boot the system from a HD include= d in a created RAID array, copy first the RAID driver from the support CD to = a floppy disk before you install an OS to the selected HD." However, I don't have a floppy drive and I suspect they assume I'm loading Windows. Do you think it makes a difference if I install FreeBSD and then configure the RAID array, or visa-versa? -- Aaron On 5/28/06 12:57, "Kevin Kinsey" <kdk@daleco.biz> wrote: > Aaron VanAlstine wrote: >> I successfully loaded FreeBSD 6.0 from CD all the way until the system >> reboots; however, the computer seems regard the DVD/CD as the boot hard >> drive and is trying to boot from that. During boot-up it auto detects th= e >> DVD ROM as the Pri Master, and the two HDs as 3rd and 4th Master. When i= t >> gets to the boot-stage, I get a message =B3Reboot and Select proper Boot >> device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key.=B2 >> According to the BIOS setup utility, the 1st boot device is Intel Stripe= d >> RAID. Yet, when I restart and hit F8 to select the BBS popup menu, it >> appears that the DVD is still the boot device. I change it to the HD and >> re-boot and still I get the original =B3Reboot and Select proper Boot devi= ce >> or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key" message. >>=20 >> The DVD/CD cable is connected to the blue primary IDE on the motherboard= and >> the two HD are connected to SATA1 and SATA2. From the Main screen of the >> BIOS setup utility: >>=20 >> -- Primary IDE Master is the NEC DVD RW. >> -- Primary IDE Slave Not Detected, >> -- IDE Configuration is RAID (OnBoard Serial-ATA BOOTROM is Disabled.) >>=20 >> Any ideas on how I can make the system boot from the hard drive instead = of >> trying the DVD/CD? >>=20 >=20 >=20 > I assume that you've noted the existence of a "Boot from RAID" or > similar option, and told the BIOS **not** to boot from CD/DVD? >=20 >=20 >> My hardware consists of: >>=20 >> ASUS P5LD2 ACPI Bios Revision 0901 motherboard >=20 >=20 > Which SATA controller chip on this board? >=20 > The reason I ask --- and this was on a Windows server, but would > apply either way: >=20 > I had a server doing something very similar --- install from CD, > then can't find its array with both hands. >=20 > Someone I read on the 'net* has a theory --- possibly confirmed, > that the next generation SATA drives take so long to spin up in > some cases that the motherboard's BIOS times out waiting on them. > He claims this to be the case with Seagate and Maxtor SATA-II > drives (especially those with "Native Command Queueing" or similar > technology). >=20 > The board in question was an Epox board with the NVidia NForce 4 > SATA RAID controller. Since this board also had a Silicon Image > RAID contoller, we tried that and had some success. >=20 > Since we still wanted to use the "primary" SATA controller, we > contacted our HDD manufacturer and received firmware updates > for the drives. After this, they've been quite reliably booting > for a few days now. >=20 > Kevin Kinsey >=20 > * Try googling first. IIRC, forum posts on several forums, > nick might have been "RobertP" or some such...
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