On FreeBSD 8.1-release, I was unable to load ahci without causing a system panic. Since recently going to FreeBSD 8.1-STABLE #0: Fri Nov 19 12:17:12 MST, I have been able to boot with ahci loaded as a module but it leaves my two mirrored root-on-zfs main drives as ad devices while attaching to my three gvinum controlled drives so they become ada devices. I tried recompiling my -stable kernel to make ahci take over the disks but found the system goes back to a panic state on boot until I remove loading gvinum from /boot/loader.conf, at which point all disks attach as ada devices. The kernel configuration changes are: --- /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf/GENERIC 2010-10-25 00:58:37.000000000 -0700 +++ /root/kernels/MYKERNEL8 2010-11-19 12:10:37.362055289 -0700 @@ -95,11 +95,12 @@ # ATA and ATAPI devices device ata -device atadisk # ATA disk drives -device ataraid # ATA RAID drives +device ahci +#device atadisk # ATA disk drives +#device ataraid # ATA RAID drives device atapicd # ATAPI CDROM drives -device atapifd # ATAPI floppy drives -device atapist # ATAPI tape drives +#device atapifd # ATAPI floppy drives +#device atapist # ATAPI tape drives options ATA_STATIC_ID # Static device numbering # SCSI Controllers and the panic as best as I could get from a camcorder recording of my screen is: GEOM: new disk ada4 GEOM: ada0s2: geometry does not match label (255,63s != 16h,63s). GEOM: ada1s2: media size does not match label GEOM: ada2s2: geometry does not match label (255,63s != 16h,63s). [possible data skipped due to screen scroll; text is blurry so may contain typos] Instruction pointer = 0x20:0xffffffff80546bad stack pointer = 0x28:0xffffff80e5fa2b20 frame pointer = 0x28:0xffffff80ef5a2b70 code segment = base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b = BPL 0, pros 1, long 1, def32 0, gran 1 processor eflags = interrupt enabled, resume, IOPL=0 current process = 8 (gv_vorker) trap number = 12 panic: page fault cpuid = 0 KDB: stack backtrace: #0 0xffffffff805d701e at kdb_backtrace+0x5e #1 0xffffffff805a5167 at panic+0x187 #2 0xffffffff80890bb0 at trap_fatal+0x290 #3 0xffffffff80890f8f at trap_pfault+0x28f #4 0xffffffff808917d6 at trap+0x346 #5 0xffffffff808766b4 at caclltrap 0x8 #6 0xffffffff81035c54 at gv_plex_start+0x154 #7 0xffffffff81032362 at gv_worker+0x11f2 #8 0xffffffff8057b968 at fork_exit+0x110 #9 0xffffffff80876b8e at fork_trampoline+0xe Uptime: 10s Cannot dump. Device not defined or unavailable. Automatic reboot in 15 seconds = press a key on the console to abort. All 5 hard drives are attached to atapci1: <ATI IXP700/800 UDMA133 controller> port 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6,0x170-0x177, 0x376,0xff00-0xff0f at device 20.1 on pci0 Optical drives are attached to the following two interfaces: ahci0: <JMicron JMB363 AHCI SATA controller> mem 0xfeafe000-0xfeafffff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci5 atapci0: <JMicron JMB363 UDMA133 controller> port 0xd800-0xd807,0xd400-0xd403,0x d000-0xd007,0xc800-0xc803,0xc400-0xc40f irq 18 at device 0.1 on pci5 If any further information would be helpful, let me know. I have not been able to get a dump from the panics (which is likely my bad in some way). Maybe I can yank out one of the two 2GB sticks of ram and setup my flash drive as a swap device, but will it be available soon enough? The motherboard doesnt have a serial port connector, but I think there is a header to attach one. If useful, I can look into linking it to my dad's old computer's serial port that way. Edward Sanford Sutton, III