freebsd stable - Apr 2005 - VIA M1000 mini-itx system installation woes - WRITE_DMA error - cabling?

Hi all,

I am attempting to install 5.3-R from cd (iso image download)  and 
sysinstall is failing
to write the chosen (Auto Layout) filesystem to disk, the Toshiba 80G on the 
primary ide channel as master.   The error on vty1 is (from memory) ad0: 
WRITE_DMA, error=84.
The drive is detected by BIOS as a UDMA100 device.  There is nothing else on 
this IDE channel, and only a cd drive on the other IDE slot.

A search of -questions reveals this error is a UDMA mismatch, possible 
caused by 80-pin cabling, and fixable with atacontrol ad0 udma33 pio bla bla 
bla.  However, I do not yet have a running system to run atacontrol from, as 
I am installing.  I have rooted around in the bios for an option to force 
the drive to UDMA33 speed, to no avail.  Does anyone know how I can work 
around this problem and  install FreeBSD to this neat little system?  Do I 
have bad cabling, a bad drive, or ???

Thanks for any follow-up questions, pointers, rants, RTFM's, etc.

Woody

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On Tue, 2005-04-26 at 14:31 -0700, W C wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am attempting to install 5.3-R from cd (iso image download)  and 
> sysinstall is failing
> to write the chosen (Auto Layout) filesystem to disk, the Toshiba 80G on
the
> primary ide channel as master.   The error on vty1 is (from memory) ad0: 
> WRITE_DMA, error=84.
> The drive is detected by BIOS as a UDMA100 device.  There is nothing else
on
> this IDE channel, and only a cd drive on the other IDE slot.
> 
> A search of -questions reveals this error is a UDMA mismatch, possible 
> caused by 80-pin cabling, and fixable with atacontrol ad0 udma33 pio bla
bla
> bla.  However, I do not yet have a running system to run atacontrol from,
as
> I am installing.  I have rooted around in the bios for an option to force 
> the drive to UDMA33 speed, to no avail.  Does anyone know how I can work 
> around this problem and  install FreeBSD to this neat little system?  Do I 
> have bad cabling, a bad drive, or ???
> 
> Thanks for any follow-up questions, pointers, rants, RTFM's, etc.
> 
> Woody
I was installing FreeBSD 5.3-Release on an VIA EPIA M10000 a while ago
and I has no problems at all. My harddisk was a Fujitsu MHT2040AT
UDMA-100 2.5", so your problem could be cable or harddisk related. Maybe
you have a spare disk/cable at hand to test it.

Good luck,
Andreas

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El Martes, 26 de Abril de 2005 23:31, W C escribi?:
> Hi all,
>
> I am attempting to install 5.3-R from cd (iso image download)  and
> sysinstall is failing
> to write the chosen (Auto Layout) filesystem to disk, the Toshiba 80G
> on the primary ide channel as master.   The error on vty1 is (from
> memory) ad0: WRITE_DMA, error=84.
> The drive is detected by BIOS as a UDMA100 device.  There is nothing
> else on this IDE channel, and only a cd drive on the other IDE slot.
>
> A search of -questions reveals this error is a UDMA mismatch,
> possible caused by 80-pin cabling, and fixable with atacontrol ad0
> udma33 pio bla bla bla.  However, I do not yet have a running system
> to run atacontrol from, as I am installing.  I have rooted around in
> the bios for an option to force the drive to UDMA33 speed, to no
> avail.  Does anyone know how I can work around this problem and 
> install FreeBSD to this neat little system?  Do I have bad cabling, a
> bad drive, or ???
>
Ther're two types of 80pins ribbons, and found that you can interchange 
them in some scenarios.

As a first aid, try change the cable, loocking for the presence (or not) 
of a cut cable.

Also, you may use a 40pins ribbon, that will get you in UDMA33 .

--
  josemi

W C wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am attempting to install 5.3-R from cd (iso image download)  and 
> sysinstall is failing
> to write the chosen (Auto Layout) filesystem to disk, the Toshiba 80G on 
> the primary ide channel as master.   The error on vty1 is (from memory) 
> ad0: WRITE_DMA, error=84.
> The drive is detected by BIOS as a UDMA100 device.  There is nothing 
> else on this IDE channel, and only a cd drive on the other IDE slot.
> 
> A search of -questions reveals this error is a UDMA mismatch, possible 
> caused by 80-pin cabling, and fixable with atacontrol ad0 udma33 pio bla 
> bla bla.  However, I do not yet have a running system to run atacontrol 
> from, as I am installing.  I have rooted around in the bios for an 
> option to force the drive to UDMA33 speed, to no avail.  Does anyone 
> know how I can work around this problem and  install FreeBSD to this 
> neat little system?  Do I have bad cabling, a bad drive, or ???
> 
> Thanks for any follow-up questions, pointers, rants, RTFM's, etc.
> 
> Woody
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's 
> FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
> 
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My experience with these boards is that they are very picky about RAM.
I had similar problems as you have described. I ordered Crucial's 
recommended
stick and it worked fine after that.
Aaron

On 4/26/05, W C <woodycarey@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am attempting to install 5.3-R from cd (iso image download)  and
> sysinstall is failing
> to write the chosen (Auto Layout) filesystem to disk, the Toshiba 80G on
the
> primary ide channel as master.   The error on vty1 is (from memory) ad0:
> WRITE_DMA, error=84.
> The drive is detected by BIOS as a UDMA100 device.  There is nothing else
on
> this IDE channel, and only a cd drive on the other IDE slot.
> 
> A search of -questions reveals this error is a UDMA mismatch, possible
> caused by 80-pin cabling, and fixable with atacontrol ad0 udma33 pio bla
bla
> bla.  However, I do not yet have a running system to run atacontrol from,
as
> I am installing.  I have rooted around in the bios for an option to force
> the drive to UDMA33 speed, to no avail.  Does anyone know how I can work
> around this problem and  install FreeBSD to this neat little system?  Do I
> have bad cabling, a bad drive, or ???
Yes, I had the same problem.

If this is a 2.5" drive, it probably doesn't have a 80-pins cable.
Force PIO mode for the install by entering at the boot prompt (option
6 in the boot loader menu):
  set hw.ata.ata_dma="0"
  boot

After you've installed the system, insert that line into
/boot/loader.conf, and load up "atacontrol mode 0 udma33 udma33" as
early as possible during the boot (try using /etc/rc.early, for
example) to get it up to speed again.

Arjan