freebsd stable - Dec 2010 - The FreeBSD 7.4-BETA1 CD wont boot properly on this machine

Hi,
I am trying to install FreeBSD 7.4-BETA1 / amd64 on this[1] machine.
The machine doesn't have a CD drive built-in, so I am using a Plextor
PX-608CU external DVD writer which connects via usb as the CD drive to
install from. I use the FreeBSD-7.4-BETA1-amd64-disc1.iso, which is burned
to a CD.
After powering on the machine, I press F8, get a nice little bootmenu,
select the Plextor drive, and off we go. The kernel boots, and
everything is great.
But, after detecting the hard drive (ad4, ok it's really a SSD) and the
cd drive, it just spits out messages like these:
run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 60 seconds for xpt_config
run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 120 seconds for xpt_config
run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 180 seconds for xpt_config
run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 240 seconds for xpt_config

and after spitting out one more message  (the one for 300 seconds), it just
sits there. Booting with verbose doesn't give men any more messages related 
to this. I've tried the -bootonly CD too - it has the same problem.
Yes, the sha256 checksums on the files verifies a-ok, the CD's can be
mounted
 in FreeBSD, etc.
I even mad a usb memory stick image of the -disc1 and booted the machine from
that,
and it has the same problem (the run_interrupt... messages).

Kicker: the machine boots nicely from a FreeBSD 8.1-release (amd64) CD.
Also tried with a OpenBSD 4.8 (amd64) install CD, yep - it also boots nicely.

So, any hints on how to get FreeBSD 7.4-BETA1 onto this machine?

References:
1) http://sites.google.com/site/tingox/asus_v7-p7h55e
-- 
Regards,
Torfinn Ingolfsen

On 19 December 2010 19:55, Torfinn Ingolfsen
<torfinn.ingolfsen@broadpark.no> wrote:
> Hi,
> I am trying to install FreeBSD 7.4-BETA1 / amd64 on this[1] machine.
> The machine doesn't have a CD drive built-in, so I am using a Plextor
> PX-608CU external DVD writer which connects via usb as the CD drive to
> install from. I use the FreeBSD-7.4-BETA1-amd64-disc1.iso, which is burned
> to a CD.
> After powering on the machine, I press F8, get a nice little bootmenu,
> select the Plextor drive, and off we go. The kernel boots, and
> everything is great.
> But, after detecting the hard drive (ad4, ok it's really a SSD) and the
> cd drive, it just spits out messages like these:
> run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 60 seconds for xpt_config
> run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 120 seconds for xpt_config
> run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 180 seconds for xpt_config
> run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 240 seconds for xpt_config
>
> and after spitting out one more message ?(the one for 300 seconds), it just
> sits there. Booting with verbose doesn't give men any more messages
related
> to this. I've tried the -bootonly CD too - it has the same problem.
> Yes, the sha256 checksums on the files verifies a-ok, the CD's can be
mounted
> ?in FreeBSD, etc.
> I even mad a usb memory stick image of the -disc1 and booted the machine
from that,
> and it has the same problem (the run_interrupt... messages).
>
> Kicker: the machine boots nicely from a FreeBSD 8.1-release (amd64) CD.
> Also tried with a OpenBSD 4.8 (amd64) install CD, yep - it also boots
nicely.
>
> So, any hints on how to get FreeBSD 7.4-BETA1 onto this machine?
>
> References:
> 1) http://sites.google.com/site/tingox/asus_v7-p7h55e
> --
> Regards,
> Torfinn Ingolfsen
Did you try installing using a different computer onto that hard drive?

Is the hardware supported by 7.x
(http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.3R/hardware.html for pointers)

Is there a reason you want 7.4 rather than 8.1?

Chris

On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 08:55:23PM +0100, Torfinn Ingolfsen
wrote:
> Hi,
> I am trying to install FreeBSD 7.4-BETA1 / amd64 on this[1] machine.
> The machine doesn't have a CD drive built-in, so I am using a Plextor
> PX-608CU external DVD writer which connects via usb as the CD drive to
> install from. I use the FreeBSD-7.4-BETA1-amd64-disc1.iso, which is burned
> to a CD.
> After powering on the machine, I press F8, get a nice little bootmenu,
> select the Plextor drive, and off we go. The kernel boots, and
> everything is great.
> But, after detecting the hard drive (ad4, ok it's really a SSD) and the
> cd drive, it just spits out messages like these:
> run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 60 seconds for xpt_config
> run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 120 seconds for xpt_config
> run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 180 seconds for xpt_config
> run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 240 seconds for xpt_config
> 
> and after spitting out one more message  (the one for 300 seconds), it just
> sits there. Booting with verbose doesn't give men any more messages
related
> to this. I've tried the -bootonly CD too - it has the same problem.
> Yes, the sha256 checksums on the files verifies a-ok, the CD's can be
mounted
>  in FreeBSD, etc.
> I even mad a usb memory stick image of the -disc1 and booted the machine
from that,
> and it has the same problem (the run_interrupt... messages).
> 
> Kicker: the machine boots nicely from a FreeBSD 8.1-release (amd64) CD.
> Also tried with a OpenBSD 4.8 (amd64) install CD, yep - it also boots
nicely.
> 
> So, any hints on how to get FreeBSD 7.4-BETA1 onto this machine?
> 
> References:
> 1) http://sites.google.com/site/tingox/asus_v7-p7h55e
This has, historically, been caused by problems with certain firewire
chipsets.  The workaround has been to disable firewire in the BIOS.
I've experienced this on a Shuttle system, and others have on different
motherboards as well:

http://old.nabble.com/run_interrupt_driven_hooks:-still-waiting-after-300-seconds-for-xpt_config-td23492390.html
http://old.nabble.com/-Fwd%3A-run_interrupt_driven_hooks%3A-still-waiting...-for-xpt_config--td23641548.html
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2009-July/009079.html

However, that motherboard doesn't seem to support firewire (but Asus has
been known to forget mentioning features on their site before).

My advice would be to start disabling certain features in the BIOS
anyway, and see if you can track down which one is responsible.

Otherwise, run 8.x.

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                   jdc@parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.               PGP 4BD6C0CB |

On Sun, 19 Dec 2010 21:30:59 +0000
Chris Rees <utisoft@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Did you try installing using a different computer onto that hard drive?
Nope, not yet. Looking for easier alternatives first.
> Is the hardware supported by 7.x
> (http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.3R/hardware.html for pointers)
Well, AFAICT, it should work. Nothing odd or non-standard. Again, AFAICT.
> Is there a reason you want 7.4 rather than 8.1?
The machine already runs 8.1 (see [1]). Sorry for not making that clear.
(in my defence, the information is available on the page I referenced in my
post,
but obviously nobody bothered to check that. Oh well.)
Now I want to install 7.4 on another partition, so I can test
that release as well.

I always try to install as many different releases on a machine as I can / have
space for;
it has proven useful in the past, and it is my small way to help FreeBSD
developers
by testing as much (many releases / branches) as I can, on as much hardware as I
can.

References:
1) http://sites.google.com/site/tingox/asus_v7-p7h55e_freebsd
-- 
Regards,
Torfinn Ingolfsen