Intallation onto Transcend IDE Flash
-
Hi,
I'm fairly new to PFSense, having tried it over the last couple of weeks on a test platform. I'm looking to use it to replace several FreeBSD firewalls I have here on campus. The existing machines work well using IPFilter, but I want to replace them with something that has a strong web GUI for those who work here who may not know FreeBSD as well as I do.
I have installed 1.0.1 onto a Dell Optiplex GX260 (P4 2.5GHz 512MB) with no issues using an IDE hard drive, and Intel network cards. So far, I really like what I see.
Here is the problem I am having:
I want to replace the IDE hard drive with a Transcend 4GB IDE flash module. (http://ec.transcendusa.com/product/ItemDetail.asp?ItemID=TS4GDOM40V) This is because I have had hard drive failures in the past that I just don't want to deal with anymore. I understand that flash drives still fail, but if I don't use swap space, I'll feel better about not having moving parts.
I've booted off the CD, and been able to get the network cards configured with no problem. When I go into the installation screens, I see the flash drive no problem, and I am able to partition and format the disk. I can then install the bootblocks, and create the slices on the disk, and run newfs on them. The problem comes when I go to install the system. It gets about 41% of the way through the cpdup process, and just hangs at "/usr/local/bin/cpdup -vvv -I -o /usr /mnt/usr". Eventually after hanging for quite a while, the system reboots automatically with only part of the pfsense install.
Am I having hardware support issues here, or is there something different that I have to do when using a flash disk? If I have to, I'll stay with a regular hard drive, but I would love to get into this IDE Flash.
Thanks in advance.
-
Try the latest snapshot. It runs a newer freebsd. maybe that version works better for you.
-
Well, so far I've disabled DMA, and ACPI, still get basically the same result. I'm loading the snapshot from April 05 2007 and right now it's hanging even earlier (/mnt/etc). I'll keep playing with this more tomorrow morning.
-
Quite a few people using flash memory instead of hard disks for the same reasons. However that is a very large memory.
I have had success with old 128 and 256MB's CF memory using PCI to flash adapters. Had problems getting a high speed (it was 10x or maybe 14x ?) memory recognised but you seem to be past that stage.
-
Well, heres a little bit of an update, but I'm no closer to having an install done.
I used the snapshot that says its from 3-27-2007. I get to the boot menu and exit that to get to a prompt. I type:
unset acpi_load
set hint.acpi.0.disabled=1
set hw.ata.ata_dma=0
set hw.ata.atapi_dma=0
bootIt then boots into the install, and I format the disk, etc…. It now gets to 62%, albeit very slowly. I get hard drive activity, and the CDROM drive reads very slowly, but it is installing. It takes several minutes to get to that point. Once it hits 62%, it just reboots on its own. That's better than 41%, but not 100%.
I have also tried making smaller partitions to see if that matters, but it doesnt seem to.
I'm stumped.
-
Did you try turning off DMA , unwanted floppies, SCSIs etc in the BIOS?
-
@sai:
Did you try turning off DMA , unwanted floppies, SCSIs etc in the BIOS?
As far as I could tell, everything in the BIOS was off. At one point, I even turned off the IDE controller accidentally. I'm kind of at a loss. My next step is to try a different model motherboard to make sure it's not an inconsistency there. Right now the machine is running 1.0.1 on the Quantum HDD, so at least I have something.
-
You only disabled these settings in the bios? Did you try to disable them from the kernel on bootup? See http://wiki.pfsense.com/wikka.php?wakka=BootOptions how to do this.
-
You only disabled these settings in the bios? Did you try to disable them from the kernel on bootup? See http://wiki.pfsense.com/wikka.php?wakka=BootOptions how to do this.
Do you mean something other than what the OP wrote in reply #4? Looks like he covered that to me.
-
Oops, sorry, missed that post in between. Sometimes it's hard to follow threads if they have become a bit longer and you try to read/answer all of them ;)
-
Thanks to those who have helped out so far.
I don't know if what I just did is good news or not:
I put the flash card in a Dell GX110 instead, and did an installation onto the flash card. It took a little time, but it went through without a problem.
I took that flash card, and put it back into the GX260 and it booted up. I walked away from it for a little while, and I had the following message on the screen when I came back.
ad0: timeout - write_DMA retrying (1 Retry Left) LBA=5665679
I'm thinking the GX260 doesn't like something about the flash card, or something is still enabled in the BIOS that I don't see.
I rebooted the GX260 with the flash card and disabled the DMA and ACPI again. I'm gonna keep watching it and see if the error comes back.