Pfsense not detecting my 160GB SATA Hard Drive??
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I've got a 160GB SATA hard drive that I want to use for my squid Cache. Since this computer does not have SATA on the motherboard, I had to buy a Sata Controller Card. I've got the hard drive all hooked up and all (sata cable and sata power cable)… and it looks as if pfsense is not detecting it. And if it is detecting it, I do not know how (without using sysinstall which is not installed) to partition the hard drive so that squid can use it.
I'd post the dmesg output but I don't know how to view it in a format that is sendable over the web. I've done this command once where it sends it to a website and gives you a link... but I forgot the command.
Thanks a lot!
~Shawn -
Try putting the dmesg output over @ http://pfsense.pastebin.com/ and see how it looks there. And what is the make/model of the SATA controller card?
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Try putting the dmesg output over @ http://pfsense.pastebin.com/ and see how it looks there. And what is the make/model of the SATA controller card?
What I was saying is that I did not know how to copy and paste it. I just sshed into the box and did it that way… much easier. Here is the link: http://pfsense.pastebin.com/m18882d46.
Unfortunately, I do not know what make my card is. I'm starting to think though, that I should of spent more money on it. I thought that most any card ought to work... and maybe thats not so.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230375099757&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_1623wt_939
Thats the listing on that card, it does give a detailed description as far as what it is and all.
Thanks a lot,
~Shawn -
Your startup output shows:
atapci0: <via 6421="" sata150="" controller="">port
0xdfa0-0xdfaf,0xdf90-0xdf9f,0xdf80-0xdf8f,0xdf60-0xdf6f,0xdf40-0xdf5f,0xd800-0xd8ff
irq 18 at device 2.0 on pci1
atapci0: [ITHREAD]
ata2: <ata 0="" channel="">on atapci0
ata2: [ITHREAD]
ata3: <ata 1="" channel="">on atapci0
ata3: [ITHREAD]
ata4: <ata 2="" channel="">on atapci0
ata4: [ITHREAD]This shows the SATA controller described in the eBay page and its three channels (2xSATA, 1xIDE; from the description it appears the eSATA port is an alternate connector for one of the two internal SATA ports.)
atapci1: <intel ich4="" udma100="" controller="">port
0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6,0x170-0x177,0x376,0xffa0-0xffaf at device 31.1 on
pci0
ata0: <ata 0="" channel="">on atapci1
ata0: [ITHREAD]
ata1: <ata 1="" channel="">on atapci1
ata1: [ITHREAD]This shows the "standard" chipset disk controller with the two channels.
ad0: DMA limited to UDMA33, controller found non-ATA66 cable
ad0: 6149MB <quantum fireball="" cx6.4a="" a3f.0b00="">at ata0-master UDMA33
acd0: CDROM <gcr-8483b gw02="">at ata1-master UDMA33
Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1aThis shows the results of the probe of the IDE channels on the "standard" disk controller.
I suggest you try a verbose boot. If I recall correctly that should output a message for the probe of each of the ata channels and should establish whether a probe is done on the "additional" ata channels. To do a verbose boot give the command boot -v to the boot prompt early in the startup.</gcr-8483b></quantum></ata></ata></intel></ata></ata></ata></via>
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I suggest you try a verbose boot. If I recall correctly that should output a message for the probe of each of the ata channels and should establish whether a probe is done on the "additional" ata channels. To do a verbose boot give the command boot -v to the boot prompt early in the startup.
Thank you, you've been a big help. To do that, do I just add that to the startup file… I forget what its called? Sorry, I have much more experience with Gentoo Linux than I do with freeBSD, as of yet.
Also, once I can read this hard drive... how do I partition it and set it so that it will automatically mount into a folder so that I can configure squid to use it as its cache?
Thanks!
~ShawnEDIT:
I rebooted and typed in boot -v
As far as I know, it looks as if nothing has changed, but I could be wrong. I really do not understand bsd that well as I'm a linux guy. I've tried over and over to find these things out on google and I've not got anything.
I need to format the hard drive and then set it so that it automatically mounts, and then configure squid to use it. Any ideas?
Here is my new dmesg, after I did the boot -v thing.
http://pfsense.pastebin.com/m3ce08f5f
Also, I would like to have to be done automatically, if that is what solves my problem. Any ideas?
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I rebooted and typed in boot -v
As far as I know, it looks as if nothing has changed, but I could be wrong.
I didn't expect boot -v would do anything different EXCEPT give more diagnostic output.
Do you know the drive works? Have you tried connecting it to the other port of the disk controller? Have you tried booting Linux on the same system to see if it reports the drive?
I need to format the hard drive and then set it so that it automatically mounts
Thats easy enough but you need to get the drive reported in the startup before you can do this.
, and then configure squid to use it. Any ideas?
I don't know anything about squid configuration.
A possible problem about deviating from the "standard" configuration is that you MAY have to tweak the configuration files everytime you update the firmware. In particular, a firmware upgrade may erase some or all of your configuration tweaks.
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Do you know the drive works? Have you tried connecting it to the other port of the disk controller? Have you tried booting Linux on the same system to see if it reports the drive?
We bought the drive used at a computer shop. The guy said that it was tested and that it worked good. However, I've never tried it out. Today I did some investigating on this drive..
I've tried connecting it to the other port on the sata controller card. That port does not even work, when pfsense boots up I get tons of errors and it doesn't even boot up completely. I've tried a different sata cable, and that did not help. I've booted up Linux (Linux Rescue CD based on Gentoo), and I was able to read the hard drive only when it was plugged into the port that did not work on pfsense. However, it said that the drive was like 5,000 and some MB. Its supposed to be a 160GB Hard Drive.
Then I checked out bios settings (what I should of done in the first place), and I found out that this hard drive is not even detected by the bios, let alone enabled. Then I did some reading online and found out that a few people online have had the same problem with this hard drive (WD1600JS-75NCB3), yet have been unable to solve it.
I'm thinking I might have to look into maybe doing a BIOS update (which I have no idea how that is even possible without having windows installed) or going with openBIOS. http://www.openfirmware.info/Welcome_to_OpenBIOS
But I have no idea if openBIOS will even work for me or if it will make matters worse, or if it is possible to go back to the gateway bios.
Any ideas?
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Ok, I've done numerous tests. For simplicity, I'll refer to this pfsense/squid router as computer #1, and my other test computer as pfsense #2. All I was looking for was that the BIOS would read it. My first step in my tests was to unplug the CD ROM (just to cut those out of the picture) and also replace the sata cable with one that I KNOW works, in case it might be the sata cable that is bad. Here are my tests:
1. Plugging the hard drive into different sata ports on the sata hard drive on computer #1. This changed nothing.
2. Robbing Sata hard drive from computer #1 to test it in computer #1, again testing it in different ports. This changed nothing, and I KNOW that the sata HD from computer #2 works.
3. Plugging the sata controller card into a different PCI slot and doing the same as above. This changed nothing.
4. Taking the sata controller card from computer #1, and putting it in computer #2. I then hooked up the HD from computer #2 (which again, I know works). The computer did not detect the hard drive. I tried using different sata ports on the controller card, and that changed nothing.
5. Plugging the HD from computer #1 into computer #2 using the on board sata port (no controller card)… and the BIOS finally detected it.So, I can conclude that either this controller card is bad (and it being new, I doubt that), or that I do not have the right driver installed. It came with a small driver CD, if I remember right. I just have to find out where I put it. Right now I have no idea even what make it is, or whether this driver will work with freeBSD (which I highly doubt unless its a bios firmware thing). Either way, I'm sure its got to be a problem with this sata controller card.
Now what?
EDIT:
I've been thinking... is it possible for the hard drive/sata controller card to work in an Operating System even if the BIOS did not detect it?
Edit:
I've concluded that the card must be bad and I think I'm going to just return it and get my money back.
I've been chatting on the pfsence IRC chat room, and a lot of the guys there said that they think my quest for speed is stupidity and that most hard drives and also sata controllers are way over rated. They said that I should just use IDE, as thats what I have. So, I've got a couple IDE hard drives and I think I'll just make it work. It saves an extra PCI slot for another NIC card, and that means I won't need a switch ;).