No boot with DFI 790FX-M2R Motherboard

J

Jason_25

I have been using FreeBSD for years but this is the first time I have had a true problem. It is always hard to tell when to actually ask a question because after all, with enough work and learning, no one would actually ever need to answer a question. With that said, please my forgive my laziness and incompetence over this matter. I think If I could get some help with this, I could go a few more years without needing my hand held.

I have moved my drives from an old system to this one and FreeBSD does not boot. The cursor briefly is animated when a boot choice is chosen and then stops shortly after. I have tried:
  1. Googling - There is very old and generic information for failed FreeBSD boot-up problems.
  2. Booting straight from the drive. Same problem.
  3. Trying every boot menu option. The only one that works is the boot prompt.
  4. Booting from the 7.2, 8.0, and 8.2 install discs. Same problem.
  5. BIOS options - disable USB, change power options, change CPU features. Same problem.
  6. Updating BIOS - latest available. 2/23/10. Same problem.
  7. Switch SATA Controller from 785G to Sil3132. Same problem.
  8. Switch SATA DVD drive to USB DVD drive. Same problem.
  9. Booting from Windows DVD. Works fine.
  10. Booting from GNU/Linux USB stick. Works fine.
Where to go from here? Thanks.
 
Hi! Maybe I have something similar, try to disable AHCI for SATA, after install, AHCI can turn on. I have a similar issue with MB for Phenom II X6. When I'm trying to install FreeBSD, the setup does not start. After some time of my panic, I found that disabling AHCI solves the problem for HDD and CDROM. After the system installs I'm turning the AHCI option on and it works fine. Maybe you have something similar?
 
Thanks for your reply. The terminology in my BIOS is a little different but I have tried native and legacy SATA modes for both controllers to no avail.

When I enabled verbose boot logging, the boot seems to hang up just after the kernel load. I have tried disabling ACPI and APIC with the same results.

Here is where the news starts to turn good. I tried a FreeBSD 9 disk and got much further. Then, I was either getting a page fault or
Code: 
panic: no usable event timer found
depending on boot options. The release errata then set me straight. With
Code: 
debug.acpi.disabled="hostres"
I was able to boot! I have a long way to go but I look forward to putting the speed of this system to use now.

I did not immediately try the FreeBSD 9 disk because I figured with my hardware being relatively old, any fixes would have already been added. I hope this helps someone.
 
I had some more information to add. The system does not seem to boot when adding the boot option to loader.conf. Also the system will not boot if the boot is initiated too quickly from the loader screen. I usually count to ten and it will work almost every time. I have also set
Code: 
autoboot_delay="NO"
so that I can manually enter the boot option on every boot.

This was very frustrating to troubleshoot so hopefully it will be of use to developers and users alike.
 
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