[PC-BSD] Can't install FreeBSD 9.1 on a Toshiba A20-S207, CAM Status: Command timeout

soliosg

soliosg

I'm having problems installing PC-BSD 9.1 Isotope Edition or FreeBSD 9.1 on a relic Toshiba Satellite A20-S207, http://support.toshiba.com/support/staticContentDetail?contentId=638246&isFromTOCLink=false.

However, on the same machine, PC-BSD 8.2 Hubble Edition or FreeBSD 8.2 can be installed without a problem. So, I'm guessing something changed in the boot configuration detection process. Some forums report it could be related to the hard disk detection speed DMA. Have tried every possible combination in the BIOS settings without success. Please find attached the /var/log/messages in PC-BSD 8.2 (the version that works fine.)

I can install PC-BSD 9.1 booting in secure mode and complete the installation process, but when I finish off installation, remove the disc and reboot, it halts in the boot process. The same error happens when installing using the default option. I typed the last lines before halting:

Code: 
uhub0: 3 ports with 3 removable, self powered
uhub2: 5 ports with 5 removable, self powered
cd0 at ata1 bus 0 scbus1 target 0 lun 0
cd0: <TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-R2412 1333> Removable CD-ROM SCSI-0 device
cd0: 33.300MB/s transfers (UDMA2, ATAPI 12bytes, PIO 65534bytes)
cd0: cd present [1828192 x 2048 byte records]
ada0 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun0
ada0: <SAMSUNG HM160HC LQ100-10> ATA-8 device
ada0: 100.000MB/s transfers (UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
ada0: 152627MB (312581808 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)
ada: Previously was known as ad0
Timecounter "TSC" frequency 2656886392 Hz quality 800
(ada0:ata0:0:0:0) READ_DMA48. ACB: 25 00 af 9e a1 40 12 00 00 00 01 00
(ada0:ata0:0:0:0) CAM status: Command timeout
(ada0:ata0:0:0:0) Retrying command

Thank you for reading. Hope someone points me in the right direction as I'd really like to install the latest stable release of PC-BSD, i.e. version 9.2.
 

Attachments

The first place to ask about PC-BSD is at their forums. It uses a different installer and there may be other customizations.
 
The only odd issue I had seen using PC-BSD on an older laptop was that the BIOS didn't read GPT partitions. I had to use MBR style. I'm not sure if that is applicable in your situation. The message you are seeing looks like a general hard drive read issue. My guess is that the "Updated ATA/SATA drivers support AHCI, moved into updated CAM framework" introduced in 9.0 and mentioned at http://www.freebsd.org/releases/9.0R/announce.html does things a bit differently when it talks to the drive. It is probably a bit stricter and I'm betting you would see the same thing with a normal FreeBSD install of 9.0-RELEASE and later.
 
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