Unable to boot FreeNAS using aoc-sat-mv8 Sata controller

[trex12]

Im using configuration with one PATA HDD for FreeNAS and SATA addon card Marvel aoc-sat-mv8.
FreeNAS is 9.2.1.9. x86.
I install FreeNAS to PATA hdd and after I reboot the machine, it crashes with following message:

If i take out Marvel SATA controller, it boots normally and works fine.

I googled a lot, spending almost 2 days on this, and saw a lot of similar issues suggesting that Highpoint driver is loaded because of some bug ("stopped at hpt..." message) and that "hw.hptrr.attach_generic=0" should be added to loader.conf to prevent loading of hptrr module.
I'm not 100% sure that it applies to my controller since i have "aoc-sat-mv8" sata controller and others had mainly "aoc-sat2-mv8".
"hw.hptrr.attach_generic=0" variable is added to FreeNAS by default, and it's there - but it doesn't do anything.
If I escape loader prompt on boot and type "lsmod" i get this :

You can see that "hptrr" module together with "hptnr" and "hpt27xx" is loaded.
As I understand all those modules are loaded from kernel and there is no way to "unload" it except to make custom kernel (which I cann0t do in this case)

I found one post with exact same controller, but guy was using FreeBSD and if I understood right, he made custom kernel to get around it.

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/23670/

Does anyone has any suggestion?

Thank you in advance

 

[Mirfster]

Marvel aoc-sat-mv8

Do yourself a favor and ditch this card for a real HBA (LSI 9211-8i, IBM M1015, Dell Perc H200, etc). It will save you lots of grief and sorrow down the road...

FreeNAS is 9.2.1.9. x86.

I am assuming that you are using this old x86 version because your hardware is non-compliant with the latest Stable version (9.10.1)? Might help if you told us about what hardware you are using...

 

[trex12]

Do yourself a favor and ditch this card for a real HBA (LSI 9211-8i, IBM M1015, Dell Perc H200, etc). It will save you lots of grief and sorrow down the road...

Please note that my card is SATA controller, not SAS RAID controller like these cards you suggested.
At this moment it's not an option to change this card.
I would like to make it work as is, with existing SATA controller.

I am assuming that you are using this old x86 version because your hardware is non-compliant with the latest Stable version (9.10.1)? Might help if you told us about what hardware you are using...

I wrote "FreeNAS is 9.2.1.9. x86 " so yes, it's latest x86 version.

I'm using 2 gb of ECC RAM, 3,0ghz P4 CPU and MBO with PATA controller (one PATA HDD for FreeNAS) + aoc-sat-mv8 for 2 SATA disks in ZFS.

 

[Mirfster]

I'm using 2 gb of ECC RAM, 3,0ghz P4 CPU and MBO with PATA controller (one PATA HDD for FreeNAS) + aoc-sat-mv8 for 2 SATA disks in ZFS.

Your system is woefully under-powered and not in compliance with 9.2.1 Hardware Recommendations:

1.3.2 RAM
The best way to get the most out of your FreeNAS® system is to install as much RAM as possible. If your RAM is limited, consider using UFS until you can afford better hardware. FreeNAS® with ZFS typically requires a minimum of 8 GB of RAM in order to provide good performance and stability. The more RAM, the better the performance, and the FreeNAS® Forums provide anecdotal evidence from users on how much performance is gained by adding more RAM. For systems with large disk capacity (greater than 8 TB), a general rule of thumb is 1 GB of RAM for every 1 TB of storage. This post describes how RAM is used by ZFS.

If you plan to use your server for home use, you can often soften the rule of thumb of 1 GB of RAM for every 1 TB of storage, though 8 GB of RAM is still the recommended minimum. If performance is inadequate you should consider adding more RAM as a first remedy. The sweet spot for most users in home/small business is 16GB of RAM.

It is possible to use ZFS on systems with less than 8 GB of RAM. However, FreeNAS® as distributed is configured to be suitable for systems meeting the sizing recommendations above. If you wish to use ZFS on a smaller memory system, some tuning will be necessary, and performance will be (likely substantially) reduced. ZFS will automatically disable pre-fetching (caching) on systems where it is not able to use at least 4 GB of memory just for ZFS cache and data structures

I would suggest abandoning this endeavor; unless you are ONLY doing this for evaluation and not putting any vital data on it.

 

[nojohnny101]

I'm using 2 gb of ECC RAM,

I won't be the last to say it....YIKES

Have you read the minimum requirements of FreeNAS? Expecting any type of function below minimum requires is kind of like wading into water with a sign posted saying "at your own risk"

 

[joeschmuck]

While your system may work on 2GB RAM, it is recommended to have 4GB RAM for 9.2 x86 versions of FreeNAS if memory serves me correctly, additionally the x86 versions were not tested as well as the x64 versions. Although this isn't your issue at hand so... I'm glad you found an porting on the FreeBSD forums about someone having issue and had to create a custom kernel but that should indicate to you that FreeNAS (based on FreeBSD) would also not be compatible with the card you are trying to use.

While I understand that you may be trying to do this on a budget, FreeNAS is not for your hardware so you might try looking at other options. I'm not sure if NAS4Free can support this minimal hardware or not.

Good Luck.

 

[trex12]

In fact I'm doing this for evaluation purposes only and I thank you all for your help and letting me know that this rig is too old and too weak for anything...

Still, I would like to run it as is, since I know this error I have is due to wrong module loaded and not hardware requirements

Since core of FreeNAS is FreeBSD I think I should also ask this question on FreeBSD forum.

If anyone will have any idea what to try - please let me know.

 

[joeschmuck]

If you want to do an evaluation of FreeNAS in a general sense you could just run it in a VM on a desktop computer. Virtual Box or VMWare Player are good for this and you will only need 4GB RAM (more is better) assigned to the VM you will need more in your machine. It is a good option just to see how it works. If you need to see how fast it works, then you need some reasonable hardware to run it on.

 

[pirateghost]

Testing 9.2.x x86 is pointless. So many things changed in 9.3.

9.10 has the 10.3 freebsd underpinnings. You should really be testing 9.10.x.

 

[Mirfster]

I'm using 2 gb of ECC RAM

You should really be testing 9.10.x.

I *think* that since 9.10.x doesn't support UFS anymore so running ZFS on 2GB is gonna doubly kill that box. ;)

Either way, system is doomed IMHO

 

[pirateghost]

I *think* that since 9.10.x doesn't support UFS anymore so running ZFS on 2GB is gonna doubly kill that box. ;)

Either way, system is doomed IMHO

Oh. I don't agree with trying to use that hardware for anything.