Asus AP160R-S & LSI MegaRAID 320-1 PCI-X compatibility?

[Bruce M Simpson]

On Mon, Jun 16, 2003 at 11:06:41AM +0100, Serge -Intraforum- wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I wonder if anyone can advise on this problem:
> 
> 1U Asus AP160R-S server (PCI 64-bit, 133MHz, or PCI-X)
> http://www.asus.com/products/server/system/ap160r-s/overview.htm
> 
> LSI MegaRAID 320-1 SCSI (PCI 64-bit, 66MHz)
> http://www.lsilogic.com/products/stor_prod/raid/3201.html
> 
> - RAID5 configured OK, 3x 36GB disks active & 1x hotspare

>From the controller firmware?

> - after normal FreeBSD installation 4.8 the system won't boot

Could be any number of things.

> - after Ctrl-Alt-Del reboot - error "LSI MegaRAID not found",
> not always but in most cases; after hardware reset or power
> cycle MegaRAID is detected properly again

Sounds like a BIOS problem.

> - LSI support suggested it's related to hardware incompatibility,
> i.e. PCI-X bus does not auto-detect & match PCI card frequency
> properly

Sounds like a BIOS problem.

If PCI-X autoconfigure is an issue, it could be the BIOS/ACPI methods
don't fully grok the PCI-X hub. In any event I imagine that would
require docs on the PCI-X hub the board is using; with the right
initial config, the PCI-X hub should allow access to the configuration
space of the MegaRAID. I don't have datasheets for this device in front
of me but I'm sure that a pci quirk could be added to force the correct
bus speed for that card.

Isn't the MegaRAID part a lot like other aac(4)-driven RAID controllers?
(e.g. Dell PERC) - same family of controllers and firmware, with different
OEM flavoring, at least?

BMS