I have 2 Hitachi's both running on Alix, with full install. Having no problems at all. Followed the instructions on the full install. The editing in VI took most of my time, as a VI greenhorn.
Err Yeh thanks for that - doesn't really help me!
Anyway, found out that the /boot/loader.conf on the CD isn't the one that gets copied to the hard drive during install, the one on the CD has the line hw.ata.ata_dma=0 which is why the drive behaves during install but not on the reboot.
So, I now have my microdrives working and this is what you may need to do,
- Boot the 1.2.x install CD - Under FreeBSD 7 my USB DVD-ROM now works yey, it didn't under 6.2
- Set LAN IP
- Do a fresh full install (99) to your microdrive as if it where a real hard drive.
- REBOOT (remove CD)
(Microdrives don't like running at anything above PIO4 so in your PC BIOS Disable UDMA for IDE devices)
If you don't do this you may not even be able to boot or you will get the spinnig cursor but it will spin REALLY slowly.
Hit the space-bar when the kernel is loading (not at the Default F1 prompt) a little after, you should get an OK prompt.
Then type;
OK set hw.ata.ata_dma=0
OK boot
It should then boot all the way up to the pfsense menu.
Drop to the shell by pressing 8
Now edit /boot/loader.conf using vi;
vi /boot/loader.confPress the '
i' key and then move the cursor to the end of the last line and hit the enter key,
add the line;
hw.ata.ata_dma=0
so it looks like;
autoboot_delay="1"
kern.ipc.nmbclusters="0"
hw.ata.ata_dma=0then press
Esc flowed by
:wqThen press '
Ctrl D' to get back to the menu. Now you can restore your config by going to the web interface and quitting the wizard by clicking on the pfSense logo a couple of times.
And the following reboot should boot fine without any kernel flags as you have already set them. If you restore your config before you have edited /boot/loader.conf you for some reason, on the subsequent reboots, can't input kernel flags and your install will be dead as you are now stuck in some weird catch 22.
I hope this helps someone and for info the modified /boot/loader.conf survives a full upgrade.
Cheers