[PC-BSD Testing] Cannot boot PCBSD 9 (all versions) 64bit on GIGABYTE Motherboard

Thu Jun 7 14:16:50 PDT 2012

Has anyone experienced the same problems? Here is my problem descriptiuon.

Problem Description
-------------------

I bought the system in November 2011 with one HD and one DVD R/W.
I run this in a multi-boot configuration with Windows-7,
Ubuntu 10.04 (lucid lynx), Debian (squeeze), PCBSD 9.0 (FreeBSD based).
Everything worked fine.

Last month I added a second HD (identical type to first HD).
Installation details and variants follow.
Windows-7, Ubuntu, and Debian worked as expected. But PCBSD does not
start properly. I get the following display:

BTX loader 1.00 BTX version is 1.02
Console: internal video/keyboard
BIOS drive C: is disk 0
BIOS drive D: is disk 1
|

The vertical bar | shows usually the "spinner", a rapid
sequence of | / - \ giving the user the impression ot a spinnign wheel,
until the loader prompt is displayed and the boot process continues.

In my case, the "spinner" does not spin, but remains quiet or advances
a few times in a multi-second interval until coming to  complete stop.
This behaviour is the same for all the different SCSI and BIOS
configurations
that I have tried.
The same behaviour occurs for booting PCBSD from HD, from DVD, and from
USB stick.
In other words, PCBSD cannot be run nor (re)installed.

I assume that it is the bootstrap loader that poses a problem.

Question: what is the correct configuration (SATA, BIOS settings) that
allows booting PCBSD from hard disk in presence of the DVD drive?

Has anyone else had the same problem with a GIGABYTE motherboard?

Hardware Configuration
----------------------

Motherboard: GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3(rev. 1.0)
BIOS version: F9

CPU: Intel i5 2500K (3300) Quad Core
CPU frequency: 3300 MHz

Memory: 16 GB, Kingston DDR3-SDRAM 1333 MHz

Harddisks: 2 Western Digital  WDC WD10EALX-009BA0 1 TB (SATA)

CD/DVD R/W: iHAS124 (SATA)

Graphics card: ASUS Nvidia GeForce ENGTX550 Ti DC DI

Power Supply: 550 W

BIOS Parameters (only the interesting ones)
-------------------------------------------

BIOS Version F9
EFI CD/DVD boot option AUTO
HDD SMART ENABLED
PCH SATA control mode  AHCI
SATA Port 0-3 native mode ENABLED
GSATA3 controller ENABLED

Peripheral Configurations and Results
-------------------------------------

Case  HD0      HD1       DVD       PCBSD boots        Results
                                   from HD  from DVD
-------------------------------------------------------------
 1    SATA3_0            SATA3_1   yes      yes       original setup,
worked in Jan.

 2    SATA3_0  SATA3_2   SATA3_1   no       no

 3    SATA3_0  SATA3_1   SATA3_2   no       no        swapped HD1, DVD

 4    SATA3_0  SATA3_2   GSATA3_5  no       yes       DVD now on Marvell
chip

 5    SATA3_0  SATA3_2             no                 DVD SATA cable
unplugged

 6    SATA3_0  SATA3_2   GSATA3_5  no       no        GSATA3 controller
DISABLED

 7    SATA3_0            GSATA3_5  yes                USB mouse does not
work ???

PCI layout (in Linux representation, lspci)
-------------------------------------------

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 0100 (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sandy Bridge PCI Express Root Port
(rev 09)
00:02.0 Display controller: Intel Corporation Device 0112 (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point HECI
Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point USB Enhanced Host
Controller #2 (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Cougar Point High Definition
Audio Controller (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port
1 (rev b5)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev b5)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port
5 (rev b5)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port
6 (rev b5)
00:1c.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port
7 (rev b5)
00:1c.7 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port
8 (rev b5)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point USB Enhanced Host
Controller #1 (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device 1c44 (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point 6 port SATA AHCI
Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Cougar Point SMBus Controller (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 1244 (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation Device 0bee (rev a1)
03:00.0 PCI bridge: Integrated Technology Express, Inc. Device 8892 (rev 30)
04:02.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire
II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller (rev c0)
05:00.0 USB Controller: Device 1b6f:7023 (rev 01)
06:00.0 USB Controller: Device 1b6f:7023 (rev 01)07:00.0 Ethernet
controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express
Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)
08:00.0 SATA controller: Device 1b4b:9172 (rev 11)

thanks you for your help

Harald