Re: bootloader hangs on IBM x306 w/2 SATA disks

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

> I have an IBM eServer x306 (1U) that I've been using as a build host
> for i386-8.0_BETA and -current packages.  It has until recently only
> had a single 80GB SATA hard disk [...].

> I installed a second hard disk (40GB) in order to have a separate
> local-disk installation of 8.0_BETA using modular/pkgsrc Xorg.

> With both disks installed, the bootloader hangs.  This is true
> whether booting from the disk or netboot/PXE.

Check the BIOS settings, especially if the 40G disk is PATA instead of
SATA.  I've seen machines with SATA and PATA with BIOS settings to
pretend that one of them is actually the other, and it wouldn't
surprise me too much if something breaks if you have two disks each of
which is supposed to appear as, for example, primary master.

I would _hope_ the hardware wouldn't be that confusable, but I've seen
sillier stupidities often enough that I'd hesitate to count it out.

Another thing to try is just straight-up waiting.  I think ATA has a
30-second timeout at some points, which is a loooong time when you're
watching a machine do nothing visible; maybe try waiting something like
five minutes and see if it wakes back up.

> I'll see if a bootable CD using some other bootloader has any
> trouble.

If my guess above is right, it'll either (a) not work at all because
the CD is behind the confused hardware or (b) work like PXE booting:
kernel loads and wedges trying to access the disks.

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