[OpenIndiana-discuss] Need a PCI e-sata card for OI151a

[Russell Hansen]

A quick glance at the motherboard manual for what you have indicates the probability that your on-board SATA ports aren't using AHCI.  Likely some compatibility mode meant for those poor souls that may have needed Win9x when that BIOS was basically coded.

http://www.supermicro.com/manuals/motherboard/3000/MNL-0889.pdf
Page 4-4

In the BIOS check to see if the SATA Controller Mode is set to Compatibile.  You will need to change it to Enhanced.  (*Note: The Enhanced mode is supported by the Windows 2000 OS or a later version. :-p )

>From there the SATA RAID mode should default to Disabled.  The SATA AHCI mode you will want to change to Enabled.

AHCI mode should give you hot-swap capabilities as well as let you use your SSD with some sanity.

I don't know if your existing intstall of OI on your boot disk connected to the motherboard SATA ports will have a problem or if it'll be able to cleanly adjust to new drivers.  I know the Windows world requires a bit of fidgeting if you change the SATA mode after the initial install.

Hopefully no need for spending money on a new PCI card.

If that all works then I'd recommend your front-panel eSATA port be connected to your motherboard and you use your shiny Crucial M4 on your M1015.

Good luck!

-Russ

________________________________________
From: Dan Swartzendruber [dswartz at druber.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 6:10 AM
To: 'Discussion list for OpenIndiana'
Subject: [OpenIndiana-discuss] Need a PCI e-sata card for OI151a

Here's my situation: m1015 with 6 sata drives for pool tank.  7th port has
15K 73GB SAS drive as cache device.  8th port currently connected to e-sata
connector on front panel of case for monthly backups.  160GB sata drive on
one of the 4 motherboard sata ports (supermicro pdsmi+).  I have a 64GB
crucial m4 I want to use as a log device, but plugging it into the
motherboard seems to only yield sata1 speed (in addition to the fact that OI
apparently refuses to even go to the grub menu and just hangs - sigh...)
Even when I didn't have that issue (e.g. just switched from nexenta back to
OI), I discovered the motherboard ports apparently do NOT support hot-plug,
so switching the M4 and the e-sata connector is a no-go (unless I want to
have to boot with the e-sata drive plugged in and turned on - LOL).  My
motherboard only has one pcie slot (x8) which is where the m1015 resides.
So the plan is to get a pci card with e-sata connector.  I've found a couple
of cheap rosewill cards on newegg, that indicate the sil3512 chipset, but
I'm having trouble finding out if that is supported or not.  Any help
appreciated!

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