I posted this on bsdforum.org, but got no response, so here's a repost (apologies if you have already seen this). This all started because I was unable to get gmirror to mirror the boot disks on a SiI3132 PCIe SATA controller, using FreeBSD 7.0-BETA1. This controller is supported in 7.0, and works fine on a single drive. I have since switched to a JMicron363 PCIe SATA controller.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I have done some more testing with booting a gmirror RAID1 configuration on some different disk controllers, both SATA and PATA, and using the PCI and PCIe busses. I was using FreeBSD 7.0-BETA1. I followed the instructions in the FreeBSD handbook. In summary I installed FreeBSD 7.0 on one drive, loaded gmirror, created the mirror, and "gmirror status" showed the mirror to be normal . I then changed fstab and the /boot/loader.conf files so that I could boot from the gmirror. Some controllers would boot the mirror, some would not. Here's my results (SiI = Silicon Image):

Success nVidia nForce 6150 PCIe chipset SATA controller (motherboard) Command SiI0680 PCI - PATA controller Promise TX2 PCI - PATA controller Maxtor (Promise) PCI - PATA controller JMicron363 - SATA controller

Failure (Note: geom_mirror.ko loads, but will not find mirror, boot process stalls at mountroot> prompt) SiI3112/3114 PCI - SATA controller SiI3132 PCIe - SATA controller (tried two cards from different vendors)

gmirror works fine using all the tested controllers, but will not survive a reboot on the two listed above.

I would include a dmesg from one of the failed attempts, but it didn't have anything that would help. On success the console reads "GEOM_MIRROR: Device mirror/gm0 launched (1/1). On failure, there is no entry for failing to find the mirror. The last entry is "trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/mirror/gm01sa".

So does anyone have any idea why gmirror does not work for a boot disk on the Silicon Image based SATA controllers? This is baffling.

Greetings, Chris