# PCI SATA Card not ZFS bootable



## Xavier (Oct 18, 2020)

Hi
My config :
ASRock Motherbaord, FreeBDS 12.2STABLE, root on ZFS
I recently bought this https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B07RMHH43W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1PCI SATA Card
AFAIK, it is recognized as :

```
ahci0: <Marvell 88SE9215 AHCI SATA controller> port 0xe050-0xe057,0xe040-0xe043,0xe030-0xe037,0xe020-0xe023,0xe000-0xe01f mem 0xf7640000-0xf76407ff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci2
```

Then proceeded disk by disk to move my system from old HDs to new SSDs attached to this card. First and second relisvered fine, but when I inserted the third SSD, with no more system HD, it simply wont boot (halt on the boot: prompt).
I *did* install zfs-bootloader on all disks of the pool..

I noticed that the BIOS does not detected it as bootable, not listed on first screen while internal SATA and USB are. I'll try to take a photo of this screen, which is very brief.

Meanwhile does someone has a hint on how to make this card bootable, or access to its BIOS, I cannot find any clue on Google.


Thanks in advance
Regards
Xavier


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## ralphbsz (Oct 19, 2020)

Xavier said:


> I noticed that the BIOS does not detected it as bootable, ...


Explain? Two options: (1) Does the BIOS not detect the whole card as bootable? In that case, you won't boot from it. And need leave some bootable thing that the BIOS can detect. I've used little USB sticks for that in emergencies, although I'm sure that's not production worthy.

Or: (2) The BIOS does not detect the 3rd SSD as bootable, but detects the first two even on this card. In that case, put the booting stuff on those two SSDs.


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## diizzy (Oct 19, 2020)

Unless there's a boot ROM on the card (which I doubt) it wont be bootable as far as I know which has nothing to do with FreeBSD or any OS. 
As far as I can tell this card also uses port multiplier functionality so you'll see some performance degradation and potentially some instability.


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## Xavier (Oct 19, 2020)

Thanks to all. I doubt also that there is a boot ROM on this chinese c**p. I'll temporary attach the 3rd disk to the onboard SATA, then buy a real card.
Regards
Xavier


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