# Highpoint Rocketraid 640 - FreeBSD 8.0 support and driver?



## ezat (Apr 23, 2010)

Hey all, 

I just purchased a Highpoint rocketraid 640 and am wanting to get this going on a system with bsd 8.0.  

Just a couple of questions. 

1.   Out of the box, Freebsd support for this card available?
2.   If no to point 1, possible location to a driver that I can load.

Ive tried to use the highpoint driver from their site (7.2) but it doesnt seem to work.  I would load the driver via a usb stick and continued to boot.

Any help or pointers appreciated.

Ezat


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## ezat (Apr 23, 2010)

*move*

I think this needs to under the installation forum.


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## DutchDaemon (Apr 23, 2010)

No, it belongs in the System Hardware forum.


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## ezat (Apr 23, 2010)

thanks


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## mav@ (Apr 24, 2010)

I can't say for `Highpoint RocketRaid 640`, but Highpoint site tells it uses same chip as mine `Highpoint Rocket 620`, which is working fine on 8-STABLE with ahci(4) driver. Try it and show me `pciconf -lvbc` output for it if it fails.

PS: If it get detected in that way - then it will loose all RAID features.


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## User23 (Sep 10, 2010)

@ezat: Did the Highpoint Rocketraid 640 work like expected? Iam searching for a simple stable working 4Port SATA 6.0GB controller can be used with AHCI because i will need the TRIM support.


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## bons (Jan 10, 2011)

Please does anybody can help with installation RocketRaid 620 on FreeBSD 8.0?

I've tried drivers from manufacturer (v1.1 for FreeBSD 7.2) from here - http://www.support-highpoint-tech.com/Main/RR622/FreeBSD/rr62x-bsd-7.2-v1.1.09.1221.tgz
Tried to load as a modules and used their "Installation Guiede" - http://www.support-highpoint-tech.com/Main/RR622/FreeBSD/Install_FreeBSD_RR62x.pdf but it didn't help anyway.

Tried to use achi - same story - FreeBSD can't detect the device.

[cmd=]pciconf -lvbc[/cmd] - shows the following:


```
none1@pci0:1:0:0:       class=0x010400 card=0x00011103 chip=0x06201103 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Triones Technologies Inc. (HighPoint)'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass   = RAID
    bar   [10] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xc080, size  8, enabled
    bar   [14] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xc000, size  4, enabled
    bar   [18] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xbc00, size  8, enabled
    bar   [1c] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xb880, size  4, enabled
    bar   [20] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xb800, size 16, enabled
    bar   [24] = type Memory, range 32, base 0xfe9ff000, size 2048, enabled
    cap 01[40] = powerspec 3  supports D0 D3  current D0
    cap 05[50] = MSI supports 1 message
    cap 10[70] = PCI-Express 2 legacy endpoint max data 128(512) link x1(x1)
```

thanks


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## mav@ (Jan 10, 2011)

Both 62x and 64x RocketRAIDs seems to be based on same Marvell 6Gbps SATA chips. ahci(4) driver can work with them if you add their PCI IDs to the list of supported. ID's of 62x was already added to 8.2-RELEASE. On my short test this method also works for 64x line, but for some unidentified yet reason performance is not appropriate.

For 64x line there are official drivers on HighPoint page. I've just tested "FreeBSD Open Source" one on 9-CURRENT and it seems like working. If you need RAID functionality - it is the way to go.


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## Baddreams (Jan 10, 2011)

mav,

Would you recommend the 6280 as an HBA for use with ZFS? I need more SATA ports for an existing amd64 8.0 install.


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## mav@ (Jan 10, 2011)

Baddreams,

What do you mean with "6280"? If it is typo and you mean 620, then it's difficult to say. While all these cards based on visually the same Marvell chips, I know at least three very different versions of it. I suppose those chips have different microcode inside, that widely changing their behavior from usual (but not very standard) AHCI controller up to "hardware" RAID controller.

HighPoint Rocket 620 and 622 cards (non-RAID) I have are working fine enough. I don't have RocketRAID 62x cards, but according to reports they are very different and I can't be sure there is no additional problems introduced. Just recently I've got one RocketRAID 640, which seems to have two of the same chips as 62x beyond PLX PCIe-PCIe bidge, but it is again works in different way, even closer to non-RAID 62x.


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## Baddreams (Jan 11, 2011)

I'm sorry I had it backwards, 26 not 62. 2680 was the model I had in mind. Two 8087 sas ports in a 4x pci-e slot. Has the Marvell 88SE6485 chipset. Thoughts?

Highpoint has a FreeBSD 8.0 driver, but I've seen a few discouraging words about this controller under FreeBSD on another forum. 


http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr2600.htm

I appreciate your input very much!


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## bons (Jan 11, 2011)

Dear mav@,

Thank you for your reply.
Could you tell me please is there any way to force FreeBSD-8.0 to use driver for 7.2?
For the 62x line there are official drivers on HighPoint page as well as for 64x line.
I've checked that their driver v1.1 for 64x is exactly the same as for 62x
Unfortunately there is no specified "Open Source" driver for 62x but in case that already compiled driver v1.1 is the same for both 64x & 62x I think that the "Source" driver should be same as well.
In this case is that really necessary to "Rebuild the kernel with RR64x support" because I dont see any point to "Build/Load the driver as a kernel module" where you can download already built v1.1 driver from HighPiont website?
May be this driver doesn't work for 8.0?
I'm not expert in FreeBSD and of course I'm doing something wrong. The driver loads manually by
`kldload rr62x.ko`
and kldstat shows - 

```
m/dev/>m/public/Temp/inst/HighPoint RocketRAID 620 Controller/>kldstat
Id Refs Address    Size     Name
 1   16 0xc0400000 b6dfe0   kernel
 2    1 0xc0f6e000 2534     accf_http.ko
 3    1 0xc0f71000 8c58     ahci.ko
 4    2 0xc5d56000 e000     ipfw.ko
 5    1 0xc5df9000 4000     ipdivert.ko
 6    1 0xc5f2b000 2000     warp_saver.ko
 7    1 0xc9d3a000 29000    rr62x.ko
```
as you can see ahci.ko loaded as well

but pciconf still shows - 

```
none1@pci0:1:0:0:       class=0x010400 card=0x00011103 chip=0x06201103 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Triones Technologies Inc. (HighPoint)'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass   = RAID
    bar   [10] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xc080, size  8, enabled
    bar   [14] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xc000, size  4, enabled
    bar   [18] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xbc00, size  8, enabled
    bar   [1c] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xb880, size  4, enabled
    bar   [20] = type I/O Port, range 32, base 0xb800, size 16, enabled
    bar   [24] = type Memory, range 32, base 0xfe9ff000, size 2048, enabled
    cap 01[40] = powerspec 3  supports D0 D3  current D0
    cap 05[50] = MSI supports 1 message
    cap 10[70] = PCI-Express 2 legacy endpoint max data 128(512) link x1(x1)
```

Is there any other way to use this drivers?
And how can I "add their PCI IDs to the list of supported"?

Thank you for your time.
I'm trying to fix this during the last week and no luck. So where is the rake  ?


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## mav@ (Jan 11, 2011)

Close look shown that 640's problem was result of RAID BIOS that disabled all disk caches. Enabling caches back with camcontrol solves speed problems. I've added their IDs to 9-CURRENT ahci(4).


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## User23 (Jan 13, 2011)

OT but maybe interesting: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2011/01/04/high-point-rocketraid-640-review/

Conclusion


```
While the Rocket 620 is a great option for those who donâ€™t have a SATA 6Gbps port, or who want to maximise
 their SATA 6Gbps performance, it does have limitations that are solved by the RocketRAID 640. Adding a second
 drive when using the 620 resulted in heavy bottlenecking when both drives were used simultaneously, whereas we
 saw great two-disk JBOD performance when using the 640.

However, the RocketRAID 640 brings its own problems, and while a two-disk JBOD setup works great thanks to the
 dual Marvell 9128 controllers, adding a third or fourth drive in JBOD configuration will result in very poor
 performance.
```

It would be awesome if someone could benchmark it with FreeBSD


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## mav@ (Jan 13, 2011)

I don't have 4 6Gbps SSDs to run same tests, but AFAIR tests I did some time before with 2 Intel SSD on Rocket 620 with ahci(4) driver shown alike numbers about 400MB/s on sequential read. Few days ago with 4 7200RPM Seagate HDDs on RocketRAID 640 with ahci(4) driver gave me full 400MB/s provided by the drives on sequential read. I did only basic benchmarks for I/Os per second, but numbers were reasonable.


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