# Installer is not recognizing host drives.



## Samwarez (Jun 21, 2017)

I have a server that I am trying to install FreeBSD on using the FreeBSD-11.0-RELEASE-amd64-memstick image (the server does not have a CD drive). All the hard drives (only a couple of SSDs for now) are on a backplane attached to two Adaptec 5405z adapters. The drives are initialized and set up in a JBOD in the Adaptec BIOS.

I run the installer but when I get to the part where I select what drives to install to I only get the USB drive with the installer on it. I tried to mount the drives manually but since the memstick image is Read-Only it won't let me.

Any suggestions?


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## SirDice (Jun 22, 2017)

Samwarez said:


> I tried to mount the drives manually but since the memstick image is Read-Only it won't let me.


You can't mount something that doesn't exist. Your Adaptec card is most likely not recognized, so the disks won't be found. Try starting the shell and running `kldload aac`, the aac(4) driver should support this card. But it's also possible it's a variation that's not recognized correctly.


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## Samwarez (Jun 22, 2017)

It says that the aac module is already loaded or in the kernel. I have the .ko from the manufacturer, it's for FreeBSD 8.x but its the latest one. But I can't mount USB drive it's on: 

```
# mkdir /mnt/usb
mkdir: /mnt/usb: Read-only file system
```


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## Samwarez (Jun 22, 2017)

ok so I made the root filesystem read/write,
`mount -uw /`
then mounted the drive,
`mount -t msdosfs /dev/da1s1 /mnt/usb`
then loaded the module
kldload /mnt/usb/aacu.ko
and it responded with:
`kldload: /mnt/usb/aacu.ko: Unsupported file layout`

I'm guessing this is due to it being for an older release. ARG! The cards are on the HCL and are in fact listed as supported by the aac module.
EDIT:
Also, I see the drives listed in `camcontrol devlist`


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## Samwarez (Jun 26, 2017)

Should I try an older release? I hate to do that due to security concerns but I really need to get this thing working.


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## SirDice (Jun 26, 2017)

Samwarez said:


> Also, I see the drives listed in  camcontrol devlist


This implies the controller and, as a consequence, the drives are detected. There's no need to install or enable any drivers. But it's always a bit of treasure hunt to find the exact names of the drives, some controllers use daX, some adaX and some mfidX (drives managed by mfi(4) for example).


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## Samwarez (Jun 26, 2017)

which brings me back to the original problem. The only drive listed in the installer is the USB flash drive.


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## Samwarez (Jun 26, 2017)

Trying it again with the CD. The drives show up as md0 and md1 when I select Disk Info in the installer, but when I select Disks I get "No disk(s) present to configure". If I try Auto (UFS) it returns "Partitioning Error"


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## Phishfry (Jun 27, 2017)

md0 and md1 are memory disks (ramdisk) created by the FreeBSD installer for the chroot setup environment.

https://www.reddit.com/r/freenas/comments/66kzok/freenas_with_adaptec_54055805/

I also notice a 2TB limit on Hard Disk size on this controller.


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## Samwarez (Jun 27, 2017)

I am going to be running 2tb drives in the main pool, so I should be ok there. Right now for the root drives I have 2 60gb SSDs. I am hoping to setup them up with zfs on root in a mirror. I am going to try to set them up as a mirror in the raid card and see if FreeBSD sees it then.


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## sko (Jun 27, 2017)

Samwarez said:


> I am going to try to set them up as a mirror in the raid card and see if FreeBSD sees it then.



How were these disks configured in the controller BIOS? Many RAID-controllers don't pass drives to the OS until they are configured.
Using any kind of RAID or proprietary on-disk-format from a RAID-only-controller (=no passthrough mode) underneath ZFS may be dangerous and undermine the abilities of ZFS, degrade performance and with some notoriously lying firmwares may even lead to data corruption. Using RAID underneath ZFS is therefore not recommended.


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## Samwarez (Jun 27, 2017)

The disks right now are initialized and set to JBOD. the freebsd system does see the drives as they show up in camcontrol. They just don't show up in the installer


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## Samwarez (Jul 1, 2017)

So I put the drives in a RAID 1 (Mirror) and the installer picked up the array no problem. So now the question is why did the JBOD option not working as a passthrough?


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