[Soekris] Correct 4801 CompactFlash?

[Emilio Perea]

On Wed, Dec 26, 2007 at 04:25:34PM -0500, Hans Zaunere wrote:
> 
> I have the 4801 and a SanDisk Extreme III compact flash (2gb), using
> pfsense.  I've had a lot of problems with it, seemingly i/o issues where
> pfsense can't write or read what it needs.  Upon first installation,
> everything is fine, but then the system quickly has issues.
> 
> I'm figuring it's because I don't have the right type of compact flash card
> in the system.  However, I'm having a difficult time trying to determine
> what the correct type is.  Does anyone have any recommendations for the
> correct CF card to use with the 4801 (either 1gb or 2gb would be fine).

I used a SanDisk Ultra II on my 4801 without problems, but had lots of
problems when switching to an Extreme IV.  As it turned out, the problem
was not with the card at all.  Soren explained:

"The net4801 added support for DMA on the CompactFlash from PCB rev 3, 
dated 040226. If you have an older board then you will need to tell the 
ATA driver to disable DMA, as it will detect that the disk supports DMA 
but doesn't know it's not wired..."

If you also have an early board, this is probably the problem.