SOLVED 11.2 Installer Loop -> Can access Shell, but Install Loops Back

[fl0at]

Using FreeNAS-11.2-RELEASE-U1.iso

(HP Elite 8300 decommissioned desktop)
HP 657094-001
Intel Core i5 3470 3.2 GHz
Hitachi 16 GB DDR3 1333 MHz
Intel 82579LM Network Controller
HDDs 3 WD Blue 500 gb (For testing); various manufacture dates in 2012.
ScanDisk Cruzer 2gb USB Installer
ScanDisk Fit 16gb USB Install Target

Flashed using Rufus 2.16, 2.18, and 3.3... and Etcher. Flashed from UEFI booted WIN10.

Booted into installer. But 1 for Install just loops back to the same screen. I can access shell, so if there are any diagnostic commands that would help I can provide, if I can mount another USB.

pfSense-2.4.4 installed fine using this same machine, so FreeBSD based installers flashed using Rufus 3.3 from the WIN10 machine does work on this hardware.

Any ideas?

 

[Chris Moore]

Does this system have a BIOS or a UEFI firmware? Some of the older systems don't quite know how to act and you have to set them (in the BIOS) to behave in (terminology varies) "Legacy" mode. It is most likely some minor incompatibility. It might be resolved with a firmware upgrade. Difficult to say. I suspect that system board though.
We have some hardware that is known to work, if you are able to invest in some dedicated hardware.

FreeNAS® Quick Hardware Guide
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/freenas®-quick-hardware-guide.7/

Hardware Recommendations Guide Rev 1e) 2017-05-06
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

You might also want to look at this:

Hardware Requirements
http://www.freenas.org/hardware-requirements/

with particular emphasis on this:

SSD boot drives are even more important with the newest version of FreeNAS because the software is larger and interacts with the boot media even more than ever before. The days of the whole OS loading memory resident are long gone.

 

[fl0at]

Does this system have a BIOS or a UEFI firmware? Some of the older systems don't quite know how to act and you have to set them (in the BIOS) to behave in (terminology varies) "Legacy" mode. It is most likely some minor incompatibility. It might be resolved with a firmware upgrade. Difficult to say. I suspect that system board though.
We have some hardware that is known to work, if you are able to invest in some dedicated hardware.

FreeNAS® Quick Hardware Guide
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/freenas®-quick-hardware-guide.7/

Hardware Recommendations Guide Rev 1e) 2017-05-06
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

You might also want to look at this:

Hardware Requirements
http://www.freenas.org/hardware-requirements/

with particular emphasis on this:
View attachment 27327
SSD boot drives are even more important with the newest version of FreeNAS because the software is larger and interacts with the boot media even more than ever before. The days of the whole OS loading memory resident are long gone.

Option for either, chooseable as a menu item on boot for BIOS or UEFI. Tried both.

Ok, I put a Crucial MX500 500gb in and it still doesn’t install. So I’m not sure what the emphasis was about, but done.

The installer boots. It does not get beyond the Install option (option 1) on boot. The installer is booting.

The hardware is capable of booting and installing pfSense and whatever NAS4Free is calling themselves today, so not sure it has anything to do with any firmware update or BIOS setting.

 

[fl0at]

Was able to break the install loop and install by creating the install stick on a non-UEFI booted Windows OS, and runing Rufus from within that.