20+min FreeNAS 11 installation and booting when SD/MMC devices exist

[silversword]

So I'm certain this is another "hardware not suited for a file server" (Dell inspiron 580), this is just testing FreeNAS with some existing hardware before blowing 1-2K on dedicated hardware.

During the troubleshooting extremely slow installation (I did 6 failed installs because I didn't wait long enough) because I thought the installer was crashing, it was dropping out of the GUI installer after clicking ok on one of the data entries (password etc).

The only reason I discovered it was a hardware issue was that I finally went to bed after starting a new install, and found it finished in the AM.

I think the main issue to fix would be to reduce the initialization timeout period for any SD/MMC devices during both installs and boots.

I believe the slowdown is the 4+ card reader that I can't disable in BIOS, and doesn't have a card in it. Here's the errors that are on the screen during the long wait periods

That one screen was 15mins if initialization and waiting.

 

[BigDave]

I think the main issue to fix would be to reduce the initialization timeout period for any SD/MMC devices during both installs and boots.

Why not try a USB thumb drive for your boot device? SD cards are notoriously slow.
How much RAM does your machine have, IF it's less than 8GB, that is also part of the problem.

 

[gpsguy]

Assuming it's connected to a USB header on the motherboard, perhaps you can unplug it.

I believe the slowdown is the 4+ card reader that I can't disable in BIOS

 

[Chris Moore]

Dell inspiron 580

I looked that model up on Dell's website and it says that the system supports 'up to' 8GB of memory. Yes, that is on the low side but if you have the full 8GB, it does make the minimum and should be fine for testing.
The integrated card reader should be plugged to a USB port on the system board and you should be able to disconnect it with very little effort.

 

[silversword]

It has the full 8GB of RAM. The boot drive is a Samsung EVO 850 SSD, I'm not booting from any SD/USB drives, I'd expect performance to be abysmal in that instance. :)

Yes, I can unplug the header wire to the multi-SD card readers so they won't exist and cause FreeNAS slow boot problems (I'll probably do that anyway to re-verify they're the source of the slow boot).

This is the first time playing with FreeNAS, I think the main two items I'm trying to mention here for optimization are:

1. Any device with a media/problem shouldn't take 5mins to timeout before continuing to initialize the next device (especially any non-HDD). I would think 30 seconds is a reasonable boot timeout on a device before the system keeps moving however it can
2. During the install process ghost text should not partially take over the GUI'ish dialogs because it's still initializing those SD/devices and they're extremely slow to respond.

I can reload/record what it's doing and send a link to a video if someone wants to see that.

Also posting this so it will appear in searches for other people's research on why FreeNAS can take 20+mins to boot :)

Thx!

 

[Chris Moore]

The reason there was a problem is because you had some unsupported hardware connected to the server. It's not a problem with FreeNAS if there's a problem with the hardware that you had you connected. If you want to file a bug report you can but I don't think anything's going to come of it because that's not the kind of device that should be connected to a freenas server. This is just not an actual bug.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[silversword]

I did confirm, pulling the header for the SD cards made the boot 2-3mins. Why they take so long to timeout is still troubling to me.
Apparently USB drives (mirrored even) for freeNAS are the standard and not a slow boot situation.

I continue to learn :)

 

[Chris Moore]

I did confirm, pulling the header for the SD cards made the boot 2-3mins. Why they take so long to timeout is still troubling to me.
Apparently USB drives (mirrored even) for freeNAS are the standard and not a slow boot situation.

I continue to learn :)

The reason those SD card slots cause a delay is because they appear as a drive to the operating system but there is no disk in the drive so it never comes ready. The OS spends time trying to interrogate the hardware to get a response where there never will be a response. It is not unusual. You should not connect any hardware to the FreeNAS that FreeNAS will not use, to do so is to ask for problems.

Why would you think that booting from USB (mirrored or otherwise) has any detriment to FreeNAS? It is in the documentation isn't it?
There are some functions that are accelerated with a faster boot drive. If you have additional ports available, it can make the system more responsive to use a small (40GB) hard drive or SSD as boot drive.
I use a mirrored pair of these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fujitsu-MHV2040BH-40GB-2-5-Hard-Drive-SATA-buffer-8MB/202090947837
Some other people use one like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-32GB...1GN-SATA2-Solid-Sate-Drive-6099A/311999353490
The SSD is generally considered reliable enough that a mirror is not needed. I have my boot drives mirrored because I don't trust the spinning rust.
I quit using USB boot drives after I had two of them fail on me in less than a year. Even with mirrored USB drives it is still a pain when one fails.