Boot stuck in loop

[platinumjsi]

Just installed some new fans in my system and upon booting it up again the boot process is stuck in a look and I cant access the machine, the error I am getting is :

init: getty repeating too quickly on port /dev/ttyv0

Seen people on the forum with this problem but cant find a fix, hoping someone can help.

No hardware has changed other than the fans.

 

[BigDave]

Sometimes we knock stuff loose (data/power connector), check everything's
connected and boot your machine. You powered down your server while
working on the fans? May be just a coincidence and not the cause.
I don't know why it's doing this, but the fix is to perform a fresh install
due to a boot drive issue. Hopefully you have a save config file and it will
just be a matter of importing your pool after the install.

 

[platinumjsi]

I have Freenas installed to dual SD cards, tried each on its own and get the same issue

 

[platinumjsi]

As above it fails with each card, I have not got a copy of my setup, wont a fresh install hose my pools?

 

[DrKK]

wont a fresh install hose my pools

No. Your pools are a ZFS entity. Your installation is an operating system entity. Once you have your new operating system installed, you can simply "auto-import" your existing pool.

The obvious thing to do here: whatever fan(s) you just installed, unplug them, and try again. Just to eliminate the new hardware as a cause.

 

[platinumjsi]

Long shot but it did nothing, not even been installed that long and it fails?
If its a definate OS fail ill create a new installer and give it a go, would rather not though as I dont have the time at the moment to set things up again :/

 

[BigDave]

For future reference, always save a copy of your configuration prior to doing anything
to your machine. It's a time saver ;)

 

[platinumjsi]

Ok so ill try a reinstall but would like to know for future reference what causes this error, a month and the os hoses it self is not filling me with confidence :s

 

[platinumjsi]

Also where do I find auto import? had a quick scan of the manaul and cant see it?

 

[platinumjsi]

Ok so loaded the initial install rather than latest and its booted fine, going to run through setting everything up again and will then save the config.
Anyway to have it automatically save the config to a network share? if not ill setup reminders in my calender to do it so next time its a simpler matter to get things sorted.

 

[BigDave]

It's automatic, so there's not going to be a button to press.
During the boot process, the OS will "find" your pool and
will import it without you having to do anything. If for some
weird reason this does not happen, THEN you would use the
GUI to manually import your volume/pool

The boot drive failure issues can be mostly avoided by the use
of a high quality flash device, such as a 16GB sandisk Cruzier Fit
such as this...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171588

 

[platinumjsi]

I have dual 32gb Kingstons so there shouldnt be a issue there.

 

[DrKK]

a month and the os hoses it self is not filling me with confidence :s

Let's be reasonable sir. FreeNAS is by far the world's most ubiquitously installed and beloved FOSS NAS product, and has one of the most active communities in the entire BSD universe, and is an offshoot from a professional, commercial, product. That alone should alleviate your concerns that the software would be not worthy of at least your baseline confidence.

 

[danb35]

Kingstons so there shouldnt be a issue there.

I had a Kingston USB stick crap itself within 24 hours of installation, so I don't have the greatest confidence in them. But why are you using SD cards? They aren't recommended for the boot device. From the manual:

The FreeNAS® operating system is installed to at least one device that is separate from the storage disks. The device can be a USB stick, compact flash, or SSD.

SD is not compact flash, nor is it (obviously) a USB stick or an SSD. We've seen other problems associated with trying to use SD cards as the boot device.

 

[DrKK]

I had a Kingston USB stick crap itself within 24 hours of installation, so I don't have the greatest confidence in them. But why are you using SD cards? They aren't recommended for the boot device. From the manual:

SD is not compact flash, nor is it (obviously) a USB stick or an SSD. We've seen other problems associated with trying to use SD cards as the boot device.

Correct. If you search our forums, you'll find that pretty much 100% of the "FreeNAS gurus" have been recommending against Kingston flash-memory products for about a year, based on a very high percentage of failure and dissatisfaction in general. At the very same price point, SanDisk has been a vastly better product. I myself have installed Kingston flash boot devices of various devices, brand new, and had them fail en masse within 72 hours.


Kingston RAM is generally considered fine (of course, it's not "flash", so it doesn't count in the category we're speaking of above).

 

[Deleted47050]

I have dual 32gb Kingstons so there shouldnt be a issue there.

Kingston USB drives don't really make me feel comfortable anymore. I have had data on them get corrupted out of the blue, or I have had 3.0 pendrives go slower than older 2.0 ones from different brands, so I try to avoid them nowadays. Sandisk's seem to be ok so far from what I can see.