Fail to see boot device after install

[grawill]

HP desktop
Motherboard IPM61-TB
Intel Core i3-3220T (Ivy Bridge) 2.8 GHz Dual Core
8GB PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333)
16GB DataStick PRO by CENTON (to boot from)
Internal Laptop HHD 150GB SATAII (to boot from)

So I'm looking to run FreeNAS on the above hardware. Aside from the USB stick and HDD, it's all factory from an HP desktop that's about 12 months old. Everything appears to fail within acceptable hardware recommendations, please correct me if I'm wrong here.

I burnt the latest ISO to CD and followed the install process without issue. Everything appears to work as expected and matches on line documentation and various YouTube videos I've researched. However, after I remove CD and reboot, computer fails to find boot device.

I've attempted the following, however nothing has worked so far:
1. boot to USB stick YUMI installed which works - done to verify USB booting is working.
2. Replaced USB stick with Kingston 32GB stick - same result after reboot.
3. Re-downloaded and installed from 2nd USB stick - same result after reboot.
4. Completed fresh install process to internal HDD to test - same result
4. Changed the following options within BIOS using various different setups:
a. Turn off UEFI Boot security and booted to Legacy Devices
b. Adjusted Boot order
c. Disconnected all internal HDD, fresh install to USB, and attempted the above BIOS changes - same result.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time.

 

[JDCynical]

HP desktop
Motherboard IPM61-TB
Intel Core i3-3220T (Ivy Bridge) 2.8 GHz Dual Core
8GB PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333)
16GB DataStick PRO by CENTON (to boot from)
Internal Laptop HHD 150GB SATAII (to boot from)

So I'm looking to run FreeNAS on the above hardware. Aside from the USB stick and HDD, it's all factory from an HP desktop that's about 12 months old. Everything appears to fail within acceptable hardware recommendations, please correct me if I'm wrong here.

I'm afraid you are incorrect. The only things in that list that meets the minimum recommended is the amount of RAM and the size of the USB stick.

These are the things that stick out for me right away:

• Motherboard is a desktop board, uses a Realtek 10/100 network chip, and doesn't support ECC (I'm looking at this page on HP's site)
• CPU, after a quick check, doesn't support ECC per Intel
  
• Memory is not ECC (board and CPU has to support it for it to be of use)
  
• The USB stick, while large enough, appears to be one of questionable nature per reviews I see of it on amazon and newegg

I strongly suggest you check the hardware recommendations thread here (it's stickied in the main page of the hardware section here).

 

[Ericloewe]

PSA:

Please avoid YouTube videos like the plague. The vast majority is either quickly outdated or outright inaccurate.
Of course, this doesn't apply to any YouTube videos specifically linked to from the forums (like DrKK's).


Regarding this specific case:

Given the troubleshooting steps performed, it seems that your hardware has trouble booting from UEFI. Given what our cynical friend said above, the best course of action is more suitable hardware. A kludge would be a newer BIOS version that fixes UEFI boot, which may or may not exist.

 

[grawill]

Thanks for the guidance. I would like to get some clarification on the hardware requirements as compared to the recommendations.

Justin,
The link you provided is goes to a post giving recommendations, not requirements. Given that and the information provided by the FreeNAS Userguide found HERE which states:

"If your system supports it and your budget allows for it, install ECC RAM. While more expensive, ECC RAM is highly recommended as it prevents in-flight corruption of data before the error-correcting properties of ZFS come into play, thus providing consistency for the checksumming and parity calculations performed by ZFS. If you consider your data to be important, use ECC RAM. This Case Study describes the risks associated with memory corruption."
​

I interpret that as ECC RAM is an option and noting there suggests non-ECC RAM will not work. While I concede ECC is a much better option, the above text from the Userguide seems to indicate that it is an option if you can afford it. To your point about my USB stick, I thought the same thing which is why I attempted to use a second, Kingston 32G stick which also failed to boot after install.

Ericloewe,
While I neglected to mention earlier, I have updated to the latest BIOS, but ended up with the same result. UEFI was my prime suspect but not due to my hardware failing to boot it properly. This hardware originally came with Windows 8 and was configured to boot to a UEFI HDD which still works if I set BIOS to defaults and reconnect the original HDD. So while this does appear to be a hardware compatibility issue, all indications from online documentation say this should work.

I'll start looking for an alternate hardware solution, however I am interested to see if there are any other suggestions as to why this setup is not working.

Thanks again.

 

[Ericloewe]

his hardware originally came with Windows 8 and was configured to boot to a UEFI HDD which still works if I set BIOS

Unfortunately, Windows 8 has a very weird way of booting from UEFI that doesn't quite comply with the specifications for UEFI boot, which means that booting Windows 8 does not necessarily mean that other OSes will boot easily.

 

[grawill]

Simply for the learning experience, do you think booting via UEFI Secure Boot to a Linux distro would be a valid/comparable test?

 

[Ericloewe]

I don't know. I think I remember some talk about Ubuntu implementing the required workaround for UEFI boot on bastardized UEFI systems.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I would like to get some clarification on the hardware requirements as compared to the recommendations.

Aside from the question of ECC or not, at minimum your hardware needs to be suitable for FreeBSD, so you might want to check the FreeBSD hardware compatibility list. Then it's worth noting that FreeNAS is not as flexible as plain FreeBSD in its hardware support. For example, as pointed out by @Justin The Cynical , a realtek NIC is likely to be a source of pain. There are quite a few documented examples of this in these forums. Here's a recent one.

 

[grawill]

Thanks Robert.. I'll do some research on the FreeBSD hardware support. I've already decided to pursue another hardware solution for FreeNAS implementation given the already difficult time this set is having, but I plan on researching what the root cause is with this set. My current theory is pointing to a compatibility of one or more controllers. Since booting from internal HDD or USB hasn't worked, I suspect the controllers are to blame.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I've already decided to pursue another hardware solution for FreeNAS implementation given the already difficult time this set is having

I think you'll be very happy with this decision long-term.

I plan on researching what the root cause is with this set

Fair enough, I hate not knowing why too. Please post back if you find the answer.

 

[JDCynical]

Strictly speaking, no, ECC is not a requirement, but it is so strongly recommended that it may as well be a requirement.

And I would like to point out that you did say "within acceptable hardware recommendations", which I did respond with items that didn't meet the "minimum recommended". :)

As for the USB booting, I've seen systems that would boot from one set of ports, but not others. I think I've got one on my rack that is like that (and it's earmarked for replacement at my first opportunity), won't boot USB devices from the 'front' ports but will on the back. In my experience, anything from an OEM like HP or Dell are suspect of shenanigans in respect to their boot processes and BIOS systems.