SOLVED FreeNAS 11.1 and 11.2 failed to restore to USB key but 9.10 did

[somnambulist7]

Hello! Long time lurker, but after the last few days trials and head scratching I had to post. I've searched through the forums, but not seen much that was similar. The one thread with my initial issue (https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/freenas-11-install-error-no-symbol-table.55477/) did not produce any suggestions that worked for me.

My FreenNAS 9.10 had been happily purring away for ages, but yesterday (Sunday, 29th July) I logged into admin only to be greeted with a blinky light of doom. Sure enough the USB key had decided to start failing and could not be repaired. Well, time to update anyway so 11.1 here I come. My FreeNAS box is a Xeon E3-1245 V2, 16GB Kingston ECC RAM, Intel DBS1200 KPR mITX motherboard, LSI 9211-8i (flashed to IT), 6x3TB WD Red drives in a Node 304 case.

From OSX I successfully restored 11.1 to an 8GB SanDisk USB key, all seemed in order. FreeNAS 9 shutdown, keyboard, screen connected; booted up, entered the boot menu and selected the USB key; that immediately gave me: "invalid symbol table, no kernel installed, press any key to continue". Try again, same message. Google for said message, 1 post in FreeNAS forums that suggested legacy boot mode. My motherboard BIOS has hardly any settings, but I did try non-EFI boot, no difference. Try again, re-dd just in case. Nope; notta, nothing. I then tried totally disabling EFI booting; still no dice. Checked for a BIOS update - none, and the board is of course discontinued. The error seems to be something to do with Grub but way beyond my skill level to do anything about.

Fast forward to today and I downloaded 11.2 Beta, figured there might be a more recent Grub on that. Restored it to the same USB key and got a "device not configured" message but it apparently finished OK. That's odd, lets try it anyway. Nope nothing. Failed to boot this time with a set of errors and a system halt. Re-applied the image. Same deal and the same device error from dd. At this point maybe a bad USB key? However...

With latest and greatest not working, how about 9.10? Using the exact same USB key that had previously failed with 11.1 and 11.2, I tried the archive 9.10 release ISO. dd finished without any errors and very interestingly OSX diskutil would actually read the partition details (11.2 seemed to be broken). I booted from this and the FreeNAS installer started and finished. After a few more hiccups, I'm back up and running now on 9.10.2 U6. So it seems like the USB key was fine, so maybe the instructions for 11.1 need updating (http://doc.freenas.org/11/install.html#on-os-x)? Has anyone else experienced anything like that?

I am very concerned about even attempting to switch to 11.X and I am left wondering if the root problem is that my motherboard, while being UEFI, is not "proper" UEFI, and might be a 32-bit UEFI with a 64-bit CPU and that is not a compatible configuration. For example: there is no bootable UEFI shell, I have to resort to using a USB key with a custom EFI image (makes firmware updates really fun).

Would this be an indication that I should be thinking about a new motherboard? It is a bit old now (2013) but has worked great until now, but new mobo means probably new CPU and RAM and totally dismantling the case :( (I don't recommend the Node 304 case)

At any rate, I am almost certainly going to buy myself a Mini-XL once pay day is here because right now I have no secondary NAS and this escapade has left me a little uneasy.

 

[somnambulist7]

I have an update. I think I have got to the bottom of my dd to USB key issue! I was (foolishly?!) dd'ing to the USB key mounted through my eGPU enclosure to my 2017 rMBP i.e. I was not connecting directly to one of the local USB-C ports on the MacBook.

Today just for giggles (and because I have time and a tonne of parts due for delivery over the next 2 weeks for a new NAS build :) ), I decided to do some more testing and this time connected a USB key directly through a USBC to USBA convertor. This restored both the 11.1 and 11.2 images without any errors or issues. Further: I was fully able to boot 11.2 in VMware Fusion to the installer screen and on the same key that had been failing before. I also tried another larger key, and that too was fine with both images.

Interestingly 11.1 kept failing in VMware Fusion with a kernel panic "running without atpic requires a local APIC". Apparently this was fixed in FreeBSD 11 or something. There were some articles on Google, but as this was just a test in a throw away VM to see if the key would boot, it's not an issue.

Anyhow, might be worthwhile updating the FreeNAS docs to add that (at least on OSX) the USB key should be directly connected and not connected through a hub / other chained device. That may be common knowledge, but with the all USB-C MacBooks it's annoying having to dongle everything and you'd think that a TB3 connected USB hub should be alright - especially as 9.10 restored OK.