SOLVED FreeNAS 11 Fresh Install Won't Boot

[pschatz100]

Glad you got it working. As @Ericloewe said, bios on the X9 motherboards have some strange problems. The latest versions of FreeNAS seem to have more problems with this than earlier versions, so it's hard to say exactly why this happens. Part of the challenge when working with older hardware.

 

[John_G]

Glad you got it working. As @Ericloewe said, bios on the X9 motherboards have some strange problems. The latest versions of FreeNAS seem to have more problems with this than earlier versions, so it's hard to say exactly why this happens. Part of the challenge when working with older hardware.

That's right. Mine is even X8. I've tried not only FreeNAS, but also esxi from USB. Same result. So it's a platform bug, seems to me. The main part in solving was to take away other devices (hard drives from LSI I mean) from boot list, as far as I can tell.

 

[danzaslap]

Reflashed LSI 9211-8i to IT mode without mpt (not seen in BIOS anymore). Now everything is fine, server boots from USB flash. Thanks.

I ran across the same problem and glad I found your post. I just added 6 new drives to my LSI card and when the boot issues started. I figured it was the usb drive but after going through 3 alternate drives, similar to your situation, I found your post and removed 2 of the new drives. That seems to have done the trick and I can boot again.

Can you post a link to the firmware you flashed onto the LSI card? I think I need to do that as well.

 

[John_G]

I ran across the same problem and glad I found your post. I just added 6 new drives to my LSI card and when the boot issues started. I figured it was the usb drive but after going through 3 alternate drives, similar to your situation, I found your post and removed 2 of the new drives. That seems to have done the trick and I can boot again.

Can you post a link to the firmware you flashed onto the LSI card? I think I need to do that as well.

Mod note:

Links to shady downloads of binary blobs are specifically not allowed. LSI firmware is readily available from their website.

- Ericloewe

 

[John_G]

Mod note:

Links to shady downloads of binary blobs are specifically not allowed. LSI firmware is readily available from their website.

- Ericloewe

Sorry, Ericloewe, I'll remember that.

Maybe this link will help: https://www.broadcom.com/support/do...gacy+Products&pn=SAS+9211-8i+Host+Bus+Adapter
It's pure official vendor site this time ^_^
But a lot of people complain about problems with p20 and recommend to use p19 instead. I have problems (SCSI sense: ABORTED COMMAND asc:47,3 (Information unit iuCRC error detected) with p20 (20.00.06.00) too, will try version above (20.00.07.00).

 

[Ericloewe]

No, do not use P19. There is no good reason to do so.

p20 (20.00.06.00)

You want 20.00.07