FreeNAS img on USB key always reboot after main menu

[Aal]

Hi,

I'm new to FreeNAS. I intend to use it as a backup of my main NAS (a Synology DS-412+) - which is full and contains many datas important to me (hence the backup...)

Problem : whatever initial media I use (ISO image burned on a CD or DVD, bootable image copied on a brand new USB key), I cannot get the system runnin. I get first the boot menu (F1/F2/F5/F6 choices), then what I call the "main menu" (I'm not sure it's the proper name) : you know, the menu with FreeNAS written à la ASCII-art. Immediately after seeing this menu, the computer reboots !

I asked usual oracles, some of my symptoms are described here and here (when I press F2 at boot menu, I got the ###-endless-loop, but the system boots just fine if I don't press any key). But this bug entry is quite old, and I don't use Dell server (I also read here and there that people do had issues rather like mine with Dell servers). Here is my hardware :

• motherboard : Gigabyte EP45-UD3 (chipsets Intel® P45 Express + ICH10) ;
• CPU : Intel Pentium E5200 ;
• 4 x 2 Go DDR2 Kingston HyperX ;
• USB key : Kingston DataTraveler Micro 8 Go (new and its FS never written). I just copied on it the installation image (the .img.xz file), from Ubuntu - there's a nice GUI which seems to seemlessly do the job - but I also tried with dd - without success) ;
• 8 SATA hard drives :
  • 6 Western Digital 1 TB « green », attached to main SATA ports (those connected to Intel chipset) ;
  • 1 Seagate 4 TB ;
  • 1 Samsung 640 GB whith other OS (Ubuntu 14.04 & Windows 7 - as this system is intended to be an occasional casual NAS, I foresee to also use it to run games sometimes) ;
• there also a nVidia GPU and a PCI-Express 1x USB 3.0 D-Link add-in card - but I don't think it's really important ;
• the PSU, at last, and to be complete, is an Enermax Modu87+ (500W).

Any opinion / tip / help would be very much appreciated. Best regards,

Al.

 

[Aal]

I also read this. So I tried to unplug some HDD : no success. I played in the BIOS of my MB with two options :

• SATA AHCI Mode : IDE or AHCI -> no change, whatever setting I used ;
• SATA Port0-3 Native Mode : Enabled or Disabled -> same conclusion.

 

[danb35]

What happens if you download the installation .iso, boot from that, and install FreeNAS to your USB key that way? What version of FreeNAS are you trying to use?

 

[Aal]

Hi,

thanks for answering. With the ISO image burnt on a DVD (I have no more CD...), I have exactly the same behavior : it reboots instantly after the « main » menu...

 

[cyberjock]

Two things:

1. That hardware is old enough that it may not be supported on FreeNAS 9.x.
2. That motherboard is a desktop board. Truth be told they often don't play well with FreeBSD. Not surprisingly, you are having problems.

Aside from a BIOS update I don't have any other ideas. Sounds like you already tried playing in the BIOS and didn't get satisfaction. :/

The repeating # signs are usually a sign of hardware incompatibility. ;)

 

[no_connection]

I have the EP45-DS3
Only 4GB RAM though. It have worked "fine" with V7 for a few years and does boot V9.

It is however flakey. I thought it was a FreeNAS bug but it panics at boot sometimes with windows as well.

I am VERY glad to have this replaced with a real server. If you call the Dell T20 real that is.
While backup may have less "value" now, it sure does not when you need it.

 

[cyberjock]

Don't compare V7 to anything here. V7 is not part of this project and they don't share any source code at all. It's like saying "it runs windows so it must work on FreeBSD". It's apples to oranges comparison. ;)

Anything with <8GB of RAM is going to be flaky if you are using ZFS.

 

[no_connection]

So I should leave out the bit that I have run V7 for years and it have been flakey most of that time just because FreeNAS is now a completely different project?
That makes no sense at all. It does run windows, but it may reset when booting up, just like V7 after a vacation. Once or twice then it would run again.
The point you should have taken with you is that is is flakey no matter the OS. Although I did not see it flakey with V9 as I only booted it once to see if it would load, and it did.
ZFS disables prefetch for systems with 4GB RAM so I guess that would be better than having 5GB. Not that it matters anyway. ZFS was never the reason for it being flakey.

 

[joeschmuck]

As for the "Flaky" behavior of the system... Check for system stability by running MemTest86 for a few days and ensure you do not have any errors. If no errors then run a CPU Stress test for about 2 hours, don't do it much longer as it is hard on a CPU. If no errors then in general your system should be stable from a hardware perspective. If you get any errors then you will have to figure out what part of your computer is causing the error, it could be the RAM or power supply or even the motherboard itself.

Overall even if you have a stable piece of hardware, you still might not be able to get the latest version of FreeNAS to run. Have you tried to load FreeNAS on a SATA hard drive to see if it runs from there because it could be an issue just running from a usb thumb drive.

 

[no_connection]

Being somewhat similar to mine it should at least be able to boot. Even though the encouragement is to not use it for FreeNAS.

You have pulled any unnecessary hardware like USB3 card?
Have you pulled two sticks and tried with only 4GB?