SOLVED FreeNAS will not boot: unknown error

[KyleBT]

Preamble:
I am new to FreeNAS, and this level of geekery in general, I've never been this deep before, and I don't understand most of what I am doing at this point, but I am learning butt loads and I still enjoy it, provided I can make things work out in the end.

The Meat:
I am trying to set up a SOHO file server using FreeNAS 8. I am using an older version because I started from an older tutorial I found online, and also because of the lower RAM requirements of the older version. When I boot up my system it progresses along for about a minute or so, I get the FreeNAS start screen where you can choose to boot into single user more or safe mode, etc. and it starts up the default normal mode, then after a few seconds I get some sort of error and everything just freezes. The last few lines on the screen read as follows:
panic: m_getzone: m_getjcl: invalid cluster type
cpuid=1
KDB: enter: panic
[thread pid 12 tid 100028 ]
Stopped at kdb_enter+0x3b: movq $0,0x777412(%rip)
db>

I have also attached a picture.

I am using an Asus h97i-plus mITX board, Intel Celeron G1840 2.8GHz, 4GB DDR#-1600 RAM, Intel Pro/1000 NIC, and running FreeNAS off a Kingston 8GB USB stick. I know these aren't the prefered hardware parts, and reminding me of that is less than helpful, that's what I have now and I'm trying to work with it if possible. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[gpsguy]

Even ZFS on FreeNAS 8.x required more than 4GB RAM.

If you want to use that hardware, visit NAS4Free (www.nas4free.org). FreeNAS 0.7 (which many of the old tutorials referenced), became NAS4Free. FreeNAS 8/9 is a different project.

 

[KyleBT]

Is that where my problem would be coming from though, because, I haven't even set up my storage yet and it won't boot up? If I have to swap out my Ram for 8GB and try FreeNAS 9, that's easy enough to do, and it only costs about $100, but if that's not what's causing the issue then it's a wasted $100.

 

[jlpellet]

I suggest trying a completely different USB drive on another USB port. Also, suggest looking in the BIOS options to see if any USB options are offered. Given the error message, I suspect the OS is having trouble with the USB stick. Also, while not recommented or supported, for small SOHO with low demand, I've had success even with 2GB RAM using 9.3. Another suggestion is try a different installation method - I don't see which you've tried. Good luck!

 

[Rob_Titterington]

I seem to be having a similar issue KyleBT and believe i have the recommended hardware - link here.

Have you had any luck resolving it? I've tried 3 different USB drives but no joy... i'm going to try installing to an old/spare 500GB HDD just or the sake f trying something different! The error/text displayed means nothing to me and am hoping someone a lot smarter than myself can assist and or point me towards a fix :D.

 

[KyleBT]

Hey all, I did resolve my issue. I think it was something to do with how I wrote the flash drive. I didn't unzip the install image properly. I tried it again, same usb drive, but I also switched to version 9, if I have to upgrade ram later on then so be it. My issue was that the instructions only mention unzipping once but I had to do it twice. I opened the .iso file with Keka, then opened the resulting file with Keka again (it's a .img.zx file or something, I don't remember). I never did go back and try again with version 8, I may still if I feel adventurous, but now that I'm up and running in not really feeling going backwards.