FreeNAS won't boot

[Phil Demand]

I've been running 9.1.1 for about three months with no problem at all. I shut down for some wiring changes (ran cat6, HDMI, USB over ethernet with adapters, and power underneath the floor) and when I booted up again I got this:

F1 FreeBSD
F2 FreeBSD
F5 Drive 1

F6 PXE
Boot: F2 ###############

And the # just keeps repeating. I have a Asrock FM2A85X Extreme6 with an AMD A4-4000 and 4gb of RAM. FreeNAS has been running on a USB stick that I've had on an internal USB header adapter. I have 4 2TB WD Red drives in raidz. Again, this has been running flawlessly for months, and now this.

Any help?

 

[Phil Demand]

Don't know if this is relevant, but I occasionally boot into Windows 7 on this machine on a 32gb SSD. Booting into Windows is still good.

 

[cyberjock]

Normally that's a sign of hardware that isn't compatible with FreeNAS. Check for BIOS updates and disable any hardware in your BIOS that you won't need for FreeNAS.

Since it's been working fine you might need a new USB stick.

 

[jlpellet]

I agree that 1st thing to try is new USB stick then restore from a saved config. Also, might try different USB port. Hope this helps.

 

[DrKK]

Wow.

That's a hell of an overpowered motherboard for an A4-4000. That A4-4000 is the lowest powered APU in AMD's line, you know that, right? You have functionalities on that motherboard that that CPU can't even USE.

Try turning off all USB 3.0 (XHCI) settings in the BIOS.

And also, this means you're using non-ECC RAM. naughty naughty naughty, sir.

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah, not to mention 1/2 the minimum requirements for RAM for ZFS. :(

 

[Phil Demand]

Yes, this system was originally intended to be something else for someone else, and was then given to me without a processor.

 

[DrKK]

Well, ok. Just keep in mind, your data *IS NOT SAFE* from corruption on that rig. Do not put anything on that pool that is not backed up to an autonomous storage (like an external USB drive), or offsite, *OR*, only use it for stuff that you wouldn't mind losing. You are under-RAMmed, and you have dangerous memory for ZFS.

 

[Phil Demand]

Will I lose the data in my array if I install FreeNAS on a new stick?

 

[cyberjock]

Not unless you install FreeNAS to your data disk or delete your partitions on your data disks. This is covered in the manual or FAQ somewhere.

 

[steeban]

I'm resurrecting this thread from the dead because I'm having the exact problem the OP posted about:

I've been booting 9.1.2 from a USB stick for the past month. Today I powered down the NAS to do some network upgrades/maintenance and all I get is that.
Here's my hardware:
ASRock E3C226D2I
16GB of ECC RAM @ 1600
i3-4330
3x WD Red 3TB drives in raidz
seasonic 360GP PSU

I made no hardware changes or BIOS changes before this happened.
Since then I've tried specifying boot from USB, tried the stick in other ports, and made sure the stick worked in other machines (it does)
My BIOS and BMC are up to date, and I can't for the life of me figure out what is causing this.
Any help would be great
Thanks in advance!

 

[Phil Demand]

I bought a new USB stick, installed FreeNAS on it, and everything worked. So that could be your answer.

 

[DrKK]

Agreed. Almost certain culprit is a bad USB stick.

 

[Rand]

Not necessarily a bad stick but a corrupted boot record somewhere from my experience.
But use a new one, better safe than sorry.

 

[steeban]

And there I was thinking HP was a "reputable brand" of USB stick.

Thanks all, will try this using a SanDisk tomorrow.
I didn't have a backup of my config so I'll have to setup everything from scratch.

Will a fresh install of freenas recognize my existing zpool?

 

[cyberjock]

Yep.. just use the auto-import feature in accordance with the manual. ;)

 

[steeban]

Ok I'm back up and running with a new USB stick. Everything is reconfigured and I even backed up the config this time