Fresh install 11.1 and 11.2.2

[koyetsu]

It will not let me install either to usb OR an internal ssd.
It detects the drive i tell it to install
it goes through the creation of da0 a couple times and then after active set on da0 i got the following message

cannot create 'freenas-boot' : pool already exists
The FreeNAS installation on da0 has failed. Press enter to continue..

now i've tried this on 2 different usb drives and even tried to an intel ssd.

the usb's i've tried cleaning them with diskpart and even did a full fat32 format and get that error everytime.
i've tried this on both 11.1 and 11.2 beta 2
don't know what else to try

 

[kdragon75]

a full fat32 format

That's not doing much. Try using dd to write zeros the the entire drive. i.e. dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/(flash drive) bs=1M This will erase the partition table and all data. It will be cleaner than new.

 

[sremick]

I'm getting this. Brand new USB drive.

I'm booting from a CD on a computer without a hard drive, and attempting to install onto a USB flash drive. I've tried multiple DVD drives, I've tried burning multiple discs, and I've tried multiple USB flash drives. The last few lines before the error are:

Code:

gmirror: Invalid class name.
da0 destroyed
da0 created
da0p1 added
da0p2 added
active set on da0
cannot create 'freenas-boot': pool already exists
The FreeNAS installation on da0 has failed. Press enter to continue...

I've tried using dd to wipe the USB flash drive per kdragon, but that didn't help. Thoughts?

 

[kdragon75]

Does it drop you in to a shell? You could check the zpool list -v and zpool status output. This seems an odd error to be having and I suspect it's not that it sees a pool by that name inuse on the USB drive but something else it tripping the error.

 

[Kiwawa]

Having the exact same problem, trying to upgrade from 11.1. First "gmirror: Invalid class name" and hang, then after dd, "freenas-boot: pool already exists". Bananaware! Back to 11.1 then... (crosses fingers).

 

[242spot]

Did anyone have any luck in resolving this?

I've got the same issue. Tried completely new USB sticks. Both install drive and boot drive, no success. Also tried unplugging all the storage drives as suggested in another, however, also no luck.

Completely stuck at this point with my NAS dead. Help appreciated.

 

[derheld42]

For some reason my USB boot sticks stop working from time to time and I need to reinstall.
This time, I saw the above error, tried 3 different sticks same result.
What finally worked for me was FreeNAS-11.3-U3.1.iso instead of FreeNAS-11.3-U3.2.iso. I created a U3.1 bootable USB which didn't suffer from this issue. I upgraded FreeNAS after it was booting up again and then restored my config and I was back up and operational. This appears to be a bug. in U3.2 (?)

 

[pschatz100]

@koyetsu and @sremick
What tools are you using to burn the iso onto your installation drive? Furthermore, are you certain the usb drives that you are using for the bootable drives have not previously had any operating system on them? If yes, then they need to be wiped.

@derheld42
That is precisely why many experienced users have migrated from flash drives to small SSD's. Flash drives are not designed for the constant writes that current versions of FreeNAS perform to the system drive (logs, etc.) In the old days, flash drives were fine. Nowadays, a small SSD is a better choice. Search the forums and you will find lots of threads about this.

 

[derheld42]

Funny enough this morning, I decided to drop in another SATA drive via PCI expander card that I had sitting around. I just finished migrating to that as a boot up drive. I think I'll be a lot happier. It's funny though as the FreeNAS installer screen literally states that it recommends USB as a boot drive. ugg.

 

[sremick]

@koyetsu and @sremick
What tools are you using to burn the iso onto your installation drive? Furthermore, are you certain the usb drives that you are using for the bootable drives have not previously had any operating system on them? If yes, then they need to be wiped.

You're responding to a 2-year-old post.

If I recall, the issue was the speed of the USB flash drive. I needed to use a USB3 drive. USB2 was too slow and resulting in the time-out errors.

 

[danb35]

It's funny though as the FreeNAS installer screen literally states that it recommends USB as a boot drive.

It's been a very long time indeed since this was true--"flash media" doesn't mean a USB stick.

 

[kell490]

I ran into this problem tonight I was on 11.3.U3 went to upgrade to U4 running 8GB usb boot drive. USB failed during upgrade and could no longer get any PC to recognized that USB was plugged in sudden hardware failure. I created a new install 16GB Sandisk boot usb install on latest. From that point on all I got was "freenas-boot: pool already exists". I had to install a 500GB drive and use that as a boot drive that worked. I guess USB no longer works these are not old USB new USB 3.0 8gb, 16gb, 32gb all failed. Lucky for me I made a config backup before attempting the software upgrade.