Gibberish/Broken Text during Boot

[Samkwakofficial]

Hello everyone! I just spent the last 6 hours installing TrueNas on my Dell R720 Server

Here are the Specis:
Processors: 2x Xeon E5-2650 v2 2.6GHz 8-Core Processors
Memory: 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR3 Registered Memory
Storage Controller: Dell Perc H310 SAS/SATA Raid Controller

I managed to install TrueNas on an NVME M.2 SSD (250gb) and then boot it using Clover Boot Loader.
Apparently, R720 won't boot NVME natively... So I'm using Clover Boot Loader on an USB stick and then boot TrueNas that way.
(This took me 3 hours of its own as Clover doesn't natively give you options to boot TrueNas... just Win or iOS.)

So when I boot through Clover Boot Loader, I get this crazy broken text/gibberish. Beyond recognition... (See attached image)

The crazy part is that TrueNas boots just fine! I can navigate through the UI just fine directly through IP address.
BUT, I can't do any configuation on the post-boot screen on the server itself. Just this gibberish on the screen.
However, I can tell the options are there, but not rendering the way it should be.

Anyone have any suggestions?

The other option was maybe installing Proxmox and then installing TrueNas as a VM to see if it makes a difference but didn't go that far...

Parameters
1. Booting both Clover and TrueNas using UEFI
2. I have to use Clover Shell cmd to manually find the BOOT64x.efi file stored on the NVME SSD.

 

[jgreco]

Greetings and welcome to the forums.

I get this crazy broken text/gibberish. Beyond recognition... (See attached image)

YIKES.

Dell R720 Server

Ah.

Dell Perc H310 SAS/SATA Raid Controller

Please make sure that you have crossflashed this to IT HBA mode. The RAID firmware is NOT supported and will result in problems/corruption.

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

The Dell servers are also pretty common problems for finding good boot options. For the R510 with the 12-bay configuration, I have often installed an additional H310 crossflashed to IT mode, and wired it up to a two-SATA PCIe holder because that's the only way to add "new" storage inside the server, since they disabled the mainboard SATA and have no power points to tap anyways.

Cool hardware: Addonics AD3M2SPX4 M.2 to PCIe converter

I was a bit bothered by the large number of available SATA ports and one or two free PCIe slots in the VM storage server here. With the boost from 64GB to 128GB of RAM, the 256GB M.2 Samsung XP941 with its AHCI interface for L2ARC was feeling a little dated anyways. M.2 offers several...

www.truenas.com

maybe installing Proxmox and then installing TrueNas as a VM to see if it makes a difference but didn't go that far...

Proxmox as a hypervisor is a poor choice, it's been made to work by some people, but its PCIe passthru support is still relatively new, and it will introduce new hardware design challenges because you'll need additional storage to host the Proxmox install and your TrueNAS VM config and virtual disk for booting. The same would be true for ESXi. If you decide to go this route, ESXi is the best choice, and be absolutely certain to read and follow

"Absolutely must virtualize FreeNAS!" ... a guide to not completely losing your data.

[---- 2018/02/27: This is still as relevant as ever. As PCIe-Passthru has matured, fewer problems are reported. I've updated some specific things known to be problematic ----] [---- 2014/12/24: Note, there is another post discussing how to deploy a small FreeNAS VM instance for basic file...

www.truenas.com

Basically on many of the Dells you are faced with a Hobson's Choice due to the fundamental need to add an additional hardware controller in order to get a suitable boot device. Most of the Dell hardware platforms make it VERY difficult to use anything but the primary server storage or a USB thumb drive for boot. You've added NVMe but had to band-aid around it; that could maybe work, and if you can manage to make it work, then great, I approve! ;-) But you would probably find it easier to use a USB-to-NVMe adapter on one of the internal USB ports --- this is the best nonredundant hack I've found, or a H310-and-dual-SATA-card as I've described, if redundant SSD for boot is required.

 

[Stephen Hoos]

I purchases a PCIE device that supports two NVME "B" key devices and has a two SATA out ports. It comes tomorrow, I have a device that supports one SATA but I want two.

I will let you know how it turns out. The Dell R510 has no extra power for regular SATA drives, but supports up to 5 SATA devices. My hope is that by tomorrow my system will boot off internal "SATA" drives and the 8 bays of storage will be used a ZFS 6 array. With this setup I should not need Clover....

 

[neofusion]

I suggest you look in the Clover logs. Not sure if those need to be enabled first or if they are always on; it's been a while since I dabbled with Clover myself.

I guessing it's related to some form of resolution or EDID identification issue.

Edit: Sorry, I didn't realise how old this topic was.