I can't see USB drive in the setup.

[Eniac74]

The issue was overcome by learning how to use the IPMI...so problem avoided I guess.

 

[hugovsky]

You can try disabling XHCI hand-off/USB 3.0 and enabling EHCI Hand-off.

 

[Glorious1]

Yeah I have the same board and had the same problem. For some reason, no matter what I do, only one USB drive will show in the boot menu or be offered as choice within BIOS at one time. So you have to go into some other part of the boot tab of BIOS to choose which USB drive you are allowed to choose. It's weird.

 

[Ericloewe]

Yeah I have the same board and had the same problem. For some reason, no matter what I do, only one USB drive will show in the boot menu or be offered as choice within BIOS at one time. So you have to go into some other part of the boot tab of BIOS to choose which USB drive you are allowed to choose. It's weird.

Every motherboard seems to have its own idiosyncratic way of dealing with boot priorities and boot overrides...

 

[crashdev]

Could one of you tell me exactly how you overcame this issue with the SuperMicro A1SRi-2758F? I have the same issue and am trying to figure it out still.

Thanks

 

[Glorious1]

crashdev, the User Manual is not much help in figuring this out. Presumably you know how to get into your BIOS? If so, go to the "Boot" tab. I don't have it in front of me right now, and the options don't really look much like they do in the Manual. As I recall the first setting is boot priorities, where you select the priority for boot devices. Only one USB device will appear in there (at least for me). To change it, find the option farther down that has USB in the name. Go into that and choose which USB device you want to appear in the boot priority settings. Then go back to boot priorities and make that USB drive your first priority.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and there doesn't seem to be any way to tell it to choose USB device 2 if USB device 1 doesn't work. But so it is.

If that's not the problem you're trying to address, maybe state exactly what the problem is.

 

[Eniac74]

@crashdev, I am not sure about whate "phase" you are in, but if you are stumbling on how to actually be able to install FreeNAS, you really only need to see one device in BIOS, so insert only the USB with the FreeNAS iso on it before entering BIOS.
After exiting BIOS setup and when you get to the FreeNAS install screen, you just insert the second (the intended boot USB) in the other USB2 port. Then you should be able to see both USB devices in the subsequent menu, where you choose where to install FreeNAS.

At least that is how I did it and it worked for me. Hope that helps.

 

[crashdev]

I noticed the manual was of no assistance. I first chased down the possibility that my USB drives (being 3.0) weren't compatible by testing one at a time. Each are found separately, just not at the same time.

I've played with the USB and BOOT settings in BIOS a bit, but what I've noticed is that whichever drive is booting the installation process is the only USB drive it will recognize as a potential installation location. My last test was having one KingstonUSB2.0 drive setup to install from, and an AdataUSB3.0 to install to. The installation process booted up from the Kingston, but it only recognized the Kingston as a potential location.

 

[crashdev]

@crashdev
After exiting BIOS setup and when you get to the FreeNAS install screen, you just insert the second (the intended boot USB) in the other USB2 port. Then you should be able to see both USB devices in the subsequent menu, where you choose where to install FreeNAS.

I'll try this tonight. Thanks

 

[crashdev]

Well I was able to install to the USB3 drive through the USB2 port. But whatever I try, I can't get FreeNAS to boot successfully from the USB3 port. It stops and gives me a 'mount:' prompt.

 

[Glorious1]

Can you boot through a USB2 port? If so, go to System > Tunables, and add a Tunable with variable xhci_load, value of YES, and type loader. That enables USB3 ports. You might also have to enable USB3 in BIOS.

 

[Eniac74]

@crashdev, you have two USB2 ports, please use them. I tried several times to boot from USB3 ports to begin with, but it seems as plain as previously stated all over the forum - FreeNAS and USB3 are not the best of friends.
If you, as me, did not initially use IPMI, but instead plugged the keyboard in one of the USB2 ports...just start using IPMI and you have a spare USB2 port.

Now that I am up and running I don't even foresee myself using the USB ports (after I installed the SATA DOM) so to me it mostly turned into an initial hurdle. Hope it works out.

 

[Glorious1]

My system works fine with the USB3 ports. In fact the boot drive is in the USB3 port on the motherboard.

 

[crashdev]

Running the USB3 drive off the USB2 port works excellent. I'll tinker more with the tunable, and dis/enabling USB3 in BIOS settings to see if I can get it to run USB3 and be happy and stable. If not, it really isn't a big deal. Like I said, the USB2.0 port works great. I've also started managing it from the IPMI, which is a glorious tech.

Thanks all for the assistance.

 

[gjwAudio]

HA-HA... this joke is definitely on me !

Hi All (FreeNAS-NooB here)

Very first experience this weekend in the brave new world of The Home File Server. Built according to the great advice in this forum, my box is based on ASRock C2550D4I.

Using 2 USB2 sticks in the front ports of Define R4 case, I could not get Setup to recognize the target stick. Tried a handful of sticks from different manufacturers - nada. Very sad face.

After hours of search/read/attempt/fail cycles, instinct finally provided the answer: INSERT TARGET ON A DIFFERENT CONTROLLER !

I simply pulled the stick from the front panel, and plugged into the remaining port on the backplane... HA - thumb drive recognized and Setup completed successfully ! I'm not sure exactly why this would be, but it solved my roadblock.

UPDATE: OK, figured out the "why". Since this board supports only 3 x USB ports, jumper settings determine which ones will be active. The factory default is set for 2 on the backplane, 1 via the mobo header.

The R4 case has a 10-pin USB 2 plug - which would "normally" connect both front panel ports to the controller. Bzzzzzzzt !! Default jumper setting = only 1 of 2 header connections are active. Duuuuh - another re-RTFM moment .

So for any C2550D4I/C2750D4I-ers out there experiencing the same frustration - I hope this helps :).

 

[wintermute000]

hello gjwaudio

I have an Asrock C2550D4I which runs fine on 9.2. However, I cannot for the life of me install 9.3. Tried two sticks, selected them in BIOS/boot menu, but just get blank blinking cursor, I can't even boot into the install sequence.
I've tried both backplane (motherboard) USB ports.
Swap back to my working 9.2 stick, no worries every time.

I followed the official docos and imaged a SHA256 verified iso via win32diskimager, so not sure what else I can try? (third stick? LOL)

 

[wintermute000]

Scratch that.... reading through this thread reminded me that I have a bloody virtual CD ROM as part of my IPMI... just used that and installed OK.
Seamless import of old config, kudos to the development team.
Still no idea why I couldn't boot off the install USB ever.

 

[gjwAudio]

@wintermute000
How do you have the USB selection jumpers set on the mobo ? They are identified in the manual as USB_SEL1 and USB_SEL2 (see pg. 19 for details).

Maybe this explains your trouble doing everything from the USB connections ?

Congrats on getting the upgrade running :).

 

[wintermute000]

Nah the USB selection is 100% fine. I had 9.2.x running perfectly on USB stick, exact same port that fails on 9.3 USB stick. Also, once 9.3 is installed, the installed USB stick runs fine, its just the INSTALLER that can't boot.

I think the developers should release a dedicated USB image like in 9.2 days, I'm betting its something to do with that (I did follow the instructions exactly even using the exact same software they recommended).

 

[gpsguy]

FreeNAS 9.2 used UFS and the boot device was a fixed size (~2GB?).

With 9.3, they are using ZFS and one can utilize all the space on the boot device. One of the uses is to hold additional boot environments, so if you have a problem with a new one, you can easily roll back to a previous BE.

I think the developers should release a dedicated USB image like in 9.2 days ...