Install Errors Everywhere

[bobvader]

So today I built a PC that I intend to use with some form of NAS software and everywhere seems to recommend FreeNAS. Got it all built and working fine. Then came installing FreeNAS 9.10.2-U2.

First try: writing the ISO from the website on my Windows PC using LiLi USB creator (which formats as FAT32 first). Booting from it gave some strange Grub command line that was nothing like any of the tutorials.

Second try: Downloaded the ISO onto my mac still from the website but some sort of file structure that seemed to show number of downloads. Formatted stick as MS-DOS (FAT) using disk utility and wrote ISO using dd command in terminal. I forget the phrasing but it was something to do with the hashes not matching and looked like a python file was throwing an error. Trying to install again without rebooting was making it say the drive was too small (120 GB SSD). So time to redownload.

Third try: Downloaded ISO from the normal looking website page. Reformatted as FAT32 and rewrote on my mac in the same way. This time it gave a segmentation error followed by the too small error on any repeat attempts.

Fourth try: Reformatted and tried rewriting the same ISO as in the 3rd try using unetbootin for Mac (I have a pretty outdated version if they're even still updating it). Didn't expect it to work but willing to try. Despite saying it succeeded, I just seemed to be getting my motherboard's "can't boot from this" error every time. Whenever I list boot devices my motherboard detects the USB and the USB Partition 1. This time we also had a partition 2 and rather amusingly partition 1 seemed to be detected an extra time each time I looked at the boot device list.

Fifth try: Read about that Win32 disk image writer program so tried writing the ISO from the full website to the USB on my PC after formatting the USB this time as NTFS. I got the black install FreeNAS option but this time not the blue UI. Running through the first part it seemed to stop and repeatedly error out with "error 19" at trying to unpack a file with the name something along the lines of md0.uzip.

At this point I was wondering if the SSD had something left from one of the installs that was breaking it. Booted off a live Lubuntu USB I have and looked at the SSD (which didn't seem to be mounted but not sure as I'm not massively Linux literate) with fdisk -l and it seemed to be detecting something to do with FreeBSD (which I think is what FreeNAS is based off. Not sure of the exact relationship but I know there is one) so I wiped the SSD, rewrote the USB the same way as in try 3 and was. Back to the error from try 2 with the hashes not matching. Looked with lubuntu again and it seems to leave something behind after failing to install.

Not sure where to go from here and very new to the FreeNAS scene so any help and advice is welcome. Won't be able to try anything out immediately as I'm going to bed now and got stuff to do in the morning but hopefully will be able to try some stuff tomorrow afternoon.

 

[nojohnny101]

Welcome to the forums.
First off, you are likely to get more help if you post your system specs directly in the post. While you technically did you post your system specs as per forums rules, I think of it as more of a courtesy to not send people to external links for required information.

As far as your install problems, you certainly have tried a lot of different ways and I can't believe not one of the succeeded. I can speak from the mac side and say that the detailed step by step instructions outlined in the manual (see here) works.

Also I'm not sure what you mean when you say:

Downloaded ISO from the normal looking website page.

As opposed to.....? You should only be pulling the install ISO from the official FreeNAS website and no where else. Did you not do that for the other attempt?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

formats as FAT32 first

Formatted stick as MS-DOS (FAT)

after formatting the USB this time as NTFS

Formatting the boot device is a waste of time. It simply needs to be initialized with a master boot record (MBR).

I can speak from the mac side and say that the detailed step by step instructions outlined in the manual (see here) works.

Exactly. And don't forget to verify the download before proceeding.

 

[SweetAndLow]

you should make sure to download the iso from the freenas website and verify the sha256 checksum after download to make sure the download wasn't corrupted. Then follow the install directions in the manual.

 

[bobvader]

Thanks for the replies. That's my bad about the specs. I was being lazy because I wanted to sleep. What I meant by "not the normal looking website" was one that looked similar to this http://download.freenas.org/ I believe it's still the official freeNAS website but it seems to just show a file structure and somewhere I came across a link to a folder in this from another forum post including the beta version and the stable version. I imagine they're actually the same file. Later today when I get a chance I'll take a look at the checksums and I know there's some kind of option in disk utility for master boot record so I'll try that on the USB.

 

[bobvader]

Update: Had a little time to have a quick look this morning and worked out when formatting I used master boot record on some but not all of the attempts (I think disk utility was defaulting to different things) and the checksums match so the ISO is not corrupt.

 

[Huib]

I would firstly try to use a different USB key.
I only had installation problems when it turned out the usb stick was crap.

make sure you use the official ISO:
go to http://www.freenas.org/ and the download button is right smack in the middle of your browser.
checking the sha256 is something I almost never do (I'm lazy) but is recommended. Since you are getting weird errors this is probably a good idea.

There are excelent instructions in the FreeNAS documentation on how to prepare the USB using linux, Mac OS or even windows.
http://doc.freenas.org/9.10/install.html#preparing-the-media. This has worked for me every time.
From your post it looks like you followed this more or less, but since you don't reference this documentation I thought to point them out.

For good measure I would just fully wipe the ssd you want to install to before starting the installation (just remove all partitions).

Good luck!

 

[Ericloewe]

Please do not post pcpartpicker links on the forum. Instead, provide a list of hardware that can be read at a glance.

 

[wblock]

It is a waste of time to format or partition a device before writing the image to it. Any data on the stick, including partition table and bootcode in an MBR, will be overwritten by the data.

 

[bobvader]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and all your help (and sorry about the pc partpicker link). Eventually what seemed to solve it was using a different USB stick and I've got it installed and up running now. Now comes the greater task of learning how to use it. Thanks again.