Install going horribly wrong somewhere - mountroot problem followed by GRUB rescue

[B4utrust]

So, to begin with I am completely new to FreeNAS and *nix in general and unsure what I'm doing wrong to get these problems.

I've downloaded the latest release of 11 to install. Currently I'm downloading 10 to see if that may fix my error separately. However, that aside I've set my mobo to boot from USB. I has successfully detected both the boot USB with the iso written to it and the empty USB that I intend to install to. The iso was written with Rufus as an ISO not as a DD.

I've booted into the install up until the point I can select between FreeNAS Installer and FreeNAS Installer (Serial Enabled). Since I'm attached to a monitor through HDMI and have a USB keyboard plugged in I selected the basic FreeNAS Installer option.

It then proceeded to do what I'm guessing is the install, requiring no more input from me until a few minutes later it dumps me to a mountroot prompt. I can pull a list of devices using the ? command though any mount command I've tried has given me negative results, usually something along the lines of invalid file system or similar(sorry, not looking at that screen right this second to confirm exact wording).

I attempted to reboot and removed the install drive to see if maybe it got far enough to boot. I attempted to utilize the mountroot fix listed in the instructions but it never gets that far as I'm left with a prompt of
Welcome to Grub!
error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found
Grub Rescue:

After this I have no clue what to do. I've formatted both drives again on my win10 desktop and reran Rufus to write the ISO to try again. Same exact circumstances. As I said I'm downloading FreeNAS 10 and may see if I can get 9.3 still to see if either of those may work better for me.

In the meantime, if someone could possibly point me in the right direction of what I'm doing horribly wrong I would greatly appreciate it.

Running:
Asus ROG Crosshair V Formula mobo
8GB of DDR3-2000 RAM
4 Sata drives installed
1 120GB Sandisk SSD
1 3 TB Seagate SATA drive
2 identical 4 TB Seagate SATA drives

Originally I was planning on installing FreeNAS to the SSD but after some more reading figured that would be a useless thing to do and haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet. The other 3 were set in for storage.

 

[HeavyWeaponsGuy]

Currently I'm downloading 10 to see if that may fix my error separately.

Is horrible idea. Corral is puny software for cowards and is dead.

reran Rufus

Do not use Rufus to create install media. Rufus is like Sandvich with tumors, is no good. Friendly engineer recommends USB Image Tool or Win32DiskImager.

 

[B4utrust]

Is horrible idea. Corral is puny software for cowards and is dead.


Do not use Rufus to create install media. Rufus is like Sandvich with tumors, is no good. Friendly engineer recommends USB Image Tool or Win32DiskImager.

No matter how good or bad this goes, the fact that I have Heavy Weapons Guy on my side means that this will be credit to team

 

[melloa]

@B4utrust,

So, to begin with I am completely new to FreeNAS

We all have to start someday, right?

I've downloaded the latest release of 11 to install.

Have not seen anyone complaining about issues to install 11. Unfortunately I'm running it on a VM and have not had any issue, so I'm 99% sure it is more on the hardware side of the equation.

Currently I'm downloading 10

Although I love(d) Corral, it has been discontinued and kicked to the side couple months back, so you don't want to start with something you won't get support or updates. Click that cancel button.

Since I'm attached to a monitor through HDMI and have a USB keyboard plugged in I selected the basic FreeNAS Installer option.

That's the right one (the one with the * I think).

(sorry, not looking at that screen right this second to confirm exact wording).

You will probably need to capture that screen and/or some logs from the install to help the folks here (as you I'm new to FreeBSD).

Rufus to write the ISO to try again.

That's what I use too.

Running:
Asus ROG Crosshair V Formula mobo

Not familiar with that motherboard, but looking at its specs, it seems to be an AMD motherboard and full of unnecessary (for a server) games hardware.

I remember having issues installing FreeNAS in some motherboards and, to be honest, anything FreeBSD wouldn't install on it ... only ubuntu.

I'd give a second thought on your build if I were you. Check other options. The recommended hardware guide (https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/) will provide some ideas. Also take a pick on people's signatures to see what they are using, set your budget and plan with expansion in mind. Memory (RAM) always plan to start with 16MB with 32MB or more in the future.

Originally I was planning on installing FreeNAS to the SSD

Nothing wrong with that. If you have available sata that you are not planning to use for your data volume, go for it. A cheap ssd is 1000 x more reliable than the best USB stick.

The other 3 were set in for storage.

Read a little about ZFS file system. @cyberjock has a good post here: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/. Better understand now what your options are, than build something that won't work for you couple months from now.

Good luck!

 

[Ericloewe]

That's what I use too.

So there must be an option somewhere that makes FreeBSD media fail... I'll have to investigate that when I have the time.

 

[B4utrust]

Well, I finally got it working. Sort of.

I did do the Version 10 download and install. That actually went through just fine. Don't ask me how, why or what changed other than the download. But I did get 10 to install just fine.

Went to the blue install/update/shell/etc screen fine, went through the install, rebooted, pulled install drive and it loaded. Few issues with token timeouts but that is apparently a 10 issue. Did the updates to the last version of 10 inside of it, went fine.

Rewrote the 11 install iso to the drive again, rebooted and loaded it and it allowed me to update just fine. Logged in right now and doing setup of shares, etc.

So thanks for the ideas and suggestions. It is an odd quirk though. Doing a fresh install without another previous version already loaded wouldn't work. 10 worked right out of the gate. Not sure if I just got a bad download(though I did download it twice just to confirm) or if something else happened in the write process as Ericloewe suggested. But either way it's fixed?

 

[melloa]

So there must be an option somewhere that makes FreeBSD media fail... I'll have to investigate that when I have the time.

@Ericloewe,

Just install 11 from usb key created with rufus. The only warning was:

Proceeded with ISO and installed fine. When booting into FreeNAS I'm getting that https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/20819 - probably not related. The server boots and works fine otherwise.

 

[Ericloewe]

@Ericloewe,

Just install 11 from usb key created with rufus. The only warning was:

View attachment 19401

Proceeded with ISO and installed fine. When booting into FreeNAS I'm getting that https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/20819 - probably not related. The server boots and works fine otherwise.

And which option did you choose?

 

[melloa]

And which option did you choose?

Proceeded with ISO

ISO image.