Install Instructions - mSATA SSD with picky UEFI / EFI Aptio American Megatrends Bios BootLoop issue

[1branchonthevine]

( Moderators, please push this to Home>Forums>FreeNAS Forum>How-To Guides )

Platform example: ASUS S550C; (low power) Intel Core i5-3317U 1.7GHZ; 8GB RAM; 24GB mSATA SSD, 2TB Samsung Spinpoint Hard Drive in main Hard Drive Slot, Plus Secondary 2TB Samsung Spinpoint Hard Drive with Caddy Adapter in CD Drive Slot.

ISSUE #1: installation of "FreeNAS-9.10.1.iso" from a USB drive runs successfully while installing on internal 24GB mSATA SSD, until system reboot results in a BIOS boot loop; preventing the loading of the OS off the mSATA SSD. I assume the bootloader location and drive information is not saved to the EFI BIOS during the FreeNAS setup process. To fix the issue where the BIOS refuses to find/load the FreeNAS Grub boot loader, do the following below:

-----------------------------------------------------
Enter into the UEFI Boot Entry manually in BIOS

To do this go to the Boot tab and then click on Add New Boot Option.

• Under Add Boot Option you can specify the name of the UEFI boot entry. (Type something like "FreeNAS")
• Select File System in the list (If mSATA drive is detected properly, and no other media is installed, it will be selected by default, so just press enter. Otherwise, you may need to manually test each selection until you find the appropriate mSATA drive with the FreeNass boot loader on it)
• Path for Boot Option is the path for the file BOOTX64.EFI that is responsible for the UEFI boot. The following command should be entered here: \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI
• Exit saving changes and reboot

(sourced from https://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wik...ry_via_motherboard_replacement_or_BIOS_update)
-----------------------------------------------------



ISSUE #2: Once the BIOS finally boots the FreeNas Grub Bootloader, you may get a black screen. FreeNAS blank screen on bootup is a known issue with FreeNAS-9.10.1.iso, try downloading and installing the previous version from: http://download.freenas.org/9.10/RELEASE/x64/FreeNAS-9.10-RELEASE.iso

Good luck, I hope I saved someone else from spending 2 days of troubleshooting on these issues :)

 

[joeschmuck]

While I appreciate your efforts in explaining a work around to a problem, I personally do not feel it warrants being placed into the How To Guide section. Someone else may feel different. It sucks that you spent 2 days trying to figure this out. Another option you might have been able to take, and you may have already known about it, change the BIOS boot order to Legacy and drop UEFI all together, assuming that is an option.

I hope you enjoy FreeNAS and the forum.

 

[1branchonthevine]

While I appreciate your efforts in explaining a work around to a problem, I personally do not feel it warrants being placed into the How To Guide section. Someone else may feel different. It sucks that you spent 2 days trying to figure this out. Another option you might have been able to take, and you may have already known about it, change the BIOS boot order to Legacy and drop UEFI all together, assuming that is an option. I hope you enjoy FreeNAS and the forum.

A true LEGACY MODE seems to be a limitation on this BIOS. With fastboot disabled, and CSM ( UEFI Compatibility Support Module) enabled, the system responded no differently, even after a fresh freenas reinstall; which likely attempted to place grub on the MBR. Regardless, these steps were the only options that worked on this platform. This system also suffered from the blank screen on bootup from msata and/or usb install of latest version of freenas.

As for moving the post, no problem, i assumed it would have been relavent for others under that forum location. Regards

Legacy support was vague and used different language.