Installing FreeNAS from USB stick to internal SATA DOM

[randomraade]

Hi.

I have been trying to install FreeNAS from an USB stick to an internal 8GB SATA DOM. I prefer to install it on my 8GB SATA DOM rather than my poor external USB stick. I am a Linux (Mint/Ubuntu) user.

I downloaded the installation .ISO and wrote it to the USB stick, but the USB stick was not recognized as a bootable media. I also tried to extract the img.xz and burned it to the USB stick, but to no avail. As far as I remember, it seemed that FreeNAS was now trying to boot as a live image. Finally, I extracted the .img within the img.xz and burned it to the USB stick, but to no avail. As far as I remember, all I saw was a blinking cursor on the screen.

Can someone direct me to the correct way to create a bootable FreeNAS installation USB stick? Thanks in advance.

 

[Dennis K.]

You could attach the SATA DOM on your desktop pc and install FreeNAS from there.

Edit: Are you sure your mainboard supports booting from USB? There are also some USB sticks that wont allow booting from them.

 

[randomraade]

Yes, I suppose I could, but it would be quite time consuming to do what. I have to be able to install it from an USB stick via IPMI.

My mainboard (Supermicro X10SL7-F) does support booting from USB. I have installed ESXi from USB previously. USB is configured as the first boot device.

 

[Dennis K.]

The hardware absolutely should be able to do this. Have you followed http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Burning_an_IMG_File ?

Edit: You could also mount the FreeNAS ISO via IPMI and install from the virtual CD-ROM drive.

 

[randomraade]

Yes, I followed the guide and used the xzcat/dd command, but this resulted in a blinking cursor on a blank screen on boot.

I hadn't given any thought to using a virtual CD-ROM drive. I didn't even know that this was possible. I will definetely try that out when I get home.

 

[cyberjock]

What hardware are you trying to install on? Many people have found a blinking cursor on a blank screen on boot to be the cue "your hardware isn't compatible with FreeBSD/FreeNAS". But without more info there's no way to know.

 

[randomraade]

Hardware:

Intel Xeon E-1230
32gb ECC ram (compatible with motherboard)
Supermicro X10SL7-F with build in LSI 2308
Intel M1015 flashed to LSI 2008
MX 8gb SATA DOM
1x 128gb Samsung SSD (for L2ARC)
2x 64gb Kingston V300 SSD
3x 4TB Seagate NAS HDD
3x 3tb WD RED

 

[randomraade]

Mounting the ISO via IPMI (from an SMB share on my Mint box) worked like a charm. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Dennis K.]

Glad it worked, although I find it somewhat concerning that you're not able to boot from USB.