Installing TrueNAS Core on a WD PR4100

[rosede]

I would like to install TrueNAS on my WD PR4100 NAS. I bumped up the memory to 16G to be able to support it, and I am using an external 60G SSD drive via USB3. Reading this thread, Installing without monitor. Possible? WDPR4100, I created an installation thumb drive, booted on an machine with a monitor and installed on the SSD drive. I then attempted to boot using that SSD on NAS. Unfortunately, the NAS did not boot from the SSD drive, it went directly to the native OS.

Did I not do this correctly, or is it just that my NAS won't boot from an USB device?

Thanks

Daryl

 

[jgreco]

It's unlikely anyone here would know. Optimistically, it could just be that the WD NAS has a boot ordering that tries to boot from its HDD pool before USB. Since almost no one here has your setup, you're probably going to need to experiment. Is it booting its current OS off of HDD? If so, pull all the HDD's and see if it decides to boot from USB.

 

[rosede]

It's unlikely anyone here would know. Optimistically, it could just be that the WD NAS has a boot ordering that tries to boot from its HDD pool before USB. Since almost no one here has your setup, you're probably going to need to experiment. Is it booting its current OS off of HDD? If so, pull all the HDD's and see if it decides to boot from USB.

The OS is on firmware somewhere, that much I know. In addition to bumping up the memory, I added larger drives. With new drives and it still booting to the native OS, that again tells me that the OS is on the firmware.

There is an older posting in the WD forum, about five years old, and the person who posted it installed FreeNAS on his via a thumb drive, so that was why I was thinking it could be done. If not, no worries. I really wanted to dump the WD OS, but I may be stuck with it.

Thanks for the reply.

Daryl

 

[jgreco]

I'm not convinced that it is a hopeless cause, but this is one of those cases where it might be very difficult to make progress without significant experimentation. Using the existing boot device as a resource to "bounce" it over to a larger boot device seems like the most likely path to success, but this is not really a beginner level hack.

 

[ineednas]

@rosede , literally created this account to respond to this. It looks like you did too just to ask your question. I would definitely like to stir up more conversation about the WD PR4100 here.

I also read the same posts as you did and followed the same steps. I installed TrueNAS Scale on an M.2 nvme drive in an external enclosure. I have it plugged into the rear USB3.0 port (either worked for me). So it initially did not boot for me, not even to the MyCloud OS. The external drive light did not stay on either. Figured out it was something to do with the mismatched sticks of ram I had in it (a 8GB stick and 2GB stick). I took out the 2GB stick and was able to get it to pull an IP and was able to boot to the MyCloud OS. So then I shut it down, plugged in the external nvme, gave it 5-10 min and it booted up from the USB. Pulled the IP from my router and was able to log into TrueNAS.

I have not setup drives or done any configuration yet. The issue now is that it boots into TrueNAS Scale but doesn't have control of the LCD, Fan, indicator lights. The fan is at 100% and is a noisy. There was a section of this article from the WD forum (https://community.wd.com/t/firmware-freenas-on-pr4100-updated/218730) that mentions a script for hardware control. It points you to a github page. I couldn't get the script to work but it may be for FreeNAS/TrueNAS Core which is FreeBSD and TrueNAS Scale is Debian Linux. I suppose I can swap the fan to a quieter one and not care about the LCD/lights and monitor through dashboard since it will be sitting in a closet anyways.

I digress, you haven't even gotten to this point yet.

• Which version of TrueNAS did you install?
• What external adapter are you using?
• Does the external adapter indicator show activity on the drive?
• Which USB port is the TrueNAS SSD attached to?
• Have you tried booting it on another machine to verify it can boot?
• Have you tried what jgreco said and attempt to boot with the drives pulled out?