Mountroot error 2 after 9.10 STABLE update

[JoeyUK]

This is my first ever post on FreeNAS forums, though I've been reading them ever since I first installed it about 18 months ago, so first off - Hello! apologies if this does duplicate anything else, but I've searched pretty hard and I can't find the same problem with this particular version...

Hardware setup

• HP ProLiant Microserver Gen8 G1610T
• 2GB ( I know! - it's all it came with) ECC Memory
• Embedded HP B120i RAID controller presenting 2 x 1TB Western Digital drives in RAID1 (I set this up before I truly learned the power of ZFS.)
• Integral Fusion USB 3.0 16GB boot drive

My setup has been working great since the upgrade to 9.10 a few months back, I run a few windows shares, jails for Plex, Transmission and VirtualBox for a little Debian OpenSwan IPSEC VPN server I use when I'm travelling. it's been super stable until I went to upgrade.

The Problem
I was running FreeNAS-9.10-STABLE-201604140622 and noticed that an update was available to the June release, Backed up my db through the GUI and set it on an update, but the system never came back.

When I logged into the console it was sat on this prompt:

Code:

 Trying to mount root from zfs:freenas-boot/ROOT/9.10-STABLE-201606072003 []...
Mounting from zfs:freenas-boot/ROOT/9.10-STABLE-201606072003 failed with error 2
.

Loader variables:
  vfs.root.mountfrom=zfs:freenas-boot/ROOT/9.10-STABLE-201606072003 

So I had a read around, saw some of the posts around problems with Error 2 when FreeNAS 9.3 was out and tried some of the fixes:

What I've Tried

• Turning it off and on again (of course!) and taking the power completely away.
• Moving the USB stick to different ports, it's a USB 3.0 device but it was working fine in the internal USB2.0 port inside my MicroServer, have tried it in the front USB2.0 ports which are run off a different controller.
• USB 3.0 stick in USB 3.0 ports - when it was here it didn't even try to boot, went straight to my data disks
• Disabling the USB3.0 controller completely, but it didn't make a difference
• modifying GRUB at runtime to increase the wait for the USB enumeration in case the system needs to catch up, like it says in this guide: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/workaround-semi-fix-for-mountroot-issues-with-9-3.26071 but it still dropped out to mountroot
• tried to manually boot from mountroot, but it fails with the same error whether I use /default or /9.10-STABLE-xx
• Code:

  mountroot> zfs:freenas-boot/ROOT/9.10-STABLE-201606072003
  Trying to mount root from zfs:freenas-boot/ROOT/9.10-STABLE-201606072003 []...
  Loading early kernel modules:
  GEOM_RAID5: Module loaded, version 1.3.20140711.62 (rev f91e28e40bf7)
  panic: solaris assert: spa_writeable(spa), file: /tank/home/nightlies/build-freenas9/_BE/trueos/sys/cddl/contrib/opensolaris/uts/common/fs/zfs/spa.c, line: 6677

  Which seems a bit strange... maybe it's nothing but how come it says about nightlies? I've always stayed on STABLE just to play safe!

I'm not sure what else to try really, short of rebuilding the boot drive and reapplying my config, I've not ever done that before and I'd rather not do if this is something that I can work through...

Any ideas greatly received!

 

[BigDave]

Your issues may stem from inadequate hardware, and that's all I have to say about that...
Since you have a copy of your config file, follow the directions
for downloading/burning/installing a fresh copy of the OS.
I highly recommend installing to a new flash drive, instead of try to re-use the old one
due to the possibility that it may be failing/failed.

 

[JoeyUK]

OK thanks for your input, I'll beef my config up and have another go. "It ran fine for months" isn't an excuse - I get that.

Can I ask though - is it best practice just to always start from a fresh OS when there's an update?
There doesn't seem to be anything else that changed.

Nothing solves a problem better than new hardware! :)

 

[SweetAndLow]

What version did you upgrade from?

The reason we suggest reinstalling to a new usb is because most boot problems are caused by failing usb. Your hardware is also unacceptable for freenas.

 

[BigDave]

is it best practice just to always start from a fresh OS when there's an update?

When the update causes a flash drive to fail to boot, that's the most common fix (replacement)
USB flash drives have a tendency to give up the ghost after getting the updated files written to them and then rebooting.
We see this constantly here in the forums, there is always a flurry of these kinds of posts, soon after an update becomes available.
Some users take advantage of the mirrored boot device feature, and others, like myself have gotten completely away from USB
boot devices entirely. In order to do what I have done, you need a spare/open SATA port for a small SSD or DOM. This option
is not possible for everyone unfortunately.