SOLVED mountroot> on first time boot

[joebad1]

Hello All:

Supernoob here. I've been lurking on the forum for over a month now. I have purchased and assembled my FreeNAS server based on the hardware recommendations in this forum, and with the help of "zerocool2007a", who happens to work in the same office I do. This is a GREAT forum! Love the willingness of others to help out those that are new to this effort.

I ran into the "mountroot>" problem when I tried to boot to console the first time. Thought I'd post the resolution here.

First: Here's my hardware
1) Supermicro X10SL7-F
2) Xeon E3-1231 V3 LGA1150
3) Crucial 16gb (2x8gb) DDR3 1600 1.35v (CT2KIT102472BD160B)
4) Eight - 3TB WD Red Hard Drives
5) Fractal 804 case
6) Seasonic SSR-450RM

The USB drives I purchased are the SanDisk Ultra 32gB. These are the small profile ones with a standard USB on one end, and a micro USB on the other (SanDisk - Ultra 32GB Micro USB/USB 3.0 Flash Drive - Black.)

It may be obvious to some why this didn't work. Not to the supernoob. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth (and trouble shooting based on the installation guide) with nothing working to resolve the issue, I decided it might be something with the hardware I selected. I went out and purchased a SANDISK Cruzer 32GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (Model SDCZ60-032G-A46) instead. Installed the FreeNAS operating system, crossed my fingers, and everything booted fine.

 

[Ericloewe]

USB 3.0 support is still basically zero. For Lynx Point and older PCHs, using USB 2.0 ports and/or USB 2.0 devices is recommended. For Sunrise Point, the only option is to wait for proper XHCI suppot.

 

[joebad1]

And there you go . . .
I'm sure I came across a thread at one point that said "don't use USB 3.0 drives". But of course, thought "that doesn't apply to me"! Actually, I'm sure it was that vague memory of reading that thread that made me go out and get a 2.o drive! (It's the little things that matter).

 

[Ericloewe]

It's a serious issue, since the newer stuff exclusively uses XHCI, even for USB 2.0 (XHCI was designed to standardize all the stupid protocols into one, somewhat future-proof protocol, allowing for EHCI and UHCI to be dropped - and also to ease future transitions by using XHCI for future USB revisions).