Pre-UEFI Computer Won't Boot ISO USB with FreeNAS 11.0, Unknown Filesystem Error

[Miracle]

Hello All,

Like many other first-time posters I am new to all of this. I have played around with programming and computers a little, but it is not my background and I'm certainly new to operating systems. Please forgive me if I misuse terminology. That being said I will try to be thorough.

I am ultimately trying to put the latest version of TrueNAS Core on my machine, but the computer simply failed to boot from the USB when I put the TrueNAS-13.0-U6 image on it with rufus 4.3. This was an issue on this same machine when I tried to install Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.2. I believe the issue is that the computer is so old Linux was having trouble with the BIOS. The solution was to install Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.3 and upgrade the operating system from the system manager inside Mint. It has something to do with the way boot files are set up.

So I figured I'd try the same trick with TrueNAS. I've been trying to install FreeNAS-11.0-RELEASE on the machine. I used the oldest version figuring it had the best chance of booting properly with my old machine. If I set the USB to be a DD the computer simply fails to boot. If I set the USB to ISO the computer launches grub and thows the error "unknown filesystem." I don't know any grub commands (or any commands, for that matter), so I haven't been able to investigate past that screen. I get this same error whether I have rufus "add fixes for old files" or change the filesystem from FAT32 to NTFS.

I have searched the forum for similar issues but have come away with nothing I could apply to my situation. All of the advice I've seen involves already having TrueNAS installed.

Thank you in advance. If I'm missing important information please let me know.

If it matters, I'm going to install the OS on the SD card and use the internal HD for storage. I understand this is frowned upon, but I consider it an acceptable risk for a personal project.

Show : System Information

Code:

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-89-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.8.4
    tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.2 Victoria base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: TOSHIBA product: Satellite A665 v: PSAW0U-01100G
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 9 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: TOSHIBA model: NWQAA v: 1.00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI-[Legacy]: TOSHIBA v: 2.30
    date: 11/24/11
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 0% condition: 6.3/97.2 Wh (6.5%) volts: 5.2 min: 10.8
    model: COMPAL PA3819U-1BRS serial: <filter> status: N/A
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i3 M 350 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Westmere rev: 2 cache:
    L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2261 min/max: 933/2266 cores: 1: 2261 2: 2261 3: 2261 4: 2261
    bogomips: 18091
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: Toshiba driver: i915 v: kernel ports:
    active: LVDS-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0046
  Device-2: Suyin USB 2.0 Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-1.4:3 chip-ID: 064e:a216
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
    gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 model: Seiko Epson res: 1366x768 dpi: 98 diag: 405mm (15.9")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics (ILK) v: 2.1 Mesa 23.0.4-0ubuntu1~22.04.1
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Toshiba driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:3b56
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-89-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Toshiba driver: r8169 v: kernel
    pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 6000 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8136
  IF: enp1s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:422c
  IF: wlp6s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 502.71 GiB used: 31.18 GiB (6.2%)
  ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 vendor: SanDisk model: SD32G size: 29.72 GiB serial: <filter>
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST9500420AS size: 465.76 GiB speed: <unknown>
    serial: <filter>
  ID-3: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Alcor Micro model: 6387 size: 7.23 GiB serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.88 GiB used: 31.18 GiB (6.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 4 KiB (0.0%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
  Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 8087:0020
  Device-1: 1-1.4:3 info: Suyin USB 2.0 Camera type: Video driver: uvcvideo rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 064e:a216
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
  Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 8087:0020
  Device-1: 2-1.2:3 info: Alcor Micro Flash Drive type: Mass Storage driver: usb-storage
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 058f:6387
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: apt: 2330
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com victoria main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
  Processes: 203 Uptime: 7m Memory: 7.55 GiB used: 1.01 GiB (13.4%) Init: systemd v: 249
  runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12/9 Client: Unknown python3.10 client inxi: 3.3.13

 

[sretalla]

That's not going to get you where you're aiming in any case...

FreeNAS 11.2 was the last version based on FreeBSD which uses GRUB, so if your intention is to land with TrueNAS 13 (which uses the FreeBSD bootloader which your BIOS is probably incompatible with), then you're SOL.

You may have some degree of luck with TrueNAS SCALE (which runs GRUB and is based on Linux... debian of sorts).

But if modern versions of GRUB are not working with your BIOS either, you're SOL again. Maybe time for some hewer hardware.

Maybe worth noting that the "install" is just the media, so if you perform the installation to a disk in a computer that can handle it then move the disk over to the desired system, the result is exactly the same as if you had completed the install with the disk inside that system.

Some folks have used VMs with something like VirtualBox and a mounted USB drive to install and then use the installed USB drive to boot from (although not specifically recommended if it's a USB stick... maybe USB to SATA would be an acceptable long-term solution).

 

[sretalla]

I further note that your story will not go well using that Realtek NIC should you eventually get it to run.