TrueNAS 12 on Odroid H2 - Installer won't load

[mdrconsult]

Hi,

I'm new to TrueNAS and to this forum, so please bear with me.

I have an Odroid H2 with 16GB of ram, 500GB NVMe and 4 x 1TB SATA SSDs.

I downloaded the TrueNAS ISO and wrote the ISO to a USB drive using DD. I have used multiple USB drives and downloaded the image a 2nd time a tried again.

My system will boot from the USB drive and I get the first menu where I hit enter to load the installer. So far so good. Things progress and I get all the message Is would expect, but eventually the system starts streaming:

Root mount waiting for: CAM

This message will stream forever I assume. I have waited as long as 10 minutes and it never progresses.

My best guess is there is a bios setting that is wrong, but I don't know what. BTW, the system had previously been running Unbuntu which was installed from a USB based ISO.

If there is more information you need please ask and I will get it for you.

Thank You.
Mark

 

[sretalla]

I'm not convinced that your hardware is a good choice for TrueNAS... those Realtek NICS are already a warning sign.

Can you get a standard FreeBSD install to start?

 

[mdrconsult]

sretalla,

Thank You for responding.

First regarding my HW choice, I have seen others who have successfully used the Odroid H2 for a FreeNAS platform so I assumed that TrueNAS was primarily a name change, not code, and that it would work.

I have not tried to install FreeBSD as of yet, but I will try that tonight. However, I suspect there won't be any significant difference based on where in the process the system is hanging. As I stated the ISO does boot successfully to the first menu. Once I select the installer it proceeds as expected, but does not successfully load the installer application. As I said before, my gut tells me it has something to do with the bios, but I have also thought that maybe it is the USB drive. Although I've tried two different ones they were both lower end drives, i.e. drives given away at conferences. I am going to try using a good Samsung USB 3.1 drive. It is 32GB so it seems a bit of a waste, but I'll give it a shot.

 

[sretalla]

I suspect there won't be any significant difference based on where in the process the system is hanging

TrueNAS is based on FreeBSD 12 (FreeNAS was based on FreeBSD 11).

They do use different installers, so you may see different results which would help to see where it's failing.

USB 3.1 drive

This may be where some of the problem is... FreeBSD (or maybe just TrueNAS) may not have drivers for USB3.1 support... have you tried it in another USB2 or 3.0 port?

 

[mdrconsult]

TrueNAS is based on FreeBSD 12 (FreeNAS was based on FreeBSD 11).

They do use different installers, so you may see different results which would help to see where it's failing.


This may be where some of the problem is... FreeBSD (or maybe just TrueNAS) may not have drivers for USB3.1 support... have you tried it in another USB2 or 3.0 port?

I wasn't aware of a significant difference between installers. I think I will try installing the latest FreeNAS instead and see if that helps.

Regarding the USB drives that I have been using were actually USB 2.0 (remember, cheap drives I got from conference giveaways). I have not tried a USB 3.1 drive as of yet. And did try both the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports on my machine with the same results.

So it sounds like it is more of an installer issue rather than the USB drive. I'm working now so I'll have to wait till tonight to try this out.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I have an Odroid H2 with 16GB of ram, 500GB NVMe and 4 x 1TB SATA SSDs.

From my searching, that board only has 2 SATA ports. How are you connecting the other 2 SSDs?

 

[mdrconsult]

From my searching, that board only has 2 SATA ports. How are you connecting the other 2 SSDs?

I am using a StarTech Dual-Slot M.2 Drive to SATA Host Adapter. This lets me install 2 M.2 SATA drives in a tray that is the size of a 2.5" drive and use only 1 SATA and power cable.. I use two of them in the system.

But if the installer program never even loads would these even come into play. I know that FreeBSD is different than Linux, but I did verify that the system under Unbuntu sees all 4 drives, so I know the system is capable of using these adapters, but perhaps FreeBSD is not.

 

[mdrconsult]

Hi,

I think I have found the root cause. It appears that FreeBSD does not play well with the Star Tech port multiplier I'm using to get 2 M.2 SATA SSDs on each of my SATA ports. When I disconnect them everything progress correctly.

I guess I'm going to have consider a different option for my NAS. Unless someone else knows of another port multiplier that will work with FreeBSD.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I know the system is capable of using these adapters, but perhaps FreeBSD is not.

This is the most likely situation. Those StarTech devices use SATA port multiplication; it's very likely that the driver being used for your SATA chipset under FreeBSD doesn't support this, or the init is querying the multiplier itself and causing CAM timeouts.

 

[Tigersharke]

Mine is not a multiplier but instead a handy "hot swap" or easy access cage for ssd or 2.5" hdd. It is iStarUSA brand, haven't had any issues other than how the led indicators look. It uses one sata power connector but needs a sata data cable for each, it is only sata, no conversion or anything. Perhaps the solution is a hostbus adapter pci card which would at least provide connectivity to 8 devices. The only other comment I can make, regarding the CAM error assumes that BIOS has that sata port disabled or there is no data connectivity or no power (or inadequate power). I am not familiar with the multiplier device or potential FreeBSD driver issues. Oh, one test may be to see what happens if only one SSD is attached per multiplier device.