truenas bootable installation usb creation

[Jeremy Guo]

can anyone give any advice on installation usb creation?

I got problem with rufus, also the tool balenaEtcher mentioned in the offcial guide.

It showed creation is successful, while nothing is actually created on the USB but a 2MB EFI partition.

 

[homer27081990]

Just for clarity, the image you posted shows no iso selected.

Also, because the partition type is (I think) ext4, Windows will (like an adware-supported, SaaS diva) refuse to see it as a partition.

Having said that, I recently was working with an IT friend of mine (I was spinning up a PfSense Bare Metal sys) and we had similar issues with almost all USB tools. We ended up using a rufus edition from 2022 (!). For some reason, PfSense refused to work with the new apps (something to do with a new framework they all use, don't remember, please correct).

Seeing as both PfSense and TrueNAS CORE are FreeBSD based OSes, I would suggest you try an older version of rufus (2021-2022 worked for me).

 

[chuck32]

got problem with rufus, also the tool balenaEtcher mentioned in the offcial guide.

What's your trouble with etcher? I prefer etcher for boot media creation.

Windows will (like an adware-supported, SaaS diva) refuse to see it as a partition.

Iirc last time I created a boot stick windows wasn't able to see anything at all, that alone should not be a reason for concern.

Did you actually try to use the stick?

 

[Jeremy Guo]

Just for clarity, the image you posted shows no iso selected.

Also, because the partition type is (I think) ext4, Windows will (like an adware-supported, SaaS diva) refuse to see it as a partition.

Having said that, I recently was working with an IT friend of mine (I was spinning up a PfSense Bare Metal sys) and we had similar issues with almost all USB tools. We ended up using a rufus edition from 2022 (!). For some reason, PfSense refused to work with the new apps (something to do with a new framework they all use, don't remember, please correct).

Seeing as both PfSense and TrueNAS CORE are FreeBSD based OSes, I would suggest you try an older version of rufus (2021-2022 worked for me).

tried 3.17p, seems mo luck, it only write two small partitions, please see the log file.

actually i successfully created a stick with "ISO to USB", but that's not bootable as it only support windows bootable disk creation.

 

[Jeremy Guo]

What's your trouble with etcher? I prefer etcher for boot media creation.

Iirc last time I created a boot stick windows wasn't able to see anything at all, that alone should not be a reason for concern.

Did you actually try to use the stick?

etcher also failed to create a bootable installation USB stick, same result as Rufus.

 

[homer27081990]

etcher also failed to create a bootable installation USB stick, same result as Rufus.

View attachment 76697
View attachment 76698

 

[homer27081990]

etcher also failed to create a bootable installation USB stick, same result as Rufus.

View attachment 76697
View attachment 76698

It is not really unallocated. Windows just cannot see ext partitions on non-GPT disks (MBR)

 

[homer27081990]

And on GPT disks, MS does us lowly *nix users a grand favour, because of the GPT specification for what is considered a partition.

 

[homer27081990]

etcher also failed to create a bootable installation USB stick, same result as Rufus.

View attachment 76697
View attachment 76698

If you still cannot boot, try to change the USB flash into a GPT drive and then use rufus. Cannot boot from UEFI from MBR drives.