UDOM (internal USB FLASH) won't boot after install

[Hjrr]

Guys and Girls,
Have an older Supermicro PDSMi/PDSMA/PDSMi+/PDSNA+ Bios v1.2, Dual Core Intel 3000, 8GB RAM and 4-drive bays.

NOTE: pfSENSE boots off USB stick after install from CD.

1) I can install to a USB memory stick (from CD) but FreeNAS will not boot from this media later.
2) I can install to a UDOM (from CD) but FreeNAS will not boot from this media later.
3) I can install to an internal hard drive and FreeNAS *will* boot from this media, but this makes no sense as I want all 4 drive bay for storage.

for 1 and 2 after install to media, system just hangs and I can not get back into BIOS. "Entering setup ..." displays and system just hangs.

Supermicro says a BIOS update will make no difference regarding this issue. It is no longer a supported system by them, but still works.
SIDE NOTE it supports HACKENTOSH (got YOSEMITE and EL- CAPITAN running on it)

QUESTION 1: how is the boot loader of FreeNAS different then pfSENSE when one will boot and the other not using the same USB media and hardware.
QUESTION 2: can i install pfSENSE and upgrade/convert it to FreeNAS?

4) I am waiting for a small USD HardDrive and I will attempt to boot up from this as a last ditch effort. This server hardware is perfect for my lab as a storage device, 1U, low power, 4 drive bays. there has to be a way to make this work.

Boot screen lock up picture attached

 

[Newfoundland.Republic]

Hmmm... Does that motherboard/CPU support the FreeNAS requirements? Does that have a 64-bit CPU? It seems pretty old....

See https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.3-RELEASE/intro.html#hardware-recommendations

 

[Hjrr]

Yes it is a 64-bit processor with Support for virtualization I had 64-bit version of Xenserver and VMware are running on it.

my (4) The external USB drive hard drive did not work as a boot device.

PFsense boots off UDOM What do you think about using PFsense & sharing some drives in a ZFS configuration??

 

[Hjrr]

What is so different about the boot set up of FreeNAS vs. PFSense why can I boot up from PFSense after install but not FreeNAS when all else is the same hardware?
UBUNTU & PFSense also booted from USB and UDOM , but FreeNAS does not!!!

 

[Hjrr]

I have FreeNAS 0.7.2 booting off UDOM flash. It obviously uses a different boot loader then 9.3 (and newer). Can I upgrade to 8.x I tried using the GUI update method with the update .img files and I am being told I have the wrong version. that I need "embedded x64" version. There is only one x64 version available for upgrade. I tried both the ..xz and .txz versions.

 

[Hjrr]

Guys quick update - I upgraded to 0.8 then 8.3 then 9.1.1 and these all boot off my UDOM. I got iSCSI working with my vCenter cluster so I think I will just keep it here. 9.2 refuses to boot , I know the boot loader changed in this version, so It must be the problem (and does not work with my hardware).