Upgrading FreeNAS from USB stick

[Lucas Rey]

Hello all,
my FreeNAS box doesn't have CDROM, so every time, for upgrade it (currently I have 8.0.2 release) I need to open the box, attach an IDE CDROM reader, burn the new release, upgrade..... and so on....

I read a lot of tutorials on how psychically write a fresh FreeNAS installation on USB device, but, is there a method to write the bootable ISO, to start from USB and then upgrade without CDROM?

I tried several methods, like unetbootin, xboot, SARDU, FlashBoot. All of these apps works for other boot CDs (like Windows, Linux, Acronis products, and so on...), but it fails creating FreeNAS boot device.

Is there also other method to upgrade FreeNAS avoiding the box opening?

 

[ProtoSD]

Hi Lucas,

Yes, why don't you download the GUI_Upgrade version and then just upgrade FreeNAS from your browser?

 

[Lucas Rey]

Hi Lucas,
Yes, why don't you download the GUI_Upgrade version and then just upgrade FreeNAS from your browser?

Well protosd, I forgot to mention that, for me, upgrading from GUI fails. I tried from 8.0.2 to 8.0.3 and upgrade process hangs, and the same from 8.0.1 to 8.0.2. I never tried 8.0.2 to 8.0.4, I'll do it now.

BTW, just for curiosity, and in case I need to install freenas on other system without CDROM, is there a way to write FreeNAS ISO image on USB to boot from it?

 

[Lucas Rey]

OK, upgrading from 8.0.2 to 8.0.4 works!! It was so easy!!! ^_^
I don't understand because other updates hangs, maybe I used a wrong SHA Hash!!!

 

[ProtoSD]

BTW, just for curiosity, and in case I need to install freenas on other system without CDROM, is there a way to write FreeNAS ISO image on USB to boot from it?

I'm glad to hear you were easily able to upgrade using the GUI method.

I don't know a way of making a bootable USB image, but I know it can be done. I would have tried unetbootin, but you said it didnt' work. I've also had problems with it not working for other bootable ISO's.

Hopefully you'll continue to have success upgrading from the GUI.

 

[vinceg]

Do external CD drives with a USB interface work for the CD requirement? I'm also about to build a system and am hoping to avoid wasting a SATA slot on a CD drive.

 

[Lucas Rey]

Do external CD drives with a USB interface work for the CD requirement? I'm also about to build a system and am hoping to avoid wasting a SATA slot on an IDE drive.

If the MoBo supports boot from USB, you can easly start FreeNAS CD from USB CDReader. BTW, with this method you also need to install FreeNAS software to an internal disk.
If you want preserve a SATA slot, just write the FreeNAS image to USB stick (using physicalwrite software) and then boot from that USB device.

 

[vinceg]

Thanks for the quick reply! I did understand that the system would ultimately be running from a USB stick (and that the CD would not be needed). I was just concerned about the need for a CD drive initially to get the system set up (that is, creating the initial bootable USB stick). I'm also hoping to avoid the upgrading problems you mention in your posts above.

 

[Lucas Rey]

But if use an USB stick to boot from, you don't need the CD Reader.
You can easly prepare the USB stick from another PC using physicalwrite or Win32DiskImager to write the FreeNAS image, then boot your FreeNAS machine from that USB device.

Let me know if u need instruction on how to use the physicalwrite under windows. You can also check this page: http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Installing_from_the_Image

 

[Lucas Rey]

Just for your information, this is the guide I wrote for my personal purpose, to create FreeNAS USB bootable stick:

- Download the XZ image from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/freenas/files/
Download FULL-INSTALL version for starting from scratch

- Decompress the XZ file using 7Zip application (the portable version is also ok)

- Rename the extracted file to: "freenas" (without quotes, for sure!!!)

- Is better to copy the extracted image and physicalwrite.exe file under an easy directorly like: C:/freenas

- Open the DOS Prompt (with administrative priovileges under Win Vista/Seven) and write:

Code:

C:\>cd FreeNAS

C:\FreeNAS>dir
 Volume in drive C is OS

 Directory of C:\FreeNAS

06/15/2011  11:48 AM    <DIR>          .
06/15/2011  11:48 AM    <DIR>          ..
06/15/2011  11:31 AM     1,000,000,000 freenas
02/16/2009  07:44 PM            90,112 physdiskwrite.exe
			   2 File(s)  1,000,090,112 bytes
			   2 Dir(s)   7,282,081,792 bytes free

C:\FreeNAS>physdiskwrite.exe -u freenas

physdiskwrite v0.5.2 by Manuel Kasper <mk@neon1.net>

Searching for physical drives...

Information for \\.\PhysicalDrive0:
   Windows:       cyl: 9729
				  tpc: 255
				  spt: 63
   C/H/S:         16383/16/63
   Model:         ST380011A
   Serial number: 5JVTPQ1B
   Firmware rev.: 8.01

Information for \\.\PhysicalDrive1:
   Windows:       cyl: 489
				  tpc: 255
				  spt: 63

Which disk do you want to write? (0..1)

Chose now the right disk and let physicalwrite write the image.

=======================================================================================
!!!!!!!! TAKE CARE TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT DISK, OTHERWISE YOUR WINDOWS OS DISK WILL BE OVERWRITTEN !!!!!!!
=======================================================================================


If during the write process you have an error, just use the following procedure to delete MBR from USB Stick:

Code:

c:\FreeNAS> diskpart

DISKPART> list disk
DISKPART> select disk "X"
DISKPART> clean
DISKPART> exit

From the list disk you'll get all your disks, then on "select disk" just put the right number instead "X"

===============================================================================
!!!!!!!! TAKE CARE TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT DISK, OTHERWISE YOUR OS MBR WILL BE OVERWRITTEN !!!!!!!
===============================================================================


Hope this helps!!!

 

[FreeNasGuy]

I'm try upgrade from 8.0.4 to 8.2.0 using the GUI upgrade but when the server reboots the server says Geometry is not a match. So how can I fix this geometry match problem?