USB boot device not recognized

[NasKar]

While waiting for my replacement WD Red 4TB drive I rebooted my freenas. I have a black cloud over me as the system wouldn't come back up. It gave an error about not being able to boot from the NAS data disk. I presumed my sandisk boot USB went bad so I created a USB installer FreeNAS-9.10.2-U1 (86c7ef5). I plugged the USB into a USB 3.0 slot on the side of my case and another blank ADATA USB into the other USB port. For sum reason the install failed and did not recognize the blank ADATA USB to install the system onto. After having no luck switching it to a USB 2.0 port on the back of the motherboard I tried a Lexar USB and for some reason it worked. Can anyone explain why?

After booting into the FreeNAS-9.10.2-U1 (86c7ef5) I uploaded my old config from FreeNAS-9.10.2 and rebooted. A bunch of errrors flashed across the screen unfortunately I wasn't fast enough to record them. My system is backup and running, is there anything I should check or is it normal with uploading a different version config file?

When I open my case and replace my HDD I will replace the USB back onto the USB header on the inside of the motherboard and setup a mirror ie. 2 boot USB devices. Do I have to adj the BIOS to change the boot order or will my freenas automatically boot to the other USB if there is a problem with the original?

Can I reformat and use the Sandisk USB that stopped working for file storage or throw it out?

 

[sef]

Some thumb drives -- and SanDisk is on my mental list -- aren't recognized by FreeBSD, which of course means FreeNAS can't either. Usually what happens is they have a size of 0.

If the device itself is not being recognized, then there may be some other issues going on, such as a USB3 not being recognized. That'll depend on both the version of FreeNAS and the hardware.

You did not indicate what the errors are, so nobody can help you with that.

 

[NasKar]

You did not indicate what the errors are, so nobody can help you with that.

Is there a log file I can access that records the boot process?

 

[sef]

If it actually boots, then /var/run/dmesg.boot for the kernel, and /var/log/messages for the rest.

 

[NasKar]

Here is the errors from the dmesg.boot

Code:

usbd_setup_device_desc: getting device descriptor at addr 4 failed, USB_ERR_TIMEOUT
usbd_setup_device_desc: getting device descriptor at addr 4 failed, USB_ERR_TIMEOUT
usbd_setup_device_desc: getting device descriptor at addr 4 failed, USB_ERR_TIMEOUT

I was wondering if this has anything to do with Freenas not liking the boot USB in a USB 3.0 slot?

 

[sef]

I believe I get that message on a box with a Thunderbolt 3 chip, and is because FreeBSD's drivers can't deal with the hardware.

But... if that were the case, you shouldn't've been able to install on it, and we didn't change kernels or kernel configurations between the 9.10.x updates. So I am fairly perplexed.

 

[NasKar]

It's interest because both USB sticks were ADATA's and the install worked but not the creation of the boot USB. Should I see if there is an option to turn the USB 3.0 ports into 2.0 in the bios for better compatibility?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Should I see if there is an option to turn the USB 3.0 ports into 2.0 in the bios for better compatibility?

Definitely worth a try. You're unlikely to see any benefit from using USB 3.0 anyway, either during install or ongoing usage.