USB Boot Failure: mountroot Where to start?

[captclearleft]

you can click thanks for that


yes that is good enough but still need to do that secure boot to 'other OS'


ok here are the steps

1. i use Rufus, when you in boot selection choose 'disk or ISO selection IF Bios legacy. Choose UEFI:NTFS if UEFI. Now if ISO before 11.2 U6, there is any option pop up to write in ISO or DD more, and if it is a UEFI mobo, DD is better
2. For the target disk it is very important that the USB is free of any leftover partitions. Use diskpart with the Clean command
2. An additional step that i would do is to change the partition scheme of the target USB to GPT, use diskpart in CLI.
3. From there after alternating mobo Bios for CSM, Secure boot for Other OS, choose the boot medium as first boot or override boot, it should install as normal to the target USB
4. After install if it is still giving errors it is just a a matter of alternating the settings at Bios

It should work

Ill try all that from scratch tomorrow. Will post all that I do and the results...

 

[1kokies]

okie dokie

 

[1kokies]

left this out @captclearleft ........the first principle is to decide whether UEFI or Bios, then the following process to suit this.

New mobo are mostly UEFI now, ISO 11.2 U6 is very good and to caution if using this ISO and you burn the installer with legacy method it will hang a Windows 10 OS with BSOD. There is nothing wrong with the ISO, it's just the way we do it.

 

[captclearleft]

Ok, Good Morning. Thanks again for all your patience and help :)

-- I pulled and cleaned the USB boot, reformated. Stuck the two usb's back in for another go from scratch.
-- Everything booted as expected, I chose Install Freenas. Then selected the "Bios" option (and not "UEFI").
-- Everything loaded perfectly - Pulled install usb, rebooted. It booted to the Console Setup, and I can access the Web UI over the LAN.

NOW I cannot remember how to load the dataset to the new boot usb so that FreeNas knows what my Raid / drive / zfs configurations were.

Can someone remind me how to do that?

Thanks :)

 

[1kokies]

1. click more like & thanks.......more will chip in :)
2. When your problem is solved, it would be great to indicate it as solved, in the title thread. That way when others use the same key word search they can refer to your thread

NOW I cannot remember how to load the dataset to the new boot usb so that FreeNas knows what my Raid / drive / zfs configurations were.

Can someone remind me how to do that?

yours is an existing installation, do you have the config files saved ? if yes then just upload it. System>general>upload config

if no config saved, import the pool from the GUI and you will get the data back.

process completed, remember to save the config again.

 

[captclearleft]

Ok, Thanks.
-- Once I get this solved - I will do a full write up.
-- I have a a config file saved, but its from 2017, and I don't remember how many drives I had in it back then, and doubt it is current with my current configuration.

-- I will research how to "import the pool" - Thanks

 

[1kokies]

Great ! i think you got it from here :)

Once solved can just add 'solved' to title thread

 

[captclearleft]

Ok, Current Status:
I could not find a way to import the pool successfully. I tried this "System Dataset" - "System dataset pool:"
But I got a "middleware" error ??? So... (continued under image)...

I did some more research, and apparently when your USB Boot device fails - It can be recovered with the installation USB (upgrade option). So:

-- I shutdown the machine
-- Inserted the Install iso USB
-- Inserted the previously corrupt USB
-- Booted the machine to the install iso USB
-- Follow install prompts to install
-- Select corrupt USB as install target (note, had to reboot a couple times to get the installation GUI to see the corrupt USB drive).
-- Select Upgrade
-- I selected Format Boot device as apposed to install new Boot sector.
-- Select BIOS option as apposed to UEFI (even though my Mobo is UEFI/had issues prior with UEFI install hanging).

--Vwalla - Everything is there. I created another dataset backup. I don't think 9.10.2 U6 has a boot mirror option, but an upgrade will be next.

Thanks everyone for your help.

If someone wants to post a link on how to import the pool to the new USB boot - Please do so. Thanks.

 

[1kokies]

I did some more research, and apparently when your USB Boot device fails - It can be recovered with the installation USB (upgrade option). So:

-- I shutdown the machine
-- Inserted the Install iso USB
-- Inserted the previously corrupt USB
-- Booted the machine to the install iso USB
-- Follow install prompts to install
-- Select corrupt USB as install target (note, had to reboot a couple times to get the installation GUI to see the corrupt USB drive).
-- Select Upgrade
-- I selected Format Boot device as apposed to install new Boot sector.
-- Select BIOS option as apposed to UEFI (even though my Mobo is UEFI/had issues prior with UEFI install hanging).

--Vwalla - Everything is there. I created another dataset backup. I don't think 9.10.2 U6 has a boot mirror option, but an upgrade will be next.

great to hear that but i see the process above have enabled a re use of the corrupt USB only, but it is still a new install right ? It does not return you back to your original install.

So this is an existing install and you do have your old config, just have to upload the config and it will be back to where you left it.
If you don't have the config, and this would be a complete new installation, you can import the pool, best done via GUI under Storage>Pools (which assuming are your datasets)>add>follow onscreen as per snip attached. Through the process DO NOT click delete at all.
1. if the pool is encrypted=i have never tried this before
2. if the pool is not available or not seen= go to shell>zpool status. If your pool is healthy it will show something like below which you should be able to import. Reasons for pools not available=hardware related mostly sata cables/ports, damaged drives but hopefully you have kept yours healthy.

Code:

  pool: Data-Media
state: ONLINE
status: Some supported features are not enabled on the pool. The pool can
        still be used, but some features are unavailable.
action: Enable all features using 'zpool upgrade'. Once this is done,
        the pool may no longer be accessible by software that does not support
        the features. See zpool-features(7) for details.
  scan: resilvered 56K in 0 days 00:00:02 with 0 errors on Thu Oct 17 00:17:09 2                                                                                                                                                             019
config:

        NAME                                            STATE     READ WRITE CKS                                                                                                                                                             UM
        Data-Media                                      ONLINE       0     0                                                                                                                                                                  0
          raidz1-0                                      ONLINE       0     0                                                                                                                                                                  0
            gptid/151f2837-e61d-11e7-a41a-086266295468  ONLINE       0     0                                                                                                                                                                  0
            gptid/bb0c2d26-e5db-11e7-b7ed-086266295468  ONLINE       0     0                                                                                                                                                                  0
            gptid/b70cb8cd-e4de-11e7-b58d-086266295468  ONLINE       0     0                                                                                                                                                                  0
            gptid/b84b6866-e4de-11e7-b58d-086266295468  ONLINE       0     0                                                                                                                                                                  0

errors: No known data errors

 

[captclearleft]

Thanks. That is great stuff.

You are correct.
This is the previously corrupt USB boot device. I believe the upgrade option puts a fresh install on that device. With the upgrade - I believe that the install script grabs the config off the USB (that has the corrupt boot sector). Recreates a new boot sector. Then re-installs FreeNas, then adds the config back...
Yes - I am back to where I left off. All the configurations are correct. All users are there, all the drives and arrays are setup, all the shares and scheduled tasks are there... (I did not need to, or do not need to import anything. I now have saved the current config off to other machines.)

-- I would like to do a write up, and learn how to import the pool in the case that someone was not able to upgrade their corrupt USB, and did not save the config... This might be pointless as version 9 is so old, and no one is using it

Version 9.10 must be missing the pools button in GUI under storage... (I looked through all these menus)

I have run zpool status under shell and ran another long smartctl on one of the WD_Prpl_4 drives last night (I think It is failing, getting errors... )

Disk has 6 currently unreadable (pending) sectors

After booting up my FreeNAS about 2 weeks after a house move I find this: CRITICAL: Nov. 20, 2017, 8:07 p.m. - Device: /dev/ada4, 6 Currently unreadable (pending) sectors Tracing an earlier thread I did a long test on ada4 then issuing smartctl -A /dev/ada4: Extended self-test routine...

www.ixsystems.com

This is the zpool status display.

 

[1kokies]

You are correct.
This is the previously corrupt USB boot device. I believe the upgrade option puts a fresh install on that device. With the upgrade - I believe that the install script grabs the config off the USB (that has the corrupt boot sector). Recreates a new boot sector. Then re-installs FreeNas, then adds the config back...
Yes - I am back to where I left off. All the configurations are correct. All users are there, all the drives and arrays are setup, all the shares and scheduled tasks are there... (I did not need to, or do not need to import anything. I now have saved the current config off to other machines.)

that is great and a new discovery. A write up would be excellent for others to benefit, if they don't have the config back up and assuming it is not a faulty USB.

-- I would like to do a write up, and learn how to import the pool in the case that someone was not able to upgrade their corrupt USB, and did not save the config... This might be pointless as version 9 is so old, and no one is using it

a write up will be excellent though not verified in version 11 but it could still be useful in SOS cases. I think it will be very useful. However please remember to back that the config.

Version 9.10 must be missing the pools button in GUI under storage... (I looked through all these menus)

i have posted 11.2U6 in legacy UI, it's the same as yours (note there still buttons at bottom). The Volumes are the pools. i have 2 pools/volume and you have 3 pools/volume. Import volume button is the one used to import pools.

I have run zpool status under shell and ran another long smartctl on one of the WD_Prpl_4 drives last night (I think It is failing, getting errors... )

your pools are all in mirror, for the failing drive just need to replace it (follow the manual strictly, please)

Glad you are able to come out of the situation and is now a happy user :).

Remember to change the title by adding 'solved' so that others pays more attention.