Wierd problem-add SSD - cannot boot usb flash drive

[philhu]

Ok, that makes sense

The motherboard is a supermicro x8DTN+

No the board is not confused byt 2 devices, if the internal controller is not connected, it boots the 2 usb devices fine as a freenas mirrored boot device.

 

[Robert Smith]

Legacy usb enabled?

 

[philhu]

yes, it is an X8DTN+ motherboard at revision 2.1c, the latest.

legacy tried enabled and not, both fail

That is a good idea, the board actually has 6 ports, so i can add 2 more and install free nas to them
But without a dvd or USB Boot support, what can I install from?

 

[Robert Smith]

A workaround is installing FreeNAS to SSD on another machine.

 

[BigDave]

That is a good idea, the board actually has 6 ports, so i can add 2 more and install free nas to them
But without a dvd or USB Boot support, what can I install from?

Virtual media method via IPMI

 

[Robert Smith]

Also, on this motherboard, you can individually force SATA #1 IDE (legacy compatibility) mode and connect an optical drive to it.

 

[BigDave]

I would not waste mirroring two SSDs for this, unless you just like overkill, and I'm ok with that, if you do...:D

 

[philhu]

Also, on this motherboard, you can individually force SATA #1 IDE (legacy compatibility) mode and connect an optical drive to it.

So there are 6 sata ports onboard, the motherboard lets you change the 1st and/or second to ide, and I can connect the zil 16G disk, and a 160g for l2arc to those 2 ports?

Another question....system also has 2 internal usb2 connectors.
Could I put zil on a 16g flash stick? Or is that too slow? How about l2arc?

 

[Robert Smith]

The legacy mode on the SATA #1 is so you can boot from devices that do not support AHCI, such as optical drives. Basically another option for you to boot FreeNAS install disk.

Two more things to try to fix the original issue, if you feel like playing further.

• Failure to boot in AHCI mode may be associated with the BIOS subsystem running out of IRQs. If you are not using COM/LPT ports, then try disabling them all in BIOS.
• If you have an optical drive connected. Try setting the BIOS to boot from the optical drive first (even if the drive is empty), and then boot from USB.

 

[philhu]

OK, I WILL TRY THESE......I have to hunt up my sata dvd drive to test.

Thanks! I'll try it all.......

1, remove com1/2, lpt irqs, try to boot
2, put in dvd drive on port 1, set sata 1 to ide, say to boot #1, then usb #2

 

[Robert Smith]

Do not put a zil or l2arc on a USB drive.

The ports where SSDs are connected need to be in AHCI mode.

 

[Robert Smith]

Another thing to try is setting these two to "Disabled":

Slot1-Slot3 PCI-X Option ROM/Slot4-Slot6 PCI-E Option ROM
Select Enabled to enable the onboard PCI Slot Option ROM as specified (except
the VGA card). This is to boot computer using a network interface. The options
are Enabled and Disabled.

Load Onboard LAN1 Option ROM/Load Onboard LAN2 Option ROM
Select Enabled to enable the onboard LAN1 or LAN2 Option ROM. This is to boot
computer using a network interface. The options are Enabled and Disabled.

 

[philhu]

slot 3 is where the backplane lsi card in it mode is in, i think it has its own option rom, slot 6 has an option rom for a scsi tape drive to do local tape backups

I will turn off nic 1/2 option rom loading.....

 

[philhu]

Well, nothing worked, same dead boot.

Guess I am just out of luck. No ZIL for me :)

 

[Robert Smith]

Yea, you can try all these things independent from each other.

Option ROM is not needed on the LSI card, unless you are booting from it or want to use the tools within. Probably not needed on the tape drive ether.

One more thing to try: disable the plug and play OS. That should force the motherboard to configure interrupts and I/O addresses, and perhaps it will display an error if it cannot do that.

 

[philhu]

yes, i also tried no on plug and play os. I tried to turn off the option rom on the scsi card, tape drive wouldn't show in devices.

I did turn off the lsi card option rom, no difference.

Such a stupid thing to do - put 6 nice sata ports on motherboard and not be able to use them.....sigh

I guess I could take a slot in the 36 port backplane cage and stuff an ssd in it for the ZIL. I only need 33 disks, so 3 free!

 

[Spearfoot]

Before attempting to boot w/ the SSDs attached, did you check the BIOS Boot Device Priority settings? And double-check that the USB stick you want to boot is listed first in USB Drives?

 

[Robert Smith]

The computer on my desk cannot boot from USB at all (because it is too old). Yours seem to boot from USB when no AHCI devices are attached; but otherwise fails to boot from USB and wants to boot from SATA only, right?

I found a few people on the Internet with this symptom; some of them fixed the issue one way or another, others--gave up. Good luck!

With six extra SATA ports you can go SATA only and just write off USB devices. That will make a more resilient system anyway.

 

[philhu]

Before attempting to boot w/ the SSDs attached, did you check the BIOS Boot Device Priority settings? And double-check that the USB stick you want to boot is listed first in USB Drives?

Yes, it is first and only on the boot, usb devices show the stick, it is enables as first boot. Tried it as only usb device, etc
Read through the thread. We have tried EVERYTHING!

 

[Spearfoot]

Yes, it is first and only on the boot, usb devices show the stick, it is enables as first boot. Tried it as only usb device, etc
Read through the thread. We have tried EVERYTHING!

Frustrating! Supermicro tech support may be able to help out, they've been helpful to me in the past.