Installing Freenas

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12th November 2016, 12:50 PM
AK83

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

....
Welcome to GRUB
error - unknown file system
Entering rescue Mode
GRUB Rescue>

Just been reading about ZFS and much other stuff(and they reckon I'm only 11% Geek! :p)

Anyhow, just read an interesting snippet about GRUB.
As you have reached 'GRUB Rescue' it seems that the GRUB version on the FreeNAS iso is GRUB v2.

What I also read somewhere about creating a GRUB bootloader USB stick .. was that if you have multiple file system types it can throw this same error.
Going by the images you provided in the first few posts, I'm assuming that the other USB drive is formatted FAT32 as well(this should be where FreeNAS is getting installed).
Makes no difference what file system is used, as the install routine formats it to (what I assume is ZFS) .. as well as eventually formatting HDDs as ZFS too).
This is why I 'lost' my USB stick after my quick trial. It got formatted on the whole as ZFS(ie. other) file system with a very small 300kb fat partition too.

So the other USB stick is formatted FAT32 and the other HDDs are formatted (?).
Maybe try disconnecting all the other HDDs just for now and have only the USB CD ROM and USB stick as the only two connected storage devices. Just to avoid any confusions for now.

BTW: The Geeky info I've just been reading up on is this info about booting from ISO images using GRUB
If I'm not mistaken, I'm reading that as(and example).

You load the FreeNAS .iso file directly onto a drive(eg.HDD0). No need to burn it extract it or nothing .. just place the .iso file on the HDD.
Create a GRUB bootloader on a USB stick(ie. a GRUB stick).
Boot computer using the GRUB stick, and point it to the .iso file on the HDD0.
You should get either another boot up menu(GRUB again but this time for the FreeNAS install) or possibly FreeNAS install itself.

anyhow .. back to your issue.
(fd) could be a floppy drive :confused:
All the info I've read about filesystem errors in GRUB relate to errors in GRUB itself, and the fix is to do a GRUB update.
Problem is it being on a CD .. can't fix that.

ps. was the cd burn routine closed? An open session(ie. not finalised can produce file system errors).
Is the Cd an 'RW' type or a single use type?

ps. learning stuff is OK. I just learned what Gsata is.
Is this a Gigabyte(only) thing?
I now have a Gigabyte M/board now(after years of ASUSes) and can't remember seeing anything about GSATA.

pps. I also learned that those Gsata ports can be slow, eg. if they use some specific thirdparty controllers.
1. if you do want to use RAID of any type, be sure not to mix'n'match those controllers with any of the others. Differences in read/write speeds can be detrimental .. so if you do raid, be sure to keep those two ports in a singular pair group .. away from the other ports
2. If they turn out to be of JMicron origin .. burn the motherboard! .. NOW!! :p
They will drive you to suicide in no time :p
Marvel may be crap, Via can be garbage, ASMedia can be OK ... but JMicron controllers are so despicably diabolical, they have the power to drive the devil to suicide!
.... you have been warned! :D
12th November 2016, 01:07 PM
AK83

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

Booting from a hdd?
and lose an entire drive? :rolleyes:
....

OK. misunderstanding:
boot from the HDD, (remember) is only to get you into the installer routine.
So what you're currently trying to do is to boot into FreeNAS to get to the installer, to install FreeNAS to the second USB stick.
Once the FreeNAS is installed onto the second USB stick, doesn't matter what's on the HDD you initially booted from, just format it and your HDD is then another drive to use in the array!

The reason you have a two step booting requirement is that you need to be running freeBSD(ie, freeNAS here) to be able to format the second USB stick with the ZFS file system .. to install it there.

another note: at some point in the install routine it started to format the second USB stick, and it displays a msg that "this will take a long time"
So I went and made a cuppa, annoyed the kids a bit, briefly came back to see how it's going and :o
It seems a long time to the freeBSD folks is more than about 5-10 mins! :p

Once the second USB stick install is complete, you have to reboot again to boot into FreeNAS proper .. then you're just sitting there staring at a black command prompt(ie. you won't need any screen attached to that box!)
12th November 2016, 07:10 PM
Pedro_The_Swift

Ah Ha!
""The reason you have a two step booting requirement is that you need to be running freeBSD(ie, freeNAS here) to be able to format the second USB stick with the ZFS file system .. to install it there.""

well this has all fallen in a heap,,
main PC **** a PSU,, spent the arvo swapping one over,,
and the only sata power cable doesnt seem to have enough grunt to run 3HDD's ,, its a Purple Antec Truepower 750W, it worked fine in the other box-- :confused: this PSU has 2 modular connectors for PCI-e and 2 for HDD's but if I plug a cable in, the board "stalls" on startup and all the pretty MB lights go out--- :o
so none of my HDD's are starting,,
Hmmm.
12th November 2016, 07:51 PM
incisor

Welcome to my world
13th November 2016, 07:37 AM
Pedro_The_Swift

and am I right in thinking modular cables only work on the psu they came with? explains much. :angel:
13th November 2016, 08:45 AM
incisor

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

and am I right in thinking modular cables only work on the psu they came with? explains much. :angel:

Generally speaking, yes

The standard begins at the peripheral you are pluging in

You can meter the pins etc if you have the gear 😂
13th November 2016, 09:58 AM
Pedro_The_Swift

stuck a meter on the end of the hardwired sata power cable and all voltages are there--
SSD ( C drive ) starts up when connected to this cable, but two HDDs wont, ??? disconnected the sata cables, still wont start.

could the psu have taken out 3 drives??
13th November 2016, 10:47 AM
Pedro_The_Swift

:(:(:(:(
it would appear the 3 HDDs are cactus,,

one was a green WD 3TB for total backup,
the other two were-- wait for it,, spanned.

other than removal of the drive except for backup-- how do you plan for this ****??

17 years of accumulated history gone.
The ssd was on one of the power cables,, how did it survive?
13th November 2016, 11:12 AM
Pedro_The_Swift

would replacing the HDD controller board work?
I dont have another 3TB,, but a few 1TB drives??

and,,

I actually have two drives the same as the spanned set-- :o
13th November 2016, 11:50 AM
AK83

Don't be too hasty ion declaring HDDs cactus.

Been there done that(too).

First up: I had failing HDDs in my PC, so bought repalcement for one, then another! :confused:
They kind'a worked, but it turned out that the PSU was the culprit .. it eventually packed it in in toto .. so a new PSU was sought.
I ended up with a Corsair Platinum(800W) .. supposedly very efficient, but stuff that .. insanely quiet!

Anyhow, my default PC has had about 5HDDs for ages now.

So all back together again and I decided to get a new PC up and running.
(old PC is going to be my FreeNAS crash test dummy!)
Same Corsair PSU from the old one etc, etc
New PC case has a ton of room for more drives, so I also nstall the two (what I thought were) dead/dying drives .. and have been running fine since(about early Aug I think now .. can't remember exactly).

Similar thing happened months ago when I got my QNAP NAS.
Had 3 drives(2x 4Tb WD Reds, and one very old 2Tb Green)
I hate(actually don't fully trust) RAID, so drive disparity wasn't an issue for me.
About a week after i finally set the NAS up the way I liked it, I lost one of the Reds. :confused:
Brand spankers too they were: couldn't find the receipt, so I went bought another .. 2 of them.
Pop one into the slot where that supposedly dead one came from(slot #4) and waited .. and waited. Nothing! :confused::confused:

WT eff, I thought. chucked in another(lucky I bought two now, I thought). zip! nothing!
You serious you dumb @$$ NAS I thought.
Popped the 'dead' HDD into the PC(temporarily), and while it couldn't understand the ext4 file system, it was recognised as a 4Tb drive that just needed formatting?
Turns out that the 1 week old NAS box had dead SATA slot on it's m/board.
QNAP were quicker than I thought they'd be in replacing too mind you.

Corsair PSU is modular too, and I have a sneaking suspicion that they'll all use basically identical PSU end connectors, even tho they probably aren't standardised(as already said).
I've seen a few that are the same.

The only other Antec type I had access too is gone to my sis now, so I can't compare any longer, but here's a pic of my Corsair type.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...016/11/472.jpg

Note how three of the pins ends are rounded at the bottom, the other three are all square.
Even tho I listed the measurements I had a temprprary bout of dyslexia too.
The 11.5mm lateral value should be 11.8mm.
The 7.5mm value is still confirmed tho.
Those values are to the nearest 10th too .. I think it hovered at about 11.78/79, and 7.48/49ish .. so I rounded.

Each of these cables have 4 SATA power connectors ganged onto the cable.
Corsair expected some serious storage ability from these power supplies to include 4 of them(ie. 16x SATA power connectors!)

ps. voltages may be there, but what about current, or possibly fluctuations in either or both?

This is what happened to mine .. intermittent power fluctuations.
Actually! I'm surprised that that old cheapo $25 PSU even lasted close to 10 years .. but alas, it had to start playing up at about the 9year stage :D

Is this an issue on your primary PC, or on the box you were about to FreeNAS?

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