11.2 hates me

[sremick]

And here I thought I was doing just about everything correctly. But I am having a heck of a time trying to move to 11.2.

First, the installer kept kicking CD read errors despite trying multiple DVD burners, multiple flash drives (destination), and multiple computers. Finally I decided to take optical media out of the picture entirely, mount the ISO remotely via the BMI, boot the FreeNAS box itself off from it, and use the FreeNAS box to install 11.2 to the new flash drive. And note that I'm not upgrading my existing flash drive, but installing to a new one and then uploading my config.

First I notice that the install to flash takes forever. I don't recall this being the case in 9.x unless I'm misremembering.

Next, my first boot of the freshly-installed new USB flash drive w/ 11.2 kicks all sorts of middleware errors and "file not found". And that's after stalling on "Trying to mount root from zfs:freenas-boot/ROOT/default []..." for what seemed like forever.

Eventually I get to the menu on the terminal and can access the GUI from another system. I upload my config and reboot. Once again, a very long hang on "Trying to mount root from zfs:freenas-boot/ROOT/default []..." and then an even longer hang on "middlewared: loading plugins" which results in "MIDDLEWARED FAILED TO START WITHIN 4 MINUTES, SYSTEM WILL NOT BEHAVE CORRECTLY!!" (I probably had that before I loaded my config, just didn't happen to catch it) followed by lots of Python script errors, "FileNotFound: [Errno 2] No such file or directory" and "sqlite3.DatabaseError: database disk image is malformed". There's even a "/etc/rc.d/dhclient: WARNING: failed to start dhclient" even though I see the handshake and it got an IP address. I also see "Can't load /user/local/etc/smb4.conf - run testparm to debug it" before everything finally comes up. One in the GUI, I see alerts "Update failed. Check /data/update.failed for further details " and "smartd_daemon is not running." And FreeNAS doesn't see my disks or volumes, despite importing my config.

It really seems like my install is a fustercluck. Where do I even begin? I can get in w/ a shell through the GUI so that's my one hope to extract whatever info you need.

("This is a bug, wait for 11.2.1" is an acceptable answer, I'll just put the flash drive with 9.10 back in)

 

[Chris Moore]

("This is a bug, wait for 11.2.1" is an acceptable answer, I'll just put the flash drive with 9.10 back in)

I would not be shocked it if was some type of incompatibility with a setting in the system board. Have you ensured that the system board is on the latest firmware? Also, is the system board working in UEFI or BIOS mode or is it even switchable? Some are not.
I am guessing that 9.10 worked for you?
Did you skip 11.1 and go direct to 11.2? It is a big difference because 11.2 uses the BSD loader and FreeBSD 11.2 as the underlying operating system where FreeNAS 11.1 was using FreeBSD 11 as the base OS, if I recall correctly.

 

[Chris Moore]

PS. It isn't just you. It hates everyone equally.

 

[sremick]

Not at home at the moment, responding via my phone. But to answer your questions: I'm using legacy BIOS boot, not UEFI. Yes, I was/am using 9.10 fine and have been using 9.x great for 4+ years on this hardware. I did not try 11.1 due to the issues/drama and waited for 11.2. I will check to see if there's a later BIOS version when I get home and provide screenshots of BIOS options... seems strange that something that worked for 9.10 would need BIOS settings changed for 11.2.

 

[joeschmuck]

seems strange that something that worked for 9.10 would need BIOS settings changed for 11.2.

Why? When Microsoft puts out new OS's they can and have changed the hardware requirements in the past and some "Legacy" hardware gets dropped from support. The same can be said for Ubuntu and other OS's. Updating a BIOS can update the onboard firmware running and improve stability as well.

First I notice that the install to flash takes forever. I don't recall this being the case in 9.x unless I'm misremembering.

Yes, it does take longer but FreeNAS has grown considerably since 9.x, both is features and size.

If you have not updated your BIOS within the last 6 months then you should find a new BIOS waiting for you. I can't tell you that it will fix your issue but at least you would have an updated BIOS when you are done.

Here is something you can try to build the USB Flash drive:
1) Grab your bootable CD with FreeNAS 12.1
2) Grab your new USB Flash drive. What kind is it as well? Just asking.
3) On a different computer that is powered off and stripped of any USB drives, insert the USB Flash Drive.
4) Power on and install your bootable CD.
5) Perform the installation to the USB Flash drive. Make sure you do not install to any other drive.
6) Once done, power down.
7) Shove that new USB flash drive into your FreeNAS machine and power it up. It should bootstrap fine.
8) If you have issues still maybe you need to use a hard drive as the boot device. Since you are using all six of your SATA slots you may need to use an Add-On card to get two more SATA ports. You may need to move your connections around so the SSD/HD is on SATA port 0. You can use any drive to test this out, in fact you could remove all your hard drives for your pool and run the system without a pool, or maybe a pool of one hard drive for testing. You may need to experiment.

Last comment, if you cannot find a suitable solution then submit a bug report, be very detailed in your hardware, BIOS version, drives, etc... and exactly where things go crazy for you.

Good Luck! Sounds like you are going to need it.

 

[sremick]

Moral of this story:

FreeNAS boot device requires speeds greater than USB 2.0 to avoid timeouts and things randomly falling apart as a result. So make sure you're using a USB 3 flash device on a USB 3 port.

 

[joeschmuck]

Moral of this story:

FreeNAS boot device requires speeds greater than USB 2.0 to avoid timeouts and things randomly falling apart as a result. So make sure you're using a USB 3 flash device on a USB 3 port.

I hope this isn't true that a slow USB flash drive would cause this. If I recall correctly the image is copied into RAM and run from there, the flash drive isn't used as much, but maybe I didn't get the memo for 11.2 usage. I haven't looked in our Required Hardware specs either, maybe I should look to see if it's been changed.

 

[Jailer]

Moral of this story:

FreeNAS boot device requires speeds greater than USB 2.0 to avoid timeouts and things randomly falling apart as a result. So make sure you're using a USB 3 flash device on a USB 3 port.

Or most likely your boot device was on it's way out. A buddy of mine upgraded recently and his old crap USB 2.0 boot drive is amazingly still going. Takes forever to boot but it's working.

 

[Chris Moore]

FreeNAS boot device requires speeds greater than USB 2.0 to avoid timeouts and things randomly falling apart as a result. So make sure you're using a USB 3 flash device on a USB 3 port.

Actually, USB 3 drives have been known to overheat and fail after a short number of months in use as a boot drive and are not suggested. If speed is an issue, it is time to move to a SATA drive.

 

[sremick]

I hope this isn't true that a slow USB flash drive would cause this. If I recall correctly the image is copied into RAM and run from there, the flash drive isn't used as much, but maybe I didn't get the memo for 11.2 usage. I haven't looked in our Required Hardware specs either, maybe I should look to see if it's been changed.

Well, I can tell you that it is what solved things in my system. I had been working on a longer post to this thread last night where I was timing the various stages of the boot process. Eventually it occurred to me that if speed was the issue, maybe it was the reading speed off the flash drive. I dug around and found a USB3 one I wasn't already using for something else. Both the installation process and boot process went astronomically faster, and without errors this time. Particularly the "middlewared" section where it counts up to 17, where it had been timing out before and seemed to be the turning point where everything would fall apart before on USB2. It was the only thing that finally allowed my system to boot without errors on 11.2, my config imported fine, and I'm up and going. I also noticed the GUI was more responsive.

Or most likely your boot device was on it's way out. A buddy of mine upgraded recently and his old crap USB 2.0 boot drive is amazingly still going. Takes forever to boot but it's working.

I don't that's it, as I tried 4 different flash drives and different brands too. One was brand new out of the package.

 

[sremick]

Happy to say I also just succeeded rebuilding my Plex jail so to use iocage (and get its base OS up-to-date). Bit of a stumble as my notes from last time weren't entirely complete (rectified). I'm now fully moved over to 11.2 and am liking the new UI and dashboard for the most part, although I think it could make more efficient use of screen real-estate and waste less whitespace. Information density could be higher. (this was complained about by someone else in another thread somewhere).

 

[Jailer]

(this was complained about by someone else in another thread somewhere).

It's been complained about many times actually. I hope the UI refinements that are being promised for 11.3 become a reality. While the new UI isn't horrible it could use some work.

 

[sremick]

It's been complained about many times actually. I hope the UI refinements that are being promised for 11.3 become a reality. While the new UI isn't horrible it could use some work.

Yeah I like the new UI more than I dislike it. I appreciate where they're going with it and the intent. It's snappy, usable, and logical. Love the dark themes. I really like the concept of the dashboard and the kind of info they're trying to make available on it. They just need to tweak the layout/density.

I also like how in iocage jails you can (supposedly) upgrade the base OS without making a new jail. The process I went through today might be the last time I have to do what I did.

Will be nice to see my feature in 11.3 too (assuming it makes its target).