Another "Reboot and select proper Boot Device" Thread

[kringeling]

Hey guys,
I'm having some issues setting up TrueNAS Core on some older Hardware.
My specs:

Brand: Acer Veriton X4610G
Motherboard: Q65H2-AD
BIOS: P01-B3 (latest)
CPU: i5-2320
RAM: 2x 4GB Nanya NT4GC64B8HG0NF-CG
Boot drive: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB / WD BLue 250 GB SSD
Storage Drives: none

so far I've tried:
- updating the BIOS to the latest Version (P01-B1 to P01-B3)
- using different USB-Drives to install TrueNAS
- using different TrueNAS Core Images (13.0-U5 and 13.1)
- installing in both UEFI and Legacy BIOS Modes
- using different boot drives (120GB Samsung SSD and 250GB WD Blue SSD)
- Using different RAM sticks, SATA-Cables and SATA-Ports
- enabling/disabling different options in BIOS (see attached images)
- verifying the installed TrueNAS boot drive in another (more modern) machine --> it works and boots

I haven't connected any storage drives yet as I just wanted to set up the OS for now.
The installation was always successful but I can't seem to be able boot into TrueNAS afterwards.
It doesn't seem to matter if i ues UEFI or legacy boot, the boot drive always shows with [UEFI: Samsung SSD....] in the bios and boot menu.
The computer just doesn't want to boot TrueNAS.

Does anyone have an idea what else I can try out to get this to work? Or am i doomed and my hardware jsut doesn't support TrueNAS?

 

[Ericloewe]

Gotta love AMI firmware. Unfortunately, the bugs abound and every board has its own quirks, but the general advice applies:

1. Remove from the boot sequence everything you don't want to boot from
2. Do the same for the sub-queues (Hard Disk Drive Priority and so on.)
3. If booting in UEFI mode, disable CSM.
4. If booting in BIOS compatibility mode, disable all UEFI boot options.

 

[kringeling]

Thanks for the quick response!

1. The boot disk is the only drive connected (plus USB Keyboard and Mouse)
2. The boot queue can only be changed in order. There is no setting to remove a device from the queue.
3. There is no option to disable CSM.
4. There is neither an option to disable UEFI nor one to force legacy boot.

 

[Ericloewe]

The boot queue can only be changed in order. There is no setting to remove a device from the queue

That's a very weird thing for AMI firmware, don't the entries show a list of devices which includes "disabled" or something to that effect?

3. There is no option to disable CSM.

No toggle to the effect of Boot option: CSM/UEFI/Both ?

 

[kringeling]

That's a very weird thing for AMI firmware, don't the entries show a list of devices which includes "disabled" or something to that effect?

Nope, see the attached images. They show the options you see when selecting the first and third boot device (for example).

No toggle to the effect of Boot option: CSM/UEFI/Both ?

No, there is no option to change/enable/disable anything related to CSM/UEFI/Both. All "advanced" options are shown in the images my first post. There is also nothing related listed under "Boot Options" (also seen in the mages).

 

[kringeling]

I also want to mention that the drives I use may be a bit older, but they work fine.
I've tested both of them with a Win10 installation and they booted and worked without issues.
My guess now is, that my motherboard/bios can't read the boot sector of the drive with the TrueNAS installation correctly and therefore giving an error message.

 

[Ericloewe]

Damn, they really cut out a lot of configuration options. Good ol' OEM added value /s.

What about flipping the EFI device priority to try the other SSD? If that doesn't work, I'd recommend cutting your losses and moving on from that machine.

 

[kringeling]

Yes, gotta love them restrictions of capable hardware for no goodreason...

Flipping the priority doesn't seem to do anything. Weirdly though, only the first priority EFI device is shown in the boot menu (F12 at startup).

Thank you very much for the effort! I'll take the advice and try an install of openmediavault... if that doesn't work I'll probably need to get some other hardware.