boot from usb exits with "btx halted"

[Dirken]

Hi, I cannot seem to get FreeNAS booting from my 4 GB USB stick.

NAS is a HP Microserver N54L with 8 GB RAM and two 250 GB hdds for testing, configured as JBOD.
Boot order in BIOS is 1. USB and 2. Network (no boot partition on hdds yet).
USB formatting type is set to HDD (tested "auto", too).
BTW: booting from USB is fine, as I did a firmware upgrade via USB and it was working fine.

Burnt USB on a ubuntu machine: xzcat FreeNAS-9.2.0-RELEASE-x64.img.xz | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=64k
when done, I have four partition on the stick:
partition 1: 988 mb, type FreeBSD (0xa5), bootable, (no file system)
partition 2: 988 mb, type FreeBSD (0xa5), (no file system)
partition 3: 1.5 mb, type FreeBSD (0xa5), (ufs)
partition 4: 21 mb, type FreeBSD (0xa5), (ufs)
plus about 2 gb of free space.

When booting the box, I get a boot menu too fast to react to, offering
F1: FreeBSD
F2: FreeBSD
F5: Drive 1
F6: PXE
It goes straight into F1 (bootable first partition on stick, I guess) with an output similar to:

BTX loader 1.00 BTX version is 1.02
int=<hex-code> err=<hex-code> <etc. etc. for various lines>
BTX halted

And that's it, cursor blinking nicely laughing at my face.

Due to the apparent lack of a file system and/or data on the first partition, I wouldn't expect the device to boot anything, but I would very much like to know what's happening with these partitions.
Or am I missing something else entirely?

 

[rm-r]

do you have the right version for your hardware? x64? or is the hardware 32 bit?

 

[gpsguy]

Do you have:

Advanced/IDE Configuration/SaTA Controller Mode/AHCI

See message #8 in this thread, for my N40L BIOS settings.

 

[Dirken]

@gpsguy

Hey, AHCI did the trick, thanks, great job.

 

[cyberjock]

@gpsguy

Hey, AHCI did the trick, thanks, great job.

Might I add that the manual tells you to use AHCI... someone didn't read the manual...

Situations like this are precisely why I have my "only you can prevent flame wars.. read the manual" in my sig.

 

[Dirken]

I did RTFM, too.
Yet, it also states that leaving a raid controller in JBOD configuration should work fine, which, in my case, is mutually exclusive, this being an eihter/or configuration: either RAID (no matter if jbod or no) or AHCI or IDE (btw: IDE works fine, too).
Also the "btx halted" output does not hint all too strongly at a problem with the SATA controller interface mode, now, does it?
;)
P. S.: Liked your noob guide

 

[cyberjock]

No, it doesn't hint too strongly of the problem. That's been a recurring problem for some users. And that is precisely why it is in the manual. One would hope that people would read the manual and write that down, highlight it, or otherwise do something to make sure that setting is set.

Also, if you read through the manual and have an understanding of how the hardware and software marriage themselves to give you ZFS, you'd also recognize that AHCI is definitely the best setting you could choose. Some have argued that the message about AHCI should be required any more than a message requiring you to make sure your NIC is plugged into your LAN.

Glad you liked the guide. I just updated it earlier. Few things were added, but nothing too big.

 

[Mastakilla]

I have AHCI for my SATA Controller enabled in my BIOS, but I'm still getting this "BTX Halted" error when trying to boot from an 8GB USB stick. Any idea what else I can try?
Also in the USB settings of my BIOS, I've tried changing auto to enabled for everything XHCI related, but no change...

Also a different USB port didn't help...

Any ideas?

Below all settings related to SATA, USB and booting that I could find in my BIOS:

 

[Mastakilla]

I was able to work around the issue by using selecting "UEFI" instead of "Legacy BIOS" as boot method when installing FreeNAS on my USB stick.
To be able to do that, I had to use a 32GB USB stick instead of an 8GB USB stick, as the 8GB USB stick didn't allow me to choose "UEFI" (it complained it was too small)

With an UEFI USB stick I don't get the "BTX Halted" error

 

[Lazarus]

I am having the same issue (BTX haulting) and yes AHCI is set. my MOBO is a supermicro 9x

I was able to work around the issue by using selecting "UEFI" instead of "Legacy BIOS" as boot method when installing FreeNAS on my USB stick.
To be able to do that, I had to use a 32GB USB stick instead of an 8GB USB stick, as the 8GB USB stick didn't allow me to choose "UEFI" (it complained it was too small)