Booting freeNAS from USB on a Mac...

[prismus]

Hi, is this even possible?
I downloaded the iso, booted the iso from a vm, installed the OS onto a USB stick and got the confirmation that all went well.
Now when I try to boot from the USB on my Mac, it doesn't see the usb. In fact if I plug in the USB stick whilst running OSX it tells me that it is unable to read the stick. What gives?

Oh and I'm running v. 9.10 and my mac is a recent model....

TIA

 

[dlavigne]

Why do you want to repurpose your Mac to run FreeNAS?

 

[prismus]

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear, im not trying to repurpose my Mac to run FreeNAS, im using the Mac to boot FreeNAS from the USB stick which means that I get to conserve the OSX drive and boot from it whenever I want...or is there something im missing here?

 

[prismus]

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear, im not trying to repurpose my Mac to run FreeNAS, im using the Mac to boot FreeNAS from the USB stick which means that I get to conserve the OSX drive and boot from it whenever I want...or is there something im missing here?
From what I read, the USB stick boots without hassle on a PC.

 

[danb35]

I think you are missing something, or we are. Why are you wanting to boot the FreeNAS USB stick on your Mac? The only reason to boot from the USB stick would be to run FreeNAS on your Mac, and there doesn't seem to be any reason to do that.

 

[m0nkey_]

From what I read, the USB stick boots without hassle on a PC.

That alone should tell you something. Unless you're re-purposing an old Macintosh to be used as a FreeNAS server, there is no point in doing this. What drives are you planning on using to store your data? Obviously not the internal drive because you want to keep OS X.

It would help if you posted a list of requirements and what your intentions are so we can guide you accordingly.

 

[prismus]

So what you are saying is that I shouldn't be thinking of running the FreeNAS OS from a USB stick embedded to a Mac where the FreeNAS OS just loads onto the ram of the Mac? Hmmm, I was under the impression that I could install FreeNAS to boot from a USB stick...

 

[prismus]

Yes, I want to repurpose the Mac without sacrificing the internal drive which contains OSX.

 

[danb35]

I was under the impression that I could install FreeNAS to boot from a USB stick...

Of course you can. The question is why you're trying to do it on your Mac.

Macs have gotten a lot better in recent years at dealing with alternative OSs, but it's still touch-and-go.

 

[m0nkey_]

So what you are saying is that I shouldn't be thinking of running the FreeNAS OS from a USB stick embedded to a Mac where the FreeNAS OS just loads onto the ram of the Mac? Hmmm, I was under the impression that I could install FreeNAS to boot from a USB stick...

You need two USB drives, one to install from, one to install to. You can't just load it in RAM, then pull the USB drive because that's not really how it works.

Also, you didn't answer my other question. What drives will you be using to store your data when FreeNAS is running?

 

[danb35]

Yes, I want to repurpose the Mac without sacrificing the internal drive which contains OSX.

What other drives will you be using for storage? FreeNAS needs other drives to store the data you'd be sharing across the network.

 

[prismus]

What other drives will you be using for storage? FreeNAS needs other drives to store the data you'd be sharing across the network.

An external drive attached to the Mac. The purpose is to run a FreeNAS system to manage a file sharing environment amongst a plethora of Macs.

 

[m0nkey_]

An external drive attached to the Mac. The purpose is to run a FreeNAS system to manage a file sharing environment amongst a plethora of Macs.

So if you're using a Mac to share files to other Mac's. Why not use a Mac to do that? This way you have something familiar to work with. Heck, OS X Server is only $20 on the app store. I don't see your justification for wanting to use FreeNAS.

 

[prismus]

So if you're using a Mac to share files to other Mac's. Why not use a Mac to do that? This way you have something familiar to work with. Heck, OS X Server is only $20 on the app store. I don't see your justification for wanting to use FreeNAS.

Because OSX server from personal experience is probably one of the worst server solutions out there and ill adapted to the work environment. Like with time-machine, it seems to be one of those services that Apple keeps alive for whatever reason.

 

[prismus]

So? Can anyone tell my why im unable to boot onto USB from a Mac?

 

[danb35]

An external drive attached to the Mac.

FreeNAS is not the OS you're looking for. You could probably make some custom Linux thing do what you want, but you'd really be better off getting a commodity PC (or better yet, a small server like the Dell PowerEdge T20) to run this on

 

[prismus]

FreeNAS is not the OS you're looking for. You could probably make some custom Linux thing do what you want, but you'd really be better off getting a commodity PC (or better yet, a small server like the Dell PowerEdge T20) to run this on

Thanks for the advice but it still doesn't answer my original question which is if and how I can boot FreeNAS on a stick from a Mac...

 

[danb35]

I doubt anyone's tried, as there really isn't any good reason to use any Mac (with the possible exception of one of the older Mac Pros, with room for a number of internal drives) to run FreeNAS. Nothing about a Mac is consistent with recommended hardware for FreeNAS.

The only recommendation I'd have would be to try holding the option key while booting; that will bring up a screen with all the available boot devices. If there's any way for your Mac to boot from a FreeNAS stick, it would at least show up there. And then once you've tried that, either change to more suitable hardware, or change to a different OS.

 

[pirateghost]

I love when someone gets told the hammer won't work because their screw is not a nail, and they want to use the hammer anyway.

FreeNAS doesn't seem appropriate for this hardware or potential setup.

 

[adrianwi]

I'm waiting for the "I managed to get FreeNAS to boot on my Mac but now I can't access OSX anymore" post ;)

That said, you might have more luck trying to virtualise OSX in a FreeNAS jail if it's running on a Mac :)