Long story short: I've tried everything that I'm aware of that exists on the Internet, searching through the forums here and elsewhere, IRC, etc...
Purchased a special cable that gives me PS/2 and video functions to the device (since it's considered headless) - The Acer easyStore H340 (or H342, depending on how you search, etc) attempting to install the 64 bit version of FreeNAS 8.3 RC1 - I anticipated and failed not knowing that the Marvell Yukon drivers are already installed and working properly on this newer version. I was thinking "Saweeeeeeettttt!". I know this after installing the image to a flash drive and booting the system that I didn't need to get them on additional drives and try to boot...
I didn't run into an issue with the NIC, but something else entirely.
Now that that point, I was able to boot FreeNAS on the system and it looks functional (via USB; installed the img via win32imager) My objective was to go the extra mile and install FreeNAS to the internal memory, which would free up one of the drive bays for me. And almost all the googling I did online indicated that this 'was' possible (http://blog.gimpe.com/2010/01/19/acer-easystore-h340-the-perfect-freenas-box/ http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/topic/10916-freenas-on-acer-easystore-h340/ http://www.fixtheexchange.com/how-install-freenas-8-usb-key http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php?608-Marvell-Yukon-88E8071-loosing-network-connection-when-copying-large-files&highlight=acer www.ehow.com/how_7830693_set-external-usb-drive-freenas.html http://happybison.com/reviews/installing-freenas-on-acer-aspire-easystore-h340-6/ ... This list goes on for a while (40 tabs) so let me just cut to the chase >
While booted to the installed USB, I wanted to DD the files over to the internal flash, but nothing I tried worked to mount the internal flash - FreeBSD would 'see' the drive but no matter what I tried from everything, I couldn't mount it with any commands of mount, etc online. I even booted and DBANed think it had something to do with the filesystem on it, but no dice.
Most of what I did find via the FreeNAS forums indicated I should install via cd-rom, so tonight I caved in to attempt this method (also suggested via IRC #freenas). Not really helpful, but I figured out a way with my conglomerate amount of hardware, etc (got lucky with an external cd-rom sans a power cable and the power cable from my old cable modem...) that I may be able to do so.
I almost thought I was in the clear, until I got some crazy error that flashed by too quick: drive space error of some sort 253651... < 200000... (I counted the digits after the 4th time, and I can say at least that number is NOT less than the other, but the installation looks as though it's successful and complete.
Needless to say, the installation failed (again). I didn't want to go back to using Amahi, but at this point it looks like I don't have much of a choice unless I install to the external flash. Oh, which has a problem booting by default to the Acer.
I've been attempting to get this working with FreeNAS for two weeks with limited or no Internet connectivity (had to use an old router and ddwrt it into an access point and piggyback it off my smartphone's internet connection, which is slower than 56k (I moved recently, and the last ISP was worse than this...) I guess I could try the older version and get the NIC situation figured out?
I'm a bit frustrated but I'm really not wanting to go back to using Amahi.
As I write this, I checked the minimum system requirements (again) for 8.3 and I noticed it needs 2gb, which I was under the assumption that it didn't and I could use the internal memory, etc. I'm guessing at this point I've come full circle.
So should I cut my losses now or find a small SATA drive?
Purchased a special cable that gives me PS/2 and video functions to the device (since it's considered headless) - The Acer easyStore H340 (or H342, depending on how you search, etc) attempting to install the 64 bit version of FreeNAS 8.3 RC1 - I anticipated and failed not knowing that the Marvell Yukon drivers are already installed and working properly on this newer version. I was thinking "Saweeeeeeettttt!". I know this after installing the image to a flash drive and booting the system that I didn't need to get them on additional drives and try to boot...
I didn't run into an issue with the NIC, but something else entirely.
Now that that point, I was able to boot FreeNAS on the system and it looks functional (via USB; installed the img via win32imager) My objective was to go the extra mile and install FreeNAS to the internal memory, which would free up one of the drive bays for me. And almost all the googling I did online indicated that this 'was' possible (http://blog.gimpe.com/2010/01/19/acer-easystore-h340-the-perfect-freenas-box/ http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/topic/10916-freenas-on-acer-easystore-h340/ http://www.fixtheexchange.com/how-install-freenas-8-usb-key http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php?608-Marvell-Yukon-88E8071-loosing-network-connection-when-copying-large-files&highlight=acer www.ehow.com/how_7830693_set-external-usb-drive-freenas.html http://happybison.com/reviews/installing-freenas-on-acer-aspire-easystore-h340-6/ ... This list goes on for a while (40 tabs) so let me just cut to the chase >
While booted to the installed USB, I wanted to DD the files over to the internal flash, but nothing I tried worked to mount the internal flash - FreeBSD would 'see' the drive but no matter what I tried from everything, I couldn't mount it with any commands of mount, etc online. I even booted and DBANed think it had something to do with the filesystem on it, but no dice.
Most of what I did find via the FreeNAS forums indicated I should install via cd-rom, so tonight I caved in to attempt this method (also suggested via IRC #freenas). Not really helpful, but I figured out a way with my conglomerate amount of hardware, etc (got lucky with an external cd-rom sans a power cable and the power cable from my old cable modem...) that I may be able to do so.
I almost thought I was in the clear, until I got some crazy error that flashed by too quick: drive space error of some sort 253651... < 200000... (I counted the digits after the 4th time, and I can say at least that number is NOT less than the other, but the installation looks as though it's successful and complete.
Needless to say, the installation failed (again). I didn't want to go back to using Amahi, but at this point it looks like I don't have much of a choice unless I install to the external flash. Oh, which has a problem booting by default to the Acer.
I've been attempting to get this working with FreeNAS for two weeks with limited or no Internet connectivity (had to use an old router and ddwrt it into an access point and piggyback it off my smartphone's internet connection, which is slower than 56k (I moved recently, and the last ISP was worse than this...) I guess I could try the older version and get the NIC situation figured out?
I'm a bit frustrated but I'm really not wanting to go back to using Amahi.
As I write this, I checked the minimum system requirements (again) for 8.3 and I noticed it needs 2gb, which I was under the assumption that it didn't and I could use the internal memory, etc. I'm guessing at this point I've come full circle.
So should I cut my losses now or find a small SATA drive?
