SOLVED FreeNAS 11 won't boot from USB in UEFI bios

[FlyingKip]

Hello All,

I just bought a AsRock C2750d4i motherboard for my first FreeNas build. (Bios version 2.90 and BMC version 00.30.00 (both latest versions))
The current setup contains 12GB ECC unbuffered RAM (DDR3, 1333) and has 1 SSD attached to it. I'll be adding the WD 3TB drives once I get it all configured.

I used Rufus to write the FreeNAS11 iso to a usb with UEFI boot. I can start the installation on the system so I install FreeNAS to a second (8GB) USB drive. But when I want to boot FreeNAS from the second USB I only get the "no bootable device insert boot disk and press any key" message.

I tried a few USB sticks, on all I managed to get the installation started. But when I do the install to either one of the usb sticks it won't boot.

Does anyone have any experience with this? What are my next options?

Thanks in advance!

Kind regards,
Thomas

 

[zoomzoom]

Ensure you're doing the following things:

1. Booting from the UEFI install option for the install USB (there will be two boot options, one is UEFI, the other is not)
2. During the installation menu, ensure you're selecting the UEFI boot option, as it will ask you.

If you've done the following two things, you'll need to go into the BIOS options and ensure the FN11 System USB device is not only selected under USB devices, but also listed first in the boot order.

 

[Ericloewe]

Don't use Rufus. It tends to break FreeNAS images for some reason.

Also, get rid of every single boot option you're not using. BIOSes these days are insanely buggy, so it's important to minimize the amount of code they execute, particularly when it comes to booting UEFI.

 

[zoomzoom]

@Ericloewe Rufus works fine, provided one answers the ISO popup as use DD (it prompts whether to write in ISO mode or DD mode for ISOs). Also, for the C2X50D4I's, choosing UEFI only in the BIOS should auto remove all boot options except the EFI shell and UEFI boot disk.

 

[FlyingKip]

I should have included some more detailed information. I used rufus to write the iso to one of my usb sticks. I chose MBR partition for bios or UEFI-CSM and used ISO mode (not DD mode).
The setup launches and I select my second USB drive to install freenas onto. I chose the UEFI boot option (actually I also tried the BIOS option but it wouldn't work obviously) during the install. The install completes succesfully and tells me to restart and remove the installation medium.

I choose reboot and remove the installation usb. This is where I'm stuck. The system reboots but doesn't find the usb to which I installed FreeNAS onto.
In the bios I can't choose the USB as boot option either.





My BIOS version

 

[FlyingKip]

I just used Gparted to have a look at what the freenas installation made of my usb device:


It looks ok to me... but it won't boot. :(

 

[diniss50]

Same problem here I have tried with 2 different computers, both ASUS and both gave me the same error. Note that the installation goes fine, so it is deffenitely something with UEFI that is written in MBR. I install any other nas alike system or any other os and it works like a charm, only freenas seems to have issues.

 

[Bebop]

FWIW, I have a similar issue as well, though with BIOS systems. Install completes "successfully" every time but grub doesnt load and the drive is unbootable. I've validated the SHA256, tried 2 100% working PCs (LGA 1366 and AM3), Rufus (ISO and DD), Yumi, USBWriter, and 4 different flash drives. I'm reading of people having issues with version 9.3 and above, but no older versions seem listed here. Very disappointing.

EDIT: Found official older versions: http://download.freenas.org/ I'm going to start working my way back and see if anything boots.

 

[diniss50]

I have figured out my issue, I do still have some issues, now with disks :(, in any case if it helps, my problem wasn't on Freenas, was the bios that had security settings about CSM that would only allow windows images, so you need to change that setting in the boot section of the bios. Unfortunately is the 1st time I try this with consumer grade equipment, usually I use servers and never crossed with this issue and of course I'm feeling fairly stupid :). The only bizarre thing is that any other non-windows OS I tried was always boot fine, starting by the iso that is GRUB based and was always booting fine. Hope it helps.

 

[zoomzoom]

@FlyingKip I'm baffled why you state in this post you chose ISO mode, not DD, when I specifically stated in the post directly above yours to use ISO DD mode...

The problem for you is the aforementioned, combined with your BIOS boot options: currently, you have the UEFI CLI interface set as the first boot option, whereas it should be the drive FreeNAS is installed to.

• If you installed FreeNAS for EFI boot, change Boot Option Filter to UEFI only (this has nothing to do with your issue, but if you're running the OS in UEFI mode, there's no reason to allow for non-UEFI options in the boot menu).

@Bebop Your issue is not the FreeNAS ISOs, as they install perfectly fine, else your issue would be experienced by many others. Please verify you're in line with the above, and if so, please post screenshots of your BIOS Options Boot page.


@diniss50 That almost sounds like an EFI certificate problem, which I don't believe should be occurring with FreeNAS (someone else would need to confirm, as I've never tried installing FreeNAS on a desktop motherboard).

• If that is the issue, you may need to manually set the EFI Boot option through the BIOS (not the boot order, but where it allows you to manually add an EFI boot option by selecting the path to the EFI boot file).

 

[Bebop]

@Bebop Your issue is not the FreeNAS ISOs, as they install perfectly fine, else your issue would be experienced by many others. Please verify you're in line with the above, and if so, please post screenshots of your BIOS Options Boot page.

Rufus in DD mode seems unbootable (tried twice), only iso worked. Are there any other Linux or Windows tools you'd sooner recommend?

(Sandisk is the flash drive. Other BIOS pages here: https://imgur.com/a/h6I2G )

Thank you for having a look. I don't mean to hijack the thread, so if it's better for me to start another, I totally understand.

As far as old versions, I tried 9.31, same issue. 9.2.1.9 was able to get through Grub, but seems to hang on one of the other USB ports. Afterwards, trying to boot the flashdrive via CLI errors out.
Pretty sure the USB port that causes the error is a multicard reader. I removed it, and am going to try FreeNAS 11 again.

Perhaps 9.3+ unbootable because of ZFS or GPT? 9.2.1.9 was the last version before mandatory GPT and ZFS, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[zoomzoom]

@Bebop You misunderstood... In Rufus, select ISO mode, and once you start the process, a window will pop up asking if you'd like to write the file using ISO mode or DD mode... select DD mode.

1. If you tried non-ISO DD mode, previously, open DiskPart: WinKey+ R, then type diskpart, select OK
   1. lis dis
   2. sel dis #
      • Where # is the actual number of the USB install media
   3. clean
   4. exit

 

[Bebop]

@Bebop You misunderstood... In Rufus, select ISO mode, and once you start the process, a window will pop up asking if you'd like to write the file using ISO mode or DD mode... select DD mode.

1. If you tried non-ISO DD mode, previously, open DiskPart: WinKey+ R, then type diskpart, select OK
   1. lis dis
   2. sel dis #
      • Where # is the actual number of the USB install media
   3. clean
   4. exit

Sorry for the confusion, I didn't realize there was a discrete "DD" mode in addition to ISO>>DD image mode.
That's exactly what I've done (4 times now, with clean or clean all first each time).

Show : Rufus

https://imgur.com/a/C842l

Updated imgur link to show apparent Rufus glitch (writing the disk as EFI when MBR is specified). Confirmed it writes GPT instead of MBR in diskpart.

I'm going to try a different version of Rufus and a different flash drive. The Rufus log has a (flash) drive read error it seems:

Show : Log

read_sectors: Read error [0x00000057] The parameter is incorrect.
Read: 0, Expected: 512
StartSector: 0x00000000, nSectors: 0x1, SectorSize: 0x200

Edit: Tried a different drive and different usb port, same "error" in the log and unbootable. Off to try a different Rufus version.
Edit2: Iso>>dd image mode not booting seems like a Rufus glitch? I select "MBR part...BIOS or UEFI..." but it reverts to "GPT part. for EFI" after it's done writing to the flash drive.
Edit3: So...using iso>>dd image mode, Rufus 2.3 or above installs FreeNAS U11 (1, 2, and 3) to the flash drive as GPT, even if MBR is selected. Yet it seems this PC will not boot GPT or DD images (Though I was finally able to get my LGA 1366 machine, also BIOS/non-EFI to boot GPT/DD, but that's a bit overkill for a NAS). And, as stated, using iso>iso image in Rufus creates a working flash drive, FreeNAS installation goes "successfully," but the created device is unbootable. I'm open to suggestions, but perhaps I'm out of luck with this machine. :(

 

[zoomzoom]

@Bebop Writing the ISO as DD doesn't put a DD image on the drive... it creates a partition the exact size of the ISO's uncompressed files (which is why one must wipe the partition table after using DD mode before using the drive again).

Out of curiousity, have you verified in DiskPart the USB drive is set to active (which is what allows it to be a bootable USB)?

• DiskPart
  1. lis dis
  2. sel dis #
  3. sel par 1
  4. det par
     • Verify it shows Active: Yes, and if not, proceed to 5 & 6:
  5. act
  6. det par
     • Verify it shows Active: Yes
  7. exit

 

[zoomzoom]

@Bebop Writing the ISO as DD doesn't put a DD image on the drive... it creates a partition the exact size of the ISO's uncompressed files (which is why one must wipe the partition table after using DD mode before using the drive again).

Out of curiousity, have you verified in DiskPart the USB drive is set to active (which is what allows it to be a bootable USB)?

• DiskPart
  1. lis dis
  2. sel dis #
  3. sel par 1
  4. det par
     • Verify it shows Active: Yes, and if not, proceed to 5 & 6:
  5. act
  6. det par
     • Verify it shows Active: Yes
  7. exit

If that's correct, you're going to need to post screenshots of what occurs when the successful install refuses to boot.

 

[Bebop]

@Bebop Writing the ISO as DD doesn't put a DD image on the drive... it creates a partition the exact size of the ISO's uncompressed files (which is why one must wipe the partition table after using DD mode before using the drive again).

Out of curiousity, have you verified in DiskPart the USB drive is set to active (which is what allows it to be a bootable USB)?

• DiskPart
  1. lis dis
  2. sel dis #
  3. sel par 1
  4. det par
     • Verify it shows Active: Yes, and if not, proceed to 5 & 6:
  5. act
  6. det par
     • Verify it shows Active: Yes
  7. exit

If that's correct, you're going to need to post screenshots of what occurs when the successful install refuses to boot.

No and unable to mark (the Rufus created flash drive) as active when ISO is written as DD. "The selected disk is not a fixed MBR disk..."

Unless you're referring to the active status of the flash drive with the FreeNas OS installed to it. I'll check that in a moment and re-edit.
Edit: The flash drive with FreeNAS successfully installed to it, but unbootable has a

Show : similar issue:

To be honest, at this point I'm leaning towards trying my hand at creating a Manjaro HTPC/NAS combo on the LGA 1366 PC and using the AM3 for a (basic) workstation of something.

 

[zoomzoom]

@Bebop I completely forgot Windows doesn't allow USB devices to be set as active (active allows for it to be booted from).

Have you verified whether you can boot from USB with another OS (Ubuntu, Windows Setup, etc.), as it appears one of two issues is going on... either there's a buried BIOS option which enables USB booting (older motherboards have an option stored under a section that isn't the Boot tab for enabling USB in the boot option), or your motherboard doesn't support FreeBSD as an OS.

• If you're positive neither of these are the issue, please open a bug report, then post a a link to the report; however, at first glance, this does seem to be an environment issue, not a FreeNAS issue.

 

[Bebop]

@Bebop I completely forgot Windows doesn't allow USB devices to be set as active (active allows for it to be booted from).

Have you verified whether you can boot from USB with another OS (Ubuntu, Windows Setup, etc.), as it appears one of two issues is going on... either there's a buried BIOS option which enables USB booting (older motherboards have an option stored under a section that isn't the Boot tab for enabling USB in the boot option), or your motherboard doesn't support FreeBSD as an OS.

• If you're positive neither of these are the issue, please open a bug report, then post a a link to the report; however, at first glance, this does seem to be an environment issue, not a FreeNAS issue.

Yes, in the past few days I installed FreeNAS 9 (hangs on a usb device at boot) Win 7 and 8 and I believe booted a Redo live usb on this machine.

Im near positive there is no buried setting and that it's a motherboard/BIOS issue, particularily I suspect it doesn't support GPT boot at all, So I don't think a bug report would be useful to the devs.

Regardless, I appreciate the help troubleshooting.

I'm currently looking into an Arch Linux ZFS HTPC/NAS, but with ZFS not well integrated, it looks like it will be quite an ordeal to install and upgrade.

 

[zoomzoom]

@Bebop After doing some research, it appears only UEFI PC motherboards support GPT

• There are a handful of BIOS motherboards that do support GPT, but 99%+ do not.

 

[insan3]

Might not be exactly what you are looking for but why hassle with usb sticks when you motherboards has a BMC controller with ipmi and iIKVM. Why not install using the kvm controller? Just mount a the iso in the virtual cd drive :)