FreeNAS Install - USB install media misbehaving

rfielder

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Jun 18, 2019
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This is likely the wrong forum, but I am not sure where to put this - or what to do.

Going through the steps to install FreeNAS for the first time.

Downloaded OK. Built the USB drive to install from OK. Built the system OK, including burnin checks. Installed one SATA drive on SATA0 OK. Monitor and keyboard are attached to the box OK, and access to BIOS works, as when MemTest was running.

Inserted the USB install media and started the system.

It does not go to an install setup. Instead, it goes to a shell prompts with "Shell>" as the prompt.

What do I do? Why isn't it giving me the Console Setup?

To paraphrase - HELP!
 
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Inserted the USB install media and started the system.

It does not go to an install setup. Instead, it goes to a shell prompts with "Shell>" as the prompt.

What do I do? Why isn't it giving me the Console Setup?

To paraphrase - HELP!
Can you provide screen shots of the various screens you see when you're booting up the machine?
 

rfielder

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Jun 18, 2019
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It appears to be ignoring the USB drive. Just booted into Windows, which is what was on the target boot drive!

I guess I need to get into the BIOS, see how to get it to boot from the USB drive.

Screen shots - only if I take a picture with my phone. Will do so, if nothing else works. Thanks for the reply!
 
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It appears to be ignoring the USB drive. Just booted into Windows, which is what was on the target boot drive!

I guess I need to get into the BIOS, see how to get it to boot from the USB drive.
You're correct, you need to go into the BIOS to change the boot order.

Also, would you mind providing the hardware specs you plan to use? Are you building a new system or repurposing old hardware?
 

rfielder

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This is a new build.

Supermicro X11SSH-F-O motherboard, Xeon CPU, 16Gb RAM.

Six 8Tb NAS drive waiting in boxes for when things proceed.

Using an older Western Digial Blue 160Gb 2.5" SATA drive for FreeNAS boot disk at this time. I just wanted to ensure that I could build a boot disk first, before I get an SSD that will be the actual boot disk for the NAS.

In fact, the motherboard has an M.2 slot, and I am debating about using one of those, or going with two small solid state drives in a mirror arrangement.

Taking this build one step at a time, since I have lots of time, and LOTS to learn.

And, obviously, lots of missteps to correct to get to the next step.
 
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or going with two small solid state drives in a mirror arrangement.
This is what I'd suggest.

In fact, the motherboard has an M.2 slot, and I am debating about using one of those
Save that M2 for something that benefits from the speed. :)

Taking this build one step at a time, since I have lots of time, and LOTS to learn.
Great approach. Go ahead and look up how to change the boot order of your machine to boot from that USB stick.

Using an older Western Digial Blue 160Gb 2.5" SATA drive for FreeNAS boot disk at this time.
Totally fine to start with. it is larger than you need but not a big problem. Make sure you keep frequent backups of your system configs AND any disk encryption keys (if you use encryption) and you'll be fine.
 

rfielder

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Finally got to the actual issue. The install USB drive for FreeNAS does not seem to be bootable on its own.

I have the system where it will boot from the MemTest USB stick, when the first boot devices is configured as a UEFI USB Key.

When configured this way, it will not boot from the FreeNAS USB stick.

Nor will it boot from the FreeNAS USB stick when configured as a plain USB Key.

The FreeNAS USB stick was built as per the FreeNAS directions using the program named int the FreeNAS directions.

I was able to get into the Boot Menu, and select the USB stick. That seemed to work, and the install went OK.

On reboot, things did not go well. This is going to take a bit more time.....
 
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I was able to get into the Boot Menu, and select the USB stick. That seemed to work, and the install went OK.

On reboot, things did not go well. This is going to take a bit more time.....
When you performed the install what did you select under FreeNAS Boot Mode? Boot via UEFI or Boot via BIOS?
 

Redcoat

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Feb 18, 2014
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When you performed the install what did you select under FreeNAS Boot Mode? Boot via UEFI or Boot via BIOS?
Did the OP get that far if he could not boot from the "install USB drive for FreeNAS"?
I do see the words "install went well" but that's just after selecting the USB stick, presumably in the BIOS/UEFI utility, with no mention of the install process from the USB image file to the WD Blue, and/or reentering the BIOS/UEFI utility to reorder the boot selection to point to the Blue.
 
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Did the OP get that far if he could not boot from the "install USB drive for FreeNAS"?
I do see the words "install went well" but that's just after selecting the USB stick, presumably in the BIOS/UEFI utility, with no mention of the install process from the USB image file to the WD Blue, and/or reentering the BIOS/UEFI utility to reorder the boot selection to point to the Blue.
:shrug: I'm not sure to be honest.

@rfielder this brings up a good point. Would you mind being more specific? Can you provide exact steps you took, exact error codes, etc? Screen shots are fine. It will help us stay on the same page and help us avoid asking a ton of follow up questions.
 

rfielder

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It would appear that the path to having FreeNAS working will be an interesting one for me.

I gave up on all the UEFI stuff. Just set the WD Blue as drive one, standard drive. Used F11 to select the USB drive. That ran the install. Then rebooted, and FreeNAS is running.

Tried with three drives, and it was OK, but didn't have any luck setting permissions, so my Windows machines were not accessing FreeNAS properly.

Because I don't have proper cooling yet, and the three 8Tb drives are literally sitting on top of each other, I shut down and unplugged power to two of them. Rebooted, created a new pool with one drive, then spent time figuring out how to get rid of the first pool. That eventually worked.

Now working on permissions, and making a real hash of things. I am going to reinstall from scratch so that my errors are wiped away.

I will continue to work with a one drive setup to get a feel for the product, and how to make things work. Going to more drives will wait until I add fans or move the system to the case. At this time, I am just using a old Lian Li case to get things working. There is a Rosewill Thor case sitting in a box in the next room, waiting. Kind of overkill, and not really a "server" case, but it was on sale..... :)

Many, many thanks to those who tried to assist. My apologies for the lack of details and the frustration this causes. When I come back for more assistance, I will take the time to provide anysuchlike from the get-go.
 
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