FreeNAS Installer fails

[caseyscherm]

I've done a search and haven't seen anyone else who seems to be having the same issue. I'm brand new to FreeNAS and this was my first download. I started at the main site, went to Home and downloaded the 11.3-U2.1 ISO, which I burned to a new DVD using Imgburn, which while a bit older, I have always found to operate flawlessly. I put a blank 16GB flash drive into my (Windows 7 Pro) PC, which I'm eventually going to use as my FreeNAS server. Inserted the DVD and booted from the DVD. It finds /BOOT/LOADER - at this point it sees the root directory - and starts the BTX loader (version 1.02). Starts FreeBSD/x86 bootstrap loader (Rev 1.1).

Info from the loader:

Tu Apr 21 20:42:38 UTC 2020 root@tnbuild01.tn.ixsystems.com

At this point it throws the message:

cd0: Read 1 sector(s) from 16434494 to 0xffffe000 (0x8000): 0x32

It repeats this message 8 times and then says, "can't load 'kernel'.

I issue an 'ls' command to see what the loader is seeing and it throws the same "cd0: Read ..." message 2 times, followed by, "open '/' failed: no such file or directory"

I've looked at the DVD and the kernel is - or appears to be - in /BOOT/KERNEL/KERNEL. I tried to "load" that file and "boot" that file and in both cases I get the same "cd0: Read ..." message.

As I said, I'm new to FreeNAS. Has anyone else seen this? Am I doing something terribly stupid here?

Feel free to point me in the right direction and I'll do my own homework.

Thx very much in advance.

 

[Samuel Tai]

Did you run a verify after the ImgBurn burn? You may need to reburn the DVD, at a slower speed.

 

[caseyscherm]

Thx for the response Samuel Tai. I'll look into that. I've been using Imgburn literally for years and have never yet had an issue with it burning a CD/DVD from an ISO. What perplexes me is that the installer can obviously access the DVD since it's able to locate the boot loader and navigate to the root directory, but then it seems to lose orientation.

I've looked around to see if I can download an earlier release to see if I can get that running, but I can't seem to find a path to earlier releases.

Any help there?

Thx everyone.

 

[Samuel Tai]

I've been using Imgburn literally for years and have never yet had an issue with it burning a CD/DVD from an ISO.

Same here. ImgBurn has been old reliable for me; however nowadays I rarely use it. Instead, I’ll burn ISOs directly to thumb drives, and boot off of them. It’s much faster, and not subject to the vagaries of optical drives and media.

All the past and present releases can be found at http://download.freenas.org.

 

[caseyscherm]

Thanks Samuel. I'm going back to square one, use a different computer to download the media and this time go through all the checksum, etc. work. Must admit I didn't last go-round. I don't think that was the issue but one should eliminate all possibilities.

Have a great day and stay safe!

 

[RefereeBeau]

Another FreeNAS newbie. Exactly the same sequence of messages as described above.
Had burned first DVD with verification; burned a second DVD with verification. Same failure with both DVDs. Old BIOS so booting the installer from USB is not an option.

Both DVDs are "readable" enough to boot the BTX loader from the DVD.

Any suggestions about other potential triggers for this error?

TIA.

 

[RefereeBeau]

Additional info:

Step 1: to start learning FreeNAS, my first step was to replace the system disk (IDE) which had failed with an old spare drive (SATA). In that configuration, I booted from the FreeNAS install DVD, did the install, booted FreeNAS, then explored the web admin console for a bit.

Step 2: replaced the system drive with a brand new WD SSD. Booted from the same FreeNAS install DVD. Got the error sequence showing in the first message in this thread - exactly the same errors. Retried several times.

Step 3: disconnected the SSD drive (do no hard drive in system) then booted the install DVD again. Same errors. Retried several times.

Step 4: burned new install DVD in case the media had been damaged. Booted from new install DVD. Same errors.

Step 5: reconnected the old SATA drive. Booted FreeNAS & started shell on primary console. Ran "od /dev/cd0" to verify that the DVD was readable and all the hardware was working properly. "od" ran to completion with no errors.

Step 6: Shutdown, powercycled, booted FreeNAS install DVD. Still get the same error sequence.

I'm baffled. The installation was successful one time. I've got one disk with FreeNAS successfully installed. I haven't been able to get the FreeNAS installation to load a second time, on the same hardware.

I'm including the exact console message sequence in case the one line of just "-" between the second and third "cd0:" messages is significant:

FreeBSD/x86 bootstrap loader, Revision 1.1
(Tue Jul 28 11:07:13 EDT 2020 root@tnbuilds05.tn.ixsystems.net)
cd0: Read 1 sector(s) from 16434494 to 0xffffe000 (0x8000): 0x32
cd0: Read 1 sector(s) from 16434494 to 0xffffe000 (0x8000): 0x32
-
cd0: Read 1 sector(s) from 16434494 to 0xffffe000 (0x8000): 0x32
cd0: Read 1 sector(s) from 16434494 to 0xffffe000 (0x8000): 0x32
cd0: Read 1 sector(s) from 16434494 to 0xffffe000 (0x8000): 0x32
cd0: Read 1 sector(s) from 16434494 to 0xffffe000 (0x8000): 0x32
cd0: Read 1 sector(s) from 16434494 to 0xffffe000 (0x8000): 0x32
cd0: Read 1 sector(s) from 16434494 to 0xffffe000 (0x8000): 0x32
can't load 'kernel'

These messages don't give much much of a hint (at least to a FreeNAS newbie) about what specifically is wrong, or what to do to correct the problem.

Any help much appreciated!

 

[Samuel Tai]

It's probably the case your systems are too old for the BTX bootloader. Try the 11.1 installer, which still uses GRUB.

 

[RefereeBeau]

Thank you! Confirming that booting a FreeNAS 11.1-U7 install from DVD was successful. (Booted three times, just to be sure.) Installation on new SSD also successful.

FWIW: the problem with booting the installer from optical drives happened on several different not-new systems, including two laptops. The other systems I tried did have new enough BIOSes to supportd booting from USB drives. The FreeNAS 11.3-U4.1 installer boots successfully from USB on those systems. Booting from the DVD drive failed similarly to the older desktop system - same messages up to "can't load 'kernel'" - except that none of the "cd0:" messages appeared on the laptops.

Again, thanks very much for your help!

 

[morseszd]

Thank you! Confirming that booting a FreeNAS 11.1-U7 install from DVD was successful. (Booted three times, just to be sure.) Installation on new SSD also successful.

FWIW: the problem with booting the installer from optical drives happened on several different not-new systems, including two laptops. The other systems I tried did have new enough BIOSes to supportd booting from USB drives. The FreeNAS 11.3-U4.1 installer boots successfully from USB on those systems. Booting from the DVD drive failed similarly to the older desktop system - same messages up to "can't load 'kernel'" - except that none of the "cd0:" messages appeared on the laptops. mcdvoice

Again, thanks very much for your help!

I'll look into that. I've been using Imgburn literally for years and have never yet had an issue with it burning a CD/DVD from an ISO. What perplexes me is that the installer can obviously access the DVD since it's able to locate the boot loader and navigate to the root directory, but then it seems to lose orientation.

 

[jangdong]

Thank you! Confirming that booting a FreeNAS 11.1-U7 install from DVD was successful. (Booted three times, just to be sure.) Installation on new SSD also successful.

FWIW: the problem with booting the installer from optical drives happened on several different not-new systems, including two laptops. The other systems I tried did have new enough BIOSes to supportd booting from USB drives. The FreeNAS 11.3-U4.1 installer boots successfully from USB on those systems. Booting from the DVD drive failed similarly to the older desktop system - same messages up to "can't load 'kernel'" - except that none of the "cd0:" messages appeared on the laptops.

Again, thanks very much for your help!

Thank u much.

 

[wolterney]

Thank you! Confirming that booting a FreeNAS 11.1-U7 install from DVD was successful. (Booted three times, just to be sure.) Installation on new SSD also successful.

FWIW: the problem with booting the installer from optical drives happened on several different not-new systems, including two laptops. The other systems I tried did have new enough BIOSes to supportd booting from USB drives. The FreeNAS 11.3-U4.1 installer boots successfully from USB on those systems. Booting from the DVD drive failed similarly to the older desktop system - same messages up to "can't load 'kernel'" - except that none of the "cd0:" messages appeared on the laptops.

Again, thanks very much for your help!

I'll investigate that. I've used Imgburn for literally years, and I've never had a problem with it failing to burn a CD or DVD from an ISO. I find it confusing that even though the installation can clearly access the DVD because it can find the boot loader and go to the root directory, it then seems to lose its bearings.