FreeNas Noob and HP EX475

[gaptoothedgypsy]

Hi Guys,

My first post, please bear with me!

I have an Old EX475 that I wish to run FreeNas on. I have (using an HP Desktop) created a boot system on a Hard Disk and a USB Stick.

The Disk Boots the EX475 fine, but I cannot get the USB Stick to boot the EX475, despite the fact that it boots other HP Desktops fine.

I have made myself a cable so that I can access the BIOS on the EX475 OK but I cannot, for the life of me, of work out which Bios Settings will make the USB Stick boot!...

I can see the USB Stick listed alongside the SMI USB recovery area in the EX475 boot dialog, and I have tried loads of different settings in the BIOS (clearly not the correct ones).

What am I doing wrong guys? Its really doing my head in! Please help before I toss the EX out the window....

--GTG

 

[jasonrpoteet]

Hate to do a "me too" but I have the same question. I was able to get my EX 475 to boot from the USB, and I add hard drives to FreeNas, but if i reboot, I get an error saying "the drive is a FreeNas Drive and is not bootable".

Basically its defaulting to boot off the harddrives vs the USB drive. and I cant figure out the settings in the BIOS to get it to default to the USB first.

 

[gpsguy]

I don't know a thing about the HP EX475, but have you tried "bottom-rear USB port" with no other USB devices connected? A Google search brought up this article.

 

[jasonrpoteet]

@gpsguy, yeah I tried that. I think one of the problems I'm having is I need to use a USB keyboard (the PS/2 keyboard is not working for some reason), and the USB keyboard only works from the bottom-rear USB port, so when I'm in the BIOS the USB drive with FreeNAS on it isn't recognized unless I unplug the keyboard and plug in the USB Drive into the bottom-rear port (but then I cant navigate to tell it to select that USB drive as a startup option. Hope that makes sense.

 

[cyberjock]

Sounds like the hardare is just to limited to be useful for FreeNAS...
I wonder what other problems you'd run into even if you got USB booting working.

 

[jasonrpoteet]

Yeah it may be the hardware. but I though I've read how other users got FreeNAS working on their EX 47X. I was able to install Linux on it before. I think the main difference being that the Linux distro was installed to a HDD in the drive bay (which works since the machine is already set up to boot off the hard drives. I could install FreeNAS 8 onto the hard drive in the bottom drive bay, but then it would be wasting the rest of the space on that hard drive.

Ill keep looking around, and ill post back if I figure out a solution to get it to boot off the USB first.

 

[Warez]

@gaptoothedgypsy, I am about to re-purpose my media box with FreeNAS, how did you build your cable? Thanks..

 

[SilentSam]

@gaptoothedgypsy, I am about to re-purpose my media box with FreeNAS, how did you build your cable? Thanks..

The info / sales of the VGA cable with serial functionality to do kernel debugging can be found from the following links @ mediasmartserver.net . You can build one here or buy one from here.
I have completed the installation of this cable in an HP MSS EX475 and look forward to completing another installation when the second cable arrives via USPS hopefully this week.
I have successfully recovered the EX475 and reinstalled to operational, thanks largely due to the technical genius of mediasmartserver.net forum poster cakalapati :D .

As soon as the second cable arrive I plan to use one of the two units to setup FreeNAS, and probably a few FreeNAS plugins as well.

I too was able to only once get my USB key to boot and install only to hang 1/3 of the way into an OS install.

I have tried several times to get it to boot from the USB KEY but no joy. :(
I had to give up and use another separate computer to install Windows Home Server 2011 via internal DVD, until the point of rebooting to starting the OS.

Next I removed the Drive and then reinstalled it to the EX475 bottom drive bay slot #1. Powered the EX475 up and completed the OS install. 2 weeks operational, knock on wood, no problems so far.

Excuse me in advance for, I am relatively new to Linux and FreeNAS, but perhaps this method would work for to installing FreeNAS on an MSS EX47x or other model of these HP MediaSmart Server or DATA Vaults units?​

Hope to give it a whirl soon as the second cable arrives.