SOLVED Having trouble booting from USB now that FreeNAS is installed

[dantzler]

I recently built my first FreeNAS box.

Mobo: Supermicro X10SDV-4C-TLN4F Mini-ITX SoC Intel Xeon D-1518 4-Core, Single Socket FCBGA 1667
Memory: 1X Samsung DDR4-2133 32GB/4Gx72 ECC/REG CL15 Server Memory M393A4K40BB0-CPB
version: FreeNAS-10-MASTER-201702070501

rest of build can be found here:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/new-build-new-to-freenas.49927/

My interaction with the server is from Chromium on a Debian Jessie system, or the console using a USB keyboard/VGA monitor. I'm hardwired into my router on both the BMC port and a 1000baseT port on the mobo. I would like to test my memory for a few days before installing the HDDs and then testing them.

I installed the OS from a kingston USB 3.0 stick (mobo back panel) to 2 mirrored USB 2.0 sticks (plugged into a 9 pin header on the mobo.) That worked and I can boot into FreeNAS or manage things from the BMC. Using IPMI, I changed my fan settings to keep the new PWM fans from stalling.

I burned ultimatebootCD to the kingston USB 3.0 stick, but it won't boot into that. I get this error (from the console) if I try to select that drive as my boot device:

Code:

...E-E61: Media test failure, check cable
...E-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent.

and then it loads GRUB. (sorry for the '...' - the left part of the output is off of the screen.

I've tried mounting memtest .img as a floppy image from an .iso here
http://memtest.org/#downiso
but it crashes the board (maybe because it is bigger than a floppy image?)

I have been unsuccessful getting anything to mount (as a CD-ROM image) from the Windows share option under 'Virtual Media'. The virtual console (java?) doesn't pop out, all I get is a too small to read window in my main IPMI screen.

Any suggestions?

I'm about to pull the 9 pin header and try booting from USB without the FreeNAS OS drives present. My work laptop is a windows machine with an ethernet port that I can put the latest version of Java on if necessary since IPMI is complaining about that.

ETA: Removing the OS USB sticks didn't work; same error.

Is there a way I could run memtest from within FreeNAS? Like add a USB stick and run it from a jail?

 

[wblock]

...E-E61: Media test failure, check cable ...E-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent.

That is a PXE (network boot) error. That it's trying to boot from the network might mean it doesn't see that particular USB stick at all. Or maybe that CSM or "legacy" BIOS booting has not been enabled.

It might be helpful to plug it into a USB-2 port.

 

[dantzler]

That is a PXE (network boot) error. That it's trying to boot from the network might mean it doesn't see that particular USB stick at all. Or maybe that CSM or "legacy" BIOS booting has not been enabled.

It might be helpful to plug it into a USB-2 port.

I have 'legacy' boot enabled and I tried plugging the bootable UBCD stick into the USB 2.0 header on the board and got the same error. The bios is definitely seeing that USB stick as I have the option to boot from it when that is only USB media present.

Are the missing characters in my errors 'PX' ?

ETA: I got it to work by forcing UEFI boot with version 7 of memtest (memtest86-usb.img) on a USB 3.0 stick. Thanks.

 

[wblock]

Are the missing characters in my errors 'PX' ?

Could be. Might be worth trying to turn off overscan on the monitor. Or let it auto adjust if it's connected by VGA. The "media test failure" and "Intel Boot Agent" are the giveaway, though. What that is saying is that however the memory stick is set up, the system does not see it as bootable, so continues on to network booting.

 

[dantzler]

Could be. Might be worth trying to turn off overscan on the monitor. Or let it auto adjust if it's connected by VGA. The "media test failure" and "Intel Boot Agent" are the giveaway, though. What that is saying is that however the memory stick is set up, the system does not see it as bootable, so continues on to network booting.

Thank you. Enabling UEFI did the trick. Testing is underway!