Install to MX-ES Flash Drive

[cmbaker82]

I am trying to install freenas 9.3 to an mx-ex 8gb flash drive. Here is a link to the specifications: http://mx-technology.com/h5/en/flash2.php?sid=38
It is a usb3 device, but plugged into usb2 ports.
Depending on the system I am trying to install it on I am either getting an Error 22 logical block address out of range, or geom 'da0': operation not permitted.

If i go to the shell and unplug the device then plug it back in here are the errors i get (partial, some scroll off screen):
(da0:umass-sim0:0:0:0): Error 22, Unretryable error
(da0:umass-sim0:0:0:0): Read(10). CDB: 28 00 00 ee 4f ff 00 00 01 00
(da0:umass-sim0:0:0:0): CAM status: SCSI Status Error
(da0:umass-sim0:0:0:0): SCSI status Check Condition
(da0:umass-sim0:0:0:0): SCSI sense: ILLEGAL REQUEST asc:21,0 (Logical block address out of range)
and then it repeats the same error, i think i saw some flash by that said Write() instead of Read(10) during one of my attempts.

I have tried reinitializing the disk using windows disk manager which seemed to work fine. Drive behaves as expected in my windows machines.

 

[dlavigne]

Which version of FreeNAS are you trying to install? What utility are you using to write the install image to the stick?

 

[Fraoch]

And what are your system specs?

 

[cmbaker82]

As i mentioned in the first post I am trying to install 9.3 latest one downloaded 3/12/15. The system I am installing to is a dell r610 which is currently running 9.2 just fine but installed to HDD. I was hoping to reclaim a hdd slot by installing to USB.
I also tried the install on a random Toshiba laptop I had lying around and got the same results.

To burn the image I used imgburn to burn the install to a CD. That failing I used windiskimager to burn the iso to a separate USB drive (corsair survivor) to use to do the install.

I tried a another USB stick with the installer on it too just in case the installiion USB stick was problematic.

 

[cmbaker82]

System specs would be a Xeon CPU. Don't remember which specific model right now. It has 32gb ram. And 2xdual port Intel 10gbe NICs. 10k 300gb SAS drives for storage pool. Again all this works with 9.2 installed on the hard drive.

 

[Ericloewe]

Maybe your BIOS has trouble booting from USB with UEFI.

 

[cmbaker82]

It seems to boot OK. It's after choosing the installation destination than I am getting the problem. Also same issue happens on multiple machines. I am wondering if it is some quirk with the USB drive. It is an SLC flash drive which I chose because of reliability of SLC, but is not a brand I am very familiar with.

 

[Ericloewe]

It seems to boot OK. It's after choosing the installation destination than I am getting the problem. Also same issue happens on multiple machines. I am wondering if it is some quirk with the USB drive. It is an SLC flash drive which I chose because of reliability of SLC, but is not a brand I am very familiar with.

In that case, I'd try a different drive.

 

[cmbaker82]

Are there any known slc based usb flash devices that work well, or would I be better off just buying a a cheap MLC based one like corsair voyager?

 

[Ericloewe]

Are there any known slc based usb flash devices that work well, or would I be better off just buying a a cheap MLC based one like corsair voyager?

Decent MLC is good enough. Kingston/SanDisk, Lexar (Micron) and Corsair are generally good.

 

[cmbaker82]

Thanks for the recommendations. Just an update. This appears to not be freeNAS related, but FreeBSD as the same problem occurs trying to install freeBSD on that usb drive which makes sense.

 

[cmbaker82]

Just a follow up to this. The problem appears to be that a quirk needs added to the kernel. See the following bug report I submitted on the FreeBSD forums: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=198647

 

[cyberjock]

I just read that bugzilla ticket. Wow. That's just.. a mess. I'd never trust that USB stick with any data that I care about (and definitely never a boot device). That's just so many shades of "messed up" that its almost like the punchline of a joke.

 

[cmbaker82]

I wouldn't use it in FreeNAS now, not until FreeBSD is updated to support it. But there have been many other USB drives that had to be added to the same quirks section to function properly including PNY , JetFlash, Innostor. Now if someone knew freenas well enough to recompile the kernel to add essentially one line of code to scsci_da.c, then they would be able to use it without a problem from my understanding:

Code:

{
                /*
                 * MX-ES USB Drive
                 * PR: 198647
                 */
                {T_DIRECT, SIP_MEDIA_REMOVABLE, "MX", "MXUB3SES*",
                "*"}, /*quirks*/ DA_Q_NO_RC16
        },

 

[Ericloewe]

In my opinion, any USB mass storage device that needs obscure tweaks is not to be considered reliable.

Unsurprisingly, PNY, JetFlash or Innostor are not exactly flash storage brands known for their quality.

 

[cmbaker82]

Based on that there are not a whole lot of brands left; Kingston, Samsung, Sandisk, and Transcend, are also mentioned in the quirks table with different quirks. For SSD drives Intel, Corsair, and Crucial are listed. check out the da_quirk_table in the following file: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/sys/cam/scsi/scsi_da.c?revision=279726&view=markup

What's left that you would consider to be reliable?

 

[cmbaker82]

Another update on this. I've reported this as a bug in freenas: https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/8853
the patch is currently in the "Staged for next SU" category which I believe means it's currently available in nightlies and should be available as a software update in stable soon
https://bugs.freenas.org/projects/freenas/issues?query_id=107