Kernel Panic, unable to mount root fs on unknown-block

[therealego]

As the title suggests, I am getting the above error message when trying to boot (from either boot device).

Not really sure what could have caused this, it happened right after a BIOS update but as far as I'm aware a BIOS update shouldn't break my OS.

To be completely honest, I'm not overly worried about simply reinstalling and reconfiguring all my apps, but I don't want to lose all my data.

If I can somehow wipe the boot drives and just reinstall, then get the data off the drives afterwards then I will totally do that; however it is my understanding that you must export your pool before you can reimport it in another system/install.

Here are my system specs:

- TrueNAS Scale OS
- Core i3 12100
- Asrock z690 Extreme
- 128GB G.Skill Ripjaws X DDR4 3200
- 2x 32GB Intel M10 Optane memory modules for mirrored boot drive
- 2x 1TB WD Black SN850x for striped L2ARC
- 8x 1TB SATA HDD for storage pool

 

[Arwen]

Their is probably a setting that changed in the BIOS during the update. You may be able to change it back. If this is the cause, trying to re-install may not work either.

Don't worry about your data. TrueNAS separates the boot-device from data devices. The ZFS data pools should be fine, even if you can't restore your configuration. On rare occasions, you may have force import your data pool if ZFS thinks it might be owned by another computer, (aka another boot-device). Pretty harmless for that specific case.

If you do end up re-installing, be very careful to select which devices you want to install TrueNAS on. Or just dis-connect your data pool drives temporarily.