Have just concluded a many-hour fight with our HP ProLiant ML310e Gen8 v2.
It had been running FreeNAS for many years, but needed a fresh install on new media.
During attempted install I had problems with bad install CDs, dirty lenses on CD readers, incorrect format on USB sticks,
and in the process of trying to find a solution I reset the BIOS of the HP to factory defaults. Not clever.
Then attempted install from USB would not recognise a USB plugged anywhere.
Attempted install from CD would start but quickly halt with the message
Can't work out which disk we are booting from.
Guessed BIOS device 0x80 not found by probes, default to ... Can't load 'kernel' ...
I suspected a faulty CD again since it was only reading the first sector.
Then I worked out that the solution was to reverse most of the BIOS changes. Specifically set the following :
System Options | USB Options | USB Port Controller Routing | USB 2.0 Controller
System Options | SATA Controller Options | Embedded SATA Configuration | Enable SATA Legacy Support
(the embedded SATA RAID controller must be disabled)
System Options | SATA Controller Options | Enable Write Cache | Disabled
PCI Device Enable/Disable | Embedded SATA Controller 1 | Enable
PCI Device Enable/Disable | Embedded SATA Controller 2 | Enable
PCI Device Enable/Disable | HP Dynamic Smart Array Accelerator Manager | Disable
For us a successful Standard Boot Order (IPL) setting was
1-CD 2-FloppyA (does not exist) 3-USBDriveKeyC (socket on the motherboard) 4-HarddriveC 5-Ethernet
I installed FreeNAS to a 32 GB SanDisk USB2 on the motherboard socket. Joy after all the grief.
Removed CD disk from the reader, left boot order unchanged, but then set BIOS to
System Options | SATA Controller Options | Embedded SATA Configuration | Enable SATA AHCI Support
Hope this helps someone.