SOLVED Unable to install FreeNAS on USB stick

[ChrisReeve]

Thank you. Well, I think it has more to do with crappy USB sticks, than them being USB3. They were all bought from (a reputable) seller on eBay, with thousands of sales. I dont know, but they might be fake. All I know, is that it works flawlessly now, after downgrade to the Sandisk drive. Yes, it is USB2, and that was a concious choice, but I suspect it would also work with a SanDisk USB3 drive, but bought from a reputable electronics chain, so you know the USB drive is geuine at least. :)

 

[Sean Ogle]

I was using high-quality Toshiba sticks and a variety of different SanDisk sticks, from Amazon as well as from a reputable local retailer. All exhibited the same behavior. I never tried a non-USB3 stick.

 

[Apollo]

I have had experienced on Application processors having issues with USB3 and the reason could be from the processor USB driver not being written properly or hardware IP bug. So USB keys are not always to blame.

 

[ChrisReeve]

Well, for those who have access to their servers, if you encounter this issue and are using a USB3 stick, at least it is a very cheap and fast troubleshooting step. I paid 7$ for my 16GB USB2 stick, and the install took about 10 minutes.

Very much worth trying out!

 

[macatarere]

11.3-BETA1 installed to mirrored SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB 2.0, but not for long, S3420GP. 11.2-U6 also failed, same with Samsung BAR Plus 3.1 32GB. The Samsung's installed with 11.2-U4, upgraded to 11.2-U6 ok.

11.3-BETA1 now installed on an old Kingston 8GB SSD, first on a sata port, then switched to a USB port with a StarTech sata to USB adapter.

Thanks to Chris Moore for drawing attention to new recommendations, I will probably switch to ssd's with usb adapters.

Edit: My failed installs seem to be a combination of motherboard and usb drives. Whilst unable to install 11.3-BETA1 on a Supermicro X8SIE the X8SIE will boot 11.3-BETA1 from USB if installed on an X11SSQ first, installed from DVD. A SanDisk Cruzer Blade 2.0 will boot on the X11SSQ but not the X8SIE. A SanDisk Ultra 3.0 and Samsung BAR Plus 3.1 will boot on both. I may stay with USB boot as long I have spares and hardware that can install to them. Newer boards with more ports for boot drives still preferred. Thanks everyone for your help.

Edit: 11.3-BETA1 isn't booting reliably from a USB drive on an X8SIE, S3420GP is ok, stalls at Booting... message.

Method is now an initial install from DVD to a USB attached 8GB ssd sata drive, subsequent installations are from the sata drive; Boot from the sata drive, Attach a mirror, don't Detach the sata, shutdown and unplug it. Boot and Detach the now missing sata, Attach a mirror, Upload a config, Scrub. This takes about 15 minutes with USB 3 hardware.

A FreeNAS vm can also create a bootable mirror, no need to burn a DVD, takes a little over a minute to resilver a Samsung BAR Plus 128GB.