USB boot - Can't work out what disk we're booting from

[psmerdon]

Hi,

I'm running FreeNAS 8.0.3 - booting from a USB thumb drive.
At every boot it needs 2 tries.

On the first boot it fails to load the kernel with the message "Can't work out which disk we're booting from"
When I reboot (CTRL+ALT+DEL), it comes up nicely.

So far (I hope I don't jinx myself) it comes up OK on the reboot every time without fail.

Any ideas.... anyone???


Peter Smerdon
FreeNAS & Linux newbie

 

[ProtoSD]

Just a guess, but it sounds like a BIOS issue. What is your motherboard? You might look for a BIOS update, unless someone else has another idea.

 

[psmerdon]

My motherboard

Thanks for the reply.
The motherboard is an Asus P5GC-MX.

Anyone else out there running FreeNAS on this one?

In the meantime, I'll fiddle around in the BIOS...
I see that FreeNAS is up to ver 8.2.0 - I'll try an upgrade & see if that helps.

Cheers,
Peter Smerdon.

 

[paleoN]

You might look for a BIOS update, unless someone else has another idea.

If it's not the BIOS the USB thumb drive may be dieing. Try a different one.

 

[collinl]

Verify that your bios set to boot specifically to the USB drive with the OS installed? If yes then try another USB drive.

 

[psmerdon]

Thanks for the replies - yes the BIOS is set to boot from the FreeNAS USB drive, and it always boots fine on the *second* attempt, (and subsequent reboots). It only baulks after it's been off for a while - like overnight.
I've just loaded up FreeNAS onto a new USB thumbdrive - I'll see how that goes in the morning.

Next step after that (based on advice from here) will be to update the BIOS. That's going to be interesting, as by default this motherboard wants to boot from, and see the updater on, a floppy drive (remember those) - this box doesn't have a floppy. I'm sure there's a workaround... just hope it's not too cumbersome.

Thanks all.
Peter Smerdon.

 

[psmerdon]

Looks like it was the USB drive - the new USB thumbdrive has been consistently reliable on booting first time.
I just swapped back in the original drive, and FreeBSD/FreeNAS didn't find the OS on it at the first boot attempt - but was OK on the second (as usual).

Hopefully that's the end of this issue.

Thanks to all for your suggestions & help.

Cheers,
Peter Smerdon.