USB install on Dell XPS PC for ZFS nas.. Help Please!!

[alser]

Hi Everyone...

I did R.T.F.M. but I'm stuck! help please!

Have a 4g usb key for a headless Freenas... used version 7 in a V.M. and it worked good... but wish to run bare hardware now....

I've tried the ISO, tried win32 diskimager... all come up with the same fault... no boot device detected...

Built a VM in virtualbox and found tried to set the boot flag on the USB usind sfdisk -a /dev/sdb1 but it says... no bootable partion found... ie no msdos partion found

Have I got the right device?

What am I doing wrong ????

I have a feeling that the issue here is between the floor and the keyboard... and not with Freenas...

Thanks for your help in advance.

Alan

 

[cyberjock]

Considering there is no v7 of FreeNAS on this code I'm not sure if you are even at the right place.
Per the forum rules and such, v7 was an old project renamed "NAS4Free". If that is the case you need to go to the NAS4Free forums.

If you are on *our* code, and following *our* manual for creating FreeNAS in a VM, we never ask for those kinds of CLI commands to be run. So I'd say something is very wrong (which is making me think you aren't even using our code).

 

[alser]

Thanks cyber jock...

Think my message came across the wrong way... apologies in advance for the mis representation: just to Confirm

USB stick is 4Gig

Server is Dell XPS workstation Quad core 2 Intel 64bit with 4 gigs of ram

I have used the latest build of freenas :- never mind about the reference to version 7... I was just trying to show everyone that I kinda know what I'm doing and I have some experience with this excellent product

Freenas is version 9.2.1.8

This is a new project and new install... with new hardware.... nothing to do with freenas 7

So... please help... I don't wish to confine this pc to the recycle center!

To recap:

Downloaded version 9.2.1.8 64 bit .iso

I burned it to an optical disk... the PC booted with this installation and from there I installed freenas on to the USB stick. upon removing the dvd and rebooting it would not load freenas from the usb key.
I changed the bios options and tried every selection from usb boot... usb device usb zip usb cdrom even usb floopy which I note is not supported... but we try!

I read on the bsd from that people has issues with bsd, and they had to set the boot flag for same thats why I tried the sfdisk to set the boot flag...

I downloaded win32diskimager.. downloaded the usb installer from freenas... imaged the usb with win32diskimager... and of course ...

No Boot!

Help!

What am I doing wrong... :->

 

[cyberjock]

Well, you need 8GB of RAM minimum for FreeNAS, so you have a problem there. BUt in particular, Dells and HPs often won't boot FreeBSD from USB. So you might have to try a hard drive and see if that works. If not then I'd say your hardware isn't compatible.

 

[alser]

Thanks for your input...

I am still lost...

So I tried my copy of x64 bit on another dell insperion pc, and it worked on the 4 gig usb key...

I then installed the usb key to the dell XPC and it failed to boot, I booted off the CD and then installed it onto the usb key... and again it failed to boot.

I put in a hard drive, a 500 gig, and installed freenas to the drive, and again it failed to boot on the XPC

This appears to be that the boot loader on install to either device IE: USB or sata hard drive is not seen by the bios...

This goes back to my original idea that its got to do with the boot flag for earlier bios's....

Can any one give me some pointers as to how to set the boot flag so that it boots off either device... or any other ideas as why the USB device or hard drive is not being seen by the boot loader?

Thanks again

Alan