Workaround/Semi-Fix for Mountroot Issues with 9.3!

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Ericloewe

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Congrats, you've discovered a fundamental flaw of PC's ... hardware design by morons, idiots, and arseholes intent on putting out poorly designed CHEAP hardware which require botchy software hacks.

Don't forget "growing mountain of legacy cruft based on said hardware (and software) design".
 

vikonen

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Thanks - this sorted out problems I had with the 9.3 RELEASE. Symptoms were different -

No handlers could be found for the logger "freenasOS.Configuration"
freenasOS.Installer.InstallerPackageNotFoundException

This was on an HP gen8 microserver with a Kingston DataTraveler USB drive.

Did you manage to solve the installerPackageNotFoundException by setting the kFreeBSD.kern.cam.boot_delay="50000" parameter?
I'm having the same symptoms with the HP microserver -- with Kingston DataTraveler usb sticks... (2 of them as I'm trying to mirror the boot device).

Your symptoms sound like you got the exception during installation (or upgrading) - was that the case?
I tried setting the boot_delay, but installation still hangs. Does not matter which usb port I use, 1 or 2 usb sticks.

Are your usb sticks usb2 or usb3?

Was the boot_delay tunable the only thing you did to get forwards?
 
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Well after performing an upgrade from 9.1 mine rebooted and then just hangs right at the start of the POST screen. Rebooting cold, nada. Even if I'm able to catch it quick enough to press DEL to enter setup, it says "Entering Setup" and hangs there.

If I pull the USB stick, then it boots as normal.

Ridiculous.

Edit: So I downloaded the Full v9.3 ISO for a fresh install. It sees the (new, formatted FAT32) USB stick. I start the install and then... nothing. It sits there doing not a thing.

Next, I downloaded the full v9.2.1.9 ISO and did the same thing. Now with the same USB stick as the target (reformatted again because something was written to it), the installer again sees the disk. But this time the install starts and it is proceeding.

So after careful consideration, I've come to the conclusion that v9.3 sucks.
 
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DrKK

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Well after performing an upgrade from 9.1 mine rebooted and then just hangs right at the start of the POST screen. Rebooting cold, nada. Even if I'm able to catch it quick enough to press DEL to enter setup, it says "Entering Setup" and hangs there.

If I pull the USB stick, then it boots as normal.

Ridiculous.

Edit: So I downloaded the Full v9.3 ISO for a fresh install. It sees the (new, formatted FAT32) USB stick. I start the install and then... nothing. It sits there doing not a thing.

Next, I downloaded the full v9.2.1.9 ISO and did the same thing. Now with the same USB stick as the target (reformatted again because something was written to it), the installer again sees the disk. But this time the install starts and it is proceeding.

So after careful consideration, I've come to the conclusion that v9.3 sucks.
I don't think that's "careful consideration".

What is your hardware, sir? CPU, motherboard, etc?
 

nexlevel

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You might want to try the USB 2.0 ports. The USB 3 drivers aren't enabled by default in FreeNAS, *but* the USB3 hardware *should* work at USB2 speeds. Of course there are no guarantees, hence the 'but' and 'should'.

So I'm a FreeNAS noob BUT I'm also a seasoned network engineer so I beat my head against this wall for hours. I am using a Dell T3500 and went out and bought two SanDisk Ultra USB3.0 32GB flash drives. The latest 9.3 stable build installed flawlessly on it. BUT, when it cam time to reboot after install for first time run I hit the dreaded mountroot> prompt. After trying everything from different USB ports to disabling hardware RAID to reinstalling to nearly trying the dd thing, I decided to grab one of my old generic flash drives and see how big it was. Turns out it was an 8GB (7.8) stick - I have no idea what brand as it was a Veeam branded stick that came with a free copy of Veeam apps on it. What I do know is that it is USB2.0. Lo and behold after reinstalling on the new stick, I started to notice different output on the screen. It seems that the usb3 stick wasn't working out -- maybe it wasn't being recognized or wasn't dropping down to usb2 speed quickly enough no matter how high I set the boot_delay timer. So after using the usb2 generic stick, there was no need to set a timer delay. So my suggestion is to just use a usb2 flash drive instead of usb3.
 

bradl001

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I'm new to FreeNAS but have been following it for a while. To minimize my pain/frustration, I reviewed the recommendations and got some hardware (see specs in my signature).

I'm using an X9SCM-F board with a SanDisk Ultra 32GB USB 3.0. I used the timeout suggestion on the installer, FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201502162250.iso, but I didn't get far. See attached screen shot. Once, I did get far enough to get it installed when using the internal USB port but then got the mountroot issue.

For what it's worth, I don't reliably seen this flash drive show up in the BIOS as a boot option.

My BIOS is not the latest and I need to get that updated but I figured I'd post another data point. [Side note: who has created a bootable ISO with the latest BIOS updates?]

Anyway, this is an empty system so let me know if you want me to test some ideas.

Thanks and cheers.
Mark
 

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DrKK

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If your device is not reliably showing up in BIOS, then either the device, or the USB controller itself, is toast.

Try with a different device, and/or try other ports.
 

bradl001

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Using the SanDisk Ultra 32GB USB 3.0 in other ports gives the same result. Following @nexlevel, I used a generic 8 GB USB 2.0 in the internal USB port that, so far, works. At least, it's booting and the system is configurable.
 

DumDum

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Having the same issue as bradl001

Though, the install posts as successful, whenever I try to boot I receive the mountroot issue described. Adding in the delay did not seem to have any affect. Also, not having any issue with the SanDisk reliably showing up in BIOS.

***Update***

Tried the USB2.0 ports with no luck and even reinstalled again (without incident), but still hitting the mountroot issue. BB has some el cheapo USB2.0 sticks, will give that a shot tomorrow

Boot media: SanDisk Ultra 32GB
Board: X10SL7-F
 
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DrKK

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I'd be very interested to see if the problem is (for some reason) the Sandisk thumb drive. Please report back.
 

DumDum

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I'd be very interested to see if the problem is (for some reason) the Sandisk thumb drive. Please report back.
I hear you, I have low expectations on this working as well. I did record the last boot attempt if that sounds interesting, let me know.

My small brain tells me that when I'm at the mountroot and I enter a ? I should see my USB thumb drive, but I do not (blank).
 

DumDum

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Boot media: PNY Micro Attache USB2.0 16GB
Installation: no issues
Boot: no issues

Good timing as my hard drives just arrived as well
 

DrKK

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So you're saying, when you went and used the PNY Micro attache model, everything was fine?
 

cyberjock

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Having the same issue as bradl001

Though, the install posts as successful, whenever I try to boot I receive the mountroot issue described. Adding in the delay did not seem to have any affect. Also, not having any issue with the SanDisk reliably showing up in BIOS.

***Update***

Tried the USB2.0 ports with no luck and even reinstalled again (without incident), but still hitting the mountroot issue. BB has some el cheapo USB2.0 sticks, will give that a shot tomorrow

Boot media: SanDisk Ultra 32GB
Board: X10SL7-F

@DumDum

Is this what you have?


If not, can you provide an Amazon link to what you do have?

Thanks.
 

DumDum

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So you're saying, when you went and used the PNY Micro attache model, everything was fine?
Yessir, I took no additional steps. Simply installed FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201502232343 like I had in the few past attempts and the PNY booted without incident (using internal USB3.0 port)
 

cyberjock

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I'm new to FreeNAS but have been following it for a while. To minimize my pain/frustration, I reviewed the recommendations and got some hardware (see specs in my signature).

I'm using an X9SCM-F board with a SanDisk Ultra 32GB USB 3.0. I used the timeout suggestion on the installer, FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201502162250.iso, but I didn't get far. See attached screen shot. Once, I did get far enough to get it installed when using the internal USB port but then got the mountroot issue.

For what it's worth, I don't reliably seen this flash drive show up in the BIOS as a boot option.

My BIOS is not the latest and I need to get that updated but I figured I'd post another data point. [Side note: who has created a bootable ISO with the latest BIOS updates?]

Anyway, this is an empty system so let me know if you want me to test some ideas.

Thanks and cheers.
Mark

@bradl001

Can you provide a link on Amazon of what you have? I want to test this on my X9SCM-F.
 

cyberjock

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My sincerest apologies, it is an Ultra Fit:
SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB USB Flash Drive Model SDCZ43-032G-G46

Thanks. I have one in my cart. Just to wait and see what @bradl001 used. I'm going to guess the same thing.
 

bradl001

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bradl001

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