[6.10.0] Unraid boot device not found

@GrimD You shouldn't need to have a GPT partitioned device for it to boot without CSM as long as the "efi" directory exists.

@Taddeusz I suppose. That is one thing I didn't try, MBR with UEFI. I'm used to Windows which wont boot with a MBR partition with out CSM. 

 

Over all the GPT partition with full UEFI mode works fine with 6.9.2. If take the USB that has 6.10 on it and just copy the 6.9.2 install files on to it with no changes (not even running the make boot batch) then it boots right up with no issues. 

 

There is nothing in 6.9.2 that's not working for me so far so quite happy to stay on it until the issue is resolved. 

@GrimD My Unraid flash drive is MBR formatted and UEFI boots just fine.

@Taddeusz I'm sure it does, Linux doesn't have the same limitation Windows does. Ideally you are supposed to use a GPT partition with UEFI though which is why Microsoft don't support it. Mine works fine with GPT in 6.9.2 and I'm not the only one reporting this issue so hopefully it will get resolved in 6.10.

46 minutes ago, ljm42 said:

 

Can you summarize which ones made a difference? 

 

 

Right. The OS can boot from the flash drive but then when it enumerates the USB devices looking for a flash drive with the label UNRAID in order to mount it at /boot , it fails somehow. If the flash drive isn't able to be mounted at /boot then there is no configuration information and the system can't continue.

 

A bit of a shot in the dark, but how many USB devices and hubs do you have plugged in? Maybe unplug everything except for the flash drive and see if it can get past this. 

Yes, I agree. That's why we need @limetechto chime in on how exactly it tries to enumerate and detect the flash drive (different from 6.9.x, which works just fine).

 

I'm really surprised that they didn't set the few days after a major stable release aside as an all hands on deck for support type of situation. It's not like they do releases often. The last one was a long time ago. Limetech is not a one person hobby project anymore. They really should be checking the bugs section on their official forum the day after a major stable release.

3 hours ago, dumurluk said:

"waiting up to 30 sec for device with label UNRAID to come online"?

 

I mean, it is booting off of the usb drive up to that point. And the usb drive is clearly labeled "UNRAID".

This message has always occurred in all Unraid versions if the USB cannot be found at step 4 of the boot process (described here) but what is not clear is what has suddenly stopped the flash drive being found for some people.  
 

As far as I know this was not an issue for the many rc releases that preceded the ‘stable’ one.   Not clear if this is a specific hardware combination causing this that nobody running an rc release happened to have, or if there is some last minute change since the last rc triggering it.

40 minutes ago, itimpi said:

This message has always occurred in all Unraid versions if the USB cannot be found at step 4 of the boot process (described here) but what is not clear is what has suddenly stopped the flash drive being found for some people.  
 

As far as I know this was not an issue for the many rc releases that preceded the ‘stable’ one.   Not clear if this is a specific hardware combination causing this that nobody running an rc release happened to have, or if there is some last minute change since the last rc triggering it.

There were reports but they didn't seem to be acted on. Folks seem to have just reverted back to the stable then.

 

Here is one from last August: 

And here's one from September:

 

 

Posted this may 5

6.10-RC5 AND UP WAITING 30 SEC FOR DEVICE WITH LABEL ...

 

for me since rc5 it happens only when I reboot from the main page.  update rc5->rc6..6.10 final reboots works fine. I have run checkdisk on the flash and no errors.  I tried various other things.  Please see above link.

Oh yeah, I saw your post yesterday. Unfortunately it doesn't make a difference for me whether it's restarted or started from power down. Either way it gets stuck on the drive check.

Nothing has changed in the startup scripts related to this.  Please try this:  reboot server and when it gets to the "press ENTER key reboot" prompt, type ctrl-C instead of Enter key.  The server will continue boot sequence but since it can't mount the usb flash it won't be able to mount the other bz files, in particular 'bzmodules'.  You will likely see a lot of error messages, such as "module bonding not found".  Eventually it should present a normal Login prompt.  Here you enter 'root' as the username and it should drop right into a shell.  At this point, please type:

 

blkid

 

And post the output you see from that command.

@limetech Here you go. Seems to be showing the device with the correct Label. 

 

Have to say I do really appreciate how easy it is to just copy the files to\from the USB key to switch versions. As a Tech I don't think I've ever worked on an OS that's so easy\quick upgrade and to roll back

That screenshot shows there are two partitions on the drive sda1 and sda2.  Normally there would be only one partition (sda1) and that would be the one labelled UNRAID.   Not quite sure what caused you to end up with 2 partitions, but it could well be what is causing the booting problem.  

1 minute ago, itimpi said:

Not quite sure what caused you to end up with 2 partitions, but it could well be what is causing the booting problem.  

Maybe because it's GPT? @GrimDdid you try booting UEFI with an MBR partition?

@itimpi but the same drive with no changes (other then coping the install files across) works fine with 6.9.2 so the partition structure is obviously not an issue for 6.9.2.

@JorgeB One of the few things I haven't tried but but the same drive with no changes (other then coping the install files across) works fine with 6.9.2 so why would\should it be an issue for 6.10?

 

Edited May 20, 2022 by GrimD

8 minutes ago, GrimD said:

so why would\should it be an issue for 6.10?

Kernel is very different, so there could be changes that affect that, IMHO it would be worth trying, or GPT with a single partition, GPT doesn't require more than one, depends on how it was created.

 

 

4 minutes ago, GrimD said:

@JorgeB One of the few things I haven't tried but but the same drive with no changes (other then coping the install files across) works fine with 6.9.2 so why would\should it be an issue for 6.10?

 

No idea, but it is something different to what I normally expect to see.   Limetech may have an idea when they see the screenshot.

 

It could be worth trying to see of you can get the drive  formatted with a single partition to see if it then boots?   
 

if it does turn out to be related to having 2 partitions in some way it might explain why only some people are encountering this issue.

 

@itimpi it shows as one partition in every windows tool I have so quite sure it is only one.

 

Spent alot of time on this all ready and happy to stick woth 6.9.2 untill a official solution can be found. If @limetech need any thing to help troubleshoot I'll look to get it to them ASAP. 

3 minutes ago, GrimD said:

it shows as one partition in every windows tool I have so quite sure it is only one.

Interesting!    I only get 1 partition showing with the blkid command on my Unraid system so somehow a difference has crept in.   Be interested to see what any others experiencing this issue show as the output of the blkid on their systems or if the apparent difference is a red herring.

 

I would guess we must be getting around the time that Limetech folk come online (being US based) so maybe they will have something useful to say

@itimpi ya hopefully they will have some thing to add. Appreciate the suggestion but as I said spent too much tome playing with this issue yesterday so going to take a break from it for now unless some thing is specifically needed for troubleshooting. 

The problem is that the partition containing Unraid config, with label UNRAID, must be partition 1.  If you use our USB Flash Creator tool this will be the case.  I will provide additional explanation a little later today.

@limetech I can't use your USB flash creator, it fails with an error that it can't find the device\disk. The USB in question works fine with the same partition layout with 6.9.2 so is this a change in 6.10? Can 6.10 not work the same way as 6.9.2?

The USB is an old 16GB SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Fit I'm not opposed to getting a new one if that might solve the issue. Is there a recommended one, preferably one that barley sticks out like the Fit?

Edited May 20, 2022 by GrimD

13 hours ago, limetech said:

Nothing has changed in the startup scripts related to this. 

 

Actually not true... pre-6.10 the 'udev' subsystem was started very early.  This let us look for which device was assigned to the flash by looking at:

/dev/disk/by-label/UNRAID

which is a symlink which points to a partition, such as 'sda1' or 'sda2'

 

In 6.10 we have to find the flash device before starting 'udev', so we switch to using 'blkid' to find a device with label "UNRAID".  However the code only checks partition 1 label on each device because I've never seen a case where anything other than partition 1 was ever used.

 

We will add code to check partitions 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the 6.10.1 release.  To get your flash to boot now, you will have to reformat and make sure partition 1 is the boot partition with the UNRAID label.

@limetech Thank you for the explanation that, makes total sense now.

I have just tried using an MBR partition as suggested by a few people and that does work. I would prefer to use GPT though. I'm sure it makes little difference but its one of those GPT is the new hotness type of things, if that makes sense .

Would defiantly be good if you can add that in the next release, I kind of thought that was the whole point of having to label it UNRAID so you could search for and find the correct volume :D.

16 minutes ago, GrimD said:

@limetech Thank you for the explanation that, makes total sense now.

I have just tried using an MBR partition as suggested by a few people and that does work. I would prefer to use GPT though. I'm sure it makes little difference but its one of those GPT is the new hotness type of things, if that makes sense .

Would defiantly be good if you can add that in the next release, I kind of thought that was the whole point of having to label it UNRAID so you could search for and find the correct volume :D.

 

GPT for the flash device is unnecessary and yes, sometimes unintended regressions get introduced into software.