explosionhole Posted January 27, 2023 Share Posted January 27, 2023 I am seriously struggling to boot the first installer of unRAID! This hardware does not have UEFI boot support. It has an internal USB-A port, but it does not boot from the default installer app / imager. Trying a Ubuntu Live instance on the same drive, with their default installer, worked first time. It is not the devices I have at hand. It is this device's config for legacy BIOS booting. I have searched "microserver unraid grub" and followed the insights from the top results. Can anyone help with this? I am trying options as far as my historical Linux skills allows. The output of the config described below is attached as a screen grab, because I wasn't sure which line was useful for troubleshooting... I use the early commands from this site, finishing at the command to mount the newly formatted disk to the filesystem. From this guide, for my hardware, I do not bother installing any UEFI-based components or Grub commands, just i386-pc: https://github.com/ndeineko/grub2-bios-uefi-usb Once the drive is mounted, I continue with this UNRAID specific guide for Legacy BIOS: https://github.com/gotvach/unraid-grub The unzipped UNRAID file is at the device root location. So "/bzimage" should exist here. I create "/mnt/boot/grub/" from the relevant mount point of the device. My final /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg file is below. The 2nd guide uses the Grub conversion tool, that I have manually edited, as it puts 3 front-slashes into the path. This was before all `/bzimage` references. # UNSUPPORTED command 'menu title Lime Technology, Inc.' set timeout=5 default='menu.c32' menuentry 'Unraid OS' --id 'Unraid OS' { if test x$grub_platform = xpc; then linux_suffix=16; else linux_suffix= ; fi linux$linux_suffix '/bzimage' initrd=/bzroot initrd$linux_suffix '/bzroot' } menuentry 'Unraid OS GUI Mode' --id 'Unraid OS GUI Mode' { if test x$grub_platform = xpc; then linux_suffix=16; else linux_suffix= ; fi linux$linux_suffix '/bzimage' initrd=/bzroot,/bzroot-gui initrd$linux_suffix '/bzroot,/bzroot-gui' } menuentry 'Unraid OS Safe Mode (no plugins, no GUI)' --id 'Unraid OS Safe Mode (no plugins, no GUI)' { if test x$grub_platform = xpc; then linux_suffix=16; else linux_suffix= ; fi linux$linux_suffix '/bzimage' initrd=/bzroot unraidsafemode initrd$linux_suffix '/bzroot' } menuentry 'Unraid OS GUI Safe Mode (no plugins)' --id 'Unraid OS GUI Safe Mode (no plugins)' { if test x$grub_platform = xpc; then linux_suffix=16; else linux_suffix= ; fi linux$linux_suffix '/bzimage' initrd=/bzroot,/bzroot-gui unraidsafemode initrd$linux_suffix '/bzroot,/bzroot-gui' } menuentry 'Memtest86+' --id 'Memtest86+' { if test x$grub_platform = xpc; then linux_suffix=16; else linux_suffix= ; fi linux$linux_suffix '/'/'/memtest' } Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted January 27, 2023 Share Posted January 27, 2023 33 minutes ago, explosionhole said: but it does not boot from the default installer app / imager. Many users using these servers and don't remember of reading about any boot issues, did you try creating the flash drive manually o using a different one? Stock flash drive install should boot without any issues. Quote Link to comment
explosionhole Posted January 27, 2023 Author Share Posted January 27, 2023 I have tried with a Samsung Bar Plus, Sandisk Cruiser and 2 micro-SD cards (embedded on the mobo). I know it will only boot from the USB2.0 ports, and have tried the external and internal ports. The first time I tried a Ubuntu Live boot was for this purpose - does this thing boot from this device? It did. First time. But it used Grub. The Legacy BIOS approach is the only means I have tried that gets past the initial bootloader. Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 That's very strange, like mentioned it's a very common server that a lot of users have running Unraid, maybe try restoring BIOS to defaults. Quote Link to comment
explosionhole Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 I upgraded the BIOS and firmware as 1st activities when I got this computer. I would expect this to be equivalent to resetting the BIOS. I have tried contacting a couple people who publish threads on this forum or elsewhere on the internet, like the 2nd link I provided above, but without any response. So availing myself to the rest of the technical Unraid community... Can I use Syslinux, not Grub, to create a bootable flash drive for Legacy BIOS? Quote Link to comment
itimpi Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 24 minutes ago, explosionhole said: Can I use Syslinux, not Grub, to create a bootable flash drive for Legacy BIOS? Syslinux is the default boot loader for Unraid Quote Link to comment
explosionhole Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 Just now, itimpi said: Syslinux is the default boot loader for Unraid So no then... Quote Link to comment
itimpi Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 1 minute ago, explosionhole said: So no then... Not sure what you mean? Are you saying that you cannot get your server to boot if syslinux is used? It would always be worth checking the flash drive you create on another system to check that you have correctly set it up to be bootable. Quote Link to comment
explosionhole Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 I think I described this through this thread, and others I have posted. I have tried 4 different devices to boot from. Starting with the default installer, nothing happens because it is UEFI-based. As soon as I put a different bootloader image on there, it booted first time from all these devices. This was the Ubuntu Live installer, and used Grub. While I have not tried on another computer, as I do not have one except RPi's, I think these tests done are sufficient to prove the devices I have are working and have no issue with this computer to boot from. It is purely down to the configuration of Unraid within a Legacy BIOS config to boot the image properly. I was questioning if UEFI equals Syslinux, or if I could still use Syslinux within the Grub config. By your response, I am expecting UEFI === Syslinux. Legacy = Grub... Quote Link to comment
itimpi Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 24 minutes ago, explosionhole said: Starting with the default installer, nothing happens because it is UEFI-based No it is not! The default for Unraid is legacy boot. If you want UEFI boot you have to rename the EFI~ folder to EFI (removing the tilde) and then both UEFI and legacy boot are supported. That is one of the reasons I suggested testing the flash drive on another system - it is not unknown for the standard installer to fail to set the drive bootable (I have no idea why). Quote Link to comment
explosionhole Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 I ran out this past couple hours and bought another Sandisk Cruzer USB2.0 32GB flash drive (so I have 2 of them now. 1 to Ubuntu Linux boot, then I can use Linux environment to create the actual unRAID bootable volume on the 2nd drive). I think I recall another comment that HPE Microserver Gen8 can only boot from the USB2.0 ports, and additionally that USB2.0 drives are also needed. With this, I have followed the manual install instructions for a Linux install as above. I have reflashed this image twice, in response to the installer's question of "UEFI (Y/N)", so I have tested both. It results in: Quote Attempting Boot From USB DriveKey (C:) This is not a bootable disk. Please insert a bootable floppy and press and key to try again... I will now reflash the drive with the combined 2 links at the start of this article. Quote Link to comment
explosionhole Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, itimpi said: No it is not! The default for Unraid is legacy boot. If you want UEFI boot you have to rename the EFI~ folder to EFI (removing the tilde) and then both UEFI and legacy boot are supported. That is one of the reasons I suggested testing the flash drive on another system - it is not unknown for the standard installer to fail to set the drive bootable (I have no idea why). Apologies and thanks for correcting me. When flashing the new USB2.0 device I bought, I did the folder rename step in the manual install guide. At least Grub does boot. I just cannot get it to boot a downloaded unRAID image... But with you suggesting others run unRAID on this hardware. I know historically, USB flash drives can be picky and without reason. But I feel I am trying different models of very commonly used devices in my testing. I simply do not own another physical computer to perform a similar test. Therefore was looking to be informed by tech gurus from the community, particularly those who have this hardware to follow their lead... Edited January 28, 2023 by explosionhole added comment about not owning more hardware Quote Link to comment
itimpi Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 it sounds as if the MakeBootable script (versions for Windows, MacOS and Linux are on the flash drive) has not been successfully run to set up the drive to be bootable in legacy mode. Very difficult to tell if this is the case if it is not possible to test the flash drive in another computer to see if it boots there. Quote Link to comment
Solution explosionhole Posted January 28, 2023 Author Solution Share Posted January 28, 2023 OMG!!! SUCCESS!!! 🎉🎉🎉 #mic-drop! I think it was the use of USB2.0 flash drives to deploy this too, in combination with restricted ability to boot using only the USB2.0 ports. I had to use a Ubuntu Live to boot from, to give me a Linux environment that I could run these commands on. This needed a USB2.0 device. I had previously then been using a USB3.x (tried 3.1 and 3.2, given what I had to hand) to install UNRAID onto. I thought I had booted from one of these USB3.x devices - but I expect I was getting confused with the combinations I had been trying. So re-create the partitions on the USB2.0 device from the `fdisk` commands in the first link. Once the `mkfs.fat` command is issued and the /dev/sdX1 has been labelled as "UNRAID", I switch to the second link, to install Grub. I actually swapped between both guides here actually, and installed all 3 `grub-install` configs (just in case!). Now I have my FIRST booted unRAID running, I now have to learn how to use it! Thanks so much for people's inputs and trying to inform and guide me. It was all appreciated! Quote Link to comment
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