Kernel panic on startup after noticing issues with USB stick, etc.

[SLUGGYJUNX]

I’d like to preface this by saying I’m a bit of a newbie when it comes to a lof of the terminology and technical terms - but I do my best and have spent a good amount of time reading up on possible solutions, but have reached a point where I want to seek some assistance. The gist of the current problem is that I am experiencing a kernel panic when I attempt to boot Unraid. 

 

Background - I set up my Unraid array in an old Dell XPS 420 that I had sitting around from 2007. 

 

Intel® Core2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)

8GB RAM

I added the following for Unraid:

3x 8TB WD Blue drives (1 parity, 2 data)

1x 250 GB Crucial SSD

 

The USB stick used as a boot drive is an older one I had laying around. Not sure of the brand. It’s 2GB capacity. 

 

Another note, since I started exploring Unraid last November I’ve experienced so many problems. The big ones have been unbelievably slow transfer speeds; we're talking in the single digit/double digit kilobytes (I’m mostly transferring files from an old Mac Mini with attached USB drives), failed transfers (I have to babysit all of my file transfers, usually having to reconnect and restart the transfer every few minutes), weirdness with how Unraid sees files (on the Apple a folder will have 100 files but Unraid will see 10,000), login issues, and now this. 

 

I have about 6TB of data to transfer. I started transferring and quickly ran into issues. The transfers would stop randomly and fail/disconnect. Random errors with no clear explanation of why. Login issues trying to connect to the server. Lots of incredibly slow transfers, eventually coming to a complete halt and failing. After a lot of experimentation I sort of figured out that if I transfer into a folder with a lot of files (hundreds, thousands) Unraid or the Mac does not like it and will get exponentially slower, and fail over and over. If I create a new folder, split up the uploads, it will go quickly and more reliably. Problem is, Unraid seemed to struggle with my files - as if instead of a single file it would count it as hundreds of files. I don’t know if this is due to how Apple creates files, or what. All of this was random, but regularly occurring as I tried to transfer my files to the array. I tried installing a new NIC in the Dell, but it wouldn't recognize. The Dell also struggled with SATA drives - sometimes not happy when I'd attach a new one to add to the array, forcing me to remove it and go back to previous arrangements.

 

At some point, despite the issues, back in Jan 2023 decided to buy a license. I can’t recall if I followed the instructions in the email to install the license on the server or not - but we’ll get to that later. 

 

Eventually, this past week, I finished uploading all of my files - enough that I wanted to explore some of the other capabilities of the server, like install Plex. I went to the Apps section on Unraid, found Plex and clicked download. It took me to a Docker page (I think) and it was blank, just with a dropdown that said something like "choose a Template" - but there were no selections. Strange. 

 

I started poking around trying all sorts of different approaches, and realized that something was up. Still relatively clueless. I then noticed that there was an update for Unraid. Oh, cool. So I went to update it and it would fail each time on the install portion. It would download, but then fail each time in one of the next steps. (* I wish I had screenshotted this, but I didn't think to. ) Same failure point each time. 

 

I also noticed that there was a warning that my Trial had expired 2 mo ago. WTF. I registered back on Jan 14. 

 

 

I went looking in my email and found the registration email. It says I have to copy &  paste a URL into the server. I can't recall ever doing this, so let's assume I didn't. Ok, so I thought "I'll do it now." I go on my server, find the place to paste it in, click save. I get this error:

 

I started googling and saw that folks were hinting at a faulty boot drive - the thumb drive. Some folks talk about how it matters what version of Unraid you have when it comes to errors. Recall, when I started this I used an old thumb drive - I believe it's a 2GB drive. Plenty of room for Unraid so I know space wasn't the issue here. Someone said online, if your drive has errors, take it out, plug it into a PC, back it up, and then run CHKDSK on it. So I did this. I shut down the server. I then pulled the thumb drive and inserted it into my PC. I downloaded ImageUSB from Passmark (https://www.osforensics.com/tools/write-usb-images.html) and created a disk image of the USB stick. I then opened a Terminal window and ran it as Administrator. I then ran chkdsk on the USB drive. I then ran chkdsk -f. It told me it found and repaired error(s) (I can't recall which, if any.) Great, I thought. 

 

I ejected the USB and went back to my server, inserted it into a different USB port and turned the machine back on. Mind you, Unraid seemed to be running fine before this, besides the update error and Plex install error I noticed. Everything seems to boot up, and then it goes into a kernel panic. 

 

 

So I moved the USB stick to the slot it was originally in. Booted up, same kernel panic.

 

So I moved it to a front USB port - same panic.

 

I went back upstairs, and got a fresh, new USB stick (16GB, new in box), put it in my PC and using ImageUSB, mounted and installed the Unraid boot disk image on the new USB stick. 

 

I then inserted it in various USB ports on the Unraid machine, rebooting, and getting the same kernel panic error. I reinserted the original USB stick and ran Memtest. I left it running overnight and when I got home from work, it was on pass #9, with 0 errors.

 

I just went down and rebooted. I captured a video of it on my phone. Go to 1:04, set the quality to HD and set your playback speed to 0.25. You can pause and read most of the screen. It scrolls so fast in real time.

 

https://youtu.be/WcRxyjkIFNI?t=64

 

Maybe this helps, maybe not. This is where I get flustered, as I'm really not familiar with Linux.

 

Regarding the license - I don’t know if I installed the key. I can't recall. The screen shot above seems to say I didn't. I understand this can be critical to recovering my thumb drive. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. I’m just hoping that someone might have a hint on a way forward for someone like me who’s not SUPER savvy but is willing to tinker.

 

I’m hoping not to lose the data on the drives. I’m already in the process of purchasing a new PC to replace the old Dell XPS 420 as I’m just sick and tired of it being the potential point of failure for some of the issues I’ve been having. Not saying it is, but a 16-year-old PC is not doing me any favors at this point.

 

Thanks so much and let me know what info I can provide to elaborate.

 

B

[trurl]

Do you have a current backup of the config folder from your flash drive? The config folder is all you need to get going again with your configuration on a new install.

 

Prepare a new install of whatever version on a good flash drive and see if that will boot.

[SLUGGYJUNX]

Thank you for the suggestion! I do. I did not have any issues making an image of the original USB drive, so I appear to have all of those files intact. I've made a new install of Unraid on a brand new thumb drive (16GB) and will attempt the new install tomorrow. (it's late here)

 

Again - thanks. Will report back on how this works out. 

[SLUGGYJUNX]

As I was copying the Config folder from the old to the new USB drive, I got the following error: 

Perhaps a clue. This file is located in config\plugins\dynamix

 

Could this impede the graceful booting?

Edited March 11, 2023 by SLUGGYJUNX
Correction

[trurl]

Did you try to boot the new install before attempting to restore your config?

[SLUGGYJUNX]

OK - circling back - THIS WORKED. First, thank you. 😁

 

I had to jump through a few hoops and I'm still ironing out some of the issues/details. I did what you suggested. Created a new Unraid install on a thumb drive. Copied the Config folder. (I realized that the error above was an anomaly. That file wasn't on the original old USB drive, just an imaged version I was using.)  I plugged it into the PC and it booted right up. I was able to access the server normally, and no errors shown. I think the USB was the culprit. 

 

Looking back, I should have known better. When I was FIRST setting up the USB drive, I tried using the Unraid USB installer exe tool. It failed every time. I eventually had to do a manual install. It was wonky the whole time. I should have thrown that USB in the trash; I just figured it had to do with my old hardware, not that it had an error/issue.

 

Back to the new Unraid install. So everything seems ok. I did have to jump through the hoops to get my License to activate and be happy. This required installing the key, then Replacing the key, which required installing My Servers plugin, logging in, replacing the key (it failed, but when I refreshed it seems relatively happy.) Still getting an error saying "Unraid API Error, CLOUD: Connecting - refresh the page for an updated status" - otherwise, things seem really good. I'm going to inspect the data once I bring the array back online.

 

I can't thank  you enough for your suggestion! I hope this will help others who may have this issue in the future. Will report back if other things crop up. Fingers are crossed. 🤞

[SLUGGYJUNX]

And, FWIW, the "Unraid API Error, CLOUD: Connecting - refresh the page for an updated status" error seems to have cleared itself, for now. I just brought the array back online and things look really good. No issues so far. I'm on cloud nine... thanks again for your help. 🙂

 

21 minutes ago, trurl said:

Did you try to boot the new install before attempting to restore your config?

Not on purpose.  After I created the new USB drive, I restarted the PC (for another reason) and it booted to the USB (of course; imagine my surprise). But I did then copy the Config folder from the old USB to the new USB and plugged it into the Dell XPS420 Unraid machine. This worked, as I posted above.