Hey guys. Need someelp here.

I'm building a LinuxMCE core server but before I install LinuxMCE I thought I'd try Unraid on the system to add to the hardware wiki. Here's the specs of the system.

 

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R mobo

Intel E4500

1 Gb corsair RAM

 

Here are the steps i have taken.

 

1.Powered down current working Unraid server (Abit AB9 Pro).

2.re-formatted USB with fresh copy Unraid on it.

3.USB failed to bootup on new system.

4. I went into Bios disabled everything not needed.

5.Enables all sorts of USB-Ff, USB-ZIP, USB HDD on startup

6.Made sure the Sandisk USB was before the HD in the startup list

 

*Note* I flashed the BIOS to the latest one using the USB stick. So i know that the BIOS can recognise and read from USB. I figure there is a special combination of BIOS settings/USB files I need for this mobo to boot it properly.

 

I'm stuck. Anyone have some insight?

You might try using the HP tool to format the flash drive

and/or

you might try using the --ma option to the syslinux command to write a master boot record and mark it as bootable.

 

syslinux -ma x:

 

Hey Joe. Thanks. I was trying those switches as a last ditch effort before your post and it worked. You are very wise. What do  you do for a living?

 

Unfortunately 4.2.1 and 4.2.3 hangs at loading bzroot.....

 

Suggestion?

 

Why doesn't Tom make those switches a default? Might save some guys a headache 

Hey Sparkie, I am using this same board. I switched after having problems with the last two sata ports on the AB9 Pro. I changed the bios to boot from flash and everything worked fine. I am running 9 drives (sata, 8 onboard and 1 on a promise 4 port pci card), Core 2 E6550, and 2 Gb of ram. The only problem I had is the onboard NIC does not work, but I hope that is resolved with version 4.3 of Unraid

Why doesn't Tom make those switches a default? Might save some guys a headache 

 

Tom did not write syslinux.

However it would be wise to update the documentation to include them as part of the install process.

 

Okay. I've found something out. UnRAID 4.0 works fine with the above setup.It loads and I can add drives. Any version of Unraid above that (4.2.1 + 4.2.3) causes unraid to freeze at the bzroot loading....Telling me something in the newest software releases is causing incompatibilities with the motherboard.

 

Tom?

Sparkie, I forgot to mention, i am running version 4.2.3 of unraid and was running 4.2.1 before that. Ive been running this board for about 3 weeks now without any problems. I'll try to hook up a monitor and check bios ver. and bios settings and let you know what they are.

 

Gary T.

You can try adding noapic and nolapic to the end of the config line in syslinux.cfg. The kernel version changed between 4.0 and 4.1, so who knows.

 

In syslinux.cfg on your flash drive, change the line from

append initrd=bzroot rootdelay=10

 

to

append initrd=bzroot rootdelay=10 nolapic noapic

 

The motherboard works with 4.3 Beta1. Thanks Tom. And thank you everyone else for helping me out, I learned things with your suggestions.

Now that it works. Here is what I like about this board....

 

8 Sata ports Onboard. (6 Intel 2 Gigabyte)

3 PCI-E

3 PCI

matx (smaller)

LAN is going through PCI-E bus (faster)

Gigabyte uses high quality capacitors and such for reliability

 

I'll be updating the wiki after a week of stress testing.

 

This case is closed.

 

That's great news Sparkie!

Are you using the onboard lan connection or a PCI-X network card?

Note: PCI-X is NOT the same as PCI-E.....

 

gnollo,

 

I'm using this same board. The onboard lan works with unraid 4.3 beta1.

 

Gary T.

Thanks Gary, I have upgraded to the latest beta version, so hopefully I will be able to use the onboard lan too.

I have disabled the onboard LAN in the machine and am using a PCI-E Intel Pro 1000 NIC. I use the intel NIC's in all my linux machines,They work,are fast, are reliable.

Just noticed I have bought a different Gigabyte, the GA-G33-DS3R.

Installed, working fine with the onboard Lan. Using all 8 sata ports on the mboard, and 2 slots of the expansion card.

Only thing is, I cannot power it on using the power switch on the back of the PC (I removed the case power on plate to be able to fit 15 drives).

Right now using the "power on by keboard" function. Maybe that is even easier ;-) but just curious if anyone has figured out how to use the on-off power switch at the back.

BTW only using a 512 MB DIMM2 stick.

Just noticed I have bought a different Gigabyte, the GA-G33-DS3R.

Installed, working fine with the onboard Lan. Using all 8 sata ports on the mboard, and 2 slots of the expansion card.

Only thing is, I cannot power it on using the power switch on the back of the PC (I removed the case power on plate to be able to fit 15 drives).

Right now using the "power on by keboard" function. Maybe that is even easier ;-) but just curious if anyone has figured out how to use the on-off power switch at the back.

BTW only using a 512 MB DIMM2 stick.

My motherboard has a bios feature that will auto-power on the server when power is applied. 

That is what is enabled on my server (it also has the power switch removed for the same reason... to fit a 12th drive in the cabinet)

 

After shutting down, to power up, I simply need to power off for a few seconds by the switch on the power supply, then turn power back on.

 

See if your motherboard has a similar option to power itself up on restore of power.

 

If I lose power, the server automatically reboots when power is restored.

 

Joe L.

Hi

 

I just built my new tower using this motherboard. It is working fine now but for some reason hard drives are not spinning down. I curently have 5 hard drives  connected through MOBO's sata ports. I have pro version and have selected spin down time as  1 hr. Do I need to make any changes in BIOS as well?

Also couple hrs ago it stopped booting from USB - stopped recognising unRAID USB stick all of a sudden. I reset the BIOS and it started recognising again. Is this a recurrent problem with this MOBO??

 

thanks

mani

Hi

 

I just built my new tower using this motherboard. It is working fine now but for some reason hard drives are not spinning down. I curently have 5 hard drives  connected through MOBO's sata ports. I have pro version and have selected spin down time as  1 hr. Do I need to make any changes in BIOS as well?

Also couple hrs ago it stopped booting from USB - stopped recognising unRAID USB stick all of a sudden. I reset the BIOS and it started recognising again. Is this a recurrent problem with this MOBO??

 

thanks

mani

Many hard disks will not spin down until they have gone through one power cycle.  Have you powered down your server since you built it and got it running?

 

Joe L.

Yes Joe I have powered it down at least 2-3 times after it started running . This is the 3rd cycle... an hour will be over in about 5-10 minutes . I will check again and see if hard drives spin down this time

 

thanks

 

Sometimes I have to use the spin up / spin down buttons once or twice, then they start working correctly.