[SOLVED] Web interface not starting on boot

[Ambrotos]

Brand new install here, running 5.0b14. The problem I'm having is that the web interface isn't starting when I reboot the unRAID machine. If I login via Telnet and start the process, it seems to run just fine though. For example:

 

Tower login: root
Linux 3.1.1-unRAID.
root@Tower:~# ps -ef | grep emhttp
root      1174  1160  0 18:01 pts/0    00:00:00 grep emhttp
root@Tower:~# cd /usr/local/sbin
root@Tower:/usr/local/sbin# nohup emhttp &
[1] 1175
root@Tower:/usr/local/sbin# nohup: ignoring input and appending output to `nohup.out'
ps -ef | grep emhttp
root      1175  1160  0 18:02 pts/0    00:00:00 emhttp
root      1212  1160  0 18:02 pts/0    00:00:00 grep emhttp
root@Tower:/usr/local/sbin#

 

Attached is my syslog. I notice many messages in there about "flash device not mounted" and "Error reading /boot/config/super.dat". Could this be a problem with by flash drive? Could it be an installation problem?

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Andrew

syslog.txt

[Ambrotos]

A quick update. I've purchased a Plus license, and it's not activating properly. As per the instructions, I shutdown the server, plug the flash into my desktop, copy the Plus.key file into the /config directory, and then boot the server. The flash still shows as unregistered, and the /boot/config directory is empty.

 

I imagine this is another symptom of the same problem described above, so now I'm even MORE anxious to resolve it

 

Andrew

[dgaschk]

Run checkdisk on your flash in a PC.

[Ambrotos]

Didn't find any problems...

 

C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk f: /R
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume UNRAID created 27/12/2011 1:08 PM
Volume Serial Number is EA98-B4CA
Windows is verifying files and folders...
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows is verifying free space...
Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

1,004,789,760 bytes total disk space.
       16,384 bytes in 1 hidden files.
        4,096 bytes in 1 folders.
   76,587,008 bytes in 15 files.
  928,178,176 bytes available on disk.

        4,096 bytes in each allocation unit.
      245,310 total allocation units on disk.
      226,606 allocation units available on disk.

C:\Windows\system32>

[dgaschk]

How are you rebooting?

[Ambrotos]

I've tried resets and shutdowns. Either way it's always initiated via the shutdown/reset buttons on unRAID's web GUI. I don't think it's related to the way I'm restarting though, as the emhttp daemon never started properly, even on first power-up after immediately after having programmed the flash.

 

Andrew

[Joe L.]

I've tried resets and shutdowns. Either way it's always initiated via the shutdown/reset buttons on unRAID's web GUI. I don't think it's related to the way I'm restarting though, as the emhttp daemon never started properly, even on first power-up after immediately after having programmed the flash.

 

Andrew

It sounds as if your flash drive is not mounting.  unRAID uses the volume label to mount the flash drive as /boot

 

To do this, it required the volume label to be UNRAID

(exactly 6 letters, all capital)

 

To see if it is mounted, type:

mount

 

 

If the config folder is not populated with a file named "go' then that is why your server is not starting itself.

The "emhttp" command is invoked from the config/go script.

 

so...

 

reboot.

do NOT start the emhttp process yourself.

see if the flash drive is mounted.  If not, that is the cause of your issues.

 

See if the flash drive has the correct volume label.  It not, that is why it is not mounted.

To see the drives by llabel, type:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-label

 

The output should look something like this:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-label

total 0

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 26 09:06 UNRAID -> ../../sda1

[/color]

[Ambrotos]

Joe,

 

Yes, the volume label of my flash is exactly 'UNRAID'.

 

Here's the output of the commands you suggested. I think we can conclude that the flash is not being mounted properly, as I don't see any reference to /boot. I suppose the question now is why. This is a very basic machine -- 1 SATA HD, 1 SATA DVD, 1 USB flash, and KVM. I wouldn't have thought there'd be anything to conflict.

 

Tower login: root
Linux 3.1.1-unRAID.
root@Tower:~# mount
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
root@Tower:~# ls -l /dev/disk/by-label
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2011-12-28 18:01 System\\x20Reserved -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2011-12-28 18:01 UNRAID -> ../../sdb1
root@Tower:~#

 

So my flash is detected as sdb1, and we can see that it's labeled properly. Any suggestions how to figure out why it's not mounting?

 

Andrew

[Joe L.]

Joe,

 

Yes, the volume label of my flash is exactly 'UNRAID'.

 

Here's the output of the commands you suggested. I think we can conclude that the flash is not being mounted properly, as I don't see any reference to /boot. I suppose the question now is why. This is a very basic machine -- 1 SATA HD, 1 SATA DVD, 1 USB flash, and KVM. I wouldn't have thought there'd be anything to conflict.

 

Tower login: root
Linux 3.1.1-unRAID.
root@Tower:~# mount
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
root@Tower:~# ls -l /dev/disk/by-label
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2011-12-28 18:01 System\\x20Reserved -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2011-12-28 18:01 UNRAID -> ../../sdb1
root@Tower:~#

 

So my flash is detected as sdb1, and we can see that it's labeled properly. Any suggestions how to figure out why it's not mounting?

 

Andrew

Well... it is not mounting, so I can ask you to try a few more commands to mount it manually.

 

You say you have only one disk, yet I see two labeled partitions.  What is the "System Reserved" labeled partition?  If it is a second partition on the flash drive, it might need to be removed.

 

let's see what is at /boot

type

ls -al /boot

(it should be an empty directory if the flash drive is not mounted)

 

Then, if empty, try:

mount -L UNRAID /boot

 

[Ambrotos]

Joe,

 

The HD in the system used to be a windows drive. Windows 7 creates a small 100MB partition called "System Reserved" during installation for boot files. You'll notice that System Reserved is on sda whereas my flash is sdb.

 

Here are the contents on /boot. As you can see, it's not quite entirely empty. I also listed the contents of /boot after having mounted the flash.

 

root@Tower:/# ls -al /boot
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 0 2011-10-27 22:32 ./
drwxr-xr-x 16 root root 0 2011-10-27 22:32 ../
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 0 2011-10-27 22:32 config/
root@Tower:/# ls -al /boot/config
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 2011-10-27 22:32 ./
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 0 2011-10-27 22:32 ../
root@Tower:/# mount -L UNRAID /boot
root@Tower:/# ls -al /boot
total 74792
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root     4096 1970-01-01 00:00 ./
drwxr-xr-x 16 root root        0 2011-10-27 22:32 ../
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  2567072 2011-11-25 09:40 bzimage*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 73726096 2011-11-25 09:41 bzroot*
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root     4096 2011-12-27 13:09 config/
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root root    13639 2011-12-27 13:10 ldlinux.sys*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root     5162 2011-11-25 09:41 license.txt*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root      781 2011-11-25 09:41 make_bootable.bat*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   165080 2011-11-25 09:41 memtest*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root    33404 2011-11-25 09:41 menu.c32*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root    13579 2011-11-25 09:41 readme.txt*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root      183 2011-11-25 09:41 syslinux.cfg*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root    27136 2011-11-25 09:41 syslinux.exe*
root@Tower:/#

 

 

[prostuff1]

So do you have this installed on a USB drive or a hard drive?

 

Either way you are going to have to wipe the drive entirely and remove that "system recovery" partition.  Once that is done you should be able to reinstall unRAID and you should be good to go.

[Ambrotos]

unRAID has been installed as per the instructions here http://lime-technology.com/support/unraid-server-installation.

 

It is installed on a flash with a single FAT32 partition, detected as sdb. There is also a single SATA (sda) hard drive in the system. It happens to have previously been used as a windows 7 system drive, so it has 2 partitions: one 100MB boot partition labeled "system reserved" and one 300GB NTFS partition that's not shown (probably because UNRAID doesn't support NTFS out of the box).

 

Is your recommendation then that all drives newly inserted into an UNRAID box must be completely blank of partitions, or it will cause UNRAID to fail to boot? If so I'll certainly give that a try, but it seems like a pretty glaring weakness. If UNRAID is mounting based on volume label, I don't see why a partition on a separate drive with no label conflict is causing it problems.

 

Andrew

[prostuff1]

unRAID has been installed as per the instructions here http://lime-technology.com/support/unraid-server-installation.

 

It is installed on a flash with a single FAT32 partition, detected as sdb. There is also a single SATA (sda) hard drive in the system. It happens to have previously been used as a windows 7 system drive, so it has 2 partitions: one 100MB boot partition labeled "system reserved" and one 300GB NTFS partition that's not shown (probably because UNRAID doesn't support NTFS out of the box).

 

Is your recommendation then that all drives newly inserted into an UNRAID box must be completely blank of partitions, or it will cause UNRAID to fail to boot? If so I'll certainly give that a try, but it seems like a pretty glaring weakness. If UNRAID is mounting based on volume label, I don't see why a partition on a separate drive with no label conflict is causing it problems.

 

Andrew

 

What kind of flash drive is it?

[Ambrotos]

A 1Gig Memorex TravelDrive.

 

Andrew

[prostuff1]

A 1Gig Memorex TravelDrive.

 

Andrew

 

Try unplugging all but the flash drive and see what happens.

[Ambrotos]

I unplugged all but the flash drive. Exact same behavior.

 

Tower login: root
Linux 3.1.1-unRAID.
root@Tower:~#
root@Tower:~#
root@Tower:~#
root@Tower:~# ls -l /dev/disk/by-label/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2011-12-30 21:52 UNRAID -> ../../sda1
root@Tower:~#

[dgaschk]

Use a spare flash (or backup to one you have) and prepare a clean install.

[Ambrotos]

This IS a clean install. As I said in my original post, all I've done is followed these installation instructions, and nothing else. http://lime-technology.com/support/unraid-server-installation

 

As a test, I took the flash to my father's house and booted his existing UNRAID server with my flash stick. It works perfectly fine in his machine. It boots, mounts the flash, starts emhttp.

 

The problem is not with my flash. The problem is a result of some compatibility issue between my server hardware and the UNRAID software. Is there nothing in the syslog I attached to my first post that might give us a clue? If not, can I increase the logging level to provide more information? Is there another log that would be helpful?

 

Andrew

[prostuff1]

As a test, I took the flash to my father's house and booted his existing UNRAID server with my flash stick. It works perfectly fine in his machine. It boots, mounts the flash, starts emhttp.

That’s fine, but please still try a different flash, preferably a different brand name.  Unless I missed this somewhere this is the first you have told us about having booted it on a different machine.

 

The problem is not with my flash.

Not necessarily, but you are probably correct.

 

The problem is a result of some compatibility issue between my server hardware and the UNRAID software.

Probably correct, though more a hardware issue than an unRAID one I believe.

 

Is there nothing in the syslog I attached to my first post that might give us a clue? If not, can I increase the logging level to provide more information? Is there another log that would be helpful?

There is not extra logging, everything is already in the syslog from the start.  I would see about updating the BIOS on your motherboard, and then disabling any USB type stuff if the BIOS update does not work.  See if slowing the boot down helps at all.

 

As a last resort I would find the HP USB Utility for reformatting USB drives and try giving that guy a go.  Do a search to find what I am talking about.  Search the unRAID wiki if you need to.

[Ambrotos]

It's the first I've mentioned trying the flash in another machine because I only did the test yesterday afternoon.

 

I'll give another flash and give it a try today. I almost hope it doesn't work either though, because as I mentioned I've already purchased a Plus license for this one. I got the impression that licenses were non-transferable. Do you think Tom would be amenable to re-generating my key if a different flash works?

 

As I understand it, the HP USB utility is used primarily when you're unable to create a bootable flash drive using the standard windows format utility. This isn't my problem. My flash drive is bootable, in that my PC recognizes the flash drive's MBR, and properly executes the boot sector. In other words, Linux loads. Just because it doesn't load properly doesn't mean my flash stick isn't "bootable".

 

Anyway, I'll report back on the flash stick and BIOS tweaks later today.

 

Andrew

[prostuff1]

Cool, sounds good!!

 

The HP utility is kind of a last resort... but it can't hurt.

 

By the USB stuff in my previous post I specifically meant an USB 2.0 type features.  If there is USB 1.1 settings try those.  It is worth a shot.

[Ambrotos]

OK, so... updates:

 

That’s fine, but please still try a different flash, preferably a different brand name.

 

I tried again with a 8GB Patriot XT, with the exact same results. No dice. I also (just on a whim) tried booting UNRAID 4.7 since I realize the current 5.0 is technically a beta. No difference there either.

 

I would see about updating the BIOS on your motherboard, and then disabling any USB type stuff if the BIOS update does not work.

 

The BIOS is now the most current available from Lenovo. I poked around in the BIOS, there's not much configuration available for USB. You can disable individual USB ports, or enable/disable Legacy support. I tried disabling legacy, but that just made my keyboard fail to detect. No dice here either.

 

As a last resort I would find the HP USB Utility for reformatting USB drives and try giving that guy a go.

 

Tried this too. No difference.

 

 

It seems to me that once we get to "last resort", we're out of ideas. Am I wrong? What are the next steps here?

 

If I were to give direct telnet access to my UNRAID server, would someone with more experience with the software be willing to log in an poke around? Maybe I'm missing something simple?

 

Andrew

[prostuff1]

Your pretty much are at the end here, I can't think of anything else.

 

Can we get a complete hardware breakdown.

 

Are you using the USB ports on the back of the motherboard or the USB headers on the motherboard?

 

 

The only other thing I can think to try is a USB PCI card and trying to use that to boot from.

[Ambrotos]

Can we get a complete hardware breakdown.

 

The system is a Lenovo M90p, details here: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product-and-parts/detail.page?DocID=PD005445

 

I know, probably not your typical server hardware. I'm using it because I had it handy, it's compact, low wattage, more than enough horsepower, and with the low-profile SATA PCI card I have (not yet installed) I can get about 6TB of storage out of it.

 

Are you using the USB ports on the back of the motherboard or the USB headers on the motherboard?

 

Front panel USB port, so MB headers. Since you asked I've tried using one of the rear ports. No change.

 

Andrew

 

[prostuff1]

I am pretty much out of ideas at this point... besides trying the HP utility and the like I mentioned above.

 

After that... buy a different motherboard...