Have you had any response yet as I have exactly the same issue on the F4 424 Max

 

Thanks

Roy

No real update, other than some basic info passing back to Terramaster support and they are at the stage of 'looking in to it'..:

Quote

Thank you for your addition, we will verify the problem and try to discuss a solution.

 

I suspect Unraid could modify the syslinux boot to help with the compatibility, I have found many syslinux USB UEFI Bootable OS' that all work, it's literally just Slax/Unraid that I can't get to boot cleanly without intervention and both use a similar style of UEFI syslinux boot.. 

This is not limited to Terramaster either, I started finding more and more people having issues with SLAX on various modern (2024) hardware, most just gave up and moved to other distro's.. 

 

I'm not knowledgeable enough to figure it out, I've created some manual GPT+EFI partitions and dropped example syslinux bootx64.efi etc files on and it boots, I've tried the multi-partition NTFS UEFI syslinux boot and that works, but I can't compile syslinux easily (and lack a bit of knowledge!) and I'm just hacking at it, so would need an expert to help!

Edited September 27, 20241 yr by Snubbers

OK looks like stuck with pressing F12 for now and hooked up to monitor. Please advise any fixes they send 

 

thanks

For reference, Unraid is based on Slackware Linux - Not SLAX Linux.    However what the difference (if any) is at the base Linux level I have no idea.

Just picked up a F4-424 MAX today.  Luckily I stumbled on this post.   Could not understand why the system wouldn't boot without going into the BIOS first.  Following this thread.

I’ve also been running into this same problem on my F6-424 Max that I recently bought. Hopefully a fix is found. 

Have copied the email and sent to Terramaster, fingers crossed they sort this for us

I sent my own finely crafted email to their support.  Hoping I don't have to return this unit.  Its the perfect box for my installation needs.

I finally got mine up and booting but I have to go into the BIOS and do a boot override to get it to boot Unraid. I even took the other little usb key out of the mobo and that didn't seem to matter. Hopefully I don't have a power failure anytime soon 🤪

One interesting aside on this -- I recently started having a similar problem on an Asus Prime Z790-P Wifi board after I applied a BIOS update. I haven't had time to play with it much, but I've run into the "black screen" several times, with the server then booting after I open the BIOS settings.

I have also looked at the Terramaster forums but cant seem to find this mentioned anywhere. Is anyone aware of any other forums where this is being investigated?

 

Thanks

Roy

Is there a USB distro or tool that we could use to boot into UnRAID in the interim?  Basically have two USB sticks and the first one tells the system to use the 2nd UnRAID stick.  I need to install this headless, unfortunately.

On 10/1/2024 at 6:13 PM, Griminal said:

Is there a USB distro or tool that we could use to boot into UnRAID in the interim?  Basically have two USB sticks and the first one tells the system to use the 2nd UnRAID stick.  I need to install this headless, unfortunately.

You could use Proxmox and install Unraid as VM.. 

 

You can create USB Multi-boot UEFI setups with syslinux (same as Unraid uses), there are guides online, so that might be an option worth experimenting with.

 

 

 

I am also facing this issue with the F6-424 MAX .  I used rufus to format the drive and then used the newest version of the usb creation tool.  Still can't get system to reboot without manually going into the bios.  I saw an option called TOS boot.  Thinking this was specifically for TerraMaster I went ahead and disabled it but still no boot. 

Since we're all using the terramaster I was wondering if others wanted to disclose the type of usb they are using and size?  If they have it installed in the internal usb slot? if they used the current unraid usb creation tool 

I'm using the samsung flash drive fit plus 64GB https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D7P4SY4?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 installed internally.  I used the unraid USB creation tool and made sure I ran the makeboot command.  The drive worked flawlessly in my HP omen and HP miniserver Gen8 so I know it's a good bootable drive.  

6 hours ago, OLD SALTY CRAB said:

I'm using the samsung flash drive fit plus 64GB 

I'm using a 32GB Samsung Fit drive.  I used the UnRAID tool to create it.  In my troubleshooting, I took a known good USB2 with UnRAID on it running on a MicroServer Gen8 and tried to use that to boot into the F4-424 Max...  no resolution.  I still had to go into the BIOS first.

Hi

I also bought a new Terramaster F6-424 Max for unRaid server. Unfortunately, now I need to press F12 to boot into unRaid OS.

I have been using the same SanDisk Ultra Fit 16GB for the past decade. My old server boots unRaid without problems from the same USB drive.

TerraMaster F6-424 Max successfully boots Ventoy USB and Linux Mint DE from it. Whatever Ventoy did to boot, unRaid needs to fix on its boot installation.

Has anyone tried unRaid 7 beta if it successfully boots on Terramaster 424 MAX? I am afraid to experiment with beta software on my only server.

Hopefully, the problem will be solved soon.

 

Edited October 3, 20241 yr by harti

I've tried loads of USB options in all sockets, using fresh installs of Unraid (Manual + Creator Tool) of both latest 6.12. x and also the new 7 beta.

 

All USB Ports:

Motherboard USB

2 x USB 3 ports

1 x USB C Port (using a USB-C to USB-A cable to allow me to plug in the USB Sticks)

 

Memory Sticks

*Innovation 8GB USB 2

Sandisk Cruzer 4Gb USB 2

Kingston Data Traveller 8GB USB 2 

*Sandisk Ultra Fit 3.0 15GB

*Sandisk Ultra Fit 3.1 32GB

Samsung Fit 64GB

* Tried these on internal USB socket

 

Basically everything does not boot..

IMHO it must be an incompatibility between BIOS and the specific syslinux flavour/Single partition UEFI Boot that Unraid uses. The only other Distro that I can't boot in the exact same way is SLAX, this uses the same syslinux style and very similar files for the boot. I can boot Slackware (which as I've now been corrected, Unraid does share some things with), but they use Grub as the bootloader, and that boots fine..

 

It has to be syslinux/single partition UEFI setup because we don't even get the menu up, so nothing to do with Unraids image..

 

 

I've not heard anything back from Terramaster since Friday, but that might be good thing because they said they'd confirm and get back about testing Unraid.. obviously they will run in to the same issue, I just hope they have the appetite to fix it! 

UEFI can be fickle, some BIOS' require the initial directories/files to be all uppercase (I've tried that!) and I get the feeling there are many workarounds done at the BIOS and MBR/UEFI level going by all the issues people have had over the years.
 

 

Edited October 3, 20241 yr by Snubbers

On 9/27/2024 at 8:47 AM, Snubbers said:

No real update, other than some basic info passing back to Terramaster support and they are at the stage of 'looking in to it'..:

 

I suspect Unraid could modify the syslinux boot to help with the compatibility, I have found many syslinux USB UEFI Bootable OS' that all work, it's literally just Slax/Unraid that I can't get to boot cleanly without intervention and both use a similar style of UEFI syslinux boot.. 

This is not limited to Terramaster either, I started finding more and more people having issues with SLAX on various modern (2024) hardware, most just gave up and moved to other distro's.. 

 

I'm not knowledgeable enough to figure it out, I've created some manual GPT+EFI partitions and dropped example syslinux bootx64.efi etc files on and it boots, I've tried the multi-partition NTFS UEFI syslinux boot and that works, but I can't compile syslinux easily (and lack a bit of knowledge!) and I'm just hacking at it, so would need an expert to help!

Have you tried creating an nsh file in root of boot.

 

I use this for a msata device i have to boot a test vm on unraid.

 

root@GUITest:~# cat /boot/startup.nsh 
\EFI\boot\bootx64.efi

1 hour ago, SimonF said:

Have you tried creating an nsh file in root of boot.

 

I use this for a msata device i have to boot a test vm on unraid.

 

root@GUITest:~# cat /boot/startup.nsh 
\EFI\boot\bootx64.efi

 

I'm just in the middle of a final parity check after replacing 3 disks with larger ones, but will give that a go when its finished!

1 hour ago, SimonF said:

Have you tried creating an nsh file in root of boot.

 

I use this for a msata device i have to boot a test vm on unraid.

 

root@GUITest:~# cat /boot/startup.nsh 
\EFI\boot\bootx64.efi

I just tried that.  No love unfortunately.

I've also tried running the syslinux.exe to recreate the MBR with the slow option, and also the raid option with no luck.

It could be the bootx64.efi is the issue, its clearly running something as the screen goes black, or in some cases the BIOS splash (Need to disable 'quiet mode' in the BIOS to see the splash screen) just hangs, it if didn't detect any bootable entity/try to execute something it would go directly in to the BIOS if that was the only boot option which it doesn't.

 

I've also experimented with the TOS Boot option, basically replacing the internal USB with an Unraid USB drive, then enabled the TOS Boot does nothing.. The TOS Boot USB is not a normal UEFI Fat32 architecture either.

I was able to get my F6-424 Max to auto boot straight into unraid by editing the first line in the /syslinux/syslinux.cfg to be:

default Unraid OS

 

This does however make it skip over the boot loader selection menu all together though, so i guess it might be slightly inconvenient if for whatever reason you were in a situation where you needed to boot into the GUI Mode or Safe Mode. You would have to go back into the usb and edit the line again.

Im not really familiar with syslinux or bootloaders at all to know if there is any better work around at the moment though.

I guess something about that bootloader menu it doesn't seem to like auto booting into it.

 

Edited October 4, 20241 yr by Piece

10 minutes ago, Piece said:

I was able to get my F6-424 Max to auto boot straight into unraid by editing the first line in the /syslinux/syslinux.cfg to be:

default Unraid OS

 

This does however make it skip over the boot loader selection menu all together though, so i guess it might be slightly inconvenient if for whatever reason you were in a situation where you needed to boot into the GUI Mode or Safe Mode. You would have to go back into the usb and edit the line again.

Im not really familiar with syslinux or bootloaders at all to know if there is any better work around at the moment though.

 

This is the way.  CONFIRMED!!!!  Thank you.  I knew it had to be something simple.

Edited October 4, 20241 yr by Griminal

I can confirm that this workaround works. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to address this issue; I really appreciate it. I've also opened a ticket with TerraMaster support and made them aware of this thread and the workaround. Hopefully, a long-term solution will be found soon.

 

I'm new to Unraid and was wondering if there's a risk that a future update could modify the first line in `/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg`, potentially preventing the system from automatically booting into the OS after an upgrade/reboot cycle?