I just upgraded to Unraid 7.3.0 and setup Internal boot. I set it up as two mirrored volumes with boot + data partitions.

Ran into a bunch of problems with failure errors on setting up the internal boot using the onboarding wizard.

Did this several times with various degrees of failure but one with a message that errors occurred but probably OK, recommend reboot.

Did that and it booted up via flash. I had previously set the boot to the internal boot volume in my bios, but it booted up on the flash drive.

Shud down the server and gave up on internal boot and set the bios back to the USB Flash drive instead of the internal boot drive.

Rebooted and I was shocked to see the server booting up on the internal hard drives (2 in the pool).

Surprised to say the least. Below is what the system shows now. Note that after booting up on internal, brought the array back online and formatted the data volumes as seen below.

Server came up and Internal boot was in fact working as shown above. But I don't trust it. Don't see anything under the Boot Pool: See following:

As can be seen above the Pool shows 'flash' and HEALTH as "ONLINE" and datasets as 'boot'.

So what am I booted up on???

What should I do here? Am I reading this wrong?

The Unraid flash device is showing under unassigned devices as shown below:

So don't know what to do now. Keep the config as is or revert to the Unraid flash drive.

Thoughts?

BTW, my motherboard is an ASRock X399 Gaming running a 16 Core Threadripper.

It has "AMD fTPM Switch" with comment "Use this to enable or disable AMD CPU fTPM."

Enabled this in bios and went to Tools/Registration but no option for "Move License to TPM", just "Manage Licence".

Was not going to do this at this time but wanted to see if it was compatible.

Does anyone know if Unraid 7.3.0 is compatible with AMD fTPM? Looks like it is not as I think this is attached to the CPU and not the motherboard?

Any comments or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Sparkie

This is the boot pool, these two disks, if those are the one you wanted to use, it's correct.

4 hours ago, Sparkie said:

Does anyone know if Unraid 7.3.0 is compatible with AMD fTPM?

It is. Post the diagnosis to confirm a TPM device is not being detected, or if it is but there'sa problem..

OK, Thanks for your quick response. Very much appreciated.

Looks like I have success on internal boot.

Will check the bios of my motherboard to determine boot settings for clarity.

So, should anything show up under Main/Boot pool ? I remember watching Ed's video on "The Uncast Show" and he had something listed there but the Heading was slightly different.

I wonder if he was running a beta version when he did that video and maybe a slight change in the final release 7.3.0 stable. Mine is empty. See attached image.

Now if can get fTPM working. I will double check the setting in the Bios although I am almost 100% certain it is enabled.

Here are the diagnostics.

Cheers,

Sparkie

tower-diagnostics-20260516-0957.zip

Confirmed that fTPM is enabled on the Mobo Bios.

Boot settings confirmed, looks like Hdd boot takes priority over USB boot.

Cheers,

Sparkie

The HDD boot priority taking over USB boot is actually the problem, not the solution.

Your system is booting from spinning hard drives -- the two Seagate 4TB drives (sda and sdd). These are mechanical hard drives, not NVMe or SSD.

Spinning hard drives are not appropriate internal boot devices and should never be used for this purpose.

Your NVMe drives are all committed to your cache pool and were unavailable to the wizard. Rather than refusing to proceed the wizard used whatever was available -- your spinning drives.

Before anything else please answer these two questions:

1. What were those two Seagate 4TB drives (sda and sdd) before you ran the wizard? Array drives? Empty drives?

2. You mentioned formatting the data volumes on them after booting -- did they contain any data before that formatting happened?

This is the most important question in this thread right now. Everything else -- fTPM, boot pool display, BIOS settings -- can wait until we know whether any data was lost on those drives.

Thanks for your response. Answers below.

1. Originally they were in the array and used for two parity drives. I upgraded those two parity drives to 2 - 8tb replacing the two 4tb drives. So there is no data of any importance on those drives.

2. They were parity drives so I would assume they were filled with parity data. I did not wipe them assuming the onboarding wizard would clear them out.

So when the onboarding wizard finished and rebooted the server the two 4tb drives were listed as available and needed a format (specifically the "bootdata" partition, which I proceeded to do.

I do have a 512GB SSD as shown on the previous posted image which I could repurpose for internal boot. Would like a 2nd 512GB but they are crazy expensive now.

I assume from your comment that I should probably delete the hdd boot pool and go back to the USB Flash Drive?

I will not do this yet until I see if I can rustle up another 512GB SSD that I might have stashed somewhere and await further instructions on how to properly do this. The USB Flash Drive is still plugged into the server for Licencing purposes.

Cheers,

Sparkie

Great -- no important data lost.

Your path forward is actually straightforward now.

The SPCC 512GB SSD (sdm) showing in your unassigned devices is exactly what you should be using for internal boot -- an SSD, not spinning hard drives.

If you can find a second 512GB SSD a mirrored boot pool would be a better setup and is strongly recommended.

A single unmirrored internal boot drive is a single point of failure for both your boot configuration and any data partition on the same drive.

Suggested steps:

1. Stop the array

2. Remove the current internal boot configuration from the spinning drives -- this means going back to USB boot temporarily

3. Once back on USB boot cleanly, run the internal boot wizard again with the SPCC SSD as the target device

4. If you find a second SSD configure a mirrored boot pool

On the USB flash drive -- keep it plugged in. You're right that it's still needed for licensing since you haven't moved to TPM.

It's also your safety net during this transition.

On fTPM -- first generation Threadripper fTPM is genuinely problematic.

If you want TPM licensing eventually a discrete TPM module in your board's SPI header is the right approach -- but that's a separate conversation once your boot setup is sorted correctly.

Hey Loligh:

Thanks for the great advice.

Luckily I came up with a second SSD which was installed in the case but not plugged into my Mobo on my Windows 11 PC.

So given that great news I will proceed as recommended and report back.

Yeah, I take your point on the fTPM. I read somewhere that should I upgrade the bios on the server mobo I would most likely have licencing issues.

So the SPI header solution is probably the way to go.

So I will report back here once I get everything sorted with the SSD internal boot.

Cheers,

Sparkie

One thing worth doing before you run the wizard again: make a fresh backup of your /config folder from the USB flash drive to a Windows machine.

Given the wizard's behavior last time having a clean known good config backup before you start is good insurance.

Thanks, will do.

Sparkie

oK, as per your instructions I have reconfigured the server to boot of the mirrored ssd's.

See below:

I chose not to incorporate a data component to the boot pool, just boot only. Not much space to really justify.

But I am seeing under pool devices the following;

Don't know if Device 'bootdata' was a leftover from the old configuration, no big deal to leave it alone I would assume. Here are the properties:

Assume that this might be a leftover from previously but did not want to delete just in case. If this is a leftover then I can delete if you recommend.

The Unraid USB Flash Drive is showing under Unassigned Disk Devices.

Here is the message list from the Onboarding Wizard:

The wizard tried to modify the bios (I assume to the mobo bios) but showing failed, but checking the bios it was successful.

Here was what was automatically configured: (Maybe the mobo saw the two new 'hdd' boot devices and automatically added them?)

Anyway it's working just fine.

Boot Option #1 - 1st SSD

Boot Option #2 - 2nd SSD

Boot Option #3 - USB Flash Drive

The TPM licence move option is not showing under Registration, so TPM is not working.

So can't go any further there at this point.

Cheers,

Sparkie

ps. There was no continuation of the Onboarding Wizard after reboot under internal boot. Don't know if that was supposed to happen. I assume not.

Good result -- mirrored SSDs as the boot pool is exactly the right configuration.

On the Bootdata pool -- yes it's a leftover from the previous failed wizard attempts.

Since it shows No device and 0KB partition size you can safely remove it.

Click on Bootdata, scroll to the bottom of its properties page and click REMOVE POOL. Nothing will be lost.

On the efibootmgr failures -- these are normal on many motherboards.

The UEFI handled the boot entry update itself which is why your boot order shows the two SSDs correctly despite the wizard reporting failures.

This is a known limitation of efibootmgr on certain platforms, not a problem with your setup.

On TPM -- your motherboard's SPI header is the right path for TPM licensing when you're ready.

A discrete TPM 2.0 module in that header will be recognized properly and won't be affected by BIOS updates the way fTPM would be.

On no continuation of the onboarding wizard after reboot -- correct, that's expected behavior.

The wizard runs once during the initial setup reboot.

Your setup is now:

-- Mirrored SSD internal boot pool -- correct

-- USB flash drive as unassigned with licensing -- correct

-- NVMe cache pool unaffected -- correct

Well done getting through what was a generally complicated situation.

TPM is being detected, but it's failing to initialize:

May 15 22:41:31 Tower kernel: tpm_crb MSFT0101:00: [Firmware Bug]: ACPI region does not cover the entire command/response buffer. [mem 0x78ab0000-0x78ab0fff flags 0x200] vs 78ab0000 4000

May 15 22:41:31 Tower kernel: tpm_crb MSFT0101:00: error -EBUSY: can't request region for resource [mem 0x78ab0000-0x78ab0fff]

May 15 22:41:31 Tower kernel: tpm_crb MSFT0101:00: probe with driver tpm_crb failed with error -16

Looks like a BIOS issues, look for an update.

LoLight & JorgeB:

Thanks for all your help and feedback.

I am finally at point where I have greater confidence in my internal boot setup.

My USB Flash showed as failed which just happened before I went down the internal boot path.

Put the flash drive into my windows 11 machine and ran CHKDSK which detected errors and repaired.

Put back into my server and all is well with that.

Regarding fTPM on AMD motherboards - Specifically my ASRock X399 mobo is running a Threadripper 2950X.

Sadly my mobo is an ASRock Fatal1ty x399 Gaming. Picked that one because it had 8 SATA ports.

But is does not have a SPI Header to add an external TPM module.

According to AMD there was an issue with some fTPM implementations as follows but not a complete loss of TPM functionality:

AMD has determined that select AMD Ryzen™ system configurations may intermittently perform extended fTPM-related memory transactions in SPI flash memory (“SPIROM”) located on the motherboard, which can lead to temporary pauses in system interactivity or responsiveness until the transaction is concluded.

Update and Workaround

• Update: Affected PCs will require a motherboard system BIOS (sBIOS) update containing enhanced modules for fTPM interaction with SPIROM. AMD expects that flashable customer sBIOS files to be available starting in early May, 2022. Exact BIOS availability timing for a specific motherboard depends on the testing and integration schedule of your manufacturer. Flashable updates for motherboards will be based on AMD AGESA 1207 (or newer).

The specific issue here is related to "pauses in system interactivity" not a broken fTPM functionality. So I assume my fTPM is somehow broken.

But that being said it is possible but not unlikely that ASRock introduced some 'bug' when they implemented AGESA into their firmware update before 3.8, if that is even a thing, implementing AGESA that is.

My mobo is at bios version 3.8. There is a bios update to 4.01 (beta 2023/5/5) which updates AGESA to SummitPI-SP3r2 1.1.0.7. They have a later 4.03 (2024/1/26) which I assume includes 4.01AGESA update.

They have a later 4.05 (Beta 2026//3/9) which updates the Secure Book Key (2023/KEK-DB-PK), but I will hold off on that one for now.

I will update the BIOS to 4.03 and report back.

Again thx for all the help getting to this point.

Cheers,

Sparkie

No joy on the Bios Upgrade, same TPM error under the syslog.

I guess I will close things our from here and contact the Mobo manufacturer to query

if they are experiencing any issues with TPM like I am seeing.

I am scratching my head over this one, this is a very popular motherboard.

I am finding it strange that no one is reporting TPM issues with this Mobo under Windows 11.

Maybe I am missing something.

Anyway thanks for all the help on the internal boot and the great advice.

Cheers,

Sparkie

Just an update on TPM issues under Windows 11 for ASRock X399 mobo's.

I have this same Mobo and processor in my Windows 11 System.

Running tpm.msc reports tpm is working fine with no errors.

The ASRock forums report no TPM issues under Windows 11.

So wondering if this might be a Linux issue for some reason.

Windows 11 is happy with the TPM.

Linux/Unraid is not.

Cheers,

Sparkie

Could be a Linux issue, or maybe even just an issue with the specific kernel Unraid is currently using, it may be worth a try once there's a newer release out (specifically one that includes a newer kernel)

OK, I will wait until a new kernel is out then try again.

In the meantime I have contacted ASRock Technical Support and posted the error messages from the System log.

I will report back if they answer with anything meaningful.

Cheers,

Sparkie