Yesterday I tried to update Unraid through the web GUI. I use Tailscale and was doing the upgrade from the web page while away from home on vacation. Here’s what happened, in order:

1. I don’t believe there was any reboot, but right after the upgrade attempt the GUI started showing a “Let’s finish setting up Unraid” wizard, which I skipped.

2. The Main page shows this banner:

   Your boot drive is corrupted or offline. Post your diagnostics in the forum for help.

3. The Main page shows the stick as 4 GB with about 200 MB free.

4. On the Boot Device page (/Main/Boot?name=flash), loading the page gives:

   Error loading configuration: sh: line 1: /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/dynamix/scripts/manage_boot_params.sh: Input/output error

   Clicking Boot Device Backup gives:

   Creation error: Insufficient free disk space available

5. When I go to the syslog through my Tailscale address (/webterminal/syslog/), I get 502 Bad Gateway (nginx).

6. Diagnostics took forever. I eventually gave up and closed it.

7. It says the Unraid API is not running.

8. I had web GUI access at first, but lost it later in the day.

9. I can’t access the SMB shares over the network at all.

10. Plex has kept running and working in the background so far.

Attached: an anonymized syslog. I got to it through the log icon at the top right of the GUI. The upgrade starts around 09:29, and the USB stick disconnects at 09:33:12, near the end of the log.

Questions:

• I’m away from home (Alaska), but I can get a new USB stick from Amazon fairly quickly. My current one is 4 GB, which is probably too small now. Any specific stick you’d recommend I order?

• My son is at the house and can use the server’s keyboard, mouse and screen, so he can watch what happens on boot. Should I have him just power it off and back on to see if it comes up?

• Can I pull the USB stick after shutting down and copy it on a Windows machine to back up the config?

• Or is it OK, or even better, to leave it running in this state and keep using Plex until I’m home?

• Anything else i could try and submit, i really only have screenshots i have past diagnostics and i am pretty sure i had backup scheduled on usb flash drive. The online connect didn't have one.

tower-syslog-anonymized.txt

6 minutes ago, FrozenGamer said:

pretty sure i had backup scheduled on usb flash drive

Where was it saving the backup?

to the server i believe, but i do not recall, probably default setting.

At 09:33:12, about 3 minutes into the update and while it was writing the new files, your USB stick disconnected from the server. It reconnected a second later, but it was not mounted again. Since then the server has been running without its boot drive. That is why you see the setup wizard, the boot drive warning and the I/O errors, why diagnostics never finish, and why the API, GUI and SMB stopped one after another. Plex keeps working because it was already running in memory.

Your stick is also very small for current releases. It's 4 GB, but the Unraid partition on it is only about 2 GB, which explains the roughly 200 MB free. The disconnect itself points to the stick failing under the update writes. Either way, it's time to replace it. Your array and pool data is not affected by any of this.

To your questions:

Fix remotely: Unfortunately not reliably. The writes that were in progress when it dropped were lost, so the files on the stick, including the boot files, are probably incomplete or damaged.

Leave it running: It's fine to leave it running for Plex until someone can work on it, but expect more things to stop working, and nothing you change now will be saved. Diagnostics won't complete in this state, and the syslog you posted already shows the cause, so don't worry about them.

Power cycle: Please don't just reboot it on the old stick hoping it comes back. It will most likely fail to boot, or boot without a valid configuration. When you're ready to shut down, your son can log in at the local console as root and type powerdown, or press the power button briefly once. If it hasn't turned off after several minutes, holding the power button is OK. The worst case is a parity check on the next start.

Backing up the old stick: Yes, that's the right first step. After shutting down, plug the old stick into a Windows PC. If Windows offers to scan and fix it, say no for now. Copy the whole stick to the PC, especially the config folder. Tell us if any file inside config fails to copy.

Getting back up:

1. Use the Unraid USB Creator to write the new stick. Ideally 7.4.0 or 7.3.4 is fine, use that and update later from Tools > Update OS.

2. Copy the config folder from your backup onto the new stick, replacing the one there.

3. Boot from the new stick. Because the license is tied to the old stick, go to Tools > Registration and use Replace Key to move it to the new one.

Your son can do this with the steps above, or you can wait until you're home.

Scheduled backup: If any config files on the old stick turn out to be unreadable, the scheduled flash backup is the fallback, so please find out where it was saved. If you can still reach the server over SSH through Tailscale, it's worth copying the newest backup file to another computer now, while the server is still up.

I’ve been working on this with my son, before I saw the reply.

I think I have a hardware issue, beyond anything that may or may not be wrong with the Unraid install or the USB stick. I had him turn the monitor on, and it showed a red screen. Perhaps a video card failure, or some other system failure. My assumption is the stick got half the upgrade installed to it, and I will be replacing it.

I had him tap the power button, and there was no shutdown after about 12 to 13 minutes. Then he powered it down, pulled the stick, and copied it to a Windows machine with no problems at all, so I have a backup.

After backing up the stick, I had him try to boot from the USB. After about 2.5 minutes of nothing on screen, I had him hold the power button for 4 seconds to hard power off, since a tap didn’t shut it down. That suggests something was happening in the background.

Your instructions look great for when I get home Saturday night. I just need to order a few USB sticks on Amazon today so I’m ready to go.

I’m in luck, as I just purchased a brand new PC with an Intel 285K, a 5080 and 32 GB of RAM, and I don’t need it for anything else at the moment. I’ve never had a good video card in my Unraid machine, so I assume there are some good benefits to that. The current Unraid machine is 6 years old and has a 5900X in it. Probably a stupid upgrade, but it won’t suck, except maybe the 32 GB of RAM.

Thanks very much for your help!!

52 minutes ago, FrozenGamer said:

probably default setting

There is no default for backing up flash. If not backing up to Unraid Connect, then you would have to use a plugin or script.

ordered this stick - https://www.amazon.com/s?k=TS32GJF700

Please suggest if any others might be good.. i would like to order at least 1 extra backup stick today.

Shoudl be fine

6 minutes ago, FrozenGamer said:

Please suggest if any others might be good.. i would like to order at least 1 extra backup stick today.

USB2 drive on USB2 port is usually more reliable and speed is not really a consideration for this purpose.

For future proofing (Unraid 8)

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/200698-unraid-8-boot-device-size/

8 hours ago, FrozenGamer said:

ordered this stick - https://www.amazon.com/s?k=TS32GJF700

Please suggest if any others might be good.. i would like to order at least 1 extra backup stick today.

I would suggest cancelling the Transcend order and getting this instead: https://www.ebay.com/itm/327321790467

You can read more on its origins here: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/199642-psa-on-industrial-mlc-usb-boot-drives-mlc-nand-end-of-life-and-last-accessible-stock/

I would agree with @trurl on the USB 2.0 preference for the stick, but it's almost impossible today to find quality USB 2.0 drives in 16GB capacities -- important since the upcoming Unraid 8 is rumored to require 16GB as a minimum

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Lolight

If the GUI already says the boot stick is corrupted/offline, treat the flash as read-mostly until you can touch it: avoid more plugin/upgrade writes from the webUI. Tailscale still working is useful — grab Diagnostics if the page still loads, and note whether `/boot` mounts (`ls /boot`) over SSH/console.

Remote recovery usually bottoms out at re-imaging the USB with a matching Unraid version and restoring your config backup (`config/` from flash). If you cannot mount the stick remotely, someone on-site needs to pull the USB; there is not much a GUI wizard can safely do once the boot media is marked offline.