This is just a quick note to anyone that might be interested.

 

After getting the usb drive to boot (which was the hardest task) I am up and running from computer build to browseable unRaid in 45 minutes.  Now, if only I hadn't broken the camera on the labor day hike I'd have some funds to buy some more drives.

 

Great product.  My vmware tests ran fantastic and I'm really happy so far.

 

Update:  I threw in a POS 4 gig drive, and its not working.  I'm fine with that, I don't care its not working I'd just like to know why.  Once stable I'll be buying the drives, so this is just a test.

I agree.  I was very skeptical and quite insecure about running unRAID considering I've always been a Windows user (I'm actually a network and system's administrator in a pure Windows environment).  However, after giving it a trial run and seeing what it could do, I realized how easy it is to use and how it "just works".

 

I'm also a moderator over www.ocforums.com and have been pushing unRAID over there every chance I get.  For use as a cheap, redundant pure file server, unRAID is a no-brainer in most cases.  Convincing people to take a second to consider something other than a Windows GUI and an expensive hardware-based RAID controller is just so hard to do.  Most people just don't realize how little protection their Windows security blanket actually provides...but it's what they're used to and change can be hard (and frightening).

Since I'm low on funds I just found some old disks to throw in and make sure the controller was supported.

 

I found a 4! gig WD disk.  A monster, I know. 

 

So it is detected, and i added it to the "array" (just a single disk) and the icon for the disk is green!  But the array won't start.  I figure, the disk is bad, but /var/log isn't telling me anything. 

 

Any ideas?

Since most of us are not clairvoyant, you might want to share a copy of /var/log/syslog with us and attach a copy to your next post.  It might not have anything unusual in it, but at this point, we can't tell.

 

Is there are little "checkbox" next to the start button on the main unRAID management page?  Did you put a check there? 

 

Perhaps a screen capture of your management page in combination with the copy of the syslog will give us some clues to work on.  Tell us the steps you took to add the new drive.

 

Instructions on how to capture a copy of the syslog are here: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Troubleshooting

 

Joe L.

I clicked-  start Array and this popped by in the log

 

May 29 13:33:51 storage emhttp[1209]: shcmd (16): killall -w smbd nmbd

May 29 13:33:53 storage emhttp[1209]: shcmd (17): /usr/sbin/nmbd -D

May 29 13:33:53 storage emhttp[1209]: shcmd (18): /usr/sbin/smbd -D

May 29 13:33:53 storage emhttp[1209]: writing mbr on disk 1 (/dev/hdc)

May 29 13:33:53 storage kernel: [ 4863.801888]  hdc: unknown partition table

May 29 13:33:54 storage kernel: [ 4864.811678] md1: new disk

May 29 13:33:54 storage emhttp[1209]: driver cmd: start NEW_ARRAY

May 29 13:33:54 storage kernel: [ 4864.824953] mdcmd (9): start

May 29 13:33:54 storage kernel: [ 4864.824962] md1: new disk

May 29 13:33:54 storage kernel: [ 4864.824971] md: do_run: lock_rdev error: -6

May 29 13:33:54 storage kernel: [ 4864.824973] md0: stopping

May 29 13:33:54 storage kernel: [ 4864.824974] md1: stopping

May 29 13:33:54 storage kernel: [ 4864.825113] md0: removed

May 29 13:33:54 storage kernel: [ 4865.183157] md0: removed

May 29 13:33:54 storage emhttp[1209]: shcmd (19): killall -HUP smbd

 

The line I highlighted doesn't look to good to me.

More bad news!

 

I tried to write to the flash drive and a whole slew of errors were produced in the log.  The the disk is no longer mounted.

 

I attached a log for your reading enjoyment.

I have determined a few things:

 

1.  Flash is mounted as read/write after boot

2.  Moving a file via windows to the exported flash share produces errors as show in previous post

3.  After the errors display, flash loses all contents and accessibility via windows

4.  rebooting the box fails unless you power off/back on - it fails because it can't find the flash drive

 

I have tried 3 different USB ports, should it matter? 

 

Are there power management or other bios tweaks that can cause this type of interference?

 

Thanks a lot.

 

 

First, try this...

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1767.msg12356#msg12356

 

Some motherboards have a tough time assigning interrupts.  Yours seems to be, but since you have not yet attached a complete copy of the syslog, we really can't tell. I'll assume that is because you cannot write to the drive, and not because you do not want to be helped. 

 

Hopefully, adding the extra parameters to the "append" line on your syslinux.cfg file on the flash drive will help.  When interrupt conflicts occur, the writes to the flash drive will fail, when it fails, it is taken off-line by the OS.  At that point, nothing works very well trying to write to it.

 

Then,  Since you are posting in the 4.2 thread, please upgrade to the 4.3-b6 version.  so many improvements in the Linux kernel used, it might fix the problem.

 

Joe L.

adding nolapic noapic solved the issues with flash.  I have written 400+ meg, and deleted and not a peep in the syslog.

 

I'll upgrade to the latest beta and see. 

 

Thanks for all the help. 

Sounds like this MB should be added to the NOT reccomended hardware list 

 

 

Sounds like this MB should be added to the NOT reccomended hardware list 

 

 

There are a lot of motherboards that need either the "nolapic" or "noapic" boot parameters... If everything else works, the MB will probably be fine. 

We really know nothing about the MB, or anything else, since those details were left out of the requests for help, we'll never know for sure.

 

Joe L.

I'm very stingy with my information. 

 

Motherboard : http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=P4M800PRO-M478&cpc=SUGG

usb Flash:  Cruzer Micro 512meg

 

As far as adding this motherboard to any sort of list, its old and crappy.  I blew up a good socket 478 motherboard when the NB hsf fell off and it cooked itself.  This was a replacement as a stopgap measure. 

 

I found another 3gig drive and put that in, mounted fine, unRAID is alive!

 

Is my http://storage icon supposed to be red?  I don't have parity, so perhaps its red because I have no redundancy.

 

on another note, once my dad's friend gave me a pc, he said "nothing works", so I figured I could fix it.  Literally, every single component in the machine if you put it in a computer, the machine will not boot.  It happened 2 times today.  I found an old nic, put it in, no boot.  Removed it, and it booted right up.  I found a 10gig WD drive.  Again, put it in, no boot, unplugged it, booted right up.  I guess there was a power surge that or a hex was put upon the computer.  I've been building computers for about 15 years now, so I know what I'm doing, these parts are just junk.  Boy do I feel old.