[SOLVED] Problem booting with USB SD card


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I have a new setup using a Gigabyte 78LMT-S2P.

I can't see any sign in the "BIOS" that it sees the USB SD card plugged into an SD card reader. I have tried using different USB ports. I am using a Mac to setup the SD card. The SD card is 4GB Kingston with a Kingston MobileLiteG2 as the reader.

 

I am attempting to use 5.0b12, but I don't think that has anything to do it with since it appears to not even be getting to the contents of the card.

 

Error message "Missing operating system" or sometimes it is just stuck at "Verifying VMI Data pool...".

 

---edit---

Added my discoveries below.

FIXED - so, unfortunately I didn't approach this scientifically... having said that....

 

I changed the "hybrid" EFI/BIOS to run exclusively as BIOS, and when I used my sd card with reader (on the MLB direct connections from the back of the tower) I was able to boot up properly and everything worked.

 

I cannot tell if the "force BIOS only" mode was necessary.

 

It SEEMS to be that the ability to format as FAT instead of FAT32 (only option for a Mac) was the difference here.

 

So in summary. Check your EFI/BIOS hybrid settings, format as FAT not FAT32...and possibly: do it on a windows machine? Unless someone knows of a way to format as FAT in Mac OS X.

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I have a new setup using a Gigabyte 78LMT-S2P.

I can't see any sign in the "BIOS" that it sees the USB SD card plugged into an SD card reader. I have tried using different USB ports. I am using a Mac to setup the SD card. The SD card is 4GB Kingston with a Kingston MobileLiteG2 as the reader.

 

I am attempting to use 5.0b12, but I don't think that has anything to do it with since it appears to not even be getting to the contents of the card.

 

Error message "Missing operating system" or sometimes it is just stuck at "Verifying VMI Data pool...".

It will probably list the USB drive as a hard-disk.  Most BIOS do that when the size of the flash memory goes over 512Meg or 1Gig.  Look under the list of hard disks.
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I have a new setup using a Gigabyte 78LMT-S2P.

I can't see any sign in the "BIOS" that it sees the USB SD card plugged into an SD card reader. I have tried using different USB ports. I am using a Mac to setup the SD card. The SD card is 4GB Kingston with a Kingston MobileLiteG2 as the reader.

 

I am attempting to use 5.0b12, but I don't think that has anything to do it with since it appears to not even be getting to the contents of the card.

 

Error message "Missing operating system" or sometimes it is just stuck at "Verifying VMI Data pool...".

It will probably list the USB drive as a hard-disk.  Most BIOS do that when the size of the flash memory goes over 512Meg or 1Gig.  Look under the list of hard disks.

 

I don't see anything listed as a hard-disk either. Other ideas?

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Since you formatted on a Mac, make sure the FAT32 partition is labeled "UNRAID" and not the flash drive itself. In Disk Utility you can name a disk and a partition two different things so make sure both are "UNRAID".

 

I will double check. For sure the partition is named specifically that, I wasn't aware you could rename the device.

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Make sure the partition is marked bootable. Not sure how to do this with a Mac. I'm pretty sure "fdisk -l" in linux will tell you if it is marked as such.

 

I am.... 'mediocre' with Linux. When I get home from work I will try this. What results would show (if that command works in Terminal) for bootable vs not bootable?

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I tried a different boot device. I had a 2GB USB flash drive, used a work computer with Win 7. BIOS instantly recognized it. Booting from it, I can select UNRAID or memtest. Then it loads bzimage, then bzroot... about 5 lines of ".........", then "Boot Failed: please change disks and press a key to continue".

 

So, tomorrow I'm going to bring my usb reader and SD card and load UNRAID on it from there. Having said that, ideas why it fails the bootup process?

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Windows and Mac OS X have had no problems identifying the sd card/reader. However, I have not had luck having the BIOS of the UNRAID computer detect anything. When I get home from work today I will try out again with FAT formatted (instead of FAT32 from OS X), and done in Windows 7. Then I'll see how that goes.

 

What motherboard/computer do you have? The stick should show in the BIOS at least.

 

Sorry, forgot the OP where you mention the motherboard.

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FIXED - so, unfortunately I didn't approach this scientifically... having said that....

 

I changed the "hybrid" EFI/BIOS to run exclusively as BIOS, and when I used my sd card with reader (on the MLB direct connections from the back of the tower) I was able to boot up properly and everything worked.

 

I cannot tell if the "force BIOS only" mode was necessary.

 

It SEEMS to be that the ability to format as FAT instead of FAT32 (only option for a Mac) was the difference here.

 

So in summary. Check your EFI/BIOS hybrid settings, format as FAT not FAT32...and possibly: do it on a windows machine? Unless someone knows of a way to format as FAT in Mac OS X.

Link to comment

FIXED - so, unfortunately I didn't approach this scientifically... having said that....

 

I changed the "hybrid" EFI/BIOS to run exclusively as BIOS, and when I used my sd card with reader (on the MLB direct connections from the back of the tower) I was able to boot up properly and everything worked.

 

I cannot tell if the "force BIOS only" mode was necessary.

 

It SEEMS to be that the ability to format as FAT instead of FAT32 (only option for a Mac) was the difference here.

 

So in summary. Check your EFI/BIOS hybrid settings, format as FAT not FAT32...and possibly: do it on a windows machine? Unless someone knows of a way to format as FAT in Mac OS X.

 

Good you got it solved. Didn't know that board had an EFI BIOS.

Link to comment

FIXED - so, unfortunately I didn't approach this scientifically... having said that....

 

I changed the "hybrid" EFI/BIOS to run exclusively as BIOS, and when I used my sd card with reader (on the MLB direct connections from the back of the tower) I was able to boot up properly and everything worked.

 

I cannot tell if the "force BIOS only" mode was necessary.

 

It SEEMS to be that the ability to format as FAT instead of FAT32 (only option for a Mac) was the difference here.

 

So in summary. Check your EFI/BIOS hybrid settings, format as FAT not FAT32...and possibly: do it on a windows machine? Unless someone knows of a way to format as FAT in Mac OS X.

 

Good you got it solved. Didn't know that board had an EFI BIOS.

 

I am not an EFI expert, but my reading on it gives me the impression it is not a true EFI system, some sort of hybrid system. But yeah, happy it worked.

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