Hi,

 

new server as here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=28096.0 using RocketRAID 2760 card. When no drives installed it goes sits on the RocketRAID bois screen searching for devices, then restarts and boots from the USB.

 

When drives are installed, bearing in mind that the USB and drives come from my old server, it goes into the RocketRAID screen and lists the drives then reboots and does nothing. BIOSis set to only boot from the firefly USB device but nothing??

 

Any pointers?

 

Cheers!

 

If everything is set up as you say, I don't see how this could happen. Does the machine have an optical drive?  If it does, try setting that as the boot device and put a bootable disc into it and see if it will boot that, if it does then plug your USB into a windows machine  and run a checkdisk in case it has a filesystem problem and/or try re-creating your unraid USB from scratch or another USB drive as a test.

Send a PM to Paul (pauven) and see if there was anything special he needed to do in the 2760a's BIOS.    It sounds like you may be passing control to the 2760, and it is attempting to boot ... then when it's not successful, it restarts ... and it all starts over again -- and again -- and again -- ...

 

Paul may have documented any BIOS mods to the 2760A here [i did a quick glance, but didn't see anything ... I'll let you read it more thoroughly  ]:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=27460.0

Send a PM to Paul (pauven) and see if there was anything special he needed to do in the 2760a's BIOS.    It sounds like you may be passing control to the 2760, and it is attempting to boot ... then when it's not successful, it restarts ... and it all starts over again -- and again -- and again -- ...

 

Paul may have documented any BIOS mods to the 2760A here [i did a quick glance, but didn't see anything ... I'll let you read it more thoroughly  ]:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=27460.0

 

I took a look at the manual for the controller before posting my reply to check and see if it could hijack the boot process.  The controller allows you to select what drive/array to boot from but according to the manual this will only happen if the controller is selected as the boot device in the bios.

I took a look at the manual for the controller before posting my reply to check and see if it could hijack the boot process.  The controller allows you to select what drive/array to boot from but according to the manual this will only happen if the controller is selected as the boot device in the bios.

 

I did try this but it only allows you to select a disk in the array and not the USB, it's driving me nuts :-) I have to pop all the drives out, then it auto reboots after the rocketRAID screen and then I have to pop them all back in whilst it detects and boots from the USB drive.

 

Very frustrating

You've clearly got the boot order set incorrectly in the BIOS => it's attempting to boot from the RocketRAID.    Look more carefully at your choices -- in many cases a USB flash drive is listed under the "hard drives" in a BIOS ==> you have to set the first boot device to "Hard Drive"; and then set the hard drive order so the USB flash drive is listed first.

 

 

You've clearly got the boot order set incorrectly in the BIOS => it's attempting to boot from the RocketRAID.    Look more carefully at your choices -- in many cases a USB flash drive is listed under the "hard drives" in a BIOS ==> you have to set the first boot device to "Hard Drive"; and then set the hard drive order so the USB flash drive is listed first.

 

I hope so, but I can't see where. I'm pre-clearing a drive at the moment so I can't reboot and get screenshots of the bios settings, but boot #1 is my FireFly USB device. I'll post them tomorrow sometime.

Let me ask a couple of questions just in case I am misunderstanding something...

 

When you say "auto reboots" do you mean your are seeing a true reboot?  Do you literally see the same thing as if you had pressed the reset button?  I'm inclined to think this is NOT the case since you don't mention that this repeats in a loop and I would expect that.  Does your motherboard have a UFEI bios?  If it does, I have noticed that on some (maybe all) UFEI boards the addon card BIOS is executed first and THEN you see the typical POST messages from the motherboard BIOS.  If you were not familiar with this behavior then you might be lead to believe that a reboot is taking place.  If your motherboard does have a UFEI bios it may have an option to use a "traditional" bios instead.  I apologize in advance if this is something you already considered.

Hey ClackerDacker,

 

I'm the guy running a 2760A.  Sorry to hear you're running into trouble.

 

It would be helpful if you could list the full components of your build.  Something is definitely different than my build, which hasn't experienced any of the behaviors you mentioned.

 

My 2760A shipped with BIOS 1.1.  I upgraded to 1.3, with provided >2.2TB drive support.  Are any of your drives larger than 2TB, and are you running BIOS 1.1?  If so, that may be your problem.  I saw no difference in ability to boot with either BIOS version, but didn't try any >2TB drives until on BIOS 1.3.  By the way, I found it extremely easy to upgrade the BIOS from inside Windows, but did not try any other methods, so those may be easy as well.

 

I've never seen the 2760A's BIOS boot screen.  Not sure why, but I haven't.  I tried  hitting the button to enter the BIOS once, but it didn't work (may have been at the wrong time), but I'm thinking that my motherboard was never loading the 2760A BIOS.  My build  is in the 'Current' build info in my sig.  My motherboard has an UEFI BIOS, which might be blocking the 2760A's BIOS from loading.  Interestingly, there is a setting in the BIOS that appears to be related to loading 3rd party BIOS's, and it is set to enabled, making me think it would load the 2760A's BIOS; I've never tried disabling it.  I just looked through an online manual and can't find any reference to the setting, and I'm on the road right now, so I  can't be more help on that item right now, sorry.

 

One thing I've noticed is that some modern BIOS's like to hide the boot drives in two different places in the BIOS - one location sets which devices are eligible for booting from them, and the other sets the priority.  You might need to look for both locations and make sure they are set correctly.

 

-Paul

Let me ask a couple of questions just in case I am misunderstanding something...

 

When you say "auto reboots" do you mean your are seeing a true reboot?  Do you literally see the same thing as if you had pressed the reset button?  I'm inclined to think this is NOT the case since you don't mention that this repeats in a loop and I would expect that.  Does your motherboard have a UFEI bios?  If it does, I have noticed that on some (maybe all) UFEI boards the addon card BIOS is executed first and THEN you see the typical POST messages from the motherboard BIOS.  If you were not familiar with this behavior then you might be lead to believe that a reboot is taking place.  If your motherboard does have a UFEI bios it may have an option to use a "traditional" bios instead.  I apologize in advance if this is something you already considered.

 

Ok,

 

Cold start, post beeps etc.

Shows bios start screen F2 for setup, F6 for boot menu etc

Straight into RocketRAID screen with msg about search for drives.

If I have any attached it list them on screen

Then the screen goes blank

Shows bios start screen F2 for setup, F6 for boot menu etc

Then nothing, just sits there on blank screen so I assume its decided to select a drive and use it to try and boot from.

 

So, I power off and pop out all the drives

 

Cold start, post beeps etc.

Shows bios start screen F2 for setup, F6 for boot menu etc

Straight into RocketRAID screen with msg about search for drives.

After a short time it shows there are no drives

 

** I can now start to push the drives back in again at this stage **

 

Then the screen goes blank

Shows bios start screen F2 for setup, F6 for boot menu etc

NOW if boots from unRAID USB and off we go.

 

 

 

Not clear exactly what you did -- did you "hot plug" the drives AFTER the RocketRAID detection?

 

If so, what happens the NEXT time you boot?

 

Did you ever try pushing F2 to enter the BIOS and choose the boot order?

 

It sounds to me like you're booting in to the BIOS for the card and not for your motherboard. Maybe I'm out of the loop but I've never seen a motherboard use F2 or F6 for built in functionality. That sounds like add in card prompts. Almost all motherboards I know if use the delete key to get into the system BIOS. Power down the server completely. Hit the power button and start hitting the delete key repeatedly as soon as you hit the power button. This should get you to the system BIOS.

F2 is actually VERY common for BIOS entry.  And the most-common hot-key sequence for entering add-in controller BIOS's is probably still Ctrl-A (originally used by Adaptec, which I suppose is why it's an "A").

 

I suspect that what needs to be done here (not sure why Pauven didn't have to do it) is to disable the BIOS boot in the RocketRAID card ... but it'd be instructive to know whether or not this issue has somehow been resolved already as a result of the actions outlined in the last post by ClackerDacker.

I just reviewed the manual for the Intel S1200BTL (the MB Mark is using) and F2 & F6 are hotkeys for the MB BIOS - these are not 2760A hotkeys.  The 2760A hotkey is CTRL-H.  I have never entered the 2760A settings menu using CTRL-H, and have never needed to.

 

In the BIOS, I see settings under "Mass Storage Controller Configuration" for enabling/disabling the Intel SAS Entry RAID Module - since you are using the 2760A, I would expect this should be set to disabled.  In fact, for the purpose of testing the 2760A and your new server, I would suggest also disabling the Onboard SATA Controller.  Only turn things back on once you get the core components working.

 

On the Advanced tab, there are options to 'Maximize Memory below 4GB" and disable extra NIC ROMs, some of these may have an impact.

 

On the Boot Options screen, there are many values that may need adjusting.  I recommend you enter the BIOS via F2 after the 2760A has done its search for drives (with drives attached).  It's very possible that the MB/BIOS has chosen to boot from the HD attached to the 2760A, and you need to redirect it to the flash drive.  You can also try pressing F6 to get the boot menu, and manually select the flash drive at boot time.

 

What you should be avoiding at all opportunities is enabling boot functionality related to the 2760A.

 

Mark, please share with us: MB BIOS version, 2760A firmware version, size of the tested HD.

 

-Paul

Thanks for the details on the 2760.

 

Mark ... have you looked through the 2760's BIOS settings (Ctrl-H) ??  You may simply need to disable boot there.

 

One thing to remember when modifying BIOS parameters:  WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU CHANGED !!

... just so if anything goes awry you know what to change it back to !!

 

Not clear exactly what you did -- did you "hot plug" the drives AFTER the RocketRAID detection?

 

If so, what happens the NEXT time you boot?

 

Did you ever try pushing F2 to enter the BIOS and choose the boot order?

 

Yes, to make sure they're not detected during the search.

I did, and it makes no difference :-)

Hitting F6 and choosing to directly boot from the USB doesn't make any difference either.

 

I just reviewed the manual for the Intel S1200BTL (the MB Mark is using) and F2 & F6 are hotkeys for the MB BIOS - these are not 2760A hotkeys.  The 2760A hotkey is CTRL-H.  I have never entered the 2760A settings menu using CTRL-H, and have never needed to.

 

In the BIOS, I see settings under "Mass Storage Controller Configuration" for enabling/disabling the Intel SAS Entry RAID Module - since you are using the 2760A, I would expect this should be set to disabled.  In fact, for the purpose of testing the 2760A and your new server, I would suggest also disabling the Onboard SATA Controller.  Only turn things back on once you get the core components working.

 

I'll try that this evening when I get home from work, although I *think* I've already tried/done it.

 

On the Advanced tab, there are options to 'Maximize Memory below 4GB" and disable extra NIC ROMs, some of these may have an impact.

 

I'll give that a whack too

 

On the Boot Options screen, there are many values that may need adjusting.  I recommend you enter the BIOS via F2 after the 2760A has done its search for drives (with drives attached).  It's very possible that the MB/BIOS has chosen to boot from the HD attached to the 2760A, and you need to redirect it to the flash drive.  You can also try pressing F6 to get the boot menu, and manually select the flash drive at boot time.

 

What you should be avoiding at all opportunities is enabling boot functionality related to the 2760A.

 

So far as I'm aware I've been from having everything in default mode when I first got it to removing every option in the boot sections other than the boot device being the FireFly USB. I'll run through each again though and report back.

 

Mark, please share with us: MB BIOS version, 2760A firmware version, size of the tested HD.

 

-Paul

 

I will!

 

Thanks to all of you for the help, I'm really more of a software guy (C# developer) than a hardware guy ;-)

 

Mark

Thanks for the details on the 2760.

 

Mark ... have you looked through the 2760's BIOS settings (Ctrl-H) ??  You may simply need to disable boot there.

 

One thing to remember when modifying BIOS parameters:  WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU CHANGED !!

... just so if anything goes awry you know what to change it back to !!

 

I have and there's nothing really in there other than array creation, deletion and initialization routines.

So I think I need to get a Windows USB going and boot into that so I can update the BIOS and disable INT13 booting on the RocketRAID card. Looks like I have a fun night ahead of me :-)

 

I've run the bios update. up to the latest 1.3, along with the /C switch to allow setting of the bios values. I've disabled INT13, saved the newly patched bios file and updated the card with it and still it boots into the raid card.

 

Time to resign myself to the fact that nothing is going to fix this I think. It's all too difficult and if I have to reboot the fucking thing one more time it may well be sat 2 floors down in the garden ;-)

Since you bought this as an all-in-one pre-built server from TechBuy Australia, have you tried contacting them for support?  It seems odd that they would sell this as a pre-built configuration that fails to boot when you add drives.  Perhaps you're not the first to run into this issue with their hardware configuration.  Also, HighPoint might be able to help too.

 

Have you tried booting from a hard drive connected directly to the motherboard?  Just wondering if the motherboard is somehow losing the ability to boot from USB when the 2760A has drives attached, or if it is simply failing to boot at all no matter what method is employed.  Were you able to boot Windows with drives installed?

 

I googled for information related to the /C switch and disabling interrupt 13H on the 2760A, and couldn't find any, so I'm not sure what you are doing here.  I found it for 2300 series, but not 2700 series.  Got a link?  By the way, did you also Disable 'Reallocate EBDA' when you Disabled 'INT 13 support'?

 

EBDA Reallocation – this function refers to “Extended BIOS Data Area”.
Disabling this feature may remedy boot problems associated with
motherboards that halt after the RR230x BIOS screen is displayed.

INT13 – The card’s boot function. Disabling this feature removes the card’s
ability to boot the system. This may be useful for systems that utilize
multiple bootable controllers – some motherboards may not be able to load
the BIOS of each device during bootup, which may impair the system’s
ability to boot from a specific device.

One VERY important attribute you need when dealing with hardware issues is PATIENCE 

 

.. don't give up ... this WILL work;  and it's going to turn out to be some flag or setting that will probably give you a "Why in the hxxx didn't I think of that earlier" kind of reaction.

 

As Paul, noted, you should contact the should contact TechBuy and ask for support with this.  Surely they know how to configure it so it can boot properly from the USB stick.

 

Since you bought this as an all-in-one pre-built server from TechBuy Australia, have you tried contacting them for support?  It seems odd that they would sell this as a pre-built configuration that fails to boot when you add drives.  Perhaps you're not the first to run into this issue with their hardware configuration.  Also, HighPoint might be able to help too.

 

Yeah, it was early this morning when I did my last post, so was a little tired ;-) I'll be calling them today to see if they can help out.

 

Have you tried booting from a hard drive connected directly to the motherboard?  Just wondering if the motherboard is somehow losing the ability to boot from USB when the 2760A has drives attached, or if it is simply failing to boot at all no matter what method is employed.  Were you able to boot Windows with drives installed?

 

I need to do a new windows install before I can do this and I won't have time until the weekend

 

I googled for information related to the /C switch and disabling interrupt 13H on the 2760A, and couldn't find any, so I'm not sure what you are doing here.  I found it for 2300 series, but not 2700 series.  Got a link?  By the way, did you also Disable 'Reallocate EBDA' when you Disabled 'INT 13 support'?

 

EBDA Reallocation – this function refers to “Extended BIOS Data Area”.
Disabling this feature may remedy boot problems associated with
motherboards that halt after the RR230x BIOS screen is displayed.

INT13 – The card’s boot function. Disabling this feature removes the card’s
ability to boot the system. This may be useful for systems that utilize
multiple bootable controllers – some motherboards may not be able to load
the BIOS of each device during bootup, which may impair the system’s
ability to boot from a specific device.

 

 

There is no documentation that I can find anywhere about it, I noticed the switch in the readme for the bios update and added it to the go.bat to see what happened. But it essentially gives you a DOS version of this windows application.

 

 

I dsabled both, saved the new bios file and then ran the load command with the newly minted bios update and ...

 

 

... exactly the same thing :-)

 

Mark

One VERY important attribute you need when dealing with hardware issues is PATIENCE 

 

I know, was a bit grumpy this morning. Thought I'd worked it all out, then finding out I hadn't :-)

 

Don't play with server before having your first coffee of the day

Don't play with server before having your first coffee of the day

Don't play with server before having your first coffee of the day

...

...

  Looking at your BIOS configuration options in your posted picture... I think you may also need to DISABLE the "Stop on error" setting.  With some RAID cards, if the array is not valid, not set yet, or has a bad/missing drive, it halts the boot process.  Then depending on the exact failure as it has detected, it MAY provide various boot options to select from if an actual configured array is available to then boot from.

 

  This checking would occur BEFORE any actual BOOT options are allowed to occur that may be set in the motherboard BIOS.  So it looks to me, like a drive attached, which is NOT configured in the RAID array of the card, with NO array otherwise configured is indeed a RAID error, as far as the card is concerned.  This is not unusual for some RAID cards...

 

  If NO drive is attached, it again is more common for a RAID card to just pass control to the next item in the boot sequnce, rather than "forcing" the user to take action with a failed, missing, misconfigured array attached to the RAID controller.