New unRAID user having some trouble

[JimL]

Hey, I've been fiddling with this for a while and I feel like I struggling with everything. I hope someone will offer some of their time to look at this and getting me started

 

I've been using FreeNAS for a few years, in a server change/upgrade process I'm in I've done some reading and figured out I wanted to try out unRAID.

 

I have successfully booted from my USB key and have played around in the webGUI, but I have some issues that block me from moving forward

 

1. On first boot the webGUI didn't work, for some reason I have to run this command on each boot to get it running

nohup /usr/local/sbin/emhttp

 

2. On reboot all changes are lost, all users and shares are gone, all devices are unassigned. Kinda annoying when beeing done creating the parity disk.

 

3. flash GUID shows "no flash (-1)", couldn't find any information about this.

 

I've seen many references to /boot/config/go, config/smb-extra.config, etc. but nowhere does it say how to find these files

 

I'm sorry if these questions have obvious answers, I might have been stuck with this so long I no longer see any solutions. I've tried searching (which is where I got the command to launch the web GUI), but couldn't find much to help me move forward.

[itimpi]

I've seen many references to /boot/config/go, config/smb-extra.config, etc. but nowhere does it say how to find these files

The USB drive is mounted as /boot when viewed from Linux (i.e. from a console/telnet session), and shows up as the 'flash' share when viewed across the network.

1. On first boot the webGUI didn't work, for some reason I have to run this command on each boot to get it running

nohup /usr/local/sbin/emhttp

This should automatically be run on startup from the file /boot/config/go.  You having to run it manually suggest something is stopping it being run from the USB drive.

 

2. On reboot all changes are lost, all users and shares are gone, all devices are unassigned. Kinda annoying when beeing done creating the parity disk.

This suggest there may be problems writing back to the USB drive.  It might be worth plugging it into a Windows/Mac disk system and running a chkdisk against it to check that there is no file system corruption.

 

It might be possible to help with more diagnosis if you provide a syslog file.

[JimL]

Thank you for the quick response I will try to reflash and come back with what happens + syslog file if I'm still stuck.

 

I just checked writing files to /boot + /boot/config and they are not there after a reboot so it seems you are right that there is something wrong with the usb key.

[JimL]

Ran checkdisk on the original usb-key and no errors, also tried two additional keys now but have the same problems.

Sandisk Cruzer Blade 8GB fat32

Sandisk Cruzer Fit 8GB fat32

Verbatim black square bulky thing 8GB fat32

 

Here are the sys logs

http://pastebin.com/TWPLRgja

[itimpi]

That log shows there is definitely a problem with the USB drive.  It reports failure to mount the USB stick, and unable to access the configuration files on that drive.  Quite why that might be I have no idea.

[Frank1940]

Ran checkdisk on the original usb-key and no errors, also tried two additional keys now but have the same problems.

Sandisk Cruzer Blade 8GB fat32

Sandisk Cruzer Fit 8GB fat32

Verbatim black square bulky thing 8GB fat32

 

Here are the sys logs

http://pastebin.com/TWPLRgja

 

Try boot your flash drive in another machine.  You will not cause any problems on that machine as long as you don't assign any drives to the array!  If that works, report back with the manufacturer and model of your motherboard.

 

It sounds like the USB port is disappearing after the boot process finishes and the unRAID Linux core attempts to start the USB process, it is not finding your USB port. 

[JimL]

The solution that worked for me after juggling USB keys for almost an entire day.

 

1. download unraid zip from limetech

2. convert the zip file to an iso using anytoiso

3. use rufus to create a boot usb

4.

5. profit!

 

---

 

It did not work for me to just rename the zip to iso.

I tried ubuntu and mint with both unetbootin and the built in "boot creator". I also tried Windows 7 with unetbootin and rufus. Every combination (except Win+Rufus) would boot and seemingly work, but produce the results above.

 

Hope this can help anyone else struggling

[whophil]

New user here. I am having the exact same problems as the OP. To reiterate:

 

1. emhttp not started on boot

2. no users/shares are saved on reboot

3. after manually starting emhttp, when trying to get the flash GUID, reports "no flash (-1)"

 

As with the OP, these problems are all the result of Unraid not being able to mount the flash drive.

 

The results of

cat /var/log/syslog | grep -A 5 -B 5 Flash

are shown here: (http://pastebin.com/yJR9EhcG)

 

I am running Unraid 6.0 Beta 5. My hardware is an Asrock H67M-ITX + Intel i5-3470 with two hard drives currently installed. I have tried the USB drive (Kingston Datatraveler 8GB) in all 6 USB ports with the same result. The boot USB was created by:

 

1. Formatting USB as FAT32

2. Downloading unRAIDServer-6.0-beta5a-x86_64.zip, renaming to *.iso, and creating a bootdisk using Unetbootin in Ubuntu.

 

The OP was able to overcome his issue by creating his boot drive using the software Rufus in Windows. Unfortunately, I don't have a Windows machine to use. However, I imagine there is some other underlying issue. Any thoughts?

[whophil]

Of course I find the solution just minutes after posting...

I seem to have been missing the crucial step of labeling the USB drive "UNRAID"

 

(The USB drive is mounted by label "UNRAID" in /etc/fstab)

 

Hope this helps someone else.