First Build - Q25B

[ryanth]

I started putting together all of my parts today but ran into an issue. When I try to turn on the system the PSU and case fans will spin for 3 seconds then everything turns back off. I've tried re-seating the ram and CPU. I don't have any hard drives plugged in or the usb stick. Could that be the issue or is it something else?

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/ryanth/saved/2BuQ

[trurl]

If you don't have a boot device then it should at least display something, probably the BIOS, so I don't think missing drives is the problem.

 

What about the CPU fan? CPU overheat will cause shutdown.

 

[ryanth]

I solved that issue and got it to boot. I missed one of the power connections on the motherboard.

 

Now I'm stuck trying to get it to boot from the USB.

[Helmonder]

Have you set up the bios so the usb will be the first and only boot device ?

 

If so: have you created the unraid usb according to the instructions ?

[garycase]

Glad you got it to boot okay -- and it was the simplest of the possible problems (a missed power connection -- I presume the CPU Aux connector).

 

As for not booting from USB => are you trying to boot from a USB 2 or USB 3 port?

 

... and have you confirmed (by booting on another system) that the USB flash drive you're using is indeed bootable?

 

 

[garycase]

By the way, what is the BIOS revision on this board?  Since you're using an i3, you should update it to the latest Ver 0701 if that's not what you already have.    Earlier versions do not have full support for the Haswell i3's.

 

 

[Qtrmeg]

Of course you will need the first boot device to be the flash drive but in the Bios, if you have Fast Boot enabled make sure you set USB Support to full.

[ryanth]

I've updated the BIOS to H87I-PLUS BIOS 0904 which is the latest version (11/14/13).

 

I've tried using the internal connector I purchased (StarTech USB A to USB Motherboard 4-Pin Header F/F 2.0 Cable) and plugging it straight into the back without any luck. When running the BIOS I see that it recognizes the device but I'm not able to boot from it.

 

To create the usb I followed the Win 7 instructions here, http://lime-technology.com/unraid-server-installation/. Is there some other trick that I'm missing?

 

I've tried fast boot enabled (with usb to full initialization) and fast boot disabled. I've tried setting the usb device to load as Auto/Floppy/Forced FDD/CD-ROM.

[ryanth]

Sometimes rather than going to the BIOS I also get a message saying "Remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart" After pressing a key I'm taken to the BIOS.

 

The only devices I have plugged in are a monitor, usb keyboard, ethernet, and the usb stick.

[garycase]

It sounds like your flash drive isn't bootable.

 

When you created the USB flash drive, did you do EXACTLY this:

 

(a)  Format it, using a label of UNRAID  (all caps)  and the FAT or FAT32 file system (This should be the Windows 7 default for a 16GB flash unit -- if for some reason it's not, use FAT32)

 

(b)  Unzip the entire v5 download; then copy all of the files to the flash drive

 

©  In Windows Explorer, go to the flash drive; right-click on Make_Bootable; and select Run as Administrator.

 

 

[ryanth]

Gary those are the exact steps that I followed.

 

To be sure I reformatted and tried again. Still no luck. I do seem to be getting "Remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart" more often though. It shows that message twice then goes to the BIOS.

 

Is it worth trying to format on a Mac rather than a Win 7 box?

[garycase]

Try booting another system with the USB flash drive ... i.e. your Windows box.    Doesn't hurt to boot with it ... just be sure you don't assign any drives 

 

You can simply watch the boot on the screen ... if it ends with "Tower Logon" at the end, it booted fine.    If you want to then go to the Web GUI from another machine (i.e. your Mac) you can do so, and then just shut it down from there ... or you can just press the power button on your system (just press it momentarily - don't hold it) and the system will shut down gracefully.

 

That will confirm that the USB flash drive is indeed bootable => an important thing to know before continuing to troubleshoot.

 

[ryanth]

I wasn't able to get the drive to boot on my Win 7 machine either.

 

Next I followed the instructions here http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/1081-configure-a-usb-drive-to-be-bootable-useful-for-installing-the-os to make sure the drive was configured to be bootable. Then followed the instructions to create the flash drive with UNRAID. Still no luck.

 

I now get a message saying 'Disk error Press any key to restart' before getting to the bios. I also see that I have 2 boot options; one that just says SanDisk and the other says UEFI: SanDisk. I've tried setting both to option 1 but was wondering which I should be using.

 

I'm going to try a spare USB drive that I have at work tomorrow and see if I can get one of those to boot.

[garycase]

I wasn't able to get the drive to boot on my Win 7 machine either.

 

That's actually good => it means there's almost certainly nothing wrong with your new build ... you just don't have a bootable USB flash drive.    It's possible the new Cruzer Fit has some incompatibility ... like earlier U3 drives often needed the U3 disabled before working.

 

When you think you have a bootable flash drive, be sure to test it on more than one system if you're having problems with it booting.

 

In any event, overall it's good news => your new system is almost certainly working just fine 

 

 

[Qtrmeg]

Ryanth, when you copied the files to the flashdrive you didn't include the enclosing folder did you? If so the boot file wouldn't be available to the computer.

 

Just grasping at straws at this point. You are using the exact flashdrive I used and I didn't have any problems.

[henris]

Just shared my exact bios settings for Asus H87I-Plus for USB boot to ryanth but I don't think that's the problem.

 

Ryanth, could you show a screenshot of the USB contents (Windows explorer) from the root of the drive.

[garycase]

Agree, that's not the issue.  The flash drive is clearly not bootable => it's either one of the rare flash units that simply won't work with UnRAID, or there's something wrong with the process he used to create it.

 

Just need to determine which.

 

[ryanth]

Here is a picture of my SD card. I also took a screenshot of when I click make bootable as run as administrator. From everything I've read it looks correct.

[garycase]

Here is a picture of my SD card. I also took a screenshot of when I click make bootable as run as administrator. From everything I've read it looks correct.

 

You DO, I presume, mean your Flash drive -- not an SD card ... right?

 

It looks like you've copied everything to it okay.  But apparently Windows doesn't recognize this drive as a removable drive ... note the error message you're seeing on the Make_bootable screen.

 

Edit the Make_Bootable.bat file on your flash drive to add the -f parameter at the end of the syslinux line near the end of the file.

 

e.g. instead of this:  %~d0\syslinux -ma %~d0

 

you want this:    %~d0\syslinux -ma %~d0 -f

 

 

 

 

[ryanth]

Yes I meant USB.

 

But that fixed it! Thank you!

 

Now to start my preclears. I'm sure I'll be back asking questions soon.

[garycase]

Glad that resolved it.  Several larger flash drives aren't treated as removable units by Windows ... not sure exactly what the threshold is, as it's not always the same size => it's likely a combination of the exact Windows version and the specific flash unit.

 

In any event ... for anyone else who notices this and has the same issue ... you just need to look for the message about not being a removable drive =>and if you see that, just add the -f parameter.

 

Tom COULD just add the -f parameter to Make_Bootable and it would always work => BUT that would also mean that if you ran it from the wrong drive (i.e. the system drive on your PC) it would TRASH that drive !!    Probably NOT a good idea 

[ryanth]

Already back....now I'm getting an error when I check for the ethernet card.

 

'ethO: error fetching interface information" Device not found'

 

After some searching on the forums I found that this is an issue with newer motherboards. I'm wondering if Henris had the same issue when he first booted up?

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30306.msg272233;topicseen#msg272233

I did try to reformat the drive. Hoping I don't have to compile a new source.

[garycase]

Hopefully Henris will chime in and let us know if there's an issue with the network drivers.

 

Are you unable to access the system at all?  Or just not able to modify the Ethernet parameters?

 

I doubt you'd need to recompile anything => you may just need to load a driver in the Go script.

 

[garycase]

By the way, if you happen to have a PCIe network card handy, you could simply plug that in for now.    But clearly a driver for the onboard NIC is what you want.

 

Also, just to be sure, check the BIOS to be sure the onboard NIC is in fact enabled 

 

[henris]

I didn't have any problems with the network card. This is what my ifconfig eth0 returns:

root@TSS-000:~# ifconfig eth0
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr ac:22:0b:4f:47:06
          inet addr:192.168.1.54  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:340866 errors:0 dropped:53 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:266830 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:23535120 (22.4 MiB)  TX bytes:17641837 (16.8 MiB)
          Interrupt:20 Memory:f7c00000-f7c20000

root@TSS-000:~#

 

There are two most likely scenarios: you accidentally disabled or misconfigured (if that's even possible) the network interface in BIOS or the network interface is somehow broken. The latter is quite rare but still possible. I just checked and ifconfig should return something similar even if there is no connection to switch (loose/broken cable etc.). My money is on bios settings.