A bad start

[Hilltop]

Hi all- bear with, I'm an old hand with computers, but this is brand new territory. I'm just starting out, and hit a wall. USB drive is set up, it boots, I get the log in prompt, type root and hit enter, and that's as far as I get, I'm at The Prompt, but that's it. I've tried to check internet connection, but ipconfig doesn't work, none of the commands I've tried work, I keep getting a bad command error.

 

I installed the menu from Google Docs, followed it all to a T, but I'm stuck. I'd like to include the log file, but the command to do that doesn't work. It seems all the help files I'm finding are sort of bits and pieces of new and old help files, and assume everything's fine. I've yet to find anything on why commands aren't working.

 

Thanks for any guidance on this.

[althoralthor]

What commands are you trying to enter?  Once it boots, most of what you will probably be doing is in the gui.  So you will need to know the ip address, or perhaps go to your browser and try http://tower (if you have not renamed it).

 

If you want to try and connect via ip address, from the console try this command to get the IP address it should have received from DHCP:

 

ifconfig eth0

 

 

[Hilltop]

>What commands are you trying to enter?  Once it boots, most of what you will probably be doing is in the gui. 

 

There is no gui, just a command prompt. It boots, asks for log in, I give it root, then command prompt.

 

So you will need to know the ip address, or perhaps go to your browser and try http://tower (if you have not renamed it).

 

It's not showing up on the network, I've tried the built in,  as well as external network cards. Light is lit up saying it's connected, it's lit up on the router, brand new cables, nothing.

 

> If you want to try and connect via ip address, from the console try this command to get the IP address it should have received from DHCP:

 

ifconfig eth0

Again, nothing comes up, bad command trying this.

 

I boot up, see the Lime Tech screen, choose unRAID OS. It loads bzimage, then bzroot, then loads half the known universe for a while, them I'm gretted with Welcome to Linux 3.9.11p-unRaid (tty1)

Tower Login:

 

I log in with root

I get

 

Tower Login: root

Linux 3.9.22p-unRAID

root@tower:~#

 

 

I type

ipconfig etho

it returns

-bash :ipconfig: command not found

 

Any commands I try return the same thing, no commands are accepted.

 

trying to browse to it with http://tower (which the flash drive IS named UNRAID in upper case as instructed) doesn't load.

 

[Fx.]

its ifconfig not ipconfig (ipconfig is windows ifconfig is *nix)

[Fx.]

check your router, maybe its got an IP but your local dns hasnt updated, check your router (or dhcp server) leases see whats there

 

what NIC do you have? maybe its not supported... using version 5.0.4 ?

 

why is your kernel newer than mine...

 

Tower Login: root

Linux 3.9.22p-unRAID

root@tower:~#

 

5.0.4 uses 3.9.11p ....

 

"I've yet to find anything on why commands aren't working."

 

because those commands dont exist, they're either wrong (in the case of ipconfig vs ifconfig) or have been depreciated

you need to tell us what other commands dont work

 

try it without instaling the new webgui first imho

 

I type

ipconfig etho

 

thats ifconfig eth0 (thats a zero)

 

 

heres mine:

root@Unraid:~# ifconfig eth0

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr BLAHDEBLAH

          inet addr:192.168.0.200  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

 

 

I installed the menu from Google Docs

 

what menu... the official beta one is on github not googledocs...

 

 

but yeah you should start fresh first make sure it works

(and what NICs are you trying)

trying to browse to it with http://tower (which the flash drive IS named UNRAID in upper case as instructed) doesn't load.

 

"doesnt load"

 

browser gives you a "cannot connect" ? (dns/ip error)

404 not found? some php error? (some issue with the webgui)

 

you need to be more descriptive

 

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=9822.0

you might want to read through bits of the stickied "read this first" Thread

[Hilltop]

Ok, yeah, I'm going to wipe the drive clean and start fresh, something's just not right.

And I read and read and re-read, and would swear it was ipconfig. I kept thinking it was odd that this uses a windows command. Which it doesn't. So.. yeah, that's what I get for messing with this at 4 am on a crappy little monitor.

 

Part of the issue, I think, which I THINK I finally got cleared up, is someone, years ago, talked me into setting up opendns. Every hit to tower brought me to their unable to find website page. I've got two wifi routers running over here, so I went in and reset to the comcast dns and it appears now things are resolving properly.

 

Tech rocks, except when something goes haywire, then it's a self created hell.

 

There were two files referenced in a setup -

unmenu_install1371.zip

preclear_disk.zip

 

And, if this is of any help, I'm setting up a Dell Dimensions 2400 desktop. To keep it simple, I'm using built in everything, from the NIC to the video, just to eliminate issues from extra stuff that may need drivers.

 

What I grabbed, in the way of unraid, was the latest build on the download page.

Here's the file names of what all I've got going on.

unRAIDServer-5.0.4-i386.zip

unmenu_install1371.zip

preclear_disk.zip

 

Now that I realize it's ifconfig and not iPconfig, let me see if that command works to give me the ip to this beast. Back in a bit.

 

And thanks.

[Fx.]

i wouldnt start with unmenu, thats a custom plugin addon, the new official webgui is great  -> https://github.com/limetech/webGui

 

great to play around with but add that stuff once you've set up and played around

preclear is good for drive testing though

 

 

and yeah, i never understood the attraction to opendns, local stuff is fine

[Hilltop]

Open DNS was set up to get around some local comcast dns issues that took them weeks to resolve.

 

ifconfig eth0 gave me eth0: error fetching interface information: device not found.

 

off to wipe the flash drive. In one thread on setup, it said to grab unmenu so I did.

Might be good for someone to go back through the docs and put this stuff in one place, finding things scattered across threads, which may be for outdated versions, is mighty confusing.

 

Off to wipe it out and start fresh, thanks again

 

[Fx.]

the actual install docs are here - http://lime-technology.com/unraid-server-installation/  assuming you have a working supported NIC and working local DNS those docs work fine

 

everything else is an addon, get it working on the basic imho

 

try just "ifconfig"

 

it's reading like it doesnt support your network card, try the PCI one again (preferably an intel or realtek)

 

quick googling i cant find what onboard card that pc has

[Hilltop]

Ok, now we're getting nowhere.

 

I wiped the flash drive, reinstalled, put everything but webgui on it. Now hitting ifconfig gives me info, which it didn't do before, so that's cool. Also, it was unable to execute the command to give me the syslog, which it just did, and is attached to this post.

 

With the webgui- can this be unzipped and just dropped into a folder on the drive /boot/plugin or does it have to be installed through the console?

 

with ifconfig  I get an ip address, which I didn't get before, it's showing as 127.0.0.1 however, browsing to that ip, it isn't found.(Web page not found when viewed in Chrome) so I'm guessing that's because the gui isn't in place.

 

This is a bigger can of worms than I was expecting, I've been messing with computers since I built my first, a Sinclair, but linux is something I've not dinked around with at all, so it's a pretty steep learning curve.

 

I hope that once I can get the gui up, and can access the thing through a browser on other computers, I'll be good to go. Famous last words, I know.

syslog.txt

[DaleWilliams]

Don't add anything, yet.

There's a web gui built in to unRAID.

The ones you reference are 'enhanced' GUI's.

 

Get the basic unRAID server running first.

If you have a local IP address for the unRAID box (which is what you get from ifconfig), something like 192.168.1.xx

---

the address you gave, 127.0.0.1 is the local loopback address, look up higher in the ifconfig for the eth0 address

---

 

From a PC open a web browser and go to:

192.168.1.xx and see if the builtin GUI shows up.

 

 

---

Down the road, when you want a better GUI, use DYNAMIX (in the Forums).

[JonathanM]

I think we are getting the cart before the horse here. I'm not sure what you expect to accomplish with what you've got, but right now all I see in your syslog is a 2TB drive (parity) a 750GB and a 500GB drive for data. That won't even net you 2TB of protected space.

 

First, what exactly do you want this machine to do for you? 10+ year old hardware is going to be extremely limited as to what it can accomplish with current drives, even running its best.

 

As to why you aren't getting a network connection, are you sure the on board ethernet is turned on in the BIOS? I didn't find any sign of a working network card in your syslog.

[Fx.]

I wiped the flash drive, reinstalled, put everything but webgui on it.

With the webgui- can this be unzipped and just dropped into a folder on the drive /boot/plugin or does it have to be installed through the console?

as he says above, thats an addon, stop adding things

 

with ifconfig  I get an ip address, which I didn't get before, it's showing as 127.0.0.1 however, browsing to that ip, it isn't found.(Web page not found when viewed in Chrome) so I'm guessing that's because the gui isn't in place.

no thats because 127.x isnt a valid address, its a loopback address

 

 

This is a bigger can of worms than I was expecting, I've been messing with computers since I built my first, a Sinclair, but linux is something I've not dinked around with at all, so it's a pretty steep learning curve.

not nearly as hard as getting a new network card going under nt4 or dos was

 

 

the syslog doesnt show any networking info, are you still using the onboard or have you swapped? (you could put all your cards in and hook them up until  we find out what one works)

again, what onboard NIC does it have? what other NIC cards have you tried?

[trurl]

Since you seem to be having some confusion as to how to get started, perhaps we should also make sure that you don't have any important data on the drives you have connected. Once you get things working, unRAID will want to wipe those disks before it can use them.

 

[Hilltop]

I think we are getting the cart before the horse here. I'm not sure what you expect to accomplish with what you've got, but right now all I see in your syslog is a 2TB drive (parity) a 750GB and a 500GB drive for data. That won't even net you 2TB of protected space.

 

I know, those are just stuck in there for the time being. I've got a 2 tb in another box that'll make it's way here, still backing off data and condensing files to get ready for the move.

 

First, what exactly do you want this machine to do for you? 10+ year old hardware is going to be extremely limited as to what it can accomplish with current drives, even running its best.

 

Just storage, painfully slow storage. I've lost too much data over the years due to removable drives, tape backups, cds, dvds, zip drives, etc, going bad on me. I'm a digital artist, I create a LOT of data, and I'm tired of losing years of work due to media failure. So speed isn't an issue at all, I just want mirrored safe data storage.

 

As to why you aren't getting a network connection, are you sure the on board ethernet is turned on in the BIOS? I didn't find any sign of a working network card in your syslog.

 

I've gone back and forth so many times I lost track, installing and removing one after another. I just wanted to get to the point that commands worked, now that it is, and now that I can get a syslog made and saved, I'm going back and checking one thing after another. I'll get there, just a bad start.

[Hilltop]

The drives current in there are entirely wiped clean, with this box I've got, it's one that I just picked up, so I put those in there just to make sure the hardware was working and they were visible at this point. Placeholders as it were.

[Hilltop]

I think the first thing I need to do is borrow a known good and working NIC. The two I tried appear to be dead.

 

I just tried the internal nic again, and after ifconfig eth0, I am getting an inet addr of 192.168.1.113 and a Bcast of 192.168.1.255  so at least it appears the hardware is recognized at this point, but still nothing trying to log in.

 

I may just hang it up for a few days and beat on it again with a fresh set of brains.

 

Thanks again for the help, it's appreciated

[JonathanM]

Just storage, painfully slow storage. I've lost too much data over the years due to removable drives, tape backups, cds, dvds, zip drives, etc, going bad on me. I'm a digital artist, I create a LOT of data, and I'm tired of losing years of work due to media failure. So speed isn't an issue at all, I just want mirrored safe data storage.

As long as you can get the drives physically mounted in that little case, and cooled properly, I see no reason why you can't do what you want (slow parity protected storage) with that system.

 

I just didn't want you to think you were going to be able to do all the whiz bang add-on high speed storage stuff that you see some of the people on here talking about. Your first post started in on the add-on stuff you were downloading and installing, so I wondered if your goals were realistic.

 

I just tried the internal nic again, and after ifconfig eth0, I am getting an inet addr of 192.168.1.113 and a Bcast of 192.168.1.255  so at least it appears the hardware is recognized at this point, but still nothing trying to log in.

 

So what response do you get from the browser on another machine on your network if you type http://192.168.1.113 into the address line? Can you ping that ip from another machine on the network?

[althoralthor]

And something you said above makes me think you are expecting something more on the console.  You won't see much of anything on the console, and really, theres not TOO much you would need to do with the base unraid install on the console.

 

Almost everything you would do to get things at least moving along is done via a web browser on another machine.  thats why you need to know the IP address and why i said to enter the ifconfig command to figure out the ip address (to eliminate any potential name resolution issues trying to resolve the host name "tower").

 

 

[trurl]

You used the word "mirror". unRAID does not mirror any of the data. Do you intend to use unRAID as a backup of data you have another copy of somewhere else (OK), or do you expect unRAID to keep all your data safe without having another copy somewhere else (not OK)? The only way to have a backup is to have multiple copies of your data.

[Hilltop]

>I just didn't want you to think you were going to be able to do all the whiz bang add-on high speed storage stuff that you see some of the people on here talking about. Your first post started in on the add-on stuff you were downloading and installing, so I wondered if your goals were realistic.

 

Drives are in the case just fine, nothing like a pile of old cases in the garage, some tin snips, and a pop rivet gun, they're all mounted nice and snug with plenty of air flow.

 

>So what response do you get from the browser on another machine on your network if you type http://192.168.1.113 into the address line? Can you ping that ip from another machine on the network?

 

It does nothing, sits there, then says connection is taking too long and times out. Pinging it hits a wall, it doesn't see it there at all, no packets made it anywhere at all. Bizarre.

[Hilltop]

And something you said above makes me think you are expecting something more on the console.  You won't see much of anything on the console, and really, theres not TOO much you would need to do with the base unraid install on the console.

 

Almost everything you would do to get things at least moving along is done via a web browser on another machine.  thats why you need to know the IP address and why i said to enter the ifconfig command to figure out the ip address (to eliminate any potential name resolution issues trying to resolve the host name "tower").

 

I only went to the console to see if ANYTHING worked. Since no gui came up, since the network didn't see this box, since this box didn't see anything else, I was poking around to see if ANYTHING was working as it should. Doing ifconfig resulted in Bad Command. So that's all I was doing, trying to figure out if the install was hosed or what. When nothing came up, nothing showed up, nothing made it out to the network, and nothing from the network saw this box, I was just looking to see if anything worked at all. No commands did anything the first time around, at least now I can get the thing to toss the IP address back at me.

 

If the gui had come up, I wouldn't have touched anything else, believe me.

[Hilltop]

Ignore my bad terminology. By mirror I simply meant to have data in that box, on multiple drives, as well as archived physically elsewhere. I've got a bank of external hard drives that I've been using up to this point, running a program to make one drive mirror the other, in other words, if it's on one drive, it's also on the second drive. This unraid will be the third storage, one I want to use for files I'm not accessing all that often, but as an archive that's not going to crap out on me. At least I hope so.

 

You used the word "mirror". unRAID does not mirror any of the data. Do you intend to use unRAID as a backup of data you have another copy of somewhere else (OK), or do you expect unRAID to keep all your data safe without having another copy somewhere else (not OK)? The only way to have a backup is to have multiple copies of your data.

[DaleWilliams]

If, from a PC, you cant't PING the unraid box (but the unRAID console shows a web address (192.168.1.113)),

then I'd suspect the network.

 

There should be a little light lit where ethernet plugs into your unRAID box.

Is there another where the ethernet plugs into your PC?

And what do you have in between? Router? Switch? and does each have a little light where the cables plug in?

or is part of your LAN Wireless?

[Hilltop]

If, from a PC, you cant't PING the unraid box (but the unRAID console shows a web address (192.168.1.113)),

then I'd suspect the network.

 

There should be a little light lit where ethernet plugs into your unRAID box.

Is there another where the ethernet plugs into your PC?

And what do you have in between? Router? Switch? and does each have a little light where the cables plug in?

or is part of your LAN Wireless?

 

There is wifi, but this is plugged in directly to a router. As mentioned earlier, yes, lights are lit on the box as well as the router, so there is physical connection, with a brand new cat 5 cable. Eliminating every possible problem one at a time till I get this figured out.