USB no longer bootable?

[guigz]

I was running unraid version 5.0 RC16 PRO fine for more than a year.

 

Last week, I needed to use the USB stick holding UNRAID to make an install of windows 10 on a laptop without a dvd drive. Since this was my only drive that is large enough, I figured I would make a copy of all the files (including system files) and store them on my desktop and simply copy those back to the USB stick when I was done. So, this was probably stupid.....

 

After my windows 10 install, I reformatted the drive to FAT32 and named it UNRAID and copied over all of the files. I tried to boot it, but it was telling me "Operating system Missing" but I could see it in the BIOS. I ran make_bootable on the drive and tried again and got the same result.

 

I downloaded unraid 6.1.9 (latest version available as of today), reformatted the drive to FAT32, named it UNRAID, copied over the unraid 6 files to the drive, ran make_bootable and tried booting again. As before, it says "Missing operating system".

 

So I do know what to do now. Is my USB stick toast? It seems fine on my windows machine.

 

Please help, I have about 10 TB of data on my unraid system and I don't want to lose it!

 

--------------

EDIT

 

After much digging and trying different things, here is what fixed it for me:

 

OK, I think the issue is solved now. It turns out that the problem is some sort of issue between the USB 2.0 ports, the Network card and the Unix 64 bit USB drivers.

 

This issue affects several Gigabyte AMD motherboards including the 970A-UD3P and the 990FXA-UD3. Turning on IOMMU in the BIOS will fix the problems.

 

See these links for more details:

 

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/72625/why-is-usb-not-working-in-linux-when-it-works-in-uefi-bios

 

http://www.misterx.org/2013/12/16/no-network-or-usb-on-gigabyte-970a-d3p-970-chipset-fix-on-centosrhel-6-5/

[trurl]

Either the BIOS isn't trying to boot from the flash, or you have made a mistake setting up the flash again.

[guigz]

Either the BIOS isn't trying to boot from the flash, or you have made a mistake setting up the flash again.

 

I didn't change any setting in the BIOS between the working V5 install and the non working V5 and V6.

 

I listed what I did above to format the drive, do you see anything obvious I may have done?

[JorgeB]

Did you ran make_bootable as admin?

[guigz]

Did you ran make_bootable as admin?

 

 

Yes indeed I did. Maybe I can try the trial version on another USB drive to see if the drive is the problem. Can anyone confirm that doing that will not screw up my data (I have 7-8 HDD in my array)?

[Frank1940]

Did you ran make_bootable as admin?

 

 

Yes indeed I did. Maybe I can try the trial version on another USB drive to see if the drive is the problem. Can anyone confirm that doing that will not screw up my data (I have 7-8 HDD in my array)?

 

As I recall the make_bootable program is a bit confusing.  After you run it as Administrator, a cmd screen will open up and it looks like it has done its thing.  But it really hasn't.  You must click the 'Enter' key and then it will actually write the new boot record. 

[guigz]

Did you ran make_bootable as admin?

 

 

Yes indeed I did. Maybe I can try the trial version on another USB drive to see if the drive is the problem. Can anyone confirm that doing that will not screw up my data (I have 7-8 HDD in my array)?

 

As I recall the make_bootable program is a bit confusing.  After you run it as Administrator, a cmd screen will open up and it looks like it has done its thing.  But it really hasn't.  You must click the 'Enter' key and then it will actually write the new boot record.

 

The program creates the ldlinux.c32 (or whatever it's called) file on the drive so I think that means that the make_bootable program has done its thing.

[guigz]

The flash drive I am using is a 8GB KINGSTON Data traveler G2 101 if that helps.

[guigz]

I tried with my OCZ Rally 2.0 flash drive and it boots up unRAID no problem. Does that mean that my Kingston drive is toast?

[Squid]

Historically I've found that creating a Windows compatible boot stick impacts the ability of linux boot loaders to work.  To recover in the past I've used active boot disk to wipe everything out and then reset up with make_bootable

[guigz]

Historically I've found that creating a Windows compatible boot stick impacts the ability of linux boot loaders to work.  To recover in the past I've used active boot disk to wipe everything out and then reset up with make_bootable

 

Thanks! With Active Kill Disk, I was able to identify a lingering UEFI NTSF partition and wipe it out. Now I am able to boot in unRAID 6.1.9

 

Can anyone help me recover my settings and structure from my previous 5.0 install? I have a copy of all the files on my desktop.

 

Can I just overwrite the config directory?

[Frank1940]

Historically I've found that creating a Windows compatible boot stick impacts the ability of linux boot loaders to work.  To recover in the past I've used active boot disk to wipe everything out and then reset up with make_bootable

 

Thanks! With Active Kill Disk, I was able to identify a lingering UEFI NTSF partition and wipe it out. Now I am able to boot in unRAID 6.1.9

 

Can anyone help me recover my settings and structure from my previous 5.0 install? I have a copy of all the files on my desktop.

 

Can I just overwrite the config directory?

 

See first post:

 

  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=39032.0

[guigz]

I followed the instructions but I noticed that the boot says:

 

dev/disk/by-label/UNRAID not found a bunch of times....

 

This did not happen with my other USB stick.... ARRRG!

[guigz]

Ok... so this is getting weirder and weirder.

 

I went to my local electronics store and picked up another Kingston Data Traveler 101 G2 8GB. I formatted it as per the instructions above and was able to get the BIOS to recognize and start unraid.

 

During loading, I was getting the same errors :

 

dev/disk/by-label/UNRAID not found (many times)

 

And also (not verbatim, from my memory):

 

Unable to contact DHCP host to get IP address.

 

The new USB drive behaves exactly like my old one. So either unRAID 6.1.9 does not like this flash drive brand or it is somehow incompatible with the hardware I have (but unRAID 5.0 was fine with it). 

 

I am kinda stumped here.

 

I was able to get my old flash drive to boot unRAID 5.0 following the procedure that Squid suggested above but that does not work with unRAID 6.1.9. Anyone got suggestions?

[Squid]

Did you reformat it (after active kill disk fixed it) as FAT32 (not exFat).  Did you name it UNRAID (all caps).  Did you run make_bootable on it?

[guigz]

Did you reformat it (after active kill disk fixed it) as FAT32 (not exFat).  Did you name it UNRAID (all caps).  Did you run make_bootable on it?

 

Yes to everything. The issue is no longer that it does not boot (your suggestion fixed that) but that unRAIR 6.1.9 does not load properly on two different flash drive whereas unraid 5.0 works...

[trurl]

Is your .key file in the config folder? It should be.

[guigz]

Is your .key file in the config folder? It should be.

 

I tried it both ways, with 6.1.9 and 5.0.

 

Only 5.0 works. 

[Frank1940]

First, check your BIOS settings for the NIC and be sure that the WOL option is set to off.  (There have been some issues with that option interfering with the NIC initializing.)

 

Second, try a USB2 port (they are normally Black) for your boot drive rather than a USB3 port (Blue).

[Russ Uno]

Also, the key must match your USB Flash Drive.

V5 would run in trial mode without a key or the correct key, V6 will not.

[guigz]

Also, the key must match your USB Flash Drive.

V5 would run in trial mode without a key or the correct key, V6 will not.

 

Wait what? How do I get a trial key for V6 then?

[Frank1940]

Also, the key must match your USB Flash Drive.

V5 would run in trial mode without a key or the correct key, V6 will not.

 

Wait what? How do I get a trial key for V6 then?

 

Go to the Limetech website.  Click on the Support tab, then pick Videos and watch the Initial Setup video.

[Russ Uno]

If you already have a key for v5 you can run v6 but only from the flash drive the key matches.

If  you want to run v6 on a new flash you will need a trial key or a regular key for that flash drive.

[guigz]

Also, the key must match your USB Flash Drive.

V5 would run in trial mode without a key or the correct key, V6 will not.

 

Wait what? How do I get a trial key for V6 then?

 

Go to the Limetech website.  Click on the Support tab, then pick Videos and watch the Initial Setup video.

 

I can't do that. unRAID 6.1.9 does not completely boot (i.e., dev/disk/by-label/UNRAID not found error, and then eth0 not getting an IP address). I can't access the GUI. Even my keyboard that is plugged in refuses to work so I can't even enter commands manually.

 

If you already have a key for v5 you can run v6 but only from the flash drive the key matches.

If  you want to run v6 on a new flash you will need a trial key or a regular key for that flash drive.

 

Yes, this is understood.

 

I thought that we were saying that unraid v6 would not boot without a key. V6 will still boot without a key, but I won't be able to assign devices correct?

 

 

First, check your BIOS settings for the NIC and be sure that the WOL option is set to off.  (There have been some issues with that option interfering with the NIC initializing.)

 

Second, try a USB2 port (they are normally Black) for your boot drive rather than a USB3 port (Blue).

 

1)My mobo is the GA-970A-UD3P Rev2.0. I don't have an option for WOL but I enabled ERP which is supposed to disable WOL. No difference. V6 won't boot without the errors listed earlier.

 

2) Already what I was doing. I disabled USB 3.0 to see if that would make a difference and no, it does not.

[Russ Uno]

One other thing, did you run make_bootable from the make_bootable file on flash drive and not from another place.

I ask because I did that once and had the same result as you... won't do it again.