Migrating to Supermicro C2SEE - can't boot from USB

[sonofdbn]

I know there are some similar threads, but I wanted to start a fresh one as I suspect there might be other users in a similar position.

 

I started off my unRaid foray with the original "starter pack" which came with an Intel motherboard (D865GLCLK) and two Promise IDE PCI controllers (I think Ultra TX100s), which supported 8 IDE drives between them. My unRaid came on a San Disk 512MB Cruzer Micro USB drive.

 

As the old server was starting to get flaky, I decided to upgrade to something more modern, and it seemed like the safest choice was to get the "official" Supermicro C2SEE motherboard and transfer everything to that, including the Promise controllers (the C2SEE has NO IDE onboard) and just re-use the USB drive. So I set up the new box with the C2SEE and shifted my Promise controllers, 8 IDE drives and 4 SATA drives to it. Everything looked OK, except that I couldn't boot into unRaid. (I'm using unRaid 4.4.2.)

 

The AMI BIOS I have is version 08.00.15, Build Date 06/20/08, ID CS2SEA000. Initially I started by just setting the BIOS to boot from the USB drive (which the BIOS recognised as a removable device), which was plugged into one of the rear USB ports, with no other changes to the default settings, but that didn't work.

 

I've tried the BIOS settings suggested by bjp999 in another thread as shown below; unfortunately this didn't work either.

 

NAS -

 

I powered my server down and checked the settings for you.  Hope this helps.

 

You should not have had to reformat the USB stick.

 

The bolded item below is most likely your problem.

 

Advanced

- USB Configuration

---- USB Functions ENABLED

---- Legacy USB Support AUTO

---- Port 64/60 Emulation DISABLED

---- USB 2.0 Controller Mode HISPEED

---- BIOS EHCI Hand-off ENABLED

---- USB Mass Storage Device Contiguration

-------- Device #1 {your USB drive type should be listed here}

-------- Emulation Type FORCED FDD (options are Auto, Floppy, Forced FDD, Hard Disk, CDROM)

 

Boot

- Removable Drives

(make sure your USB is at the top of the list - otherwise move it to the top)

- Boot Device Priority

(make sure your USB is at the top of the list - otherwise move it to the top)

 

Good luck!

 

Yet from the various other posts it seems like people have managed to use the C2SEE successfully, and it IS the "official" motherboard. Of course, one difference is that the unRaid pre-built servers use all SATA drives, and do not use Promise IDE controllers, and perhaps this is significant. (And I believe the USB drive is plugged into an onboard USB port.) In any event, it would be nice to know what the BIOS settings are on the pre-built servers.

 

I'm surely not the only person using my particular combination of hardware, so I'm hoping that others who have been more successful will share their BIOS settings. And if, for some reason, this particular hardware combination doesn't work, it would be good to establish that as well, since it's probably a fairly natural upgrade path that others might follow.

 

(Edited to add unRaid version information.)

[purko]

one difference is that the unRaid pre-built servers use all SATA drives, and do not use Promise IDE controllers, and perhaps this is significant.

 

Yes. (for some versions of AMI BIOS)

 

I had exactly the same situation.

 

Strange as it may sound, disable IDE in BIOS.

Linux will still recognise your IDEs correctly.

 

 

[sonofdbn]

OK. will try that and report back. Disable IDE in BIOS, but leave USB as Forced FDD? Or something else for USB in the BIOS?

[sonofdbn]

Well, I thought I might as well go ahead and try it. I went to the IDE section in my BIOS and at the top there are two items: SATA#1 Configuration (set to "Compatible") and SATA#2 Configuration (set to "Enhanced"). I set both to Disabled and left USB at Forced FDD.

 

And now the system boots the unRaid USB drive! Thank you, purko! I would never have tried that.

 

I'm running Memtest, so haven't see how unRaid itself works yet...... Stay tuned.

[sonofdbn]

OK, so that WASN'T the right way to disable IDE. When I started unRaid, it saw only the IDE drives (that are attached to the Promise controllers); it didn't see the four SATA drives that were attached to the onboard SATA ports.

 

So I reset the SATA configuration parameters in the BIOS back to the original values and then rebooted so that the BIOS could "see" the onboard SATA drives after the change in configuration. Then back in the BIOS the IDE page now shows the six onboard SATA ports as "Primary IDE Master", "Primary IDE Slave", etc. (You'd see this in the original default setting if you didn't fiddle with the SATA configuration as I did.) As I have four disks attached to the SATA ports, it showed four "IDE" drives. For each one, I clicked on the [Hard Disk] entry, which then showed the drive parameters. I then set the Type, which was "Auto", to "Not Installed". (I think there's a minor discrepancy in the BIOS where it then shows the Type as "Not Detected", IIRC.)

 

Rebooted and now everything is fine. I reassigned the 12 drives to their correct slots from the browser GUI and am running a parity check.

[purko]

..."Primary IDE Master", "Primary IDE Slave", etc....

For each one, I clicked on the [Hard Disk] entry, which then showed the drive parameters.

I then set the Type, which was "Auto", to "Not Installed".

...and now everything is fine.

 

Exactly. 

 

Glad it worked for you.

 

 

[gbdesai]

Wow you guys saved me a lot of heartache!  I bought a pre-built system that worked fine till last night when the USB drive was suddenly appearing as empty.  I rebooted and it wouldn't boot into Unraid, I concluded the flash drive went bad, but it did boot my laptop.  Thought USB port(s) were bad, but the Sony stick did show in the POST info.  But it wouldn't boot, made the changes recommended here and it worked!  Don't know why it suddenly stopped working and why the BIOS settings changed (I am assuming they did).  Regardless I am back up and running due to your help, I'm very grateful!

[purko]

You are welcome. 

 

[ohlwiler]

I'd like to add my thanks as well. I used this to get my C2SEA to boot off the flash. I did mess around for about an hour before I went on a search of the forum. I would have found it sooner, but this was directed at C2SEE users, since they share the same bios, it took me awhile make the connection and I finally found this very helpful post.