Web server error: "Invalid Content"

[madpoet]

Ok, rebooted my box to check something and when it came back up the web server simply displays "Invalid Content".  Can't get into any of the management utilities which is bad.  I need to add a disk   Any thoughts?

[TCIII]

madpoet,

 

Have you tried to contact the server with the telnet? You might try that and use tail -f /var/log/syslog to see what is going on.

 

Sounds like your flash drive may be corrupted.

 

However, you might want to hook up a keyboard and display and get into the BIOS on reboot and make sure that the flash drive is designated as the drive to boot from.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Regards,

TCIII

[madpoet]

TC, I should have been more specific.  The system is booting, and my existing drives are available.  It's getting to the web server portion that fails.  I'll take a look at the log and see if it offers any clues to my limited Linux understanding

[madpoet]

Tail of the log:

 

Apr 14 07:26:57 Tower kernel: md: reading superblock from device sda2

Apr 14 07:26:57 Tower kernel: md: superblock events: 10

Apr 14 07:26:57 Tower kernel: md: import hda Maxtor 6L300R0 L612SBKG offset: 63

size: 293057320

Apr 14 07:26:57 Tower kernel: md: import hdb Maxtor 6L250R0 L605NRVG offset: 63

size: 245117344

Apr 14 07:26:57 Tower kernel: md: import hdc ST3250623A 5ND2JD0T offset: 63 size

: 244198552

Apr 14 07:26:57 Tower kernel: md2: new disk

Apr 14 07:26:57 Tower kernel: md: blkdev_get error: -6

Apr 14 07:26:57 Tower last message repeated 8 times

Apr 14 08:52:00 Tower smbd[836]: [2006/04/14 08:52:00, 0] smbd/service.c:make_co

nnection(800)

Apr 14 08:52:00 Tower smbd[836]:  htpc (192.168.11.7) couldn't find service dis

k1

[madpoet]

Correction... I cannot reach my original drives.  I can however see the flash drive share.  *sigh*

[Joe L.]

Ok, rebooted my box to check something and when it came back up the web server simply displays "Invalid Content".  Can't get into any of the management utilities which is bad.  I need to add a disk   Any thoughts?

I think that is exactly the error you will see if the encrypted serial number in the model.cfg file on the flash drive does not match the USB flash drive serial number.

 

Did you by any chance delete and/or edit the model.cfg file line that says "serial=1234-ABCD" ... or move the model.cfg file from the root of the USB drive where it is expected to be found?

 

If the model.cfg file is still there in the /boot folder, and the serial number line exists in it, it is time to call Tom.

 

Joe L.

 

[madpoet]

Nope, I've never touched anything on the flash.

[Joe L.]

From a "telnet" window, after logging in as "root" type:

 

cd /boot

cat model.cfg

 

It should look something like this (contents of my model.cfg file)

 

# Do not modify this file

model=MD1200/IDE

serial=539D-A5FB

 

What does your model.cfg contents look like?  If it looks similar (obviously, your serial number will be different) then first try another restart of the unRaid server by typing "reboot" and if it still does not work, Tom will need to assist you.  I don't know what else would give the "Invalid Contents" error other than corruption of the flash drive contents as suggested by TCIII.

 

Joe L.

[madpoet]

# Do not modify this file

model=CUSTOM

serial=5D9B-4F47

 

Tried several reboots, same result.

[madpoet]

Fixed it!  I'm an idiot.  I had a hard drive that wasn't getting recognized by the bios and I had changed the support from Legacy to Enhanced and forgot I did it.  That was enough to hang the web server.  I understand in the new beta version that's not an issue anymore, but it certainly is now!  Anyway, i set it back to Legacy and all is good (except that my hard drive is dead... grr).

[Joe L.]

Great news... I guess "Legacy" also affects the ability to read the USB drive.  I did not think of that at all.

 

I've not changed this in my Bios, so it still is set to "Legacy" even though I'm running the new beta version.

 

Joe L.

[madpoet]

Hehe... man I can't win.  So I added another drive, and got the page where it said it needed to clear the drive.  I said fine, and let it run.  Around 55% or so my wife browsed away from the web page to do something, and now when I browse back I get nothing.  No web page found.  So do I reboot again, or do I need to give it a while before rebooting to make sure I don't screw anything up?  And why does it take so long to clear a clean disk?

[madpoet]

Never mind, fixed that too... all good things come to those who wait

[limetech]

When you browse to the Management Utility and get a page that just says "Invalid Content", then as Joe indicated earlier, that indicates a mismatch between the s/n in the model.cfg file vs. the Flash s/n.  I will attempt to explain why this results when the bios Drive Conguration is set to "enhanced".

 

First, realize this: in the linux world there are basically two types of mass storage: IDE (aka, Parallel-ATA or PATA), and SCSI.  Mass storage devices are idenfitied like this:

 

linux IDE device 1, 2, 3, ... => hda, hdb, hdc, ...

liunx SCSI device 1, 2, 3, ... => sda, sdb, sdc, ...

Windows device 1, 2, 3, ... => C:, D:, E:, ...

 

Notice IDE drives have "hd" prefix, and SCSI has "sd" prefix.

 

When USB mass storage support was added to linux, what they did was build it on top of SCSI sub-system, so that USB mass storage devices "look" like SCSI devices to linux.  Hence, the Flash appears as device "sda".

 

So in a normal non-SATA UnRaid system, "sda" is always the Flash, and "hda", "hdb", "hdc", ... are the IDE data disks.

 

Ok... When SATA support was added to linux, what they did, like USB mass storage, was also to build it on top of SCSI sub-system, so that SATA disks also "look" like SCSI devices to linux.

 

If you are following this so far, you might ask, in an environment with both USB disks and SATA disks, how are the devices assigned and how do you tell them apart?  Answer is this: They get assigned in the order that linux "sees" them and there are ways to tell them apart.  Turns out that the onboard SATA controllers get assigned devices first, then USB Flash, then SATA devices on PCI controllers.  Hence, suppose you have two SATA ports on the motherboard, devices will be assigned like this:

  sda, sdb => the two motherboard SATA ports,

  sdc => the USB Flash

 

Back to the orignal issue... When the bios Drive Config is set to "legacy", the on-board SATA controllers are disabled and linux never see them, hence "sda" is always the Flash.  But if the bios Drive Config is set to "enhanced", the on-board SATA controllers are enabled and linux assigns them to devices "sda" and "sdb", and the Flash is "sdc".  But version 1.050930 software always assumes that "sda" is the Flash, and that is where it expects to find the config files.  So if bios is set to "enhanced" it won't see the Flash properly, won't see the config files, can't validate the Flash, and generates the "Invalid content" message.

 

This is  fixed in version 2.060324.