Leave your boot set to BIOS. Make sure you press f11 on boot. Go into C: drive then your USB will appear to boot from.

Now the reason it wont boot on DELL is because your syslinux is not in the image and is required for the Dell servers.

 

1. Create your USB stick image manually in a linux distro.

- Install pop OS on your spare laptop or PC  or in hyperviser like VMWARE Workstation or Virtual Box. Make sure you are bridged on your Ethernet so pop OS can access the net on your existing network.

 

Boot up pop OS and install USB into your machine. Share the USB with the pop OS VM (different on each hypervisor but basically telling the hypervisor to pass through the USB stick to your pop OS install.

 

Open browser in pop OS and download the latest zip file of the UNRAID files from their website.

 

Once downloaded you can open "DISK" which is in the utility's menu on the GUI on pop OS

 

Click on the negative sign to delete any existing partitions on your USB stick

Then click on + and create a new partition

Then name the partition label to UNRAID in capitals

If the partition isn't formatted to FAT32 then format it using the same utility it's straight forward.

 

Now extract your zip using the GUI just lick on files, then click on downloads, then right click on your downloaded zip to extract "HERE"

 

Now you can select "al"l and COPY

 

Then you can open your USB folder and paste in the files, this may take a couple of minutes so be patient and wait for then folders to appear.

 

Ok now open terminal from the gui.

 

type the following

 

sudo apt install syslinux

 

after this is installed navigate to your downloads folder

 

If you  type the command "ls" , this will list your folders.

 

then for example

 

type cd Downloads (Downloads has a CAPITAL "D" so make sure you type it correctly)

 

type "ls"

 

you should now see your unRaidServerxxxxx folder

xxxx being the current release

type "cd" unRaidserverxxxxxxx to change to this folder

type "ls" and you should see the contents of the folder

 

now type

sudo ./make_bootable_linux

 

if this doesn't work press the up arrow key and press enter this will execute the command again

 

select UEFI "no"

 

Thats it now your USB will boot on Dell T/R series servers in BIOS mode.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

????? What....🤦‍♂️why would you go through all that, use Linux to create Linux... I don’t get it... help me understand why Limetech and Unraid engineers came up with a simple and end user friendly way to download create and write to a usb. I don’t know about you but I like get rid of a headache in a few minutes than spend all day with the headache. 

 

listen, unraid UEFI cannot be done on the Dell T/R X20’s. That’s it, accept your server fate and use BIOS only. Problem solved. Or build a “newer” server, because for something that is over 9 years old almost 10 is past its prime, deprecated, obsolete and retired. The Dell T/R x20’s servers serve its purpose, nothing more nothing less and are not “fancy”. Keep it simple. 
 

these servers once supported windows server 2012,a UEFI OS and Dell has a list of Linux distros RHEL/Debian based that are UEFI compatible. Just For some reason Syslinux is not an enterprise distro that Dell will recognize as UEFI. It’s not a Unraid problem, it’s a Dell problem the OS was not meant for this server. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong using a non unraid syslinux install and let me know how it goes and if it works submit the results to Limetech.

don’t do this suggested long and crazy usb install using  PopOS. there is a free and Open source solution using the Unraid Flash Creator utility 

—————————————-

Using this program, you can easily convert almost any USB flash device into an Unraid boot device. In addition, the flash creator will give you the option to toggle some advanced settings such as loading a beta release, renaming your server hostname, setting a static IP address for your server pre-boot, and even toggling support for UEFI booting.

Plug the USB flash device into your Mac or PC

 

1. Go to the downloads page.

 

2. Download the USB Flash Creator to your Mac or PC and run it. This tool is an open source program digitally signed by Lime Technology, Inc.

 

3. Customize any options you desire and select the flash device you wish to use from the drop-down.

 

4. Click Write to create the bootable flash.

 

 

On 6/4/2021 at 8:55 AM, terryTtibbs said:

Leave your boot set to BIOS. Make sure you press f11 on boot. Go into 😄 drive then your USB will appear to boot from.

Now the reason it wont boot on DELL is because your syslinux is not in the image and is required for the Dell servers.

 

1. Create your USB stick image manually in a linux distro.

- Install pop OS on your spare laptop or PC  or in hyperviser like VMWARE Workstation or Virtual Box. Make sure you are bridged on your Ethernet so pop OS can access the net on your existing network.

 

Boot up pop OS and install USB into your machine. Share the USB with the pop OS VM (different on each hypervisor but basically telling the hypervisor to pass through the USB stick to your pop OS install.

 

Open browser in pop OS and download the latest zip file of the UNRAID files from their website.

 

Once downloaded you can open "DISK" which is in the utility's menu on the GUI on pop OS

 

Click on the negative sign to delete any existing partitions on your USB stick

Then click on + and create a new partition

Then name the partition label to UNRAID in capitals

If the partition isn't formatted to FAT32 then format it using the same utility it's straight forward.

 

Now extract your zip using the GUI just lick on files, then click on downloads, then right click on your downloaded zip to extract "HERE"

 

Now you can select "al"l and COPY

 

Then you can open your USB folder and paste in the files, this may take a couple of minutes so be patient and wait for then folders to appear.

 

Ok now open terminal from the gui.

 

type the following

 

sudo apt install syslinux

 

after this is installed navigate to your downloads folder

 

If you  type the command "ls" , this will list your folders.

 

then for example

 

type cd Downloads (Downloads has a CAPITAL "D" so make sure you type it correctly)

 

type "ls"

 

you should now see your unRaidServerxxxxx folder

xxxx being the current release

type "cd" unRaidserverxxxxxxx to change to this folder

type "ls" and you should see the contents of the folder

 

now type

sudo ./make_bootable_linux

 

if this doesn't work press the up arrow key and press enter this will execute the command again

 

select UEFI "no"

 

Thats it now your USB will boot on Dell T/R series servers in BIOS mode.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, this doesn't work as you will find if you have Dell servers, hence the reply to many who have the same issue. 

regards

 

Hi all,

 

I’m pretty new to Unraid but got the same issue on my Dell Server T710.

make things short: UEFI… Forget about that..

 

That‘s how it worked on my Server to autoboot from USB:

Set to Bios.

USB Device setting from Auto to Harddisk.

Set Bootorder to USB and then Raid.

Save and Reboot.

Server starts with Unraid without manual F11 etc…

 

Hope that works for you too!

 

Rauti 

Does anyone have a solution to this. I just bought a Dell T320 server and have been getting the error as shown here.

I have the DELL boot in UEFI mode since the BIOS mode does not show the USB as a booting option.

 

Any help ?

I did run a system check and I found this.

Any help on this.

Does this mean that my RAM is bad ? Cause there is no BIOS setting for ECC to be enabled or disabled.

@h3xcmd

Any help on this issue.

I did change the RAM as well. And ended with the same error.

Do what it says, rest your bios settings back to default, turn off UEFI, clear your Bios logs. Your dealing with a enterprise dell server it’s a short learning curve. Might want to look into dell support articles, for for the t power edge servers.  unraid can’t run uefi it’s a syslinux issue nothing to do with unraid. 

the dell power edge only runs off of ECC ram you can mix match speeds but not different types like you can’t put ECC type-R with regular ECC there a bios settings for it. I would just reset to factory defaults and play with it later, your going to be spending 1/2 day on it.

Thank you @h3xcmd

But the Booting from USB option only appears on UEFI and not with BIOS.

On BIOS, I have only, C drive and the 2 network ports.

 

Let me have a look again.

So I have my usb plugged into the motherboard on my T420. Otherwise you have to use… the front USB ports??? If I remember correctly. The back ports are on a different bus controller and can’t boot usb drives from the back. 
 

I also think my unraid stick I removed the uefi flag at creation. 
 

and the usb drive if petitioned right is reading like a hard drive 

 

if you have a c drive listed it sounds like you have to remove the drives from dell virtual raid.  the drives will wipe and be converted to non raid disks, that’s what you want. Your not using the traditional raid unraid will take care of that.

Edited April 11, 20224 yr by h3xcmd

@h3xcmd

Managed to clear the log, and reboot with BIOS settings (no UEFI. USB was created without UEFI)

Booted with USB at the front and USB on the motherboard

Found the USB both times in the BIOS settings.

But cannot see it in the Boot Sequence.

Any help ?

It’s not going to be shown in the boot sequence, but the usb drive will read as a hard drive. So that is the 1st boot sequence. Hard drives boot first  and below your hard disk sequence looks good it should boot every time to the usb drive first. Looks good to me. Remember this server was built for windows server 2008r2 and windows server 2012 as a premium upgrade and only compatible with OS’s listed in the lifecycle controller. 
 

wait till you set up iDRAC heheheheh…. Then you can remotely manage via IP url and use a virtual monitor on another computer and with the Dell BMC command line software you can use command prompt to manually adjust the fan speeds to like 35-42% so it’s less noisy.
 

another pointer… when adding hard disks to the dell server, because of the virtual raid Perc card you first have to go into the Bios and convert the hard drive to “non raid” use.

then unraid will see it later on when adding it. 

 

It’s cool stuff welcome to enterprise Life. 

Edited April 12, 20224 yr by h3xcmd

@h3xcmd

so i have changed all the hard drives to non raid.

but yet the C drive shows.

any possibly to help me out over the phone ?

I don’t think you will get it to change its wording “hard drive c:” in the boot sequence if that’s what your asking … that’s like hard coded into the bios.
 

Your usb thumb drive is “ hard drive c.”  That’s another way of saying “hard drive Root directory” looking for a boot loader. I don’t think you have an issue here… as long as it detects the “hard drive” which is your usb flash drive and boots to it. You might have to check / enable hard drive C in that box. 
 

during partitioning of the usb drive it’s created on a fat32 file system and partition like a traditional hard drive would be so it can be read by the bios. 

 

have you tried to 

 

Reboot the server

Press F11 to enter the boot menu

Select the Boot Menu option 

It will scan for boot devices 

Go to Hard disk using Arrow keys This is the point where you get a secondary menu with the option to select the USB attached device 

Select it and press Enter. 

It will then boot from USB.

Edited April 12, 20224 yr by h3xcmd

@benjhong

I see that you have got the DELL to work with UNRAID.

Any help for me.

@h3xcmd

Strange but doing the F11 and trying that USB, gave me "no bootable image found" error.

 

On 7/3/2021 at 8:24 PM, CaptRauti said:

That‘s how it worked on my Server to autoboot from USB:

Set to Bios.

USB Device setting from Auto to Harddisk.

Set Bootorder to USB and then Raid.

Save and Reboot.

Server starts with Unraid without manual F11 etc…

Rauti 

 

Thanks - this got my Dell Poweredge R720XD working with the Unraid USB Creator built USB stick on the internal USB slot. 

I had been struggling with a new R710 I acquired. I was also having the "Failed to Allocate memory for Kernel command line, bailing out booting kernel failed: bad file number" error but was struggling to get it to boot in BIOS mode.

 

This is the stupidest thing, but in the R710 BIOS after changing the boot order and all that to use the internal USB, you have to go back to the Boot selector menu and hit SPACE BAR to ENABLE the drive to boot.

 

I also had prepared the drive with PopOS and some other steps along the way but this might have been the key issue for me.

On 7/3/2021 at 3:24 PM, CaptRauti said:

Hi all,

 

I’m pretty new to Unraid but got the same issue on my Dell Server T710.

make things short: UEFI… Forget about that..

 

That‘s how it worked on my Server to autoboot from USB:

Set to Bios.

USB Device setting from Auto to Harddisk.

Set Bootorder to USB and then Raid.

Save and Reboot.

Server starts with Unraid without manual F11 etc…

 

Hope that works for you too!

 

Rauti 

Hi guys,  I was able to get this to work!  awesome job Rauti. 

 

I have my previous Unraid all up and running, however how do I set my r720 to automatically boot in bios not uefi each time I need to do a reset and how do I set it to automatically boot to the usb drive.. 

each time it boots up I go back to UEFI, I have to change to bios and reboot than I have to go into my boot devices to pick my usb with Unraid installed.  

anyone have any ideas?  appreciate your help in advance. 

 

On 7/3/2021 at 2:24 PM, CaptRauti said:

Hi all,

 

I’m pretty new to Unraid but got the same issue on my Dell Server T710.

make things short: UEFI… Forget about that..

 

That‘s how it worked on my Server to autoboot from USB:

Set to Bios.

USB Device setting from Auto to Harddisk.

Set Bootorder to USB and then Raid.

Save and Reboot.

Server starts with Unraid without manual F11 etc…

 

Hope that works for you too!

 

Rauti 

This worked for me and provided a flashback of when I installed my first server many years ago.

 

Just to provide more specifics from my Dell R720:

1. When booting press F2 for system setup.

2. System BIOS

3. Boot Settings

4. Boot mode should be set to BIOS (mine was on UEFI)

5. Go down to BIOS boot settings

6. Go into Hard-Disk Drive Sequence

7.  Make the flash drive the first (top) and the RAID the second (bottom)

8. Back out and save when prompted. Back out some more until you are asked to reboot. 

From this point the system should boot into Unraid without any interaction.

 

One side note: I tested the USB on the front USB and when I got it working I moved the USB to the internal USB. The BIOS automatically updated the location so no edit was needed.

 

I also used a Samsung Bar Plus 3.1 USB Flash drive that is 2.0 compatible. 

I have dell poweredge R510. It worked well with anything else like ESXI, Windows server 2022, TrueNAS Scale/core, and PROXMOX. But it is not working with unraid.

9 minutes ago, Ak47 said:

But it is not working with unraid.

Did you try booting legacy mode, not UEFI?

1 hour ago, JorgeB said:

Did you try booting legacy mode, not UEFI?

Yes, did not work. 

I just ran into this same thing and it drive me made. I found that if I manually created the USB (you can do it in Windows too) that you could boot up just fine without UEFI.

 

1.  Download the latest version from the archives.

 

2.   Format your USB drive as FAT32 and name UNRAID (if you're running Windows 10 or newer and your drive is bigger that 32 GB, you'll need to using another tool like Rufus for this)

 

3. Copy the ZIP file to the newly formatted drive and extract the contents there then delete the ZIP file.

 

4. Rename the EFI folder to EFI-

 

5. Right-clocl on the make_bootable.bat script and select Run as administrator.

 

Let it run and select No for enabling UEFI boot.

 

After that it worked fine. I ran through this a dozen more time with different drives using the creation tool and none of them worked.  Same drives all work fine doing it manually.

On 1/14/2024 at 12:38 PM, Gobananas said:

This worked for me and provided a flashback of when I installed my first server many years ago.

 

Just to provide more specifics from my Dell R720:

1. When booting press F2 for system setup.

2. System BIOS

3. Boot Settings

4. Boot mode should be set to BIOS (mine was on UEFI)

5. Go down to BIOS boot settings

6. Go into Hard-Disk Drive Sequence

7.  Make the flash drive the first (top) and the RAID the second (bottom)

8. Back out and save when prompted. Back out some more until you are asked to reboot. 

From this point the system should boot into Unraid without any interaction.

 

One side note: I tested the USB on the front USB and when I got it working I moved the USB to the internal USB. The BIOS automatically updated the location so no edit was needed.

 

I also used a Samsung Bar Plus 3.1 USB Flash drive that is 2.0 compatible. 

Here is an update as I needed to do this again and followed my guide. I ran into the same issue and the above guide ended up saying no OS was found.

Installed on the same R720XD with the Unraid USB creator on v7.1.4 and followed the same steps as above. After step 8 I rebooted and had to do the following:

9. During bootup press F11 for BIOS boot manager

10. Bios boot manager (NOT EFI)

11. Hard drive C:

12. USB

I hope this saves others from having to figure it out.