How to Force Legacy Mode in BIOS [SOLVED]


Recommended Posts

Hi team,

 

I performed and upgrade to 6.5 and when I rebooted one of my drives is missing.  When I check the UEFI BIOS, it is also missing, along with my four drives on my second PCI Express SATA controller. Though strangely, the other three appear in Unraid.  (I think this is because I hot inserted an unmounted drive and never configured/mounted it, and when I rebooted, my BIOS got confused)

 

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to force Legacy mode in the BIOS so that I can enable the drive again (the one that is missing).  I have tried everything I can find in UEFI to see if I can configure it there, but nothing works, regardless of how I set my boot mode (Legacy and/or UEFI) in the UEFI.

 

So, I am stuck! Help much obliged.

Edited by keyman33
Solved
Link to comment

Thanks, itimpi.  Yes, that's right and it's exactly what I'm trying to do.  I need to get into the BIOS but the only way for me right now is UEFI.  And for some reason it does not see my second SATA controller (using PCI-E). So, I thought it would be best to go to Legacy mode to troubleshoot and set up the connections again to the drives.  But I cannot force legacy mode no matter what I try.

 

Link to comment

Your question is the reverse of what most folks are trying to do.  I am not sure if this would help or not, but go to this thread and search for UEFI 

 

    https://lime-technology.com/forums/topic/66327-unraid-os-version-650-stable-release-update-notes/

 

And you will find instructions for how to turn it on. The converse action should turn it off.  If your signature is correct, then you have an old MB and you should make sure that you have the latest BIOS update installed.  As I recall, UEFI had a lot of teething problems back in those days...

 

Link to comment
14 hours ago, keyman33 said:

I need to get into the BIOS but the only way for me right now is UEFI.

 

I think there's some confusion in this thread. Is it true that you are not talking about using UEFI or legacy methods of booting the unRAID OS, but that you are actually asking about the firmware of the motherboard instead? You press a keyboard key (often DELETE of F2) when powering up to enter the UEFI/BIOS. Older motherboards had a text interface and newer ones have a graphical one. It would be worth clearing the CMOS memory before trying to enter the UEFI/BIOS in case the settings have become corrupt. Since yours is a few years old it might also be worth changing the battery (usually a 2032 lithium cell).

Link to comment

Hi all,

 

Clearly I've done a poor job explaining myself.

 

First, my unRaid is as follows ( I cannot find how to update my signature anywhere under this "new" forum, oops)

M/B: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. - PRIME B250M-A
CPU: Intel® Core™ i3-7100 CPU @ 3.90GHz
HVM: Disabled
IOMMU: Disabled
Cache: 128 kB, 512 kB, 3072 kB
Memory: 8 GB (max. installable capacity 64 GB)
Network: eth0: 1000 Mb/s, full duplex, mtu 1500
Kernel: Linux 4.14.26-unRAID x86_64
OpenSSL: 1.0.2n
 
Let me rephrase my issue.  
After my upgrade to 6.5, one of my drives says it is missing.
I went into the BIOS  (UEFI) to find the drive, and I cannot find it. (hence why Unraid can't find it). But in fact, within the BIOS,  I cannot find any of the drives that are connected to my PCIe SATA controller.  Now, this could be my general ignorance of UEFI (I'm used to the text based legacy BIOS view), but I cannot find it anywhere in the GUI. I can only find the direct Mobo drives.
 
It's interesting to note that when I boot Unraid, I'm only missing one of three drives connected to that PCIe SATA controller. So, somehow the BIOS is seeing it. But I don't know how, and of course I cannot fix it.  So I was hoping there was a way to boot to legacy text mode in the BIOS so I could re "activate" the drive and restore Unraid to see the drive.
 
But am open to any suggestions on how to resolve my issue.  Surely there should be a way in UEFI, I would have thought.
thanks!
 
Link to comment
58 minutes ago, keyman33 said:

( I cannot find how to update my signature anywhere under this "new" forum, oops)

To change your signature click on upper right of forum pages {your username]>Account Settings>Signature

 

I am not familiar with your particular motherboard but many UEFI motherboards have a Compatibilty Support Module (CSM) setting which must be enabled in order to boot in legacy BIOS.  For example, to boot in legacy mode with my main server MB I enable CSM and then specify USB:{flash drive} as the first boot device.  To boot UEFI, I specify UEFI:{flash drive} as the first and only boot option and rename the EFI- folder on the unRAID flash drive to UEFI.  Since unRAID 6.5.0, my MB will only boot successfully in UEFI mode, but, everything is there and works, so, it is not the issue for me that it is for you.

 

Have you tried the ASUS forums to see if they have any tips for booting your board in legacy mode or for resolving the issue in UEFI mode?

Edited by Hoopster
Link to comment

I have never seen disks attached to PCIe SATA controllers or HBAs show up in the motherboard BIOS.

 

HBAs usually come with their own BIOS - press CTL and some letter to access during POST - where the disks will show up. If you are not using unRAID and want to boot from one of them you can select it there.

 

Some motherboards have integrated SATA controllers, such as those made by ASMedia, in addition to those provided by the chipset. In that case they are provided for in the motherboard BIOS.

 

You might be looking for something that is not there!

Link to comment

Thanks, Hoopster. Updated my signature and found out why I wasn't seeing anyone's either!  I did try the CSM settings already but no luck.  John_M's comment is very interesting that he's never seen these even show up in the mobo BIOS, so I'm looking for something that potentially isn't there.

 

Before I hunt down how to open the special HBA BIOS, I'm now wondering the the drive has simply failed?  How could I easily test this?  If I stop the array, and try to insert the drive into a different SATA port,  then presumably Unraid will let me know (assuming I don't start the array). It doesn't care where physically the disks are located, right?

 

 

Link to comment
3 hours ago, keyman33 said:

John_M's comment is very interesting that he's never seen these even show up in the mobo BIOS,

 

John_M is correct.  It has been a while since I had a server that needed an HBA or PCIe SATA controller for additional drives.  These days I tend to build smaller servers with fewer larger disks and have only needed to use motherboard SATA ports.  However, my first unRAID server had a PCIe SATA controller to add four additional disks.  As I recall, the attached disks never showed up in the BIOS and this is normal.

 

I was focusing more on your desire to boot your board in legacy mode than your actual reason for doing so.  My bad.

 

3 hours ago, keyman33 said:

If I stop the array, and try to insert the drive into a different SATA port,  then presumably Unraid will let me know (assuming I don't start the array). It doesn't care where physically the disks are located, right?

 

unRAID does not care where the disk is physically attached.  The only thing that may be affected is the order in which it is detected and which sdx device name it gets assigned when the array is started.  You could connect it to a motherboard SATA port to see if it is detected in BIOS/UEFI  If not, it may be a bad disk; however, even if detected in the BIOS/UEFI, it still may have other issues.  If it is detected in the BIOS/UEFI, you can start the array and see what unRAID reports about the disk status and whether or not you can run a SMART report on it.

Edited by Hoopster
Link to comment
2 hours ago, keyman33 said:

Before I hunt down how to open the special HBA BIOS

 

If it has a BIOS you'll see output from it as the server POSTs if you connect a monitor. Different brands use different keypresses to enter the BIOS. If you tell us what you have (or post your diagnostics, if you're unsure) someone will probably be able to tell you. You can test your disks by moving them to known good motherboard ports. You can test your card by moving disks that work on the motherboard ports onto the card.

Link to comment

It is not true, some AHCI add-on controller will show the disk in MB AHCI section. But some HBA i.e. LSI, it won't show is true.

And add-on storage controller will post or not during booting also can control in MB BIOS if it had such feature.

 

I use Asus MB with unRAID, 880G (AMD) -> B85 (Intel) -> X370 (AMD), all got such feature, of course I set it not post to save boot time.

 

For OP case, if only 1 of disk disappear, it should be connection or disk problem, It is not relate Legacy / UEFI issue.

 

I always could found all disk in unRAID no matter all above mention.

Edited by Benson
Link to comment

Thanks to everyone for the help.  After testing the drive in another physical port on my PCIe SATA controller, I determined that the drive had died.  When I powered down to do the 6.5 upgrade, it must have given up the ghost, never to return.  Just bad luck and it sent me down this rat-hole.  Changed the drive and I am back in business!

 

Thanks again.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.