Bob1215 Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 I've been trying for the past few days to create a unRAID USB. I do not have access to any Windows or Mac machines. I've tried using "dd" and I've tried using Etcher, but both have failed. All of the instructions and tutorials seem to lack any mention of Linux. Is there a tutorial I am missing, or is there simply not information on how to achieve this? 1 Quote Link to comment
Squid Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 Not that I've ever done this, but can't you just copy the contents of the download to a newly formatted (FAT32) flashdrive named UNRAID, and then execute make_bootable_linux which is on the flash drive? Quote Link to comment
eschultz Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 2 minutes ago, Squid said: just copy the contents of the download to a newly formatted (FAT32) flashdrive named UNRAID, and then execute make_bootable_linux which is on the flash drive Yup, that's basically the steps. @Bob1215 Which Linux distro are you using? The 'make_bootable_linux' I built and tested from Ubuntu and should be generic enough to run in many other distros. Quote Link to comment
Bob1215 Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 (edited) I'm on Debian 9.4. I did try that. Here is the output: sudo bash Downloads/test/unRAIDServer-6.5.3-x86_64/make_bootable_linux INFO: make_bootable_linux v1.3 INFO: The following device appears to be the unRAID USB Flash drive: /dev/sdb INFO: Temporarily mounting unRAID USB Flash drive to /tmp/UNRAID_TMP_MOUNT Permit UEFI boot mode [Y/N]: y INFO: unRAID USB Flash drive currently mounted to /tmp/UNRAID_TMP_MOUNT, copying temporary installer files to /tmp/UNRAID To continue you may need to enter your admin password INFO: Installing Syslinux bootloader on /dev/sdb1 sh: 1: mcopy: not found INFO: Writing MBR on /dev/sdb 0+1 records in 0+1 records out 447 bytes copied, 0.000791486 s, 565 kB/s INFO: the unRAID USB Flash drive is now bootable and may be ejected. Then, when I insert the USB into the server, the server says Quote This is not a bootable disk. Please insert a bootbable floppy and press any key to try again ... Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key The server can successfully boot from a Debian 9 Live USB, and the boot priority is for the SanDisk USB (all others are disabled), and no hard drives are connected. Edited July 15, 2018 by Bob1215 removed code highlights and added screenshots Quote Link to comment
Bob1215 Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 I found the solution. `syslinux` is not installed by default in Debian 9 amd is needed for `mcopy` Steps to create bootable unRAID USB on a Debian machine Insert USB drive Format to FAT (or FAT32) or create FAT partition Download unRAID zip Extract zip Copy files inside extracted unRAID directory to the USB Install `syslinux` with sudo apt install syslinux Navigate to the directory you originally extracted to. For example: cd /home/username/Downloads/unRAIDServer-6.5.3-x86_64/ Run the `make_bootable_linux` script from here (NOT from on the USB drive): sudo bash make_bootable_linux Each time I tried this it failed the first time (I think because my file explorer was open to the USB drive). I run the previous command a second time and it succeeds. Here is the output: user@debian:~$ sudo bash Downloads/unRAIDServer-6.5.3-x86_64/make_bootable_linux INFO: make_bootable_linux v1.3 INFO: The following device appears to be the unRAID USB Flash drive: /dev/sdb Permit UEFI boot mode [Y/N]: y INFO: unRAID USB Flash drive currently mounted to /media/user/UNRAID, copying temporary installer files to /tmp/UNRAID To continue you may need to enter your admin password sudo: /tmp/UNRAID/syslinux/make_bootable_linux.sh: command not found user@debian:~$ sudo bash Downloads/unRAIDServer-6.5.3-x86_64/make_bootable_linux INFO: make_bootable_linux v1.3 INFO: The following device appears to be the unRAID USB Flash drive: /dev/sdb INFO: Temporarily mounting unRAID USB Flash drive to /tmp/UNRAID_TMP_MOUNT Permit UEFI boot mode [Y/N]: y INFO: unRAID USB Flash drive currently mounted to /tmp/UNRAID_TMP_MOUNT, copying temporary installer files to /tmp/UNRAID To continue you may need to enter your admin password INFO: Installing Syslinux bootloader on /dev/sdb1 INFO: Writing MBR on /dev/sdb 0+1 records in 0+1 records out 447 bytes copied, 0.000162011 s, 2.8 MB/s INFO: the unRAID USB Flash drive is now bootable and may be ejected. 2 Quote Link to comment
capino Posted March 29, 2019 Share Posted March 29, 2019 (edited) I needed to format the USB stick with the name: UNRAID And make sure the drive is not mounted. Edited March 29, 2019 by capino drive needs to be umounted Quote Link to comment
trurl Posted March 29, 2019 Share Posted March 29, 2019 15 minutes ago, capino said: And make sure the partition where you copy the files to is called: /dev/sdx1 You need to make sure it only has one partition but the /dev/sdx designation has nothing to do with it. Are you having a problem, or were you just trying to add to the discussion? Quote Link to comment
capino Posted March 29, 2019 Share Posted March 29, 2019 (edited) 27 minutes ago, trurl said: You need to make sure it only has one partition but the /dev/sdx designation has nothing to do with it. Are you having a problem, or were you just trying to add to the discussion? It's a add to the discussion based on the installation steps of Bob1215 Edited March 29, 2019 by capino Quote Link to comment
tactical_gambit Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 Ubuntu 20.04 with Unraid 6.8.3, after copying contents to USB, formatted with FAT and labeled UNRAID, you will need to change the filename make_bootable_linux to make_bootable_linux.sh otherwise the script will fail. Then you can run `sudo bash make_bootable_linux.sh` from the download directory (do not run the file from the usb). The fact the developers clearly never ran this script even a single time worries me greatly. Quote Link to comment
itimpi Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 I have quite happily run that file directly from the USB without renaming it on my UnRAID system. The only thing I could not do is run it directly from the USB without specifying which program (E.g. bash) was going to run the script. That is because the script on the ISB stick cannot be given execute permission without first copying it somewhere else first. However by specifying ‘bash’ as the command to run the script it ran fine. Quote Link to comment
horphi Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 (edited) Hi, i get always the error: phil@phil-700Z7C:~/Downloads/test$ sudo bash make_bootable_linux.sh INFO: make_bootable_linux v1.3 INFO: The following device appears to be the unRAID USB Flash drive: /dev/sdc FAIL: unRAID Flash drive detected but unable to detect where it is currently mounted, aborting! But the USB is mounted. What did i wrong? Best regards, Phil Edited January 19, 2021 by horphi added Picture Quote Link to comment
darkside40 Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 (edited) On 12/30/2020 at 4:01 PM, tactical_gambit said: Ubuntu 20.04 with Unraid 6.8.3, after copying contents to USB, formatted with FAT and labeled UNRAID, you will need to change the filename make_bootable_linux to make_bootable_linux.sh otherwise the script will fail. Then you can run `sudo bash make_bootable_linux.sh` from the download directory (do not run the file from the usb). The fact the developers clearly never ran this script even a single time worries me greatly. Thanks for the hint. Had the same problem on Manjaro. Being honest it is a pity that you have to google how to to generate a unRaid USB Stick under Linux.because there is no description for it on the Homepage. There is only an installer for Windows and Mac OS. Edited January 25, 2021 by darkside40 Quote Link to comment
diarnu Posted April 3, 2021 Share Posted April 3, 2021 Hey guys. More recent thread on this topic here. The short version is that Bob1215 had it mostly right. You may or may not need to install syslinux per steps 6 and 7 in Bob1215's instructions, and things work better if the USB is unmounted (NOT ejected) between steps 8 and 9. Or you can just run the script twice back to back as mentioned in step 10. Also, itipmi edited the manaul method instructions in the getting started section of the wiki with slimmed down version of those steps. A few folks above mention getting the script to work by renaming the script with .sh at the end. I tried that and it didn't change things at all. I suspect that what made the script work was not really renaming it, but running it twice, once before renaming it and then again after the rename. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment
maybe Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 (edited) I don't get it running. The program seems to run and seems to install the bootloader. But my system says all the time "Missing operating system". I tried with and without UEFI. My Bios accept both variants. INFO: make_bootable_linux v1.3 INFO: The following device appears to be the unRAID USB Flash drive: /dev/sdc INFO: Temporarily mounting unRAID USB Flash drive to /tmp/UNRAID_TMP_MOUNT Permit UEFI boot mode [Y/N]: n INFO: unRAID USB Flash drive currently mounted to /tmp/UNRAID_TMP_MOUNT, copying temporary installer files to /tmp/UNRAID To continue you may need to enter your admin password INFO: Installing Syslinux bootloader on /dev/sdc1 INFO: Writing MBR on /dev/sdc 0+1 records in 0+1 records out 447 bytes copied, 9,7709e-05 s, 4,6 MB/s INFO: the Unraid OS USB Flash drive is now bootable and may be ejected. EDIT: If I insert a second USB-Stick with Supergrub2, I am able to select the UNRAID system and start it. But that is a bad way to do it! Edited July 12, 2021 by maybe Quote Link to comment
maybe Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 (edited) Found the error. I didn't had a msdos partition table ... I deleted everything and created a msdos table with gparted and then i recreated a fat32 partition. Now its working. Edited July 13, 2021 by maybe 1 Quote Link to comment
singularity098 Posted May 22, 2022 Share Posted May 22, 2022 On 7/13/2021 at 5:56 AM, maybe said: Found the error. I didn't had a msdos partition table ... I deleted everything and created a msdos table with gparted and then i recreated a fat32 partition. Now its working. THANK YOU. I was pulling my hair out failing to get my USB to boot, and this was the problem. I really wish that they would put this kind of information in the official documentation. Quote Link to comment
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