"No Configuration File" After upgrading Unraid plugin 6.2 - 6.5

[Ascii227]

Hi,

 

I have been running unraid on 2 servers for a couple of years now with no issues. I regularly power down my servers and boot them back up at weekly backup time so I know they boot very reliably. Today I thought it would be sensible to upgrade the ageing Unraid version 6.2 on one of the servers. I did as the upgrade guide suggested, went into the plugins tab of unraid and upgraded the Unraid OS plugin by clicking the 'Upgrade' button. Unraid was suggesting that it would upgrade to version 6.5.something. After a minute or two everything was done and it said in big letters "Reboot Required". So I went to the main tab and clicked reboot. However now when booting from the memory stick all I get is "SYSLINUX.....WARNIG: No Configuration File found" (Screenshot included below). I have searched the forum and found a couple of old similar issues, and tried the suggestions there with no luck. 

 

Things I have tried:

First thing I did was to make sure I was still booting from the USB stick. I went and configured the BIOS again, and just to be sure even did a couple of tests booting straight from the stick from the F8 boot menu. I am definately still booting from the USB stick.

Second thing was to test the USB stick for corruption or failure, so I plugged it into a windows PC and scanned it. Everything looks fine, the whole OS is still there on the stick and I am getting no errors or slow downs when reading or scanning it.

 

I am now out of things to try. I literally cannot get this server to display anything other than the screenshot below. Can anyone suggest anything to try, even to begin diagnosing this problem? Thankyou very much in advance.

[Squid]

Toss the flash drive into another computer, and let it run it's filesystem checks on it.  Then try again.  

 

Barring that, download the appropriate zip file from Limetech's download page and extract all of the files on it onto the flash drive.

[Ascii227]

19 hours ago, Squid said:

Toss the flash drive into another computer, and let it run it's filesystem checks on it.  Then try again.  

 

Barring that, download the appropriate zip file from Limetech's download page and extract all of the files on it onto the flash drive.

Thanks very much for the reply Squid. I have already tried the flash drive in a windows machine and the file system seems fine.

 

Could you explain a little more about redownloading the files? For example I upgraded to version 6.5.x where I dont know exactly what number x is. On the Limetech website I can only find download zip files for 6.6.x releases. Also wont extracting the zip straight onto the drive overwrite things like my existing config files, share structures, and licence? It sounds pretty much like you are recommending nuking my flash drive and starting again. Am I understanding this right?

 

Thanks very much for your help.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Ascii227

[Ascii227]

Sorry to bump my own thread, but I really need to get this server back up and running. Its a paid UnRaid Pro license and right now I dont know what to do with it. I really could do with some clarification on squids instructions above before I just randomly overwrite every file on my flash with a version that doesnt match whats on there already.

 

Thankyou for any pointers.

Edited October 18, 2018 by Ascii227

[Squid]

If you're really worried about it, try just copying over from the download the syslinux folder.  (And, 6.5.3 is available as a download)

 

I'm assuming that where one file on the flash is messed, there are probably others.  Copying over every will at worst only reconfigure the network and docker / vm storage locations.  But, you can exclude copying over the config folder to keep everything the same

[Ascii227]

35 minutes ago, Squid said:

If you're really worried about it, try just copying over from the download the syslinux folder.  (And, 6.5.3 is available as a download)

 

I'm assuming that where one file on the flash is messed, there are probably others.  Copying over every will at worst only reconfigure the network and docker / vm storage locations.  But, you can exclude copying over the config folder to keep everything the same

Thankyou for coming back to me squid, you legend! I will do as you say, download and extract minus the config folder. I was more worried about losing and having to renew my license as I have no VMs or Dockers on this install.

[Ascii227]

1 hour ago, Squid said:

If you're really worried about it, try just copying over from the download the syslinux folder.  (And, 6.5.3 is available as a download)

 

I'm assuming that where one file on the flash is messed, there are probably others.  Copying over every will at worst only reconfigure the network and docker / vm storage locations.  But, you can exclude copying over the config folder to keep everything the same

Hi Squid,

 

I did what you suggested. I downloaded 6.5.3 zip file, extracted it all, and copied it all to the flash drive minus the config folder. The server then proceeded to the Unraid boot screen. When I booted normal unraid, I could not connect to the server at all on its advertised IP address. I rebooted the machine and started it in GUI mode to see if I could manage the system, but then I was met with 'Unable to connect to localhost' (Screenshot below). I also noticed the hostname of the server has reverted back to Tower.

 

Can you please suggest anything more on how to get this back up and running? Thankyou very much.

 

 

[sentein]

28 minutes ago, Ascii227 said:

Hi Squid,

 

I did what you suggested. I downloaded 6.5.3 zip file, extracted it all, and copied it all to the flash drive minus the config folder. The server then proceeded to the Unraid boot screen. When I booted normal unraid, I could not connect to the server at all on its advertised IP address. I rebooted the machine and started it in GUI mode to see if I could manage the system, but then I was met with 'Unable to connect to localhost' (Screenshot below). I also noticed the hostname of the server has reverted back to Tower.

 

Can you please suggest anything more on how to get this back up and running? Thankyou very much.

 

 

I am very interested in this. I have the exact same problem and had to start a config for scratch to even talk to my secondary server. Lost all my scripts and setups in the process. I was upgrading from 6.5.3 to 6.6.1 when it all happened though. Burned a 6.6.2 USB and had to installed that. I will not update my primary sever without making a full image of everything before i do. I know this post does not help your situation. I just wanted you to know yours is not the lone case for whatever is causing this.

[Ascii227]

17 hours ago, sentein said:

know this post does not help your situation. I just wanted you to know yours is not the lone case for whatever is causing this.

Thanks for contributing, it is nice to know I am not alone in this situation. Frustrating that with Unraid you can just click a provided upgrade button and completely ruin your server!

[Ascii227]

On 10/18/2018 at 1:34 PM, Squid said:

If you're really worried about it, try just copying over from the download the syslinux folder.  (And, 6.5.3 is available as a download)

 

I'm assuming that where one file on the flash is messed, there are probably others.  Copying over every will at worst only reconfigure the network and docker / vm storage locations.  But, you can exclude copying over the config folder to keep everything the same

Anything further on this squid? If not, is there an official support channel for paid licenses I can go through rather than just hoping somebody responds on a forum? Thanks in advance.

[Squid]

23 hours ago, Ascii227 said:

copied it all to the flash drive minus the config folder.

Try also copying over the "go" file thats in the config folder.

 

Beyond that, I have found that if you immediately log in, that screen happens alot.  Waiting a min or two and it works.

 

If it still doesn't, then you can hit the terminal via the "start menu" at the bottom.  Log in and enter

diagnostics

then pull the stick and post the resulting file here.

 

11 minutes ago, Ascii227 said:

is there an official support channel for paid licenses

Vast majority of support is done via the forums here.  Usually no response means nobody knows or (in this case), I saw the post on tapatalk and didn't remember to reply when I was actually in front of a PC.

 

But you can also always contact LT directly https://unraid.net/contact

[Ascii227]

On 10/19/2018 at 2:43 PM, Squid said:

Vast majority of support is done via the forums here.

Hi Squid.

Again thankyou very much for your continued support, It is much appreciated.

 

When going to replace the go file that you suggested, I found a whole other can of worms which is the real problem. It turns out when one of my computers got infected with Ransomware a few weeks ago it has managed to encrypt all the files on the usb stick. I was prepared enough not to give this machine access to the backup shares so all my data was fine, but I forgot that the flash drive is also a share by default! The ransomware must have scanned all available IPs on the network and tried to encrypt every single share it could find including the flash drives config folder. The encrypted files are easy to see as the ransomware appended the email address '[email protected]' to each filename.

 

My next question is obvious, is there any way to get my shares back up and running with a completely new UnRaid USB install? Will the same unraid license code work considering it is the same usb stick? can I now just make an unrad 6.2 stick and boot my server on it?

 

Thanks for any and all help, and apologies that my issue has now shifted somewhat!

Edited October 22, 2018 by Ascii227

[JonathanM]

12 hours ago, Ascii227 said:

Will the same unraid license code work considering it is the same usb stick?

Yes. Do you have an unencrypted backup of the config folder somewhere?

[Ascii227]

8 hours ago, jonathanm said:

Yes. Do you have an unencrypted backup of the config folder somewhere?

No, unfortunately I have no backup of the flash. Can somebody please inform me how I go about reconstructing my shares under a new unraid install?

[tmoran000]

I have just had something damn near Identical happen to me.  I had to wipe and start fresh with new OS 

[Ascii227]

2 hours ago, tmoran000 said:

I have just had something damn near Identical happen to me.  I had to wipe and start fresh with new OS 

Oh no! It seems having the flash drive exported as a network share is a very bad idea!

Did you manage to keep your existing shares and data? I cant find any write ups anywhere of how to rebuild if this situation happens

[JorgeB]

24 minutes ago, Ascii227 said:

I cant find any write ups anywhere of how to rebuild if this situation happens

IF you know the disks assignments (for single parity arrays mostly which disk is parity) you just need to start with a new flash drive and re-assign the disks, all shares will be re-created, though with default settings, if don't know the assignments ask for more help

[Ascii227]

17 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

if don't know the assignments ask for more help

Sorry no I don't know the disk assignments. There are 8 drives in this server, 2 are parity and 6 are data. I have no idea which ones are which (although if I was sensible I would have set the 2 parity drives as the first 2 available).

[JorgeB]

Dual parity complicates the issue a little, but it just means you'll need to re-sync parity, start with a new flash drive, assign all disks as data disks (don't assign any to parity slots), start the array, you should see 2 unmountable disks, those are the parity disks, if there are more than 2 post the diagnostics, if there are only 2 do a new config (tools -> new config) and re-assgin all disks now including the parity slots, start the array to begin parity sync.

[Ascii227]

2 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

Dual parity complicates the issue a little, but it just means you'll need to re-sync parity, start with a new flash drive, assign all disks as data disks (don't assign any to parity slots), start the array, you should see 2 unmountable disks, those are the parity disks, if there are more than 2 post the diagnostics, if there are only 2 do a new config (tools -> new config) and re-assgin all disks now including the parity slots, start the array to begin parity sync.

Thankyou so much for this, I will go and give it a try and let you know if I run into any issues.

[Ascii227]

2 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

Dual parity complicates the issue a little, but it just means you'll need to re-sync parity, start with a new flash drive, assign all disks as data disks (don't assign any to parity slots), start the array, you should see 2 unmountable disks, those are the parity disks, if there are more than 2 post the diagnostics, if there are only 2 do a new config (tools -> new config) and re-assgin all disks now including the parity slots, start the array to begin parity sync.

Thankyou a thousand times, this worked exactly as you described. After starting the full array with a fresh USB stick, unraid made it clear which 2 disks were unmountable (sdb and sdc). I was then able to start a new config as advised, select those 2 disks as parity and begin rebuilding. All my data is there in exactly the same structure it was before. Thanks to everyone who helped me get to this far.

 

I will now make sure I remove the flash drive from the exported share list. I have just checked and by default on a new 6.6.3 usb stick \\tower\flash is immediately accessible by all on the network. IMO this is a huge security hole and leaves every unraid user open to ransomware encryption of the flash drive as I and at least 1 other have had. Is there a genuine use case for the flash being shared by default on a new install? 

[JonathanM]

9 hours ago, Ascii227 said:

Is there a genuine use case for the flash being shared by default on a new install?

Yes, it's a holdover from the old unraid philosophy of ease of use being first priority. There are a multitude of modern security concerns with unraid in general, and they are being dealt with as they come up. Since this cause is near and dear to you, I suggest you submit a feature request to modify the default behaviour of a new install to be more secure when it comes to the base SMB shares.

 

Thinking about it, it would probably be a good idea to have ALL shares start out with private as the default setting, and make people choose less security if they want it.

 

Throws ease of first use right out the window, but I think the benefits would outweigh the hassles.

[Ascii227]

8 hours ago, jonathanm said:

Yes, it's a holdover from the old unraid philosophy of ease of use being first priority.

Fair enough I guess, its not like its claimed anywhere that UnRaid is particularly secure. I will submit a feature request, as I think its a good idea that the flash is not shared by default. IMO other shares can be public by default as they do not hold the root filesystem of the os. Thanks for your input and assistance.

[JorgeB]

Also don't forget to always keep an updated flash drive backup.