BIOS / Areca drive limit?

[ScoutPanda]

UPDATED ISSUE

 

So after more testing, pushing and pulling hardware from the machine, it seems that there is some sort of HDD limit. If I have 11HDD +1usb flash drive it will boot, add even 1 more drive and it is not able to find the boot media.

 

I am glad it is not an issue with unRaid, however I am scratching my head even more now.

 

Not really sure this issue relates to this area of the forums anymore.

 

(HARDWARE)

Areca ARC-1882IX-16

   Firmware VersionV1.55 2018-03-23

   BOOT ROM VersionV1.55 2018-03-23

   PL Firmware Version19.0.0.0

System Information:

M/B: Supermicro - X8DT3-LN4F

BIOS Revision:2.2

CPU: Intel® Xeon® CPU X5650 @ 2.67GHz

Memory: 48 GB Multi-bit ECC (max. installable capacity 384 GB)

Kernel: Linux 4.18.17-unRAID x86_64

3u Supermicro Chassis with 16 Hot swap bays.

 

Can post LOGS or screenshots if necessary.

 

Thanks.

 

Edited November 17, 2018 by ScoutPanda

[trurl]

Have you tried other USB ports? Preferably USB2.

[ScoutPanda]

Tried all different USB ports on the unit, with the Areca set in JBOD.  No bootable media detected.

[trurl]

Are you sure you have looked through the BIOS settings thoroughly to see if it sees the flash?

 

Often simply adding a HDD to a system will make the BIOS forget what device it is supposed to boot from.

[ScoutPanda]

I have done some testing and here is what I have found:

 

The BIOS does see the flash drive.

When I go into the Areca via network or at the server and change to JBOD the bios doesn't change boot priority away from the flash drive.

I now have discovered that not booting has nothing to do with unRaid, due to me trying to boot to other USB boot devices (other Linux installs) it must be some conflict between the main board and the Areca card or just the JBOD.

A Reddit user suggested that in my X8DT3 to disable LSI SAS 1068 due to it having Broadcomm HBA built-in. (no change)

 

That is what I have tried thus far.