So, I had planned on migrating my FreeNAS box over to Unraid this weekend. Backed everything up to external storage, held my breath and went for it. It did not go well.

 

After much cussing and fighting with it, I got it to boot from the Unraid USB, which puzzled me because it has been booting off the FreeNAS USB for years with no issue. Apparently for whatever reason the BIOS sees the Unraid USB differently than the FreeNAS one.

 

After it finally booting, it can't bring any network interfaces up, which baffles me because I haven't had to muck around with forcing commodity hardware to work under Linux for probably 10 years. Syslog doesn't appear to have anything particularly useful in it ( I can't include here because I can't access it remotely with a way to cut/paste or copy files ).

 

I got as far as logging in to both the consle and the GUI. Unsuccessfully tried to bring the network up via ifconfig. Remade the USB providing static network information. No joy on any of it.

 

I did find this old thread with what sounds like an identical problem, but I would assume that after 5 years the fix would be included. At this point my faith in Unraid is a bit rattled and I am not 100% sure how confident I feel in it after basic portions of the install/setup are DOA. But, I also understand I am frustrated, so I figure I would ask for some guidance here. Server does have a DRAC and I would be willing to do some screen sharing skype calls to try to figure out what is happening.

 

Edited December 16, 20187 yr by wvmark73

3 hours ago, wvmark73 said:

Syslog doesn't appear to have anything particularly useful in it ( I can't include here because I can't access it remotely with a way to cut/paste or copy files ).

 

See this Need Help? sticky pinned near the top of this same subforum. Please get us the diagnostics zip and not the syslog if possible.

Also worth posting a photo or screenshot of the monitor after Unraid finishes booting, there could be a problem with the flash drive or how it was prepared that might appear it's booting correctly when it's not.

6 hours ago, wvmark73 said:

After it finally booting, it can't bring any network interfaces up,

Take a look at this thread, see if what worked for him works for you.

 

Thanks for the input. I am going to go get a fresh USB drive here in a bit and will get the diagnostic info or post that the problem was resolved. I am beginning to suspect the USB drive. Will probably be a couple of hours.

After reading the thread johnatham posted, I absolutely think it's the USB.

 

So, I am going to go get one in a bit. I tried both the USB creator and the manual method with similar results. What is the BEST way to do this? Should I try on my Mac instead of my Windows PC?

USB2 flash and more importantly USB2 port is the most troublefree.

Server only has USB2, so that's good. I know my laptop has 2 and 3 ports, think I flashed in a 3 port. I will make sure to use 2 next time.

Installing now with new USB created on Windows Machine via Creator tool in USB 2.0 slot.

 

As of right now it appears to be hung as soon as it tries to boot.

 

 

We have interfaces! No IPs, but we are moving in the right direction.

That screenshot is from your BIOS of course and not the Unraid Boot menu that you should get when you do get it booting from flash. Maybe something not set as needed in your BIOS to get it to boot from flash.

 

Can you boot any other flash in that computer?

Can you boot any other computer with that Unraid flash you have prepared?

 

 

Looks like you posted progress just as I was responding to your screenshot.

I got it booting from flash. The problem was that whenever a new USB device is put in, it puts it in floppy mode. So, whenever you put in a new flash you have to go in and change that. It's a pain.

 

It's booted and I have a shell. GUI brings up the registration page. Still no IPs but I am making progress and have something to work with.

Woo hoo! We have IPs!

 

For some reason, with bridging or bonding enabled, they would not get an IP. Possibly some kind of weirdness with my switch or network. But, that is fine, I am not worried about either of those. Uness someone wants to do an academic exercise about why it doesn't work, I am going proceed with it as it is.

 

I am going to save everything and reboot and see what it does.

Well, it's building the array.

 

A huge THANK YOU to all who jumped in to help and give ideas.

 

And, my apologies for my frustration and snarkyness in the first post.