ASUS P4R800-VM Motherboard is a GO! (At USB 1.0)

[hypyke]

FYI:  Latest Bios. Latest Unraid.

 

Will not work.  Boots into unraid but then it can't find the config files.  Earlier in the dmesg it says that the USB drive will not accept a new address.  Seems to detect the drives and stuff ok/

 

This was a board I had lying around.  I am going to have to purchase one for my second system I guess.

[Joe L.]

FYI:  Latest Bios. Latest Unraid.

 

Will not work.  Boots into unraid but then it can't find the config files.  Earlier in the dmesg it says that the USB drive will not accept a new address.  Seems to detect the drives and stuff ok/

 

This was a board I had lying around.  I am going to have to purchase one for my second system I guess.

If you have not disassembled everything yet...

Once unRaid boots, log in via telnet and type the following command and the post its output here:

 

fdisk -l /dev/sda

 

I had lots of problems with my 1 Gig Sandisk MediaMate USB flash drive booting version 3.0 of unRaid with my original unRaid Intel motherboard (I've been running unRaid version 2.xxxxx for over a year on that motherboard in my unRaid server) 

 

Problems continued until I changed the USB drive's heads/sectors/cylnders configuration.  Just curious what yours is...

 

Also, did you format your USB drive as FAT or FAT32?  (some motherboards have issues with booting FAT32 but work correctly with FAT)

 

 

[hypyke]

Well it's not broken down yet.  The drive is currently fat16 and the fdisk command returns nothing.

 

fdisk -l (lowercase L) /dev/sda - give me nada.

 

:-/

[Joe L.]

Well it's not broken down yet.  The drive is currently fat16 and the fdisk command returns nothing.

 

fdisk -l (lowercase L) /dev/sda - give me nada.

 

:-/

That is very interesting indeed... 

Assumption #1 - you are able to log in via telnet as "root"  --- true?

Assumption #2 - when you typed fdisk -l (lowercase L) /dev/sda you pressed the "enter" key at the end of the line --- true?

Assumption #3 - other "unix" commands work... you can type "ls" and see a directory listing, "ps" and see a process list --- true?

 

If all are true, then not sure what is going on...  do you have any other USB devices plugged in? (keyboard perhaps?)

 

does fdisk -l /dev/sdb give any output?  On my unRaid server the command fdisk -l /dev/sdb gives no output, but I do not have two USB devices, only one. (/dev/sda)

 

Perhaps your flash drive is being picked up as /dev/sdb instead of /dev/sda.

 

Joe L.

 

[hypyke]

 

 

Yes to all three. I am actually pretty *nix savvy btw.  I work in computer security. 

 

The issue I am having appears to be a failure to mount the USB drive at all.  There is an error prior to the ones I mentioned above regarding that fact.  I would copy and paste the syslog but since the drive never gets mounted then network.cfg never gets read and the box never gets on the network. 

 

The error is to the effect /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device (yup, sda1 is what it says)  I tried the fdisk on sda1 to no effect.  That one actually gives an error.

 

I did try it sans other USB devices but that had no effect either.  I even tried moving it to different port for what that was worth.  It is strange that the MOBO will boot with the drive and refuses to mount it later.  I popped in my current unraid rig and it boots like a champ.  Me thinks it is the MOBO. 

 

I was 2 revisions out of date with the bios and tried the newer ones one at a time to no effect.  I have formated as both Fat32 and 16 and I tried the HP tool recommended on the lime-tech page just for sh*ts and giggles.  The USB drive is a lexar jumpdrive something or other. 

 

So get this I pop in an elcheepo drive I had lying around and slap unraid on it and syslinux it won't boot at all not even part way. BUT..in the bios the el cheepo is detected as a hard drive where as my lexar is detected as a "removable" like a floppy.  I tried both of them together with no success. Strange.

 

Thanks for the help.  It is appreciated.

[limetech]

We evaluated this board early on and it WILL work, this is what you have to do:

 

- Format the Flash using the HP tool to make it "look" like a USB-HDD.  We use Lexar 512MB Firefly, but should work with others.

- In bios set up to boot from USB-HDD

- In bios, DISABLE USB2.0

 

Boot will be slow since it'll be at USB1.1 speeds, but system will boot & be functional.

 

By enabling USB2.0 it does boot faster, but the linux USB Mass Storage subsystem does not play with this bios for some reason.  If I recall, we fiddled around with this & gave up since there are other m/b alternatives.

 

So if you can live with the slower boot, I think the board could work for you.  Let me know your results.

[hypyke]

Well that did it.

 

Even after formatting with the HP tool it looks like a removable so that did not change but bumping it down to USB 1.0 did the trick.  Works like a champ now  Mucho thanks.  That probably saved me 90 bucks.  Where do I send the check? 

 

Tower2 is now up and running!

[Joe L.]

 

 

Yes to all three. I am actually pretty *nix savvy btw.  I work in computer security. 

 

The issue I am having appears to be a failure to mount the USB drive at all.  There is an error prior to the ones I mentioned above regarding that fact.  I would copy and paste the syslog but since the drive never gets mounted then network.cfg never gets read and the box never gets on the network. 

 

The error is to the effect /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device (yup, sda1 is what it says)  I tried the fdisk on sda1 to no effect.  That one actually gives an error.

 

I did try it sans other USB devices but that had no effect either.  I even tried moving it to different port for what that was worth.  It is strange that the MOBO will boot with the drive and refuses to mount it later.  I popped in my current unraid rig and it boots like a champ.  Me thinks it is the MOBO. 

 

I was 2 revisions out of date with the bios and tried the newer ones one at a time to no effect.  I have formated as both Fat32 and 16 and I tried the HP tool recommended on the lime-tech page just for sh*ts and giggles.  The USB drive is a lexar jumpdrive something or other. 

 

So get this I pop in an elcheepo drive I had lying around and slap unraid on it and syslinux it won't boot at all not even part way. BUT..in the bios the el cheepo is detected as a hard drive where as my lexar is detected as a "removable" like a floppy.  I tried both of them together with no success. Strange.

 

Thanks for the help.  It is appreciated.

At one point in my attempts to get my 1 Gig Sandisk MediaMate drive working I had the exact same thing happen.  It booted, but did not mount, and of course, unRaid did not start. 

 

I was trying different variations of cylinder/head/sector at that point, and I think I had given it 255 heads, and 32 sectors, and as a result, detected as a removable drive.    As you said, it booted, but did not mount the flash drive at /boot.

 

Theh thread describing my attempts at getting the original unRaid Intel motherboard to boot my 1 Gig drive is here:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=359.0

 

Glad you got your second box running.  Luckly, we don't boot often, so USB 1.0 is not a huge issue.

 

Joe L.