SOLVED I bought a motherboard that seems to be incompatible with TrueNAS

[Emper]

Hello there, I'm a hobbyist who is looking to build a NAS to function primarily as a family home server. We have a moderate sized DVD and Blu-Ray collection so I plan on having it run PLEX as well. I've built several computers so when I put together the parts list I focused mainly on making sure the motherboard, CPU, and RAM were all compatible with each other. It did not occur to me that TrueNAS might not be compatible with a new motherboard (as opposed to one left over from several years ago) so I did not look into that at all. With all that said, here is my build:

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix B-550F Gaming
CPU: Ryzen 5 5600G
RAM: 2x8 GB
PSU: 550W
HDD: 2x4TB WD Red, 2x6TB WD Red
SSD: Kingston 240 GB

Yes I know the motherboard is a gaming motherboard. It was on sale on Black Friday and I didn't think it mattered. The CPU is overpowered but I went on the higher side because I intend to let this run for years and don't know whether I'll find some other use for the server in the future. The RAM is left over from when I upgraded my current PC.

My original plan was to run TrueNAS on Proxmox. However, after several hours of troubleshooting I found out that I needed an LSI controller (please correct me if I'm wrong) and those aren't super cheap so I decided to just install TrueNAS directly. That's when I ran into this screen:

These threads suggest that I probably have an incompatible motherboard:

web interface could not be accessed please check network configuration - Console ERROR

Hi all, I've just downloaded and installed freeNAS 11.2-U3 using a usb stick onto my 240GB Samsung SSD HDD Sata3, Installation was ok, however once the OS loaded i got the error (freenas the web interface could not be accessed please check network configuration). The issue i have is that i...

www.truenas.com

Cannot access web interface after install (no IP)

Hello, after installing FreeNAS I have the error: the web interface could not be accessed Please check network configuration The NAS is not visible on my network. Many thanks for your help

www.truenas.com

However this thread makes me think that I can get around the issue with a network card:

SOLVED - The Web Interface Could Not Be Accessed. Please check network configuration.

Trying to install TrueNas 12.0-U4 on a new computer build with a ASUS Tuf B450M-PRO S amd MOBO and a ASUS 10g xg-c100c NIC And when I run TrueNas I just get that error in the title cause it doesn't have the proper driver. So I read online that a 10gb Intel x520 NIC works with TrueNas, so I get...

www.truenas.com

Another thread, that I can't seem to find at the moment, made it sound like a driver issue. I've updated my motherboard to the latest driver set but I still have the same issue. I can try reinstalling TrueNAS but I doubt that will change anything.


With all that said, I was hoping that I could get some advice here on how to fix the issue and salvage this build. The way I see it, there are 3 potential fixes:

1) There's some driver issue that I can fix by installing Linux and downloading and installing the drivers that way before installing TrueNAS. Not sure how this would work though if TrueNAS formats the drive before installing.
2) I can buy a network card. If this will fix the issue, does anyone have any recommendations?
3) I can return the motherboard. I'm still within the return window but I would probably have to pay a restocking fee (Newegg). If I switched to an Intel motherboard I'd have to return the CPU and pay the restocking fee there as well.
4) I'm wrong about Proxmox and there's a way around the LSI controller issue.

Please let me know what you think. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[Redcoat]

Welcome to the forums!

Your scren pic doesn't show. Maybe do a Print Screen and post it:

 

[NugentS]

Motherboard Specs Link
CPU Specs

Intel® I225-V 2.5Gb Ethernet - probably won't work with Core - might work with Scale
CPU has on board graphics
Its not ideal - memory is low (but useable) and not ECC (which is in itself not fatal)
You have 6 SATA ports and 5 HDD's

It should work. The biggest issue is the network. Either try TrueNAS Scale and see if that works OR get an Intel card from ebay. Always buy second hand from a system dismantler, and not from China. A Possible example is Possible Intel NIC

 

[Kris Moore]

Just to second what was said by @NugentS , I'd recommend trying TrueNAS SCALE on it first. That would indicate if its an OS/Driver issue specific to FreeBSD or not.

 

[Emper]

Thanks all. This is the image from before that wouldn't load.

Alright so I tried to install TrueNAS SCALE and this is the furthest I've gotten after a few GRUB errors that prevented me from even loading the installer.

This looks almost like an SSD or USB issue. Or is it just another sign of a bad motherboard?

@NugentS What's the issue with onboard graphics? My understanding is that it helps with certain tasks like transcoding when streaming video. The RAM was left over from another build. From what I was reading though ECC RAM isn't really necessary because memory faults are pretty rare but I could be wrong. I figured I could save a little money so I didn't bother buying new ECC RAM.

 

[NugentS]

Err, your first image shows a successful install of TrueNAS. Unfortunately what it also shows is that the Intel 2.5Gb NIC isn't being recognised thus no network and thus you are stuck

Onboard graphics is good no need for an eGPU, and it might work with transcoding. Of course its a Ryzen - so I have no idea if it will help with transcoding or not. The other advantage of no eGPU is that you have an extra spare slot.

Looks to me like you need a proper NIC and it should work at that point

 

[Emper]

It was a USB issue. I had been doing quick format forgetting that doing so only rewrote used sectors. When I did a full format the drive died completely. Using another USB drive worked like a charm and I was able to get TrueNAS SCALE working with the web GUI. Is there a way I can mark this thread as SOLVED?

Right now I'm doing research on the differences between SCALE and CORE. Is there anything I'm going to miss from CORE that is not present in SCALE?

 

[NugentS]

Not much - Jails is about it (but you get docker instead). Core is more stable. Scale is RC2 - and is showing improvement

 

[pschatz100]

You might also go into the bios and disable all features that are not being used. Turn off sound, wi-fi (if equipped), advanced USB features, and advanced power saving (you can re-enable power saving once the system is stable although TrueNAS is known to have problems with the deep-sleep power saving features - don't know about Scale.)

Good luck.

 

[rudyamid]

When I bought this same B550F gaming motherboard for Truenas, I should've done my research. I didn't know it has this problem with the onboard Ethernet LAN.

I ended up using a Mellanox 10GB fiber card instead. But I would still want to use the built-in Ethernet for backup purposes.