Missing Operating System, Operating System not Found

[Marshall Curtis]

Have done the install from CD several time all with the same result as follows:

Proceed with install "wizard" without error or incident. Remove CD. Reboot. Error message:

Missing operating system
Operating system not found.

Any ideas? I didn't see any other forum posts searching for this error.

 

[gpsguy]

What did you install in on? USB flash drive, HDD, ???

If flash drive, did you set your BIOS options boot from flash? Please consult the manual - this information is in it.


Sent from my phone

 

[Marshall Curtis]

This is installed on the local HDD.

 

[gpsguy]

Why did you install it on your local hard disk? This isn't Windows.

What did the documentation recommend and why?

 

[Marshall Curtis]

This is as I read the documentation. Installed on small (120gb hdd Mirror) leaving 8 additional 1tb hdd for storage.

Not sure I see the value of your posting other than to imply the documentation wasn’t consulted. Are saying "run" this from a USB stick? That is not what I got from the documentation.

 

[pirateghost]

This is as I read the documentation. Installed on small (120gb hdd Mirror) leaving 8 additional 1tb hdd for storage.

Not sure I see the value of your posting other than to imply the documentation wasn’t consulted. Are saying "run" this from a USB stick? That is not what I got from the documentation.

Are you reading the same documentation that everyone else is reading?

1.4.3 Compact or USB Flash

The FreeNAS® operating system is a running image. This means that it should not be installed onto a hard drive, but rather to a USB or compact flash device that is at least 2 GB in size. If you don't have compact flash, you can instead use a USB thumb drive that is dedicated to the running image and which stays inserted in the USB slot. While technically you can install FreeNAS® onto a hard drive, this is discouraged as you will lose the storage capacity of the drive. In other words, the operating system will take over the drive and will not allow you to store data on it, regardless of the size of the drive.
The FreeNAS® installation will partition the operating system drive into two ~1 GB partitions. One partition holds the current operating system and the other partition is used when you upgrade. This allows you to safely upgrade to a new image or to revert to an older image should you encounter problems.

 

[gpsguy]

Consider yourself fortunate, that I (and pirateghost) even took the time to reply at all.

With a few exceptions, the small handful of folks answering questions are volunteers who receive absolutely nothing or recognition from iXsystems. Many of these users will just ignore questions like this.

So, with only a few minutes to spare, before heading out to dinner, I posted a message to let you know the answer was in the documentation.

Not sure I see the value of your posting other than to imply the documentation wasn’t consulted.

 

[cyberjock]

/waveshishand

I didn't answer on purpose.. the manual makes it clear what you should be doing, and especially until you are comfortable with a new OS, you'll be much happier if you just follow all the recommendations to the letter until you understand what you might be able to get away with.

 

[Marshall Curtis]

Thank you all for the responses. I do appreciate that these forums are purely volunteer and that is why I exercise a high level of "self-help" and search before posting. With that said that is apparently some confusion on the documentation. The documentation found following the link on the site and read stated:

Before installing, it is important to remember that the FreeNAS® operating system must be installed on a separate device from the drive(s) that will hold the storage data. In other words, if you only have one disk drive you will be able to use the FreeNAS® graphical interface but won't be able to store any data, which after all, is the whole point of a NAS system. If you are a home user who is experimenting with FreeNAS®, you can install FreeNAS® on an inexpensive USB thumb drive and use the computer's disk(s) for storage. (http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Installing_and_Upgrading_FreeNAS)


This is clearly different that that quoted by pirateghost and I am not sure where the quoted documentation is located. A link would be appreciated.

Thanks for your help.

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[cyberjock]

Actually, he provided you with the info. The manual, section 1.4.3. The manual is a link in my sig if you don't know where to find it. That quote is also in the wiki if you find the page its on. The manual is mostly the wiki converted into a single document, so most things are in both places.

 

[pirateghost]

Maybe I'm missing something here but that quote says pretty much the exact same thing. Install to USB.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[cyberjock]

pirateghost: The op's quote says you "can" install to a USB while your quote says you "should". Not to call out the op on this, but there is a difference between "can", "should" and "must". I'm sure you'll agree that there is a difference. The problem is that there really isn't any technical reason why you "can't" install to a hard drive(with a list of exceptions that any admin designing the system should be aware of themselves) so the manual properly says "should".

Quite honestly, with all the USB problems people are having with 9.1(the USB drivers, not the install or the sticks themselves) it almost feels safer to install to a hard disk if you know what you are doing.

 

[pirateghost]

Well it sounds like the boot order is wrong on the op machine.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[Marshall Curtis]

Thanks to all, We have settled the issue of the documentation confusion.

However the original issue still remains. After several install attempts upon boot it is returning the message:

Missing operating system
Operating system not found.

My instinct is that the boot loader is missing, not installed etc. I was hoping someone else had encounter this issue and would have a recommendation on how to resolve. I had seem something similar when I experimented with OpenFiler where it put the boot loader on the wrong disk if there were more than the target spindle installed. That was resolved by unseating the (8) storage drive and reinstalling, then reseating them before booting. I tried that approach with FreeNAS but ended up with the same error.

If any one has any ideas on a resolution please post. Good, Bad or otherwise as this point I am not trying to run from a USB Stick so guidance in that avenue is not need.

 

[pirateghost]

You need to verify the boot order in bios

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[Marshall Curtis]

Removed every trace of anything from the OS drive, removed all remaining drives, reinstalled for about the 12 th time and voila it boots. Sort of, it now has a error when booting instead of the address to the web GUI. It also doesn't appear to have recognized my QLogic QLA-4052 iSCSI HBA during install.

But alas that is the topic for a different forum and a different group of helpful dedicated members

 

[dlavigne]

What was the boot error?

Regarding the qlogic, it looks like that series is not supported: http://www.freebsd.org/releases/9.1R/hardware.html#DISK.

 

[Marshall Curtis]

Boot order is/was: (this is a supermicro which seem to have more boot options than anything else I've seen)

1:SONY CDROM
2:LSI SCSI0
3:USB0
4:LSI SCSI1
5:USB1
6:LSI SCSI2
7:LSI SCSI3
8:LSI SCSI4
9:LSI SCSI5

It then list the remaining SCSI drives, Floppy and USB as available to be swapped in/out of the boot sequence.

dlavigne, Thanks for the heads up on the HBA I was just looking for the HCL. At this point not sure what I will do. Was planning on iSCSI but this is "retired" hardware and it is just for archive storage. So NAS may be fine.

Disappointed that this process hasn't been as straight forward as the "Video" but I guess he didn't actually show the install. I know why now... Also a bit surprised that the QLA HBA isn't supported it seems like that is the most common iSCSI HBA out there. But that's my bad for not checking first, maybe I will just throw a spare Broadcom NIC in its place if I bother with FreeNAS at all.

Thanks all

 

[Ronse]

On my Acer Windows 7 laptop, I got "Missing Operating System" error with black screen. It was Windows Boot Genius from http://download.cnet.com/Windows-Boot-Genius/3000-2094_4-75827488.html fixed problem quickly though it cost money with promotional price.