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On 30/12/13 19:33, Richard Brown wrote:
>
> Thanks to all for the replies.
>
> HP ProLiant G7 N54L 2.2GHz MicroServer
> I have bought the above machine and is fitted with 2gb of memory. The USB
> stick I am using is a verbatim and is 8gb in size. Everytime I try to use
> it using unetbootin the programme says there isn't a flash drive in the
> computer. Does this mean I haven't got a flash drive please?
Ah ha, there's your problem - unetbootin probably just won't work.
http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Burning_an_IMG_File
Plug in your thumb drive (ideally, nuke it completely with gparted/fdisk
or whatever) and find out which allocation it has been given on your
Linux box - you know, the typical /dev/sdb, dev/sdc or whatever. Make
sure the device hasn't been mounted automatically if you didn't blank it
first, and unmount - but don't eject - it. Then issue (you'll probably
need sudo to do this):
xzcat FreeNAS-9.2.0-RELEASE-x64.img.xz | dd of=/dev/sdX bs=64k
You might want to unpack the xz image first to just get the raw .img
file instead, and then issue:
dd if=/path/to/FreeNAS-9.2.0-RELEASE-x64.img of=/dev/sdX bs=64k
Again, prefix with sudo if necessary, change the path to whatever yours
is and change "sdX" to whatever the USB drive is on your system.
To be fair, you should probably read through the FreeNAS support and
install guides if you're planning to use it in anger: the second line of
the guide warns you: "The Unetbootin tool is not supported at this time."
> I think hearing all the comments it seems to me that I might be better off
> with a Debian install and then get it to do what I want it to do. I know
> Linux and I might be better off with something I know.
Agreed. I'd try both and see which I prefer after some testing:
presumably you want this thing to run almost untouched for literally
years once you've set it up properly, so it makes sense to take a couple
of days to experiment and see what setup you like first before committing.
> My understanding of a bootable USB flash drive was that you could use this
> to mount the OS and run it from flash USB. However, I am happy to install
> to the 250gb hard drive and boot of this. I have a 1tb disk arriving
> tomorrow.
Actually, you'd have to have one USB key set up as the installer, and
then a second - probably internal, but not necessarily - USB key ready
to be installed on to. That will then become effectively the first hard
disk, and the bootable one with the actual OS on it.
> I like the look of FreeNAS but I can do the same with Debian and retain the
> control. However, one thing that drew me was the zfs. However, I am equally
> happy forgetting raid and attaching a nas and backing up to that.
You can also install ZFS perfectly happily on Linux - see:
http://zfsonlinux.org/
There are simple instructions for most distros, including Debian. 2Gb of
RAM isn't a lot for an actual fileserver though under any conditions,
and you probably would want more to do anything more than basic IO with
the ZFS overhead.
> Thanks once again for all the help. I do love Gordon's "no" reply. Would
> you care to add more details please?
Haters gonna hate :]
Some of us on this list are perfectly capable of dealing with multiple
operating systems however so feel free to ask, some of us actually know
the answers. It's not like you were asking for Windows or Mac OSX
instructions after all: you'd have thought that Linux and BSD share so
much in common both philosophically and architecturally that there would
naturally be more interest on a mailing list dedicated to a Free
alternative operating system...
Incidentally, the Sony PS4 runs a modified FreeBSD kernel believe it or not.
> Thanks
>
> Rich
So, your first step is to actually read the FreeNAS install guide
(properly this time chief), prep your USB stick correctly and then start
playing. Good luck!
Regards
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