Problem with installing nano on SSD

[Aadolf]

I install nano version of opnsense 16.1 on two SSDs and both of them are  not booted.(transcend and silicon power)
I test this image on cf and its working normally.
Does anyone faced with this problem?

[franco]

AHCI bios setting for SATA maybe? Sounds typical.

[Aadolf]

thanks for reply.
I test it with IDE and AHCI mode.The problem is remained.
I also install nano version of pfsense on those  SSDs and pfsense boot normally(in AHCI bios mode).

[franco]

Are these stock images for our releases or did you build them? If it's the latter, have you checked the stock images?

[Aadolf]

I used your image and also installed it on CF that worked normally.

[franco]

Is there an actual error message? We need to pin down the stage it fails.

[Aadolf]

it is not booting at all.
I just see a black screen with blinking cursor

[franco]

Ok, I looked a bit more, but came up empty.

If the CF card and SSD go into the same system you can try to boot the CF card, then on the console use the (invisible) option "99" to run the installer, which will let you install the SSD which will also copy the current box settings.

We may have to find a better solution for 16.7, help with this would be appreciated. The build system can build images without needing to build at all:

# cd /usr/tools
# make clean-base,kernel,packages
# make prefetch-base,kernel,packages VERSION=16.1.8
# make nano

The actual build instructions for nano are in /usr/tools/build/nano.sh to be altered.

The images land in /tmp/images when built successful.

[franco]

(it will probably require src.git as well as we run nanobsd from there)

[franco]

Are the i386 images the same or do they work?

[Aadolf]

thanks franco

I have tested it as you say with CF(not CFast ) and finally with 99s option ( ;D ;D) it was installed  successfully on SSD  but I should point out that  i have tested nano version of 15.7.18 ,16.1 and 16.1.8 ( with dd command ) but all of them have faild on SSD (transcend,silicon power and ADATA) or CFast 2.0 (Apacer) :o :o

All above version are official releases.
CF is ok and there is no problem with it.(nano version of pfsense is installed successfully on SSD)

Now My question Does this happen to you ?? 8)

[franco]

I'm trying to find clues as to why this is wrong, but I've so far come up empty. There may be something wrong with the way the nano image boot sectors are written, but I've not found an obvious issue with the method we employ. This needs more time and tinkering, I'm on it. :D

[MrCCL]

I've save the nano x64 image to an USB Flash key.
Should that work?

I get a black screen with a blinking cursor too.

Image: "OPNsense-16.7.r2-OpenSSL-nano-amd64"

** UPDATE **
Sorry...I now see the nano is serial.....maybe it's working, let me find a serial cable to check  :P

** UPDATE 2 **
I my dreams to have a serial cable around.....haven't used own since 1995!
But I cannot ping 192.168.1.1 so I suppose the it's not booting afterall :-(

[franco]

I think we're going to switch away from pure nano builds as we use little of the functionality and in turn use a normal layout like that of a serial image. The FreeBSD 10.3 RPI image is pretty cool in that regard because it'll fit any SD card or disk install with a minimal image (let's assume 2 GB) and then grow its FS to make use of the additional space if available.

We could also try GPT on the amd64 images. Suggestions on how to revamp "nano" for 17.1 are welcome. I'm happy to provide test builds as soon as we have something concrete (maybe in a month).

So, tell me, which images work for you on these hardware platforms?


Cheers,
Franco