HOW TO INSTALL FREENAS

Initialization of newly purchased TNAS or re-installation of your TNAS
User avatar
tm221
Posts: 7
Joined: 02 May 2020, 16:16

HOW TO INSTALL FREENAS

Post by tm221 »

Now I've installed both unraid and freenas on my F2-221 with 10GB of ram and two 6TB helium HGSTs. In my opinion freenas is better, zfs is better, and that's what I'm keeping. :idea:

So first off, the TOS software is junk. I came from a synology, so I knew that it wouldn't be great, but the lag and just general dashboard failure was too much for me. I honestly do not trust it to protect your data. Enter freenas.

First thing is to remove the USB stick mounted INSIDE the terrmaster. It is a little USB stick that is glued to the header under the drive bay. If you do not do this, it will always try to boot it. If you want to use this space, you might need a very skinny USB like a data traveler. You could rewrite over their USB, but I chose not to do this so I can eventually sell this hardware 10 years from now with their OS on it.

So get your new stick, and use unetbooten or rufus to make a bootable USB with the freenas ISO from their downloads. For some reason when I tried to make the bootable USB with OSX, it would just fail a lot. I ended up using rufus in windows and it worked fine. Insert it into the powered off terramaster.

Now the bios in the terramaster is AMI. Start tapping the del key and you should get into the bios. While you're in here set your hardware fan control to max. This is because unraid and freenas have trouble seeing hardware fan control. To err on the side of caution, make sure this is on or you could cook this thing eventually. Now go to the boot order and make "USB" if you are using inside header. Usually can just see whatever you USB drive name is. Set this boot order before the HDs so that if this thing ever reboots, it goes right into freenas and not your HD that has no OS. F10 and leave.

As this thing boots up start hitting F11. Select the named USB drive you want. I ended up using legacy name of the USB, when I chose UEFI nothing happened. Now you should see the freenas splash to start your install.

NOTE: You need an additional USB plugged in to install freenas to. So ideally, already put the USB you want it to run off inside the terramaster under the cage on the motherboard. That way you always have a slot free on the back.

As for using the OS you're on your own. It's definately not the most user friendly, but there are so many awesome features it's worth it. I really only use SMB shares and a timemachine on AFP. I personally do not need all the neat synology looking front end. I can connect with my appletv to a video folder and play something and that's enough for me!
Good luck!

Image
User avatar
Tricky
Posts: 225
Joined: 07 Feb 2020, 02:12
Great Britain

Re: HOW TO INSTALL FREENAS

Post by Tricky »

Thanks for taking the time to put the info on here for myself and others to take advantage of. :D :D
User avatar
jbeazell
Posts: 7
Joined: 19 May 2020, 22:07

Re: HOW TO INSTALL FREENAS

Post by jbeazell »

Thank you for posting this.

This also works for the F5-221. You have to unscrew the mother board to access the 16GB USB drive (that is glued in place), but if you're going this far into the weeds, unscrewing a motherboard won't stop you!
User avatar
Pomax
Posts: 5
Joined: 22 May 2020, 04:24

Re: HOW TO INSTALL FREENAS

Post by Pomax »

I was hoping to do the same (because TOS 4 is definitely horrible) and you had me up to the "get into the boot screen" part... the F4-210 does not have a display port to plug in a screen into, so it feels like there are some instructions missing? Also "start tapping the del key" suggests having an actual keyboard connected to the NAS instead of using a web interface... what are the full prerequisites for this procedure?
User avatar
gebseng
Posts: 14
Joined: 25 Jun 2020, 00:57

Re: HOW TO INSTALL FREENAS

Post by gebseng »

Hi Pomax, AFAIK you need a 12pin o VGA adapter for the F2-221

best, geb
User avatar
Tricky
Posts: 225
Joined: 07 Feb 2020, 02:12
Great Britain

Re: HOW TO INSTALL FREENAS

Post by Tricky »

gebseng wrote: 01 Jul 2020, 19:09 Hi Pomax, AFAIK you need a 12pin o VGA adapter for the F2-221

best, geb
Pomax wrote: 22 May 2020, 04:29 I was hoping to do the same (because TOS 4 is definitely horrible) and you had me up to the "get into the boot screen" part... the F4-210 does not have a display port to plug in a screen into, so it feels like there are some instructions missing? Also "start tapping the del key" suggests having an actual keyboard connected to the NAS instead of using a web interface... what are the full prerequisites for this procedure?
I too was wondering how this could be achieved as if i plug a monitor into the TNAS HDMI port i have no keyboard and no mouse so how do i tap the del key? even if i could highlight the text how do i tap it?
User avatar
DiscoSi
Posts: 36
Joined: 09 Apr 2020, 20:21

Re: HOW TO INSTALL FREENAS

Post by DiscoSi »

Tricky wrote: 03 Jul 2020, 17:20
gebseng wrote: 01 Jul 2020, 19:09 Hi Pomax, AFAIK you need a 12pin o VGA adapter for the F2-221

best, geb
Pomax wrote: 22 May 2020, 04:29 I was hoping to do the same (because TOS 4 is definitely horrible) and you had me up to the "get into the boot screen" part... the F4-210 does not have a display port to plug in a screen into, so it feels like there are some instructions missing? Also "start tapping the del key" suggests having an actual keyboard connected to the NAS instead of using a web interface... what are the full prerequisites for this procedure?
I too was wondering how this could be achieved as if i plug a monitor into the TNAS HDMI port i have no keyboard and no mouse so how do i tap the del key? even if i could highlight the text how do i tap it?
You will need a USB keyboard, can't think of another way.
F5-221 TOS 4.2.09 4x4TB Seagate Ironwolf, 1x240GB Ironwolf SSD (Cache)
User avatar
Tricky
Posts: 225
Joined: 07 Feb 2020, 02:12
Great Britain

Re: HOW TO INSTALL FREENAS

Post by Tricky »

DiscoSi wrote: 04 Jul 2020, 07:00
Tricky wrote: 03 Jul 2020, 17:20
gebseng wrote: 01 Jul 2020, 19:09 Hi Pomax, AFAIK you need a 12pin o VGA adapter for the F2-221

best, geb
Pomax wrote: 22 May 2020, 04:29 I was hoping to do the same (because TOS 4 is definitely horrible) and you had me up to the "get into the boot screen" part... the F4-210 does not have a display port to plug in a screen into, so it feels like there are some instructions missing? Also "start tapping the del key" suggests having an actual keyboard connected to the NAS instead of using a web interface... what are the full prerequisites for this procedure?
I too was wondering how this could be achieved as if i plug a monitor into the TNAS HDMI port i have no keyboard and no mouse so how do i tap the del key? even if i could highlight the text how do i tap it?
You will need a USB keyboard, can't think of another way.
Guess so but the big question is will it work....does the TNAS support that? seems the people who should be in the know dont at least thats what i found when i lost all my data and had to discover a way to recover it on my own.
User avatar
Tricky
Posts: 225
Joined: 07 Feb 2020, 02:12
Great Britain

Re: HOW TO INSTALL FREENAS

Post by Tricky »

Now i have the correct HDMI to VGA lead and connected a USB keyboard so i have and can access the screen i now have the problem of not being able to access the bios to change the boot, The delete key dose not work and it will ask for a login and password it accepts "admin" but wont accept the password i have set so is there another password that i am not aware of?
User avatar
DiscoSi
Posts: 36
Joined: 09 Apr 2020, 20:21

Re: HOW TO INSTALL FREENAS

Post by DiscoSi »

You need to start pressing the del key sooner in the process, if you're getting to the linux login then it's too late. Start tapping the del key as soon as the display comes up on the monitor, just keep tapping it regardless and you should end up at the blue and grey bios screen. FYI the username root and the same password as admin should let you in to the linux command line but that's not where you need to be.
F5-221 TOS 4.2.09 4x4TB Seagate Ironwolf, 1x240GB Ironwolf SSD (Cache)
Locked