NASLite Network Attached Storage

option 3

The Disk-1 Screen you posted is consistent with installation using "Bootable Partition Only" - Option 2. In order to enable the storage capabilities of the boot drive you must install NASLite-M2 using "Bootable and Storage Partitions" - Option 1.

Also, with 17 drives hanging off of your NAS how can you troubleshoot effectively? Why not disconnect everything that is not essential to the installation and perform your install against the intended drive only? I would not be surprised that in your attempt to resolve your problem, you may have installed NASLite-M2 on other drives, in adition to the intended boot drive. To verify that the intended boot drive is the only one with the boot/config markers, use the installer Option-1 (Change Target) and look for "NASLite-M2 Boot/Config" shown in RED for the current target. If you see that on drives other then the intended boot/config drive, then use Option 5 (Deactivate Configuration on Disk-X). That in turn will remove the config markers and release the drive for unconditional formatting by the NASLIte-M2 storage admin.

At any rate, the problem is most definitely in the way you have the boot/config device configured during installation.

Hope that helps.

I did use option 1, You are seeing the results. The Mobo is an ASUS m3a78-cm, cpu is AMD. Just for giggles, I put in a CF-IDE adapter and a 1GB CF card, and same results, only get boot/config, but at least not a lot of space is getting wasted.

I just verified the installer does work correctly. Screenshots are in reverse order, but you'll get the idea.

Also, theres a screenshot of the partition table, and it's correct, 1 Linux partition and 1 FAT partition for the bootloader, kernel and initrd.

I can't see Your screenshots. I know what You are saying, but still, it does not work on my system. THere are now 2 ide drives the250G and the 1G. When it was on the other drive1, which is SATA it did not work, and it still isn't on the 1G CF card. Not sure why not, but it just doesn't work as it is supposed to. How does one get to the shell? This is the x64 not 32 version.

The version of the software is not significant since all versions use exactly the same installer. As I said in my previous email, how can you troubleshoot with all those drives in your NAS? How do you know what you boot from and what you configure from?

You start by discussing Disk-0, show Disk-1 as an example case on a NAS with 17 drives on it, so I'm confused as to what is your boot drive, what is your config drive and how many of each you have on your system.

1. Remove all drives except your 250G and boot CD-ROM.
2. Boot the installer and install to the 250G drive using the correct option.
3. Remove the CD and reboot using the 250G drive.
4. Login to admin and format the 250G drive.
5. After you format the 250G drive, make sure you mount it.
6. Reboot and you will have a mounted storage drive.

You can do all that without license or unlock.

One thing I have to note is that there are many instances of M2-64 out there so if the installer was confused as to how to address the installation you request, this forum will reflect that.

Regardless, try the above and let's go from there...

I used various drives to test it out. I am not Your normal user either,so don't even imply that. The software should work irregardlkess of how many drives are in the system. I will try what You have suggested, and remove all of the drives, however at one point I did remove all of the USB drives.

a problem with installing on more than one drive if they are live in the system is that the software can get confused - it will [obviously] boot from the nominated boot drive but it can get its config info from one of the other drives that has it on it

[i think] that it gets further confused when you save the config file - that may well be correct - this it puts to the correct drive but cannot find it the next time it needs it

certainly that has been my experience - further when i believed i had removed the config info from the other drive it was still there - i had to use that drive as my install drive and remove the config info using naslite - confused the hell out of me and it sounds to me as that is what is happening with your system

following tony's path should prove to you that the software works but you may then confuse it if any of the subsequent drives you add back have earlier config info

THat worked. I had zero'd out all drives before I started loading it up, so that should not have been a problem. WHen I started the initial install all drives were blank, or zero'd out using the manufactures tools to do a full erase on them, so again, it should have worked even with all of the drives installed. I suggest that it be fixed so it does work, no matter how many drives are in the system. I would be willing to test that out for You since it is my weird system that had all these problems or update the guide to reflect that all drives but 2 should be removed from the system before install. I did pull down version 1.66 and yes I had to put in the license code to be able to see anything other than the boot drive.

FYI, I closed the dispute with PayPal.

have done the same Joebandit - zero-ing out the drives did not work for me - hence my confusion and my comments - tony or ralph will be able to explain i am sure - i guess its where they save the config info on the drive - certainly does not seem to be anywhere where a normal format will get rid of it

its not the number of drives i think - but the fact there is more than one config file

glad it finally worked for you

NASLite-2/M2 uses a compact, read-only root filesystem that boots from a small FAT boot partition and runs in ramdisk. It cannot be written to so a persistent config must be available elsewhere. In other words, the boot and config devices don't have to be the same and often cannot be the same. Example of that would be booting from CD

When NASlite-2/M2 boots, it no longer cares which drive is the boot drive. Is simply begins scanning available resources for a config and loads the first it finds. Under normal circumstances, the only config will be found on the boot drive. By having multiple drives with NASLite installed on them, then it's up to your BIOS to boot the one it deems bootable and then up to our kernel to determine which device to scan first for config. They don't always agree and that is what causes confusion for people when they install on a number of devices in the chain and loose track of what boots and what configures.

This capability may seem haphazard to the novice, but once you master it you'll find that it can be quite powerful indeed. You can boot on just about anything-x86 using anything USB, FireWire, SATA/PATA, SCSI, RAID, CD/DVD, etc. as allowed by your BIOS. You can also configure to any of the above or a floppy. In addition, you can have different configurations that you can "plug in" as required using floppy or USB key for various conditions or locations you may need to accommodate. Point here is that the NASLite-2/M2 installer is flexible enough to accommodate just about any boot/config scenario if applied properly.

Hopefully the above makes sense.

Now to address yous suggestion:

The installer will install the boot and config on the drive you target NO MATTER WHAT, regardless of how many drives you have attached at the time. I'm not sure what it is that you suggest we fix.

Tony

As I said the first time, it did not show any storage on disk0 after reboot, even before I did anything with the other drives and before I decided to put the little CF disk in as disk1, but to have to remove all of the other drives is a silly thing to have to do. Even in the guide it says to put all drives in You wish to use before install, but look what happened with mine. No storage on boot drive for whatever reason. Put a small system together kind of like mine and see whay it did not work. 1 IDE, 1 SATA and 1 USB drive should give you a system to test on.

Is there a way to get to the shell?

There is no shell as in command prompt. The admin user is the superuser and the admin interface is the default shell.

I could reply but Judging by the past tone of this fellow user there is nothing constructive to be gained from it.

Instead I add him to my ignore list.

dont be unkind mike - what normal user would have 17 drives hung off a power supply - some ide - some sata and some usb - sounds like someone who hates to throw away 40gig drives