Can't log into GUI anymore (25.10.02)

TrueNAS General
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1

Apologies for the length, but I want to provide all the details you folks might need to help me. I’m desperate for help. Thanks in advance.

After yet another failure of Linux Ubuntu Server, I switched my data and media servers back to TrueNAS. I chose TrueNAS Community Edition, 25.10.02. Both servers are running Intel i7-11700K CPUs, 128 GB RAM, both on Intel Z790 chipsets, both are using 1TB Samsung 990 SSDs as the boot drives, both have dual 1TB Samsung 990 SSDs as cache, and one has ten 10TB HDDs, and the other eight 14TB HDDs. Both systems run flawlessly from the hardware perspective. SMART has no errors, RAM passes all tests, and CPUs run cool.

In this post I’m focusing on my media server. My data server seems to be running fine.

I installed TrueNAS without issue. It rebooted after install perfectly. I logged into the GUI, set up a user, setup my pool and dataset, added an SMB share, and then copied over my ~40 TBs of media. I really don’t want to have to copy this data again.

After copying the data completed, I rebooted and then installed Tailscale. Set it up Exit Node and subnets. Activated the machine from Tailscales admin website, and then rebooted. Again, all was well.

Next I wanted to move on to installing Plex. Before this, I went to System > Advanced > Settings and installed the nVidia drivers. This PC has an nVidia 2080 Super card. During the install of these drivers, the system rebooted on its own.

Ever since then, I cannot log into the GUI. The PC reboots, I get the normal 10 item menu on the monitor along with the message saying the server can be accessed at 10.2.75.20. I can choose any of these menu items and the system works. I can ping the device, and I can see it on my network (it has a static IP).

I can no longer see the SMB share, nor log into the GUI. I can see the Tailscale features though. So the system is running at some level.

I don’t think I set up SSH and I’m frankly not that familiar with CLI anyway.

I’ve tried logging in via HTTP and HTTPS. I’ve rebooted several times. I’ve rebooted at night and tried logging in several hours later the next day.

Nothing I do seems to make any difference. Tailscale always shows up. But logging into the GUI, and the SMB share are now lost.

I simply don’t know what else to do. I really don’t want to have to start all over again. But I have considered going back to 24.10. I have no idea if that would matter though. I’m desperate for a solution. My family entertainment is almost exclusively based on this server and Plex.

Please advise? Again, thanks for your help and apologies for the long read.

2

Pull the GPU and see what happens?

Do you actually need the GPU? You can use the iGPU for transcoding

3

Thanks. I’ve spent the afternoon with ChaGPT and eventually reinstalled TrueNAS and had a temporary fix. I was able to log in. Then, before anything else I reinstalled the nVidia drivers and that recreated the problem again.

So what’s the story with 25.10 and nVidia drivers? I need to be able to transcode when I’m viewing remotely. Would the iGPU be powerful enough to transcode 4K video down to say 720p when I’m in some random hotel?

Also, what about a downgrade to 24.10. When I ran TrueNAS before I was running 24.X and I don’t recall having any of these issues. The whole reason I left that version of TrueNAS was that I was looking for a viable backup solution to my two Terramaster NAS’s and I could never get TrueNAS to communicate with the Terramasters.

Again, thanks in advance.

4

Honestly the iGPU on the i7-11700K (Intel UHD 750) is a very capable transcoder. It should be more than capable of a few transcodes

Ditch the Nvidia, and try using the iGPU. It’ll save you money on power if it works for you. It will also save you some PCIe lanes as well.

Win Win