I’ve wasted several hours trying to install and run Scale on Supermicro X10SLM±F board that has driven the CORE for years as an UEFI OS - am hoping someone can help with the correct settings as the board comes from early UEFI years and doesn’t seem (?) to have an easy way to switch between Legacy and UEFI boot modes.
BIOS version is 3.3 (from 2020 - one version prior to the latest version).
The crux of the problem is error: no suitable video mode found error that halts the installation or booting. I’ve tried the following:
install from an USB stick (both ISO and DD modes in Rufus were tried)
install on a different machine and then swap the disks back
Both of these times, I am seeing errors like these:
Here are my BIOS settings - everything is set to Legacy but the video mode still seems to be wonky. Is there a way to make this board install SCALE?
It’s possible that the jumper for VGA is missing or set wrong
Jumper: JPG1 - VGA Enable Pins 1-2 (Enabled)
If you connect a monitor to the VGA port on the motherboard and are getting the BIOS info displayed on the monitor then it should install Truenas and you should be able to follow along during the install on the monitor during the process to see what is causing it to hang.
Motherboard page is here and contains a link to the motherboard manual, etc.:
Not the case, since clearly video is working. It’s an interaction with the OS.
Disable everything that says “CSM” or “Legacy”. But that section you showed us does not control this, really. What you need to focus on is the Boot page.
Yea, no… probably not a good idea. Based off experience, older boards from Supermicro can be very touchy as to what is set at Legacy or not set at legacy. Blanket saying disable everything legacy is liable to make things worse. Setting everything to the BIOS sane defaults (whatever it’s called) usually will work.
There was a section in the manual that appeared to set Auto/Legacy/UEFI for a UEFI type option but it wasn’t clear to me if this was the issue or if the issue was no video but access to the BIOS screen in IPMI console screen).
Related Side question: Does Truenas Scale (as of Dragonfish) now only support UEFI booting for install and use? Or is there still the issue of if a BIOS is set to Auto for UEFI/Legacy that Truenas has trouble installing? I have seen other complaints about this.
Hard disagree. The year is 2024, Haswell systems are generally unproblematic in terms of UEFI boot. I have tried a bunch of different versions of both FreeBSD and Linux on exactly this hardware, and UEFI boot has never been an issue on the latest firmware version.
The CSM crap is an endless source of problems and frustration. Besides, clearly CSM is not working, so it stands to reason that turning it off is the next step.
Legacy BIOS booting is unlikely to be a priority for anyone, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it break a lot. Especially given the miserable quality of CSM implementations.
I was able to get SCALE to run but it was not easy. Basically, I had to install the OS on a different machine (as I wasn’t able to figure out how to get the installer to work in either UEFI or Legacy mode). Then, I fiddled around with the Boot settings (as @ericloewe had surmised) - but what I am seeing is really confusing.
As it seems, the UEFI/Legacy mode is controlled implicitly by the boot device chosen - right now, I am interpreting the chosen option as Legacy (I’ve selected the 2nd Boot Device slot as the 1st Boot Device used to contain an UEFI OS entry but no longer has). The screenshots are below:
After setting the Above 4G Decoding option to Disabled, I am now seeing both non-UEFI and UEFI Boot override options - formerly, I would be seeing only one or the other.
I think the UEFI options in Boot -> 1st/2nd/3rd... Boot Device menus seem to be only available after a previous boot was UEFI (e.g. UEFI shell) but I have really ran out of steam trying to figure this all out.
As a data point, the previous installation of TrueNAS CORE was booted up for years as UEFI OS boot device after setting all the PCIe options to EFI options (no Legacy).
I am not really certain what mode I am currently booting in - I would think it’s Legacy and not UEFI so it looks like SCALE doesn’t require UEFI booting at all.
If there are further things from BIOS anyone would like me to post, I’d be willing to give it a go and see if we can suss this behaviour out completely. If not, I am just happy to have the SCALE booted up and running.
One last thing I should have mentioned at the beginning - among the methods I’ve tried (and failed) was the automatic migration from CORE → SCALE. That bombed out on me as well with the same issue (no suitable video mode found....).
I’m running a similar board (X10SLM±LN4F), and haven’t had problems, but I think I’m still running the 3.2 BIOS IIRC. I can check what settings I have in mine later, if it helps? But I don’t think anything strayed much away from default settings.
If you don’t mind doing this, that be great - if for nothing else but to document the behaviour. Your board should be the same to mine except you have quad LAN ports so it will be a valuable data point.
It would also be great if you could post the hardware revision of the motherboard - it should be printed on the board?
Yep, I just did - latest BMC and BIOS firmwares.
I can report two more quirks of this motherboard:
the boot Legacy device (in my case, a USB stick) has to be in the 1st/2nd/3rd... Boot Device list or it won’t be presented as a Boot Override option. If it weren’t there before, seems like it has to be put in the list, BIOS saved, reboot and on the next boot the Legacy device should be in the list
after the BIOS update, the board rebooted 5 (five) times before I could enter the BIOS setup and then an additional 2 (two) times after I had loaded the Default Settings just to be sure
Initially, my first reflex was to upgrade the BIOS but it is because of the first quirk that I just couldn’t get the USB stick presented as Legacy (and UEFI boot doesn’t help as Supermicro provides only DOS update script).
Post-upgrade results:
Legacy booting to TrueNAS SCALE still thankfully works with BIOS defaults
UEFI booting to TrueNAS SCALE actually works with BIOS defaults
I was pleasantly surprised to see this
Expected the same problems as with installation media but the bootstrap routines seem to adapt
There are several compression errors as GRUB loads (can’t capture these as they happen too quickly) but the TrueNAS boot menu is successfully rendered. Then, on selection, I see the error: no suitable video mode... for a short little while, when it probably falls back to the default VGA mode and marches on with the bootstrap.
Legacy booting to USB installation media still works if USB Legacy option is selected
UEFI booting to USB installation media does not work if USB UEFI option is selected
Again, all these tests are done with Default BIOS settings.
I am close to chalking this up to my hardware revision of this board as the board has always been a bit crazy when it comes to UEFI, but otherwise just rock solid (which is all that matters to me really).
I’ll continue to boot TrueNAS SCALE via Legacy - does anyone see any reason to choose the UEFI, given the errors I am seeing at the bootstrap?
