ProjectComputers.com » Hardware

Setting up a FreeNAS Box Part 1: The Install

Daniel — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:00:12 +0000

FreeNAS is a task specific operating system designed to be used in Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices. It’s built using FreeBSD as the underlying OS which lets it have some fairly low power hardware requirements. For example the Dell I used is an old Pentium 4 1.7 GHz with 512 MB of RAM and it runs like a charm, granted I don’t put a lot of demand on the box in the way of concurrent transfers or running processes. It’s worth mentioning that the recommended way to install FreeNAS is to install to, and boot from a USB thumb drive. This is the recommended method so it can save as much hard drive space for data storage, but even though it looked like I could boot from the thumb drive like a hard drive in the BIOS I had trouble getting it to boot so I installed the OS to the 160 GB hard drive with partitions for the OS and data. Here’s the parts list with some specifics after the jump.

Parts List:

Old Dell Dimension 4400 – bought at university surplus sale, $5
Various old IDE hard drives I had sitting around – two ~20 GB; one 160 GB, probably cost me something at some point…
USB thumb drive – “borrowed” from family, free

I followed the standard install guides around the interwebs, going straight to the horses mouth at FreeNAS.org (here) is a good option. I’ll do some quick steps here for install and some of the setup, but let me tell you what the setup looks like. I mentioned that I have the 160 GB drive setup as the boot drive with OS and data partitions, the OS is pretty small so there’s lots of data space. I have the two smaller drives setup in a RAID 1 configuration using the software RAID in FreeBSD.

First setup the computer to boot from a CD drive. There are some ways that you can install FreeNAS without needing a CD but it’s easier to go ahead and install from a CD.
Download the liveCD that matches the system you are installing on and burn that onto a CD. Pop that into the computer and boot up the FreeNAS CD. If you are installing to a USB drive don’t plug it in yet, it will write the config file to the USB and will cause errors on the install because the disk is in use.
Wait until the console setup menu comes on screen (if you want to install to USB you can put it in now) and select option 9 to install to disk

"Console setup"
"*********************"
1 ) Assign Interface
2 ) Set LAN IP address
3 ) Reset WebGUI password
4 ) Reset to factory defaults
5 ) Ping host
6 ) Shell
7 ) Reboot system
8 ) Shutdown system
9 ) Install/Upgrade to hard drive/flash device, etc.

This will bring up the following install menu, the first 3 are going to be of most interest to us right now.

"Install"
"*********************"
1 ) Install 'embedded' OS on HDD/Flash/USB
2 ) Install 'embedded' OS on HDD/Flash/USB + DATA + SWAP partition
3 ) Install 'full' OS on HDD + DATA + SWAP partition
4 ) upgrade 'embedded' OS from CDROM
5 ) Upgarde 'full' OS from CDROM
6 ) Upgrade and convert 'full' OS to 'embedded'

After selecting one of the install options you’ll get some info about what it’s going to do. In any of the Install options it should ask you to select the source location and the install location. Once the installation is complete go back to the main menu (press ESC), remove the CD and select option 7 to reboot the computer. Once the computer reboots make sure that Option 9 (Install OS) doesn’t show up, if it does you probably didn’t take out the installation medium before rebooting.
Select option 1 to assign the network interface you will use. Most of the time if there is just one FreeNAS will use that by default but this makes sure that the OS uses the right interface.
Once you’re back to the main menu, select option 2 to assign the IP address for the LAN. Most of the time you will use DHCP to automatically get the IP address from your router. Be sure to take note of this IP address so we can do the setup in part 2.
Back at the main menu select option 5 and try to ping another device on your network to make sure you are connected (optional).

Now you have FreeNAS installed, granted it’s not very useful in it’s current state. We’ll cover the basic setup in Part 2 and start adding some features that you can actually use.

My DD-WRT setup

Daniel — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:36:46 +0000

I upgraded my Linksys WRT54GL with the DD-WRT firmware a while ago and used it as a wireless bridge for internet access in my bedroom where there aren’t any ports (yet). I was using an old D-Link wireless router as the main router, but wanted the upgrade in functionality that DD-WRT provided. So I reset it back to “Factory” default and set it up as my main wireless router. This is mostly for my reference if needed later, but if it helps anyone who happens to stumble upon it later than even better.

Setup Tab:

Basic Setup
- WAN Connection: PPoE
- Service Name: blank <- I had a problem getting my DSL to connect when I would put in “Verizon DSL” the best thing I could tell from my searches was there is an issue with having a space in the service name.
- Router Name: DD-WRT
- IP/Subnet Mask: 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0
- DHCP Start IP: 192.168.1.100
- Three boxes checked for DNSMasq
DDNS – Future Setup

Wireless Tab:

Basic
- Mode: AP
- Channel: 9
Security
- Mode: WPA2 Personal Mixed
Advanced – All Default

Services Tab:

Services
- DHCP Server, Used Domain: LAN & WLAN
- LAN Domain: huss

Admin Tab:

Management
- TCP Timeout: 300

Change of Direction

Daniel — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:40:50 +0000

I’ve decided I’m going to take this site in a new direction. Instead of trying to strictly work on write ups for here I’m going to use this more as a kind of status report for my many ongoing projects that I always seem to be working on. I’m thinking that this will hopefully motivate me to work on them more often and maybe even bring some of them to completion. Doing status reports at work usually gets me to work on tasks more often, so I’m hoping that blog posts here will have the same affects on my personal projects. I still haven’t decided on a file structure of what I’m going to do specifically; break everything down by pages, use just posts, or a combination of the two. I also might do another more personal site with another of my domains I have I’ll have to wait and see.

Easy way to add a second monitor.

Daniel — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 00:05:27 +0000

There are a ton of good reasons to have your computer as a dual-monitor setup, there’s the added productivity of being able to have applications open in each monitor to work with at the same time. You could also have one monitor dedicated to goofing off, but we won’t tell the boss about that one… There also the fact that they are cool and get plenty of attention, if you’re like me you will have to explain almost daily how just because you have two monitors you don’t have two computers.

and the fact of the matter is that if you have more than just a simple on-board video card you may already be set to do multi-monitor setups. To determine if you have more than one display available right-click on your desktop and select “properties.” after clicking on the settings tab all you need to see is more than one display to determine if your machine is capable of running a dual-monitor setup. Now, granted just because you are capable doesn’t mean you can run a dual-monitor and get the performance you want.

Leave this window open because we’ll need to activate the monitor here, but first grab that second monitor you have sitting around.

Find the extra monitor port you should have and plug the monitor into that extra monitor port you have. Technically it doesn’t matter the size of the monitor so it doesn’t have to be the same size as your current primary monitor but it does make for a more enjoyable dual-monitor setup.
Once the monitor is plugged into both the extra monitor port and a power outlet and set in a good position on your desk, we need to activate the secondary monitor in the display settings window we have open.
1. To do this select the secondary monitor in the display settings by clicking on the monitor w/ the number 2 on it.
2. Then check the box that says “extend my desktop to this monitor.” It’s important to note that the resolutions, color depth and other settings don’t have to be the same for each monitor, but again keeping them the same makes for a better experience.
3. Make sure your second monitor is on, click “Apply” and keep your fingers crossed. If the second monitor flashes on congratulations, your second monitor should now be an extended desktop of your first. You’ll want to take this time and adjust all the settings to make your dual monitor setup to your liking. You’ll want to be sure and click the “Identify” button to flash a number up on the monitor then change the layout on settings box to match what is actually on your desk; for example if you have monitor 2 on the left side of monitor 1 you’ll more than likely want to drag the second monitor to the other side of the primary in the display settings window. Depending on your desk layout this might be easier than trying to move the monitors around.
Take this time to play around with all the settings, each time you make a change click the apply button to test it out before committing to the change. This also has the added benefit of if a change you make has a negative affect, all you have to do is wait and windows should change the settings back to original. Of course your mileage may vary and there’s no real way to write for all setups.

If something didn’t go according to plan or your setup can’t handle dual monitors as is, you’ll have to do a little extra work to get a second monitor setup. Most likely buy a second video card or a video card that can handle dual output. Here are two GeForce 6800 cards with 256MB video RAM that will easily handle your dual monitor setup. Both are running $75 at the time of this writing.

XFX GeForce 6800 for PCI Express

XFX GeForce 6800 for AGP