Posting this here too:
Hi all,
I’ve recently bought the X470D4U2-2T for a FreeNAS build.
I’ve posted my first experiences with this board at the FreeNAS forum (search for “FreeNAS build with 10gbe and ryzen” on ixsystems. com)
But since this forum seems very active regarding this board and since many people are strugling, I thought it could be useful here as well:
For those having trouble with a similar built, here is how I “kinda” did it…
Please keep in mind that I didn’t log everything I did, so this is from memory and perhaps I’m forgetting something…
So, this is my first built with IPMI. I didn’t install a graphics card, but I was hoping it would work with just a network to the IPMI (and it did )
- I installed all hardware except the HBA / HDDs in the case
- I attached a monitor to the D-Sub connector of the mobo (I think this is of the IPMI?)
- I attached a USB keyboard / mouse
- I attached a networkcable between the IPMI NIC and the router
- In my router-admin-page I found the IP that DHCP of the router assigned to the IPMI
- I browsed to the IPMI web page and logged in with the default credentials (admin / admin)
- I configured both router and IPMI to use a static IP and changed the admin password
- I updated the IPMI to v1.40.00 using ‘maintenance’ - ‘firmware update’ in the IPMI
- I updated the BIOS to v3.20 using ‘maintenance’ - ‘BIOS Update’ in the IPMI
- I think I used the ‘Instant Flash’ download for this
- Yes, this worked, even though my CPU wasn’t supported by the older BIOS that was pre-installed
- No, this isn’t properly documented anywhere that I could find
- I tried opening ‘Remote Control’ and booting, but didn’t get any visual and many beeps / error codes
- In the end, I think unplugging both the monitor and USB keyboard / mouse, allowed me to finally boot and get an visual in ‘Remote Control’
- At one point I also tried disabling ‘Onboard Graphics’ in the BIOS (to save some power usage), but that also caused it to no longer boot. Will try fine tuning the BIOS a bit more later…
- Then I installed the HBA / HDDs
- The HDDs support the enterprise feature PWDIS (Power Disable). The PSU does not support this. So none of the HDDs would power up.
- I fixed this by disconnecting the 3.3v from the modular SATA power cable on the PSU side, using the below method:
(link was here, see my post ixsystems if you need the link) - For 1 of 2 cable this succeeded without any damage to the disconnected cable, for the other cable, 1 of the 2 hooks got bended / forced (I do think I’ll manage to re-attach both without anyone being able to tell, in case I would ever need to use warranty)
- I fixed this by disconnecting the 3.3v from the modular SATA power cable on the PSU side, using the below method:
- The HBA was already in IT mode, but was running an old firmware. Upgrading it was a struggle…
- Bootable (Free)DOS USB stick didn’t work as my BIOS is UEFI (“Failed to initialize PAL” error)
- Update using EFI shell also refused to work, even though I was using the same old ‘Shell_Full.efi’ file that others used succesfully (I kept on getting “InitShellApp: Application not started from Shell” error)
- In the end I just installed Windows 10 and used the Windows x64 installer!
- Finally I installed FreeNAS 11.2 U6. No issues occured during the install.
- Both Windows 10 and FreeNAS, I installed using ‘CD Image’ functionality inside the ‘Remote Control’ of the IPMI. It’s probably slower, but saves you from having to create and mess with USB sticks.