Various details on Ultra 4

chirpa wrote:
Serial is acting as Console Redirection. So via serial you can get into the BIOS. Though some models hard-code boot order and won't let you modify. In that cause, you'll want to bootstrap the 128MB flash, that will be boot device, then point your images at the disks.

Actually, I'm looking into building an emdebian recovery system that I'll place in flash, and boot from that. Once things seem bootable, it'll try to kexec onwards to the "proper" filesystem on raid.

Just wondering if you ever got this working? I'm looking to do the very same thing on the Ultra Plus.. I've connected over serial and modified the boot order in the BIOS - but I think it's hard coded because its reset any time I save & exit. Just wondering what the next step should be, I'm thinking of soldering the VGA connector to the board but not sure if that will get me any further. Is there any way to mount the 128MB internal USB card so that we can load a new bootloader on?

johannesomega wrote:

Just wondering if you ever got this working? I'm looking to do the very same thing on the Ultra Plus.. I've connected over serial and modified the boot order in the BIOS - but I think it's hard coded because its reset any time I save & exit. Just wondering what the next step should be, I'm thinking of soldering the VGA connector to the board but not sure if that will get me any further. Is there any way to mount the 128MB internal USB card so that we can load a new bootloader on?

I'm waiting for more hardware before proceeding :)

If you've already got serial working good enough to go into the BIOS and change stuff, VGA isn't going to help. It's a "just because I can" type of mod. Not sure about the clearances however, so I haven't tried it - yet.
The boot order is probably hardcoded. The USB stick is mountable if you boot anything else than RAIDiator. I had to give up emdebian because it'd turn out too large for my needs, so I'm looking into openembedded/yocto to do a custom build.
Before you do anything to the internal USB, make 100% sure that you've got atleast one bit-perfect copy of the internal USB. It's got syslinux, and ldlinux.sys is required to be at a specific sector, so just copying the files will not work to restore.
I'm also looking into tweaking the syslinux config to let me boot off another USB stick that I'll put inside the case. That'd be much easier than OE/Yocto.

Alright I'll make sure to do a dd of the internal USB before doing anything :-) I'm a bit lost how to get anything else other than RAIDiator running though, since I can't seem to modify boot order in BIOS (via serial), and I can't mount the internal USB to replace kernel images etc.. is there a way that I'm missing? :-/

(maybe answering my own question, but I did see a line printed to the serial console when booting the NAS with the backup button pressed and a Debian live USB stick in the front slot.. unfortunately after that line nothing else happened).

johannesomega wrote:

Alright I'll make sure to do a dd of the internal USB before doing anything :-) I'm a bit lost how to get anything else other than RAIDiator running though, since I can't seem to modify boot order in BIOS (via serial), and I can't mount the internal USB to replace kernel images etc.. is there a way that I'm missing? :-/ (maybe answering my own question, but I did see a line printed to the serial console when booting the NAS with the backup button pressed and a Debian live USB stick in the front slot.. unfortunately after that line nothing else happened).

If yours work the same as mine, just plug in an ext2-formatted USB stick and remove all drives. Connect to serial, and you've got a console.

You can also try the alternate method:
Power down the ReadyNAS, insert the USB flash device, and depress the power button on the front for approximately 20 secs – you'll see all the disk LEDs blink once at 5 secs, 10 secs, 15 secs, and 20 secs. Release the button right after the 4th blink. This will start the USB boot recovery process. Once the fan and the lights shut off and the lcd screen displays “Attemp”, press the power button and the unit will boot up normally.

Thanks for the pro tips! Your first suggestion (removing all disks, backing up internal flash over USB) worked for me. It also turns out that some of the problems I was having with installing from USB came from the BIOS communicating at 9600bps, while the Arch installer was communicating at 38400bps. Once I changed my serial settings around I was able to navigate through some of the Arch installer menus (still in the process of getting this working, but at least I can see some things now) :)

Thanks again!

johannesomega wrote:

Thanks for the pro tips! Your first suggestion (removing all disks, backing up internal flash over USB) worked for me. It also turns out that some of the problems I was having with installing from USB came from the BIOS communicating at 9600bps, while the Arch installer was communicating at 38400bps. Once I changed my serial settings around I was able to navigate through some of the Arch installer menus (still in the process of getting this working, but at least I can see some things now) :) Thanks again!

Np, if there's anything you're wondering about, I'll answer to the best of my ability. I'm still waiting for one more drive and some more RAM before I embark on installing custom stuff.