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Forum Discussion
AMI BIOS boot options?
What are these boot options in (ReadyNAS RN312) AMI BIOS? Default boot option 1: SMI USB DISK 1100 Default boot option 2: UEFI: SMI USB DISK 1100 Are they both pointing to the same target? ...
I've not specifically looked at the BIOS options on a 312 (don't have one) or product in the same family, but that seems to allow either a UEFI or legacy BIOS boot-up from the same source just as many other AMI BIOS do. With most BIOS, it will check all USB ports for a bootable drive since it doesn't allow you to choose which one. I think your best bet is to simply try it and see what happens, then let us all know in case we need to follow your lead. One potential problem is that the flash memory on at least most ReadyNAS is actually a USB device. So if it finds that one first, it's going to boot from it. On a legacy NAS, I know it will find the front USB port before the internal one, so try that first.
Unless you go in and make changes yourself, there is no reason that booting to an alternative OS will change anything in the boot PROM. But your new OS may expose it to change, so you'll just have to be careful not to. Once exposed, you will probably want to make a copy of the contents with dd (if using a Linux alternative) or some other drive imaging process just in case.
Legacy and UEFI boot seems logical.
I managed to boot up TinyCore by changing boot order settings (and also boot override on the Save & Exit tab). Although I saved and exited after changing boot order, on next boot up the ReadyNAS PROM was back to boot before the USB.
One annoying thing is that ReadyNAS doesn't make any difference between the USB ports. Maybe somewhere internally, but in BIOS they all show up as 'USB Flash Disk 1100'.
Photos, part 2: https://imgur.com/a/nJk8rZn
Photo 2.1 where I changed the boot order.
Photo 2.2 default boot order is back after reboot (and in this case the USB stick was removed)
Photo 2.3 more settings under advanced.
There might be some setting that is forcing internal boot first. There are several settings under Advanced and Boot that I don't know what they stand for. Like: GateA20 Active, Option ROM Messages, INT19 Trap Response, CSM Support. And under Advanced: Launch Storage OpROM, Ut165 USB2FlashStrong.
eton wrote:
One annoying thing is that ReadyNAS doesn't make any difference between the USB ports.
Except of the special USB Recovery Tool-on-my ReadyNAS OS 6 storage-system there is no design reason any RN should ever boot from a different boot device, like a random USB port.
Not just booting. The issue with not labeled USB ports exists in ReadyNAS OS 6 as well. I have a wage memory that the ports where numbered in old RAIDiator 4.
schumaku wrote:Except of the special USB Recovery Tool-on-my ReadyNAS OS 6 storage-system there is no design reason any RN should ever boot from a different boot device, like a random USB port.
True, but he's trying to use it not as designed with an alternative OS. It's possible that the BIOS is designed specifically not to save that parameter. I honestly have no idea how USB recovery is implemented. It may be that it changes the BIOS to boot from another USB device, thus it automatically returns to boot from flash after that (or other modification to the boot device order is changed) and power is cycled, though I always suspected it used boot override. That way, the unit would be back to booting from flash even if the recovery process failed and it couldn't set it back to boot from flash.
Chain loading an OS on the drive(s) from flash is probably the best way to go -- emulating what ReadyNAS OS does. But that would modify the flash contents. I'm afraid I can't help you accomplish that -- it's beyond my Linux experience. I know GRUB and Syslinux can both do that, but I've only ever done it in GRUB many years ago. I just use a Linux VM now instead of dual booting to it.
Yes, the USB Recovery Tool verifies that there is a solution to repeatedly boot from an external USB. In best case scenario the external USB just needs a file with a special name. Maybe some BIOS setting(s) can also solve this.
There is one report of using XPEnology with RN312:
https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/8373-user-reported-compatibility-thread-for-dsm-61/#comment-96645
Other ReadyNAS models here:
https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/56934-converting-a-netgear-readynas-to-xpenology/
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