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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? ...
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/
According to one of those referenced threads, there is a BIOS entry in the flash to disable the internal flash, and that's the key. I have some 300 series units and may pull one out of storage and see what I can find. But if you figure it out, please post your process and results. Screen shots of significant BIOS settings would be great.
BTW, I recommend we stay away from any explicit instructions on installing Xpenology on the ReadyNAS here. Xpenology most likely is considered copyright infringement (I don't think it's been decided by a court, thus the "most likely"), and I don't want to put Netgear in a position of having to censor posts about it. But there should be no reason we cannot discuss the installation of free, or even commercially available, alternative OS's on ReadyNAS hardware.
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