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Recovering a bricked RNDX4000 (NVX)
So I was messing around with an old NVX and decided to experiment with upgrading it to OS6. I didn't realize OS6 was 64 bit until after I bricked the NVX. (oops!) Anyway, based on reading up on...
Muah ha haa! UNBRICKED.
I did it in a crazy sort of way by using TWO USB sticks.
1) 240MB stick (yes megabytes! lol, it was the only other stick I had)
2) 4 GB stick
They both had the usb recovery added on them.
The 240MB stick was plugged in front. It booted but always failed to continue. I was curious so I went into and modified the syslinux.cfg line that said 'default Normal' to 'default OSReinstall'. I did the same to the 4GB stick.I tried both the 240MB and 4GB stick individually at first in the front. The 240MB always booted but failed. The 4GB one didn't do much even though they both had the exact same recovery on them. (not sure why)
Then I tried the boot up process again with the 240MB stick. I held the backup button and powered up the unit. I watched the output from my serial connection and when I saw, "initializing....."
I immediately plugged in the second 4GB stick IN THE BACK USB port. My thinking was.. well, if it can't find the front USB stick, then maybe when it searches it will find the one in the back.
And whoala! The trick effin' worked! And it reloaded the OS, and did the power down thing.
I'm back in business!Kinda nice that since I set the recovery to do an OSReinstall, instead of a factory default, all my settings stayed intact.
I'm using a CP2102 USB to UART bridge and I did a loopback test on it and it seems to be working. (With PuTTY, I did a ctr-E test and saw a PuTTY response.)
This is good and bad. Good that the device looks like it's working and bad that it's probably now due to the nvx not responding.
I believe the serial port parameters are 9600 8n1 XON/XOFF.
Not sure where you are looking for recovery, but there is a fairly long thread here:
Unfortunately it wasn't fully successful. Only Netgear can repair a VPD. Although if you used Sandshark's procedure to back it up first, you should be able to restore your backup copy.
Yep I think I have the parameters correct, just as you mentioned. I am able to see output from the NAS but just can't get it to respond to commands from my terminal.
I did see frankie0p's post but the pinout diagram there didn't make much sense to me as I don't have a ttl cable with those colors.
(1) (2) (3) (4)
Bl Gr Wh Not Connected
I just have a bridge on which I can add any jumpers of any color of the rainbow. Anyway, after looking at it again, I think this is what the pins are:
1) Ground
2) TX
3) RX
4) power (3v3 or 5v not sure but doesn't matter, no need to connect)
I'll try this setup next time I have time to go play in the server room (i.e. basement closet, lol) and hopefully that's all it was to get the NAS to respond to commands.
p.s. I don't have anything to back up, this was a completely clean NAS so thankfully, there's no data that needs to be recovered.
OK! We have ignition!
# uname -r
2.6.37.3.RNx86_32.1.1
#The pinout for future reference when using a CP2102 UART Bridge is as follows:
Looking at the nas from the back. Counting from left (with the usb ports on the right) these are the pins.
[ 1 2 3 4 ]
1 - GND
2 - RX
3 - TX
4 - Power
To connect to the CP2102 here's the connection:
NAS <-------------------> CP2102
1 <-------------------> GND
2 <-------------------> TXD
3 <-------------------> RXD
4 (not connected)
Now on to the challenge of restoring the device!
StephenB wrote:I believe the serial port parameters are 9600 8n1 XON/XOFF.
Not sure where you are looking for recovery, but there is a fairly long thread here:
Unfortunately it wasn't fully successful. Only Netgear can repair a VPD. Although if you used Sandshark's procedure to back it up first, you should be able to restore your backup copy.
StephenB.. VPD?
virtual private database?
very picky database?
voracious pizza daemon?
Muah ha haa! UNBRICKED.
I did it in a crazy sort of way by using TWO USB sticks.
1) 240MB stick (yes megabytes! lol, it was the only other stick I had)
2) 4 GB stick
They both had the usb recovery added on them.
The 240MB stick was plugged in front. It booted but always failed to continue. I was curious so I went into and modified the syslinux.cfg line that said 'default Normal' to 'default OSReinstall'. I did the same to the 4GB stick.I tried both the 240MB and 4GB stick individually at first in the front. The 240MB always booted but failed. The 4GB one didn't do much even though they both had the exact same recovery on them. (not sure why)
Then I tried the boot up process again with the 240MB stick. I held the backup button and powered up the unit. I watched the output from my serial connection and when I saw, "initializing....."
I immediately plugged in the second 4GB stick IN THE BACK USB port. My thinking was.. well, if it can't find the front USB stick, then maybe when it searches it will find the one in the back.
And whoala! The trick effin' worked! And it reloaded the OS, and did the power down thing.
I'm back in business!Kinda nice that since I set the recovery to do an OSReinstall, instead of a factory default, all my settings stayed intact.
I still can't believe that worked...
I'm glad you were able to bring the NVX back to life.
dtarin wrote:
StephenB.. VPD?
virtual private database?
very picky database?
voracious pizza daemon?
Vendor Product Data file.
This is an encrypted and signed file in the boot flash that contains the model information and serial number of the NAS. So it can't be re-created by anyone other than Netgear. It is used by the OS in configuring your unit, and likely also was intended to prevent people from running ReadyNas firmware on other (non-ReadyNAS) platforms.
We have seen some cases where this file gets corrupted during failed OS-6 conversions - the good news is that this didn't happen with your NVX.
ahhh.. good to know! Thanks!
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