NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
RN516 finally EOL?
I thought the RN516 went EoL quite some time ago... but I had still be updating the firmware over the years and I still got antivirus definitions for it too. Back on September 29th, the antivirus def...
I thought the RN516 went EoL
The RN516 went EoL in 2017. Netgear exited the NAS business, and now all ReadyNAS platforms are now EoL.
While Netgear announced the end of firmware updates for NAS running 4.1.x, 4.2.x, and 5.3.x when those updates ended, they did not announce end of firmware updates for OS-6. Personally I think that is a mistake - a NAS is very different product from a router or switch.
In any event, I expect that 6.10.10 will be the final firmware release.
Back on September 29th, the antivirus definitions started failing daily.
The version of ClamAV that Netgear distributed (0.103) became end-of-life in 2024. ClamAV began blocking definition updates to that version in September 2025.
- https://blog.clamav.net/2024/08/clamav-0103-lts-end-of-life-announcement.html
- https://docs.clamav.net/faq/faq-eol.html#version-support-matrix
Netgear built this package from ClamAV source, and they have told me that they have no plans to update it.
For anyone still interested in using the old Netgear Readynas RN516 with something like Open Media Vault, I found a way to fix the annoying SMI boot that resets every time you shutdown the NAS. I used Google Gemini to help me with this, but basically it involves installing Clover on the SMI chip. First, you need to install Debian on a flashdrive and tell the Bios to boot the flash drive. Once you SSH into the NAS follow these steps.
apt-get update
apt-get install p7zip-full -y
cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/CloverHackyColor/CloverBootloader/releases/download/5170/Clover-5170-X64.iso.7z
7z x Clover-5170-X64.iso.7z
umount /dev/sdh* 2>/dev/null
dd if=Clover-5170-X64.iso of=/dev/sdh bs=4M status=progress
sync
Once that's complete, you RN516 will not boot to your external USB device everytime. No more having to change the boot in the bios when you shutdown the NAS. I haven't tested yet, but I imagine this would also allow you to use the first drive bay as a boot drive. I have OMV installed on my RN516 and now I can run docker and various plugins, especially if you upgrade the CPU and RAM.
I should have mentioned that you need to check the dev of the SMI before running the script. Mine was sdh, but yours could be different.
Once that's complete, you RN516 will not boot to your external USB device everytime. No more having to change the boot in the bios when you shutdown the NAS. I haven't tested yet, but I imagine this would also allow you to use the first drive bay as a boot drive. I have OMV installed on my RN516 and now I can run docker and various plugins, especially if you upgrade the CPU and RAM.
I think you mean it will not boot the internal flash memory or will boot the USB flash without having to go into BIOS.
Since this process puts a new bootloader on the flash, it will make reverting to ReadyNAS OS impossible unless one has first backed up at least the vpd file from flash so it can be restored later, but making a dd copy of the entire flash is probably best so one does not rely on USB recovery for the remaining flash content when reverting. For anyone doing this on a native OS6 unit: there is no vpd file to back up.
While I also think this could allow you to boot from a hard drive, it should also allow you to boot from an MDADM RAID, which is what the ReadyNAS normally does. Another user is currently working on doing that with GRUB. Unless you are running an OS that requires UEFI, Clover seems a bit of overkill.
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
