Updating OS to something modern

The NVX, being the first Intel based ReadyNAS and designed by Infrant prior to the Netgear purchase, may not be as solidly locked down.  It may use a more generic BIOS than later models.  I've never tried to access it's bios (though I have two in storage).  But the fact that the NVX has a 32-bit processor is going to be a bigger hurdle.  TrueNAS has been 64-bit only for a number of years, as have most potential alternatives.

Given the state of Netgear support for the ReadyNAS, the ability to go back to the original OS shouldn't be much of a driver today.  So, IMHO, the best solution for units that are "locked down" is to do exactly as Netgear does -- put a boot loader and small OS in flash (or use UBoot for ARM systems) that chain-loads the real OS.  Of course, you wouldn't need (or likely even want) to have an image of the "real" OS in flash like Netgear does since it would likely get too big.

I would love to see a group start a project for a ReadyNASOS replacement.  Not being much of a programmer or even an expert on the inner workings of Linux, my contribution could be that I have a lot of machines on which to test (unless I sell them first).  IMHO, such a project should try to come as close to "for dummies" as possible for the actual conversion and not require a display.  For example, use the Netgear USB recovery system to write the flash and put into that flash options to boot normally from the drives (which would be the default) or to copy an OS from a USB drive (which might be on the same USB as the recovery system or on a separate one) to the drives.

In his farewell, WhoCares_ mentioned the possibility of such a project, and I think he'd be a great one to lead it.  Unfortunately, he seems to have simply given up on the ReadyNAS.

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schumaku wrote:

The ReadyNAS BIOS is rock-solid against configuration errors - there is intentionally no way to make a ReadyNAS boot strictly from any USB connected device.

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This is incorrect, at least with 628X. 

With 628X, I can boot from any drive, external USB OR internal HDD. You  just need to disable the one from booting inthe BIOS. 

I have installed ESXi to one of the internal HDD and it works fine. I have also converted to an Xpenology by auto booting from an external USB drive, and this works well as well. 

So I assume, you can install any OS to any internal HDD. I also assume you canswap out the internal daughter board, which is a 9-pin USB DOM, which is readily available on ebay and cheap. This way you can revert back to original ReadyNAS easily by DD an image back to the daughter board. Your original daughter board is kept as backup. 

USB DOM 

The only barrier for this to work is that you need video output. I used an PICe extension cable with mine so I can insert an external video card.