OS6 now works on x86 Legacy WARNING: NO NTGR SUPPORT!

I was staff at NTGR, decided to quit last year when I saw things going in the wrong direction.

Theres too much competition in the NAS market with low margins. Most consumer systems are all open-source based, not contributing a lot back to the authors of the original software, taking it for a ride. And many are not hardware agnostic, only working on specific over-priced hardware (generic PC in the end though). Distributions like FreeNAS are making strides, and work on off the shelf hardware.

After reading this thread carefully for months, I finally had time to try to "upgrade" to readyNASos6 but It didn't upgraded at all my Ultra2 when I used the pre-made R4toR6_6.1.1.bin (downloaded from link on 3rd post on the first page).
My Ultra2 was under 4.2.24 with 2x2TB hdd so I bought one new 3TB Toshiba hdd and tried to copy to hear the access noise which was silent enough for me, then bought the 2nd drive.
1) My idea was to try what drfrogsplat was taking about (there : viewtopic.php?f=51&t=70133&start=595 ) on the new hard drive so here is what I did :
- upload in frontview the R4toR6_6.1.1.bin and install it
- power off the NAS instead of reboot
- remove the old Samsung drives and installed the 2 new Toshiba hdd
- boot by pressing the Reset switch at the back to unit then choosed "Factory default" in the boot menu ( http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/boot/how ... _boot_menu )
- after 5-10min, I used Raidar to discover the NAS and it asked me to choose between XRAID2 or FlexRaid (I choosed the 1st)
- then I saw that I was stuck at 4.2.24 ...:( (with the 2 new toshiba drive of course)
2) I thought I did something wrong with the swap of new hdd so I tried few times the same procedure (uploading the R4toR6 etc... but without the drive swap), which each time a small change :
- first I didn't had to install the new drives (already inside the nas) => didn't worked
- then instead of power down, press RESET button and then boot ; I choosed to reboot from Frontview => still not working
- I tried to do the Factory default from the menu in front view => still stuck with 4.2.24
- Currently I am making FULL ERASE of the new hdd (it will take 510min...) : I was thinking that maybe this could help me (because I formatted my first toshiba to make a file copy test then erasing the partition, buy a 2nd drive, and use them for R6 attempts).
Sorry for the long message, I tried to be as detailed as possible. I am waiting for someone to help me to find out where is the mistake !!

EDIT: fix with the help given kindly by mdgm ! thanks :thumbsup:

Like any other firmware update for the ReadyNAS you have to reboot for the update to install. The process pre the reboot only prepares the update to install. After the reboot it will write the update to the flash. Once the firmware has been written to the flash a subsequent factory default will result in a clean install of the new OS. The prep add-on (if installed before the update) will place a file on the OS partition which will lead to a factory default occurring automatically at an appropriate time after the reboot.

What you did was to abort the update by doing a factory default before the update had been installed from the disk onto the flash.

Edit: I see you tried a reboot via Frontview on an another attempt. That should have worked. Did you get an error message? I tested the image and it worked fine first time on the NAS unit I tested it on.

Thanks for your very fast answer mdgm !
I think I now understand where was my mistake : I did factory default while making my first reboot after uploading the R6 image.
I thought the uploading and checking through Frontview was at the same time writing the firmware to flash before the reboot. But in fact it's just after !! So now I understand that my factory default was putting back the 4.2.x firmware from the flash to the hard drive thus erasing the 6.1.1 file that was on the OS partition !!

I guess there is a reason why the new firmware is not written directly onto the flash before reboot, but I got confused with the drive swap and "upgrade" from v4 to v6 : that's why I made the factory default at the wrong moment :D
Now.. do I have to wait for the complete erase to end or can I abort it ?

Again, thanks a lot !!

Some aspects of updates need to happen (and/or work best) while services aren't running. Updating needs to be a smooth, reliable process, especially when you consider that NAS units typically hold large amounts of important data. A failed update of the flash would have undesirable consequences, so it is important that it is updated in a way that is as likely as possible to be successful.

Since you did a secure erase it is probably best to wait. Otherwise you might have an issue with the disks being locked (though that could be fixed remotely if needed).

Since the beginning I have no percentage during the process of erasing the drives and the duration announced was 8hours and a half. I let the NAS do its job for 10 hours so I guess the estimation is really not accurate :twisted:
Was this "normal" or maybe my NAS was frozen/buggued ? I have read that the secure erase is expected to be VERY long but I thought I did only a 'simple' erase.
Anyway I really had to stop it (by a long press on power button). I hope it will be OK.
Then I'll try to install 6.1.1 the way I should have done it from the beginning (reboot then let the NAS to write the 6.1.1 to firmware before doing a factory default).
I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

44 pages of mumbo jumbo to me is a lot of information so I apologize in advance that this post may make a few people angry....


I have a ReadyNAS Ultra 2, will running OS 6 on this unit function exactly like the 102 would? Are there are limitations or features that do not work (such as using the upgrade firmware button, etc.??)

Thank you in advance.

You may find one or two things don't work such as pressing the backup button to confirm you want to use ReadyCloud but most things should work fine.

One should also note that the Ultra 2 has an Intel CPU so it is closer to a RN312 (current mid-range model) than it is to a RN102 (current low-end model).

troy14 wrote:
I have a ReadyNAS Ultra 2, will running OS 6 on this unit function exactly like the 102 would?

Most of it would be the same, but like mdgm said, few features like Backup Button may not work. Also, it would be closer to the 312, not the 102. The 102 is an ARM CPU, much slower than the Ultra2. The 3xx series is basically just a newer Atom chip that the Ultra 2 uses, otherwise the same hardware.