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OS6 now works on x86 Legacy WARNING: NO NTGR SUPPORT!
Update: It is now unofficially possible using NTGR images to update legacy hardware to os6.X
See Post #3, for directions to install 6.2.1 on x86 Ultra and Pro Models. (ARM NOT SUPPORTED by this OS)
Be forewarned, this requires a SYSTEM WIPE and likely voids any warranty support from NTGR
Supported so far: pro 2/4/6, ultra 2/4/6, old pro / Pioneer Pro, 2100v2
Not Supported: NVX and 2100v1
Thanks go out to "HomeBrew Anonymous" for making this possible.
Update 2: A firmware image to downgrade back to 4.2.26 is now available. See this thread. While this downgrade should get you a working system again on the supported firmware, be forewarned this requires a SYSTEM WIPE and NetGear also does not provide support for this downgrade. If you have issues seek help on these forums.
Original Post/Gripes
I have been reading these forums since Monday's announcement and there has been a resounding "ooof" regarding the fact the Ultras and Pros are unsupported for future OS improvements.
To clear the air: it would appear Netgear will never support os6 on past hardware. I have almost come to grips with this, and at least they have been open and honest with their forward direction and aren't stringing us along. viewtopic.php?f=138&t=70131
The upside is our devices still work and are mostly stable and eventually we can upgrade to a new shell that has os6 support, but in the meantime our $500-1000 investment is unable to take advantage of modern features we all desire.
I don't think I can add a poll here at RN forums, but I would like to garner support for a 100% unsupported home brew of the os6 on Pro6 units.
If we get enough support perhaps a talented member(s) here would help release a homebrew of sorts.
The 3 main caveats are:
1. Netgear will never be held responsible/your warranty is void
2. A format is required (new FS and OS)
3. Data loss is highly possible
If you are still interested please post a reply to this thread.
mdgm and I have decided that its time to lock this thread. So please do post any new OS6 on Legacy issues on their own threads.
1,274 Replies
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- I am all for an open user supported 'homebrew' os 6, but honestly I would rather have a community supported open OS like a standard debian or other NAS-specific type open OS (nexenta,freenas,openfiler, et al), that we can 'jailbreak' our readynas to run whatever we want to.
An open OS6 is an interesting idea, but I think it would require a fair bit of effort on Netgear's part to support it [likely both technical and licensing effort]. The OS will hopefully continue to evolve, so it would not be a one-time thing for them either.TeknoJnky wrote: I am all for an open user supported 'homebrew' os 6, but honestly I would rather have a community supported open OS like a standard debian or other NAS-specific type open OS (nexenta,freenas,openfiler, et al), that we can 'jailbreak' our readynas to run whatever we want to.
So I think your scenario is more plausible than 'homebrew os6'. It might require some limited help from Netgear on the 'jailbreak' - for instance, bootup and some device drivers. But it wouldn't require a lot of effort for them, and nothing on-going. Possibly it could even be done without their help.- Upon my experience, a lot of people with moderate experience should be able to jail break those debianoriented devices,even with legacy drivers. My only questionning and concern should be "why is it not already done !!". Especially if you concider the benefit...
There must be a good reason for that :( - I don't see an 'open OS6' but just an alternative OS. Debian can be loaded just fine on the x86 systems, among other OSes. I've seen Windows 7 on one, VMware ESXi, Citrix XenServer, etc. For the HyperVisors, a CPU upgrade is recommended for the old Pro (6bay) model, as the stock CPU doesn't have VT-d support. The Pro6 has a better CPU in it, but still entry level.
There is a serial port on the systems, various sites and some posts on here have pin-out details; one such site: http://natisbad.org/NAS/index.html There is also a VGA header on the motherboard of the 6-bay x86, using an old VGA ribbon cable from videos cards work, or make your own; again, there are pin-out details if you search. With the VGA header, its as simple as a USB cd-rom drive and keyboard, and you have a generic PC to do as you wish.
The internal USB flash has the boot image for RAIDiator, that can be modified to load another OS, without booting off a disk slot. That flash is only 128MB in size though, so a bit limited. It can be accessed in booted RAIDiator with a special command to USB sub-system (can share that later). You can also boot into tech support mode for raw access to it; http://netgear.nas-central.org/wiki/TechSupportMode
The LCD screen on supported models is also accessible via serial port address; some info here: http://www.nexentastor.org/boards/9/top ... ssage-8241 chourmovs wrote: "why is it not already done !!". Especially if you concider the benefit...
There must be a good reason for that :(
It is a $ issue. Devoting a full team towards a legacy system costs $ but has no revenue. Instead they wish to focus on monetization of a new line. So we users need to "go it alone"AMRivlin wrote: It is a $ issue. Devoting a full team towards a legacy system costs $ but has no revenue. Instead they wish to focus on monetization of a new line. So we users need to "go it alone"
don't worry , I don't expect nothing from Netgear, i'm not here for a long time but it's quite fast to understand :?
My concern is that in fact no one has cross the river and try to develop it's own software/distribution for entertainment purpose, on a deprecated device for exemple.
For me, It changes from android world where almost everyone (i exagerate of course) seems to be able to develop it's own system and seems to have good linux/java (for frontview fork)/hardware/driver skill, despite the fact that hardware is even more complicated in mobile world. There's much more emulation in fact
Here in netgear world, only a little number of people seems to have the skill to purpose interesting things, it's a statistical problem because we're finally little number of users and even more little number to be interested in tweaking
Here is my concern and i'm a little pessimistic when i hope to get an easy-to-setup solution with a 10 lines how-to.
Let's pray for a messi :D- IMO, any homebrew or 'jailbroken' alt-os would need to be able to make it dead easy for the 'not-as-technical' people to switch to (and back to stock), ideally I would think it better to leave the stock flash alone and either boot from usb key or straight from disks.
I realize that the majority of the users here, and probably a lot of nas users in general, are far more technically savy than a typical consumer, but no doubt there is a ton of these technical users that would not necessarily want something that is more time consuming to use/configure/upgrade than what raidiator provides.
I guess what I am thinking of, is the "DD-WRT" equivalent for readynas. Something that provides a much more update/standard system and flexibility, but without necessarily requiring a bunch more (or different) technical knowledge.
Agreed. Also, the flash isn't changed, then the hardware warranty isn't affected.TeknoJnky wrote: IMO, any homebrew or 'jailbroken' alt-os would need to be able to make it dead easy for the 'not-as-technical' people to switch to (and back to stock)... - On the Pro(6), you can get into the BIOS easily via serial/vga. You could change the boot order to another device besides the internal USB flash. That way it auto-boots the right stuff, but you could always fail back to the internal USB to 'return to stock'. The 2/4 bay units ignore any changes to the boot order, always defaulting to the internal drive; so you'd always need to hold Backup button on boot to use another boot device. Imagine power outage reboot, RAIDiator comes up and sees its not on the disks but something else is, it may auto factory default it!
- would it be possible to create an addon that would change the flash to default boot to usb (only if there is a usb bootable disk), so to avoid the potential auto-factory-default and need to change bios boot order?
assuming there is not, then we would need safe and simple way to flash a custom bootloader (if only to boot a usb or sata volume) to flash memory, and be able to restore the factory image when needed.
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