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Ultra 2+ Powers On - No ethernet activity - Corrupt Firmware ? - USB Boot Recovery NOT Working
Any help or suggestions appreciated.
Helping a friend recover the use of his older ReadyNAS Ultra-2+ which does not boot into the NAS's system management webserver or even attempt to send ethernet ...
USBRECOVERY.EXE - What it does and does not do ?
.... so the Netgear USB boot recovery program: "usbrecovery.exe" (53 KB) I ran under WinXP did not appear to generate a linux boot loader file(?) "ldlinux.sys" to place on the USB memory stick target and no file like that was extracted from the original Netgear USB-Recovery zip archive either.
At 53 KB I'm not sure "usbrecovery.exe" would be able to make my FAT32 formated USB memory stick target "bootable" either. Probably as Mdgm mentions in an earlier post, it is up to the user to find a USB memory stick compatible with the ReadyNAS (Ultra2+), partition it properly, format partition #1 as FAT32 then run "usbrecovery.exe" linking it during creation/runtime to the correct RAIDiator firmware file in the same folder as the extracted USB Recovery utility files and finally help the ReadyNAS use the firmware file to replace it's current (possibly corrupted) firmware file stored in internal flash memory.
Why Have My Earlier Attempts to Use the USB Recovery Method Not Worked ?
Initially did not integrate the RAIDiator Firmware file (RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31 (56,026KB)) onto the USB memory stick ... operator error. Corrected that but still the Ultra2+ did not seem to initiate any conversation with the FAT32 formated USB boot recovery memory stick.
Had not done anything special on my part to make the USB memory stick "bootable", or partitioned/formated in any special way other than as FAT32, assumed those details would be done by "usbrecovery.exe". Not a good assumption in retrospect since usbrecovery.exe also did not place the "ldlinux.sys" file on the USB either. Maybe "ldlinux.sys" isn't really used by the ReadyNAS during the boot recovery, however Mdgm mentioned it should be present on the USB in an earlier post and it was not until I installed SysLinux v6 on my WinXP system ran the CLI command "syslinux.exe -m -a G:" , (from the SysLinux wiki) "-m" installs suitable MBR code into your flash drive and "-a" marks the partition on it as active. G: is my target USB memory stick. I also tried using RUFUS to prep the USB stick as bootable ..etc.
These modifications still did not engage the ReadyNAS Ultra2+ in any discernible positive response when I tried the USB boot recovery procedure.... dang. On the desperately positive side, at least one can say the Ultra2+ still did not seem to like the USB at all and did not pull any files off it (my USB stick has an activity LED). If it had acted like there was a reasonable data transfer and STILL no good outcomes, no ethernet port activity, then well maybe a hardware fault in the Ultra2+ was the source problem.
What to Try Next
Read many SysLinux wiki pages last night to gain a marginally better idea of the USB boot process using that tool, which seems to be used by NetGear for ReadyNAS. Will try different USB memory sticks, because even the SysLinux wiki mentioned CHS (Cylinders - Heads - Sectors) geometry translation on USB sticks is a huge pain and confuses many small computer systems. My guess is that nice low energy CPU's like ones used in the ReadyNAS do not have enough physical or logical memory address space to accept every lame CHS geometry used by a multiplicity of USB stick manufacturers. Big CPUs have address space to burn and aren't put off by excessively wasteful CHS allocation.... just a guess.
Will see if using the most recent Syslinux version is incompatible with the version used by Netgear ReadyNAS USB boot recovery utility, will try using an older version.
More effort to make sure the USB memory stick is partitioned and bootable in a way compatible with USB boot recovery. Anyone have suggestions about this issue ? What procedure did you use to partition and make it "bootable". Has anyone actually used USB boot recovery to fix a suspected internal flash firmware corruption issue on any ReadNAS in the Ultra or Duo or similar series ?
I tried substituting two files provided by Mdgm on the USB stick:
initrd.gz (6.4 MB)
kernel (6.2 MB)
to enable remote diagnostics thru RAIDar (I think) but these would not enable booting either - no ethernet activity or visibility by RAIDar. However, it is likely I did not have the USB stick configured as "bootable" or something similar when I tested this. Will try again.
The USB key needs to be syslinux bootable. usbrecovery.exe can be used to do this or you can use a 3rd party software such as Rufus.
You can use a more recent version of the syslinux bootloader than included with usbrecovery.exe if you want.
However if the network port is broken then booting off USB isn't going to fix that.
Does the activity LED on the NAS ever come on, even if briefly during boot? If not, you may have a bad NIC or bad internal power regulator, neither of which is repairable.
Thank you for the reply.
With a single hard drive in the NAS, (which spins up but I suspect has a damaged OS on it), immediately after the power button is pressed all the 4 small green LEDs blink ON dimly for a split second, then go OFF. One second later only the activity LED in the front panel of the Ultra2+ turns ON with fan at full speed. Activity LED stays ON solid for approx 15 seconds, (fan speed slows midway)... goes out with a few quick blinks, saying OFF for maybe 4 seconds, then ON again for 1/2 second ... OFF for another 4 secs, then ON for 1/2 sec, OFF another 4 secs, then ON for last time as before for only 1/2 sec or so. From this point forward no front panel LED activity is seen.
Summary - At power up, activity LED is ON solid for about 15 seconds, fan speed slows after approx 8 seconds, then activity LED blinks briefly ON 4 more times with a 4(?) sec pause OFF in between each brief blink ON. After that no front panel activity is seen again and the ethernet ports in back though attached to known good ethernet cables and switch ports show no LED activity. RAIDar v6 from my MacBook-Pro has never seen the Ultra2+ though it can see my old ReadyNAS NV+ v1 on the same LAN using the same ethernet cable attached to the same switch port (moving the cable between the two NAS to make sure the path is good). Wasn't sure if RAIDar v6 could discover an old Ultra2+, however since it sees my even older NV+ I think the answer is yes.
The situation is different with no hard drives installed at power on.
When power button pushed and released all 4 tiny green front panel LEDs flicker ON together for a split second then OFF. Fan changes speed, slowing down after approx 5 seconds. No front panel green LEDs ever turn ON except the blue power button LED staying ON.
USB Boot Recovery Procedure (backup button pushed and held for 15 secs min)
With no hard drives installed and a USB memory stick plugged in the front USB3 port, created sometimes using Netgear usbrecovery.exe under WinXP or sometimes created using 3rd party USB boot utilities that install SYSlinux MBR ..etc, the LED activity is exactly the same as listed under "no hard drives installed at power on": when power button pushed and released (backup button still pushed and held) all 4 tiny green front panel LEDs flicker ON together for a split second then OFF. Fan changes speed, slowing down after approx 5 seconds. No front panel green LEDs ever turn ON except the blue power button LED staying ON. The USB stick activity light flickers quickly maybe 6 times in a 2 second window, then OFF for approx 5 seconds, then once again flickers quickly 6 times in a 2 second window ... then nothing .... nothing. Leaving the Ultra2-plus running for well over an hour leaves it in the same state: fan speed low, no ethernet activity, no LED activity, only the blue power LED is ON.
I have tried not less than 7 older USB memory sticks all under 4 gigs in size , used the Netgear usbrecovery.exe program to create the USB sticks, used RUFUS once, used a syslinux v6.03 command directly, used what seems to be a pretty good 3rd party USB boot creation utility under WinXP: RMPrepUSB_Full_v2.1.740.exe that has options (selected) to create a syslinux bootable USB stick and even a reduced CHS geometry .... etc.
By the way, the only USB boot creation program that did NOT install "ldlinux.sys" on the USB stick was the Netgear "usbrecovery.exe" (v4.2 56 KB). No program modified the "syslinux.cfg" file (creation date = 3/3/09) supplied by the "RAIDiator 4.2 USB Flash Recovery.zip" archive at all. The "initrd.gz" and "kernel" files date from 2011, the syslinux.exe and syslinux.cfg from 2009.
So how does the "RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31" 57 meg image file which is also on the USB boot drive get recognized/copied into internal flash memory by the ReadyNAS Ultra2+ if it is not referenced in the syslinux.cfg file ? In all my attempts to boot a kernel from the syslinux USB stick I have never seen enough USB stick activity, or NAS front panel LED activity to convince me the Ultra2+ is actually successfully booting from it. In the experience of others what DOES a successful USB boot recovery actually look like on v4.2 NAS's, how long is the USB stick actively transfering files ... ???
Your help is appreciated. Thank you.
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