Downgrade to RAIDiator-x86 from ReadyNAS OS | #notsupported

mdgm-ntgr · ‎2014-02-07

This is UNSUPPORTED by NETGEAR. Do so at your own risk, without support from NTGR.
You need to factory default after downgrading your NAS back to the old platform, BACKUP YOUR DATA!

This downgrade will only work for legacy systems (Ultra/Ultra Plus/Pro), the new 312/314/316/516/716X models are not supported by the old firmware. If you do attempt to downgrade a new model to 4.2.x you will likely need to do a USB Boot Recovery followed by a factory default to get a working system again.

Here is a pre-built image: RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31-downgrade (54.7 MB)

After you do the required reboot as part of the firmware update process you will get the "corrupt root" error. If your NAS has a display on the front you will see it on this. Otherwise you can see it in the Info (far right) column in RAIDar. Once you get that error you will need to power down the system and do a factory default using the boot menu.

Note: As RAIDiator-x86 is unable to mount an OS partition formatted to use the BTRFS filesystem there is no add-on trick to avoid a manual factory default. You will need to use the boot menu. If your NAS is off-site or inconvenient to physically access contact me via PM and I may be able to arrange an alternative solution.

If you want to build the image on your own, you can follow the steps from this wiki article:

$ wget -q http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RNDU2000/RAIDiator-x86-4.2.24.zip
$ unzip RAIDiator-x86-4.2.24.zip 
$ head -n1 RAIDiator-x86-4.2.24
$ echo -n 'info::name=ReadyNASOS,version=6.0-4.2,time=1372729316,size=56387584,md5sum=5a29e74205983247ba50358a453c9ef2,arch=x86_64,descr=ReadyNAS Final Release,release_notes=http://www.readynas.com/RAIDiator_x86_4_2_24_Notes
' > newhead
$ dd if=newhead conv=notrunc of=RAIDiator-x86-4.2.24

Basically, changes the ::name and ::arch in the header to match with what ReadyNAS OS 6 expects.

Being able to downgrade using the image above may be of use to some who would like to try OS6 but want the ability to go back if they don't like it. More information on running ReadyNAS OS 6 on legacy ReadyNAS can be found in this thread (well worth reading if you are considering the upgrade): OS6 now works on x86 Legacy WARNING: NO NTGR SUPPORT