I want to install a clean debian or ubuntu on my Ultra 4, and I've been googling quite a bit to find out how. But I'm still missing a few pieces of information.
I know there's a serial port - but I don't know whether it's rs232 or TTL. I know there's a flash disk, but I haven't found out if it's possible to access it from within the stock debian to make a copy before I start mucking around.
Are there any success stories or road blocks one should be aware of?
Disassembling my ReadyNAS gave me a few extra questions. Is there a document describing the pinouts of the unpopulated headers on the Ultra 4? Interesting ones: The header right next to the screw hole looks like a USB header, and happens to be right next to two USB ports. The header right next to this screw hole sure looks a lot like a VGA header (which I thought the 4200 didn't have). The chipset is there, as can be confirmed by lspci:
Looks like USB and VGA headers yes. The last one should be the LCD cable connector.
Following products uses UART which is TTL level, it needs a RS232 transceiver to take to PC serial port: Duo, NV+, Ultra 2/4, Pro 2/4, Ultra 6, RN2100/1500, NVX All other products including Pro/Pro 6 and other rack mounts have RS232 transceiver built on-board, So there is no need for external transceiver.
Flash will show up as as 128MB /dev/sda1 in Debian to use as you want.
Looks like USB and VGA headers yes. The last one should be the LCD cable connector.
I'm referring to the empty header next to the LCD cable connector, 7 pins and one blank.
chirpa wrote:
Following products uses UART which is TTL level, it needs a RS232 transceiver to take to PC serial port: Duo, NV+, Ultra 2/4, Pro 2/4, Ultra 6, RN2100/1500, NVX All other products including Pro/Pro 6 and other rack mounts have RS232 transceiver built on-board, So there is no need for external transceiver.
I guess I'll have to dig out one of my USB->TTL cables again. It's been a while 🙂
chirpa wrote:
Flash will show up as as 128MB /dev/sda1 in Debian to use as you want.
Ok, good to know. I guess I'll have to boot from USB for accessing that though, since /dev/sda1 is one of the HDDs in RAIDiator.
I'm going to see if I can find a USB header cable and get the port working. If not, I guess I'll have to trace the pins and see if there are any resistors missing (which seems to be a pretty common way to disable usb headers on production boards). A VGA cable has been ordered, crossing my fingers that that'll work.
I'm going to see if I can find a USB header cable and get the port working.
It'll just be another USB port, nothing special. You can get the same effect by plugging a hub into one of the existing ports.
repvik wrote:
If not, I guess I'll have to trace the pins and see if there are any resistors missing (which seems to be a pretty common way to disable usb headers on production boards).
It's not exactly a way to "disable" the header; if the pulldown resistors are missing, it's because they're unnecessary when the USB connector is missing.
repvik wrote:
A VGA cable has been ordered, crossing my fingers that that'll work.
That'll make more of a difference than the USB port. If the necessary components behind the VGA header are present, you'll be able to attach a monitor and a USB keyboard to change BIOS settings. But I think you can do that with the serial port, too, so if it were me, I'd probably start with the serial port only. If you can use it to get into the BIOS settings, there's no need to solder a VGA header onto the board.
I'm going to see if I can find a USB header cable and get the port working.
It'll just be another USB port, nothing special. You can get the same effect by plugging a hub into one of the existing ports.
I'm not expecting it to be "special". But I'm hoping for an internal USB port, since there's enough room to store a USB stick there - allowing me to keep a complete and full-featured OS off of the RAID. And that without having something external that my kid can yank out at any given time. I could remove one of the external ones and solder wires on, but that'd be ugly.
fastfwd wrote:
repvik wrote:
If not, I guess I'll have to trace the pins and see if there are any resistors missing (which seems to be a pretty common way to disable usb headers on production boards).
It's not exactly a way to "disable" the header; if the pulldown resistors are missing, it's because they're unnecessary when the USB connector is missing.
Imprecise, sorry. English isn't my first language. It's pretty common for the pulldowns to be missing when the headers are missing, but not always. I'm hoping they're still there, since soldering on the tiny buggers can be a bit of a pain.
fastfwd wrote:
repvik wrote:
A VGA cable has been ordered, crossing my fingers that that'll work.
That'll make more of a difference than the USB port. If the necessary components behind the VGA header are present, you'll be able to attach a monitor and a USB keyboard to change BIOS settings. But I think you can do that with the serial port, too, so if it were me, I'd probably start with the serial port only. If you can use it to get into the BIOS settings, there's no need to solder a VGA header onto the board.
There is no need, strictly speaking. But I'm going to try because I can. It does make it a tad easier to install and debug issues with a custom OS however.
Serial is acting as Console Redirection. So via serial you can get into the BIOS. Though some models hard-code boot order and won't let you modify. In that cause, you'll want to bootstrap the 128MB flash, that will be boot device, then point your images at the disks.
Serial is acting as Console Redirection. So via serial you can get into the BIOS. Though some models hard-code boot order and won't let you modify. In that cause, you'll want to bootstrap the 128MB flash, that will be boot device, then point your images at the disks.
Actually, I'm looking into building an emdebian recovery system that I'll place in flash, and boot from that. Once things seem bootable, it'll try to kexec onwards to the "proper" filesystem on raid.
Just wondering if you ever got this working? I'm looking to do the very same thing on the Ultra Plus.. I've connected over serial and modified the boot order in the BIOS - but I think it's hard coded because its reset any time I save & exit. Just wondering what the next step should be, I'm thinking of soldering the VGA connector to the board but not sure if that will get me any further. Is there any way to mount the 128MB internal USB card so that we can load a new bootloader on?
Just wondering if you ever got this working? I'm looking to do the very same thing on the Ultra Plus.. I've connected over serial and modified the boot order in the BIOS - but I think it's hard coded because its reset any time I save & exit. Just wondering what the next step should be, I'm thinking of soldering the VGA connector to the board but not sure if that will get me any further. Is there any way to mount the 128MB internal USB card so that we can load a new bootloader on?
I'm waiting for more hardware before proceeding 🙂
If you've already got serial working good enough to go into the BIOS and change stuff, VGA isn't going to help. It's a "just because I can" type of mod. Not sure about the clearances however, so I haven't tried it - yet. The boot order is probably hardcoded. The USB stick is mountable if you boot anything else than RAIDiator. I had to give up emdebian because it'd turn out too large for my needs, so I'm looking into openembedded/yocto to do a custom build. Before you do anything to the internal USB, make 100% sure that you've got atleast one bit-perfect copy of the internal USB. It's got syslinux, and ldlinux.sys is required to be at a specific sector, so just copying the files will not work to restore. I'm also looking into tweaking the syslinux config to let me boot off another USB stick that I'll put inside the case. That'd be much easier than OE/Yocto.
Alright I'll make sure to do a dd of the internal USB before doing anything 🙂 I'm a bit lost how to get anything else other than RAIDiator running though, since I can't seem to modify boot order in BIOS (via serial), and I can't mount the internal USB to replace kernel images etc.. is there a way that I'm missing? 😕
(maybe answering my own question, but I did see a line printed to the serial console when booting the NAS with the backup button pressed and a Debian live USB stick in the front slot.. unfortunately after that line nothing else happened).
Alright I'll make sure to do a dd of the internal USB before doing anything 🙂 I'm a bit lost how to get anything else other than RAIDiator running though, since I can't seem to modify boot order in BIOS (via serial), and I can't mount the internal USB to replace kernel images etc.. is there a way that I'm missing? 😕
(maybe answering my own question, but I did see a line printed to the serial console when booting the NAS with the backup button pressed and a Debian live USB stick in the front slot.. unfortunately after that line nothing else happened).
If yours work the same as mine, just plug in an ext2-formatted USB stick and remove all drives. Connect to serial, and you've got a console.
You can also try the alternate method: Power down the ReadyNAS, insert the USB flash device, and depress the power button on the front for approximately 20 secs – you'll see all the disk LEDs blink once at 5 secs, 10 secs, 15 secs, and 20 secs. Release the button right after the 4th blink. This will start the USB boot recovery process. Once the fan and the lights shut off and the lcd screen displays “Attemp”, press the power button and the unit will boot up normally.
Thanks for the pro tips! Your first suggestion (removing all disks, backing up internal flash over USB) worked for me. It also turns out that some of the problems I was having with installing from USB came from the BIOS communicating at 9600bps, while the Arch installer was communicating at 38400bps. Once I changed my serial settings around I was able to navigate through some of the Arch installer menus (still in the process of getting this working, but at least I can see some things now) 🙂
Thanks for the pro tips! Your first suggestion (removing all disks, backing up internal flash over USB) worked for me. It also turns out that some of the problems I was having with installing from USB came from the BIOS communicating at 9600bps, while the Arch installer was communicating at 38400bps. Once I changed my serial settings around I was able to navigate through some of the Arch installer menus (still in the process of getting this working, but at least I can see some things now) 🙂
Thanks again!
Np, if there's anything you're wondering about, I'll answer to the best of my ability. I'm still waiting for one more drive and some more RAM before I embark on installing custom stuff.
