I've gotten a RNDU2000 ReadyNAS Ultra, and a ReadyNAS Duo V2. The V2 runs fine, with RAIDiator, but the Ultra, I suspect, has been messed with by someone who wanted to put in another OS. When I plug in a serial adapter to the port in the back, I get the BIOS setup screen, and then GRUB with
GNU GRUB version 1.99-21ubuntu3.14
Ubuntu, with Linux 3.11.0-15-generic
Okay.. so far so 'good', but it hangs forever there until I hit enter to boot. And then it dies in the initrd scripts because it can't find its root drive, so all I have is what's in the initrd image. Thinking that it could help, I grabbed the latest RAIDiator firmware image and unpacked it, to get a complete filesystem, but they're so disparate that I can't just toss it in there and expect pivot_root and the like to work without a bunch of manual work.
The reset button and the 'hold backup button to reflash firmware' don't work, of course, since they're soft-keys which only work once an OS has booted up enough (such as RAIDiator) to recognize them and take action.
So - is there a way for me to use the firmware image, and get that onto the internal flash memory so that the NAS can start up as normal and initialize the new blank disks it's got inside?
Model: ReadyNAS RNDU2000|ReadyNAS Ultra 2 Chassis only
This sounds like used equipment - if you just got it, it might be simpler to return it to the seller.
You could try a USB recovery, but I am thinking that likely won't be enough. Even if it restores the boot loader and flash, there is also information on the NAS model (including the serial number) that might have also been wiped. https://kb.netgear.com/30267/RAIDiator-4-2-USB-Recovery-Tool
Nah, it's been standing around for a good while. As for USB recovery, when I try that by holding down the Backup button when starting it, I only get dropped to a "error: can't read filesystem", "grub rescue>" prompt. The USB stick definitely does not have GRUB on it, so it seems something is getting confused in the existing GRUB when trying to read the stick (which is FAT-32/VFAT formatted.)
I was more thinking along the lines of, since I can boot and have control via the serial console, could I overwrite this botched Ubuntu installation with the downloadable firmware from Netgear? How would I go about that - mounting the internal USB memory and overwriting it, dd:ing the firmware file to it, etc?
Of note is that the internal flash is reported as a 125MB (oddly not 128MB) USB stick when booting - even the BIOS screen says there's one USB stick and two 'regular' harddrives plugged in, before I get to GRUB. (Two USB sticks when i have the external plugged in aswell.)
If I unpack the tarballs (lzcat root.tlz | tar xf -) of the firmware-files, it all adds up to a little over 300MB, so that's clearly not going to fit on the built-in flash. But perhaps on one of the large SATA drives?
How would I go about that - mounting the internal USB memory and overwriting it, dd:ing the firmware file to it, etc?
I don't know the steps for that. I don't think it's just getting the firmware file on there either, there's also the boot loader (which might also have been changed) and the NAS identification info (and the normal system won't boot without that info).
