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Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

frankie0p
Guide

Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

Hi everyone,

 

I ran into this forum thread while searching for answers to a very similar if not exactly the same problem. I have a Readynas NVX Pioneer edition and would really appreciate your advice. I've had nothing back from netgear support in response to an email I sent them yesterday morning.

 

The device boots into the boot menu, and no errors are found in the hard drive test or the ram test (I have replaced the previous chips which did give errors). The normal startup procedure gets to "Booting", then the "Checking FS" flashes up for less than a second, then it just hangs on "booting". I've previously left it overnight in this state to no avail.

 

I can initiate a factory reset from the boot menu, upon which it finds the raidar software running on my pc and I can tell it what fs to set up, but then during the process the LCD will show "ERR: Could not p" which I assume to be a print and subsequent overwriting of "Could not properly extract" like in the thread in my link.

 

My next thoughts are to connect to the serial pins on the back of the unit to try and get some messages from the boot process, though I could do with a key as to which pin is which if anyone has that?

 

If you could help I'd be very grateful, though I understand this link is from a good few years ago. I did try PM'ing the saviour in the other thread, though PMs are now disabled for that account (@mgdm-ntgr).

 

Thanks in advance.

Message 1 of 48

Accepted Solutions
mdgm
Virtuoso

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

If it is "could not properly extract..." that would suggest corrupt firmware on the internal flash as a possibility. This problem generally isn't observed until a factory reset is done so it seems likely. USB Boot Recovery might fix it but that can lead to the EEPROM getting corrupted.

 

Don't need to use the serial console to troubleshoot that, though it is an option.

 

As the NVX is 32-bit care has to be taken to ensure the 32-bit kernel is in the right place if manually extracting a copy of the firmware onto the internal flash, I think. If you go down the manual route you can either put a copy of the firmware image (don't put a zip file on, put the image) on a USB key or copy the firmware on some other way e.g. download it from a http (not https) website.

View solution in original post

Message 12 of 48

All Replies
StephenB
Guru

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)


@frankie0p wrote:

 

If you could help I'd be very grateful, though I understand this link is from a good few years ago. I did try PM'ing the saviour in the other thread, though PMs are now disabled for that account (@mgdm-ntgr).

 


He's no longer with Netgear.  You can PM him via @mdgm instead.  Maybe try the current mods ( @Marc_V and @JeraldM ) first.

 

This sounds like corrupted flash.  

Message 2 of 48
frankie0p
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

Thanks, I'll give them a message in the meantime.

Message 3 of 48
frankie0p
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

Morning all, small update with some info asked for by @Marc_V  in pm.


# uname -a
Linux 22N294RA00187 2.6.37.6.RNx86_32.1.4 #1 Thu May 28 16:18:23 PDT 2015 i686 GNU/Linux
# cat /etc/os_version
RAIDiator!!version=4.2.31,time=1495520166

Message 4 of 48
frankie0p
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

Morning all, Happy Tuesday.

I connected to the NAS over the serial connection with some success.

I can read the serial debugging but cant send any keystrokes - not sure if that's normal.

 

Output from Serial:

 

SYSLINUX 3.31 Tue Mar 3 14:19:16 PST 2009
Copyright (C) 1994-2005 H. Peter Anvin
Debug Serial Port Enabled
Normal
FactoryDefault
OSReinstall
TechSupport
SkipVolCheck
MemoryTest
TestDisks
Loading
18
1B
To Be Filled By O.E.M.
To Be Filled By O.E.M.
11/17/2008 ReadyNAS-NVX V1.3
To Be Filled By O.E.M.
kernel..................................................
Loading initrd.gz.............................Ready.
[Hardware Error]: No human readable MCE decoding support on this CPU type.
[Hardware Error]: Run the message through 'mcelog --ascii' to decode.
▒ahci 0000:03:00.0: masking port_map 0x7 -> 0x3

Starting the boot process...
Loading kernel modules...sd 5:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 5:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 5:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
done
Bringing up RAID arrays...done
Bringing up network...eth0.done
Switching root to RAID device.

INIT: Entering runlevel: 2
Running ReadyNAS Universal Startup Script...
/etc/rc2.d/S01re
Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 nas-A9-AB-4C ttyS0

nas-A9-AB-4C login:

 

Message 5 of 48
frankie0p
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

Update: I have straightened out my issues with sending keystrokes to the serial pins. I had a twisted wire, posting correct setup here for posterity.

 

I'm using a regular USB TTL Serial cable, Male USB at one end and 4 female jumper pins at the other. Similar to the cable here.

Numbering from left to right as you look at the pins on the back of the NVX, the jumpers are connected like below. I have not connected the red Voltage jumper as that seems like asking for trouble.

(1)    (2)    (3)                 (4)

Bl      Gr    Wh       Not Connected

 

With this improvement I can send characters to the NAS using Putty set up for Serial Comms at 9600 Baud.

 

When I try to log in with random credentials, the proper "Login incorrect" message is shown. However when using the default credentials (admin, netgear1), on the first attempt I get:

 

nas-A9-AB-4C login: admin
Password:
No directory, logging in with HOME=/
Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 nas-A9-AB-4C ttyS0
nas-A9-AB-4C login:

 

And on subsequent tries I get:

 

nas-A9-AB-4C login: admin
Password:
No directory, lo
Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 nas-A9-AB-4C ttyS0

nas-A9-AB-4C login: admin
Password:
No directory, lo
Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 nas-A9-AB-4C ttyS0

nas-A9-AB-4C login:

 

 When I run this through a logic analyser, I can see that this is definitely the characters being sent, there are no overwrites of the "No Directory" line.

 

Also I have heard back from a netgear customer support email regarding a paid support case so fingers crossed.

 

Message 6 of 48
StephenB
Guru

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

Normally you'd log in as root, using the NAS admin password.

Message 7 of 48
frankie0p
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately that doesn't work either, nor does the debugging login for root. I was basing 'admin' on the default login info in the manual.

Message 8 of 48
StephenB
Guru

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)


@frankie0p wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately that doesn't work either, nor does the debugging login for root. I was basing 'admin' on the default login info in the manual.


In general, the log in to the linux command line should be using root.

 

From the looks of it, the OS partition has not been mounted from the disks.  I'm thinking there might be a way to choose tech support mode as the boot option - but I've never used the serial interface, so I don't know.  That might give you more options for troubleshooting.

 

 

 

Message 9 of 48
frankie0p
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

I can access the tech support mode via telnet if that would enable the same level of debugging?

 

By the way, how do I quote in replies?

Message 10 of 48
mdgm
Virtuoso

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

If you never installed EnableRootSSH you wouldn't be able to login as root in normal mode, only support.

If you installed EnableRootSSH the root password would be the admin password at the time that was enabled.

If it's not booting very far though it could be in a state where telnet is enabled (or not even that) and use the tech support mode credentials.

Message 11 of 48
mdgm
Virtuoso

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

If it is "could not properly extract..." that would suggest corrupt firmware on the internal flash as a possibility. This problem generally isn't observed until a factory reset is done so it seems likely. USB Boot Recovery might fix it but that can lead to the EEPROM getting corrupted.

 

Don't need to use the serial console to troubleshoot that, though it is an option.

 

As the NVX is 32-bit care has to be taken to ensure the 32-bit kernel is in the right place if manually extracting a copy of the firmware onto the internal flash, I think. If you go down the manual route you can either put a copy of the firmware image (don't put a zip file on, put the image) on a USB key or copy the firmware on some other way e.g. download it from a http (not https) website.

Message 12 of 48
frankie0p
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

Hi @mdgm , thanks for the advice. I have a few followup questions.

 

  • Is the USB recovery/EEPROM failure recoverable if it does go wrong? Or is it kill or cure?
  • In a manual firmware update, where would I be copying the firmware to from the USB? When I look at the unzipped firmware folder I only see one file with no extension and a release notes html.
  • Till this point I did not realise that the OS for the NAS was in the hard drives and not in flash, though that makes a lot of sense now I think about it. Do I have that correct?

 

I should clarify that the device was bought second hand and has not been in a working state while I have had it, so I do not know what might be on the hard drives, OS or data.

 

I have the kit to mount the drives on my computer if that can provide any useful info? Thanks again.

Message 13 of 48
Sandshark
Sensei

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)


@frankie0p wrote:

 

I should clarify that the device was bought second hand and has not been in a working state while I have had it, so I do not know what might be on the hard drives, OS or data.

 


Hmmm.  It's possible that the previous owner tried installing OS6, which is incompatible with the 32-bit platforms like the NVX.  But I'm not sure how to verify that.  There have been others who tried and a USB recovery fixed it, but I believe some have also been totally bricked (by the conversion, not trying a USB recovery).

Message 14 of 48
aldospa
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

Hi all,

 

I've bricked my NVX trying to install os6.  Have not been able to boot off usb recovery.  What other options do I have to fix the NVX?

 

Cheers,

 

Aldo

Message 15 of 48
frankie0p
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)


@Sandshark wrote:


It's possible that the previous owner tried installing OS6, which is incompatible with the 32-bit platforms like the NVX.  But I'm not sure how to verify that.


I agree that is likely, as I have seen a lot of threads where that is the case. As far as I can tell the device starts up using the 4.2.31 firmware, at least in debug, as that is the OS version given in the debug environment (see below).

 


@frankie0p wrote:

Morning all, small update with some info asked for by @Marc_V  in pm.


# uname -a
Linux 22N294RA00187 2.6.37.6.RNx86_32.1.4 #1 Thu May 28 16:18:23 PDT 2015 i686 GNU/Linux
# cat /etc/os_version
RAIDiator!!version=4.2.31,time=1495520166


As I can't currently find a way to log in to a non-debug account, I cannot check what version is given by the NAS under normal circumstances.

 


@aldospa wrote:

Hi all,

 

I've bricked my NVX trying to install os6.  Have not been able to boot off usb recovery.  What other options do I have to fix the NVX?


Can you get to the boot menu? Are there any disk errors? Is the RAM working correctly? Have you tried a factory Reset?

Message 16 of 48
aldospa
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

Yes can get to the boot menu, there are no disk errors. Tried all options like factory reset etc but no luck. Think I’m having issues also creating a usb recovery
Message 17 of 48
StephenB
Guru

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)


@frankie0p wrote:

@Sandshark wrote:


It's possible that the previous owner tried installing OS6, which is incompatible with the 32-bit platforms like the NVX.  But I'm not sure how to verify that.


I agree that is likely, as I have seen a lot of threads where that is the case. As far as I can tell the device starts up using the 4.2.31 firmware, at least in debug, as that is the OS version given in the debug environment (see below).

Do you mean tech support mode?  Or something else?

 

What commands have you entered (other than uname -a and  cat /etc/os_version)

Message 18 of 48
frankie0p
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)


@StephenB wrote:

Do you mean tech support mode?  Or something else?
What commands have you entered (other than uname -a and  cat /etc/os_version)

Yes, tech support mode sorry. I looked around the filesystem to see whether the disks showed up in /dev/ (they do).

 

Aside from that, like I said I'm not sure what I should look for without a service manual. I looked through the directories and read some files to try and find any logs that might indicate a faulty shutdown or a firmware update, but couldn't find anything. Didn't want to risk starting the raid script or mounting any of the drives to have a look.

 

Is there anything I could run to get useful information?

Message 19 of 48
StephenB
Guru

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)


@frankie0p wrote:

@StephenB wrote:

Do you mean tech support mode?  Or something else?
What commands have you entered (other than uname -a and  cat /etc/os_version)

Yes, tech support mode sorry. I looked around the filesystem to see whether the disks showed up in /dev/ (they do).

 

Is there anything I could run to get useful information?


You can gather some information on disk health with this:

# for i in a b c d e f g h i j k l m n; do smartctl -a /dev/sd${i} | egrep -i "Device Model|Serial Number|Reallocated_sec|ATA Er|offline_uncorrect|current_pending_sector|Power_on"; done

 

You could attempt to mount the OS partition (I don't think this would cause harm).

 

# start_raid.sh
# mount /dev/md0 /sysroot

 

It that works, you chould chroot, which would give you the full range of commands:

# mount --bind /proc /sysroot/proc
# mount --bind /dev /sysroot/dev
# mount --bind /dev/pts /sysroot/dev/pts
# mount --bind /sys /sysroot/sys
# chroot /sysroot /bin/bash

 

 

It is possible to look at the internal flash (though this is not something I've ever needed to do). This would be the smallest disk with a single partition (which you can find via cat /proc/partitions).  Once you know the disk, you can mount the flash

# mount /dev/sdg1 /mnt

 

You will see the flash image as root.tlz (a compressed tar file). If you have mounted the OS partition, you could try extracting this to sysroot - that could be risky if the OS partition already contains linux. I suggest waiting for @mdgm or one of the mods to comment before trying that.

# tar -avx -f root.tlz -C /sysroot/

 

Alternatively, you could copy it to a USB flash drive (assuming you know how to mount it), and examine it on another system.  That should let you know if there was an attempt to convert the NAS to OS-6.

Message 20 of 48
frankie0p
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

Good morning and happy Friday all.

Thanks so much to @StephenB for that detailed walkthrough, it's been very illuminating. Kudos on its way.

 

Disk Health:

I ran the oneliner with a small adjustment and got the following output

 

# for i in a b c d e f g h i j k l m n; do smartctl -a /dev/sd${i} | egrep -i "Device Model|Serial Numbe
r|ID#|Reallocated_sec|ATA Er|offline_uncorrect|current_pending_sector|Power_on"; done
Device Model:     ST32000542AS
Serial Number:    5XW22XCR
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   098   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       2301
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
Device Model:     ST32000542AS
Serial Number:    5XW0MLTB
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   096   096   000    Old_age   Always       -       3698
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
Device Model:     ST32000542AS
Serial Number:    5XW1P5A1
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   096   096   000    Old_age   Always       -       3579
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
Device Model:     SAMSUNG HD204UI
Serial Number:    S2H7JD2B402601
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   252   252   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       625
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   252   252   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

 

 

 

 As far as I can gather from this and the smartctl man page, all the disks are in acceptable health and don't look like failing any time soon. Following this conclusion, I tried out mounting the OS partition and was pleasently surprised to find that worked also.

 

I then started to go through the process of mounting the flash, which was successful and allowed me to copy the entire contents of flash to a USB. I did have to have the USB plugged in on boot as it didn't register otherwise.

 

root@22N294RA00187:/# ls -la /mnt/flash/
total 52398
drwxr-xr-x 2 root 0    16384 Jan  1  1970 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root 0     4096 Sep 23 04:38 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 0      354 Aug 18  2017 CSUMS.MD5
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 0  1718218 Aug 18  2017 INITRD.GZ
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 0  3040368 Aug 18  2017 KERNEL
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root 0    12424 Oct  1  2009 LDLINUX.SYS
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 0   169600 Aug 18  2017 MEMTEST
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 0 48031517 Aug 18  2017 ROOT.TLZ
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 0   650860 Aug 18  2017 SUPPLMNT.TLZ
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 0      532 Aug 18  2017 SYSLINUX.CFG
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 0       42 Aug 18  2017 VERSION.TXT
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 0      512 Feb 27  2011 VPD

 

 

 

I tried using 7zip to open the file but this got to about 29% before giving "Data error: ROOT". However, the ROOT file it generated could be opened in notepad++ and was mostly human readable. Had an interesting moment of confusion when I saw listings for airport flights but I then realised it was a sample table in the files for SQL.

 

So I then took the USB to my linux machine. This took a few tries to get decompressing started. tar then decompresses what looks like an entire root directory, but exits with an error:

 

 

 

$> tar -vx -f root.tlz -C ./root
./bin/bash
...
./usr/share/mysql/sql-bench/Data/ATIS/fconnection.txt
tar: Skipping to next header
xz (stdin): Compressed data is corrupt
tar: Child returned status 1
tar:Error is not recoverable: exiting now
$> 

 

 

The file it stops on starts with a normal-looking list of rows from an sql table, but then gets confused and out of order, with random unrecognised characters appearing and the formatting dissapears. I haven't yet managed to get lziprecover to work on the data, though I will keep trying in the background.

 

Based on the information available, my current guess is that someone did do a firmware upgrade, but that it was the faulty RAM chip I replaced caused the errors; seeing as I can only find 4.3.21 version numbers anywhere.

 

I am not sure how to proceed with recovery and have a few questions in my mind:

  • Is the root file in flash a copy of the OS partition on the disk? or vice versa? or neither?
  • If the root file is corrupt, are any of the other contents of flash damaged?
  • If I replace the contents of flash, can I get factory restore to work?

 

EDIT:

I forgot to add that in the /etc/sudoers file that was inside the TLZ archive, I found that both root and admin are users with passwords, though I can't find a passwd or shadow file. I can find these inside the OS partition on the NAS, and also shadow seems to have a copy called "shadow.1" that I can't find any mention of in the docs.

 

# cat /sysroot/etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
admin:x:98:98::/c/home/admin:/bin/false

# cat /sysroot/etc/shadow
root:$1$/3nocmnO$Odaqgd5zzR4oleBHEQ46T.:18892:0:99999:7:::
admin:$1$HwBrp9DK$jXrwgOofbIHx3dMG/mAqD0:13959:0:99999:7:::

# cat /sysroot/etc/sudoers
# sudoers file.
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
#

# Host alias specification

# User alias specification

# Cmnd alias specification

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL
admin   ALL = NOPASSWD : /frontview/bin/empty_spool, /sbin/tune2fs, /usr/bin/net, /sbin/mdconfig, /sbin/mdadm, /frontview/bin/share_snapshot, /sbin/lvdisplay, /usr/sbin/repquota, /sbin/iwconfig, /usr/sbin/ethtool, /usr/sbin/smartctl, /bin/cat, /sbin/dumpe2fs, /bin/mount, /bin/umount, /usr/bin/killall, /frontview/bin/check_dir_compatibility.pl, /usr/bin/stat, /sbin/hdparm, /usr/bin/pdbedit

 

 

Sorry all for such a long post, if it makes anyone feel any better I'm finding this journey absolutely fascinating.

Message 21 of 48
StephenB
Guru

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)


@frankie0p wrote:

I tried using 7zip to open the file but this got to about 29% before giving "Data error: ROOT". However, the ROOT file it generated could be opened in notepad++ and was mostly human readable.

 


If 7zip wrote a file to the flash memory then you should delete it.

 


@frankie0p wrote:

 

So I then took the USB to my linux machine. This took a few tries to get decompressing started. tar then decompresses what looks like an entire root directory, but exits with an error:

 

I am not sure how to proceed with recovery and have a few questions in my mind:

  • Is the root file in flash a copy of the OS partition on the disk? or vice versa? or neither?
  • If the root file is corrupt, are any of the other contents of flash damaged?
  • If I replace the contents of flash, can I get factory restore to work?

The root file is used for 

  1. factory installs to empty disks
  2. OS reinstalls from the boot menu

The boot process also checks the firmware version in the flash, and compares that with what is on the OS.  If there is a mismatch, then the system will use the root file to update (or downgrade) the OS.

 

There could of course be more damage in the flash - unfortunately checking or repairing damaged files in it isn't something I've never needed to do.  There are other who have - @mdgm or perhaps one of the mods ( @Marc_V or @JeraldM ) might have some guidance.  Not sure if @Sandshark has dealt with this before.

Message 22 of 48
frankie0p
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

 


@StephenB wrote:

If 7zip wrote a file to the flash memory then you should delete it.



7Zip was running on my windows machine, working on a copy of the flash contents, I've been very careful to leave things as I found them so no worries there.

 


@StephenB wrote:

The root file is used for 

  1. factory installs to empty disks
  2. OS reinstalls from the boot menu

The boot process also checks the firmware version in the flash, and compares that with what is on the OS.  If there is a mismatch, then the system will use the root file to update (or downgrade) the OS.

 

There could of course be more damage in the flash - unfortunately checking or repairing damaged files in it isn't something I've never needed to do.  There are other who have - @mdgm or perhaps one of the mods ( @Marc_V or @JeraldM ) might have some guidance.  Not sure if @Sandshark has dealt with this before.

In that case it definitely sounds like once I have checked for more damage, I can have a go at manually replacing the contents with un-damaged firmware. This takes me back to a tangent from earlier - How do I find the firmware files from the firmware image downloaded from netgear? Is the "RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31" file a type of archive with the extension removed?

Message 23 of 48
StephenB
Guru

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)


@frankie0p wrote:

In that case it definitely sounds like once I have checked for more damage, I can have a go at manually replacing the contents with un-damaged firmware. This takes me back to a tangent from earlier - How do I find the firmware files from the firmware image downloaded from netgear? Is the "RAIDiator-x86-4.2.31" file a type of archive with the extension removed?


The 4.2.31 can be found here: https://kb.netgear.com/000038793/RAIDiator-x86-Version-4-2-31

 

7zip can open the binary inside:

7ZIPTEST.png

 

Most of these appear to be identical to the flash files (same size anyway), and you could try verifying the flash files using the md5 checksums.

Message 24 of 48
frankie0p
Guide

Re: Unable to Boot or Factory Reset ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer (RNDX400E)

HashComparison.png

From what I can see, all the files are ok aexcept Root.tlz and kernel.

If kernel.up means the hash for the file when the kernel is active, could the system have been powered off mid-upgrade?

 

EDIT:

@StephenBGreat minds think alike!

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