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Re: Best firmware for RNDP2000 after OS6 upgrade

afflab
Tutor

Best firmware for RNDP2000 after OS6 upgrade

finally upgraded my pro 2 / RNDP2000 to OS6 (6.9.5) yesterday. the admin page prompted me to install 6.10.10, but i know some folks have had issues with the later firmwares. is there any consensus on the "best" version after the os6 upgrade? i've seen 6.10.9...6.9.6.... no apps here, just file sharing/onsite backup and music storage.

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StephenB
Guru

Re: Best firmware for RNDP2000 after OS6 upgrade


@afflab wrote:

 

any thoughts on which firmware to run? i ended up going to 6.9.6. Any reason to go to 6.10? (esp. given DLNA issues below?)

 


There are security updates and also fixes to the AV service in 6.10.x.  Personally I am running 6.10.9.  The most recent firmware (6.10.10) removes the ReadyCloud client (which is good), but also removes the ability to install apps from whe admin web ui (not so good).

 

Debian 8 has been archived, so installing any package that requires a new debian library will fail to install.  The solution for that problem is here:

Note post 37.

View solution in original post

Message 5 of 6

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afflab
Tutor

Re: Best firmware for RNDP2000 after OS6 upgrade

many thanks to the community for the guides on updating bios, backing up vpd, and the OS6 upgrade. i had a lot of nerves about the whole process because if it had bricked, i probably would have given up on having a nas altogether (too many other things going on to start over), but since sonos (and others) have dropped smb 1, i've had a little less to lose. it worked and at least for now i think everything is stable. the two bits of functionality i'd lost with os4 were my sonos music library (when they released their new dumpster fire app in may), and i wasn't able to browse photos on my tv through our oppo blu ray player anymore. (i suspect both of these were related to smb 1?) i haven't tried either yet as i'm still transferring files back to the nas, but fingers crossed.

 

a couple notes from my os6 upgrade yesterday...

  • updating the bios: bios "version" is just a date. find it by downloading all your log files and opening bios_ver. On my pro 2, my version was "09/08/2010" (probably never updated until yesterday...also damn that's 14 years) and i believe "11/02/2011" is the most recent/one you want. search forums for the BIOS_Update_Package_0.5-x86 file.
  • backing up vpd: this was the biggest headache for me. (https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS-in-Business/Backup-and-restore-of-VPD-file-for-...) i couldn't get telnet to work. connecting the readynas directly to my computer was what did it for me...i think the asus router was blocking telnet.
    -i downloaded putty, connected the readynas directly to my computer with ethernet, changed my computer's ip address to match the readynas (if nas ip is 192.168.50.50, change computer's ip to 192.168.50.40 or similar. ask chatgpt how to change your computer's ip address...), and followed the instructions.
    -once nas is booted in tech support mode, open raidar to see its ip address(es). open PuTTY (don't let it scare you), select telnet (which will automatically switch it to port 23), enter the ip address of the nas, and hit open. (if raidar shows multiple ip addresses you may need to try both to get it to work.)
    -it should prompt you for login info...type 'root' (no quotes) for the user and 'infr8ntdebug' for the password. the characters may or may not show up as you type...just type root and hit enter, then infr8ntdebug and hit enter. (or, if you have a certain add-on installed, the password might be your normal admin password?? but not sure about that..)
    -if you see a "#" that means you're connected. the only telnet command i wasn't clear on from sandshark's post was how to display the info for all disks at the beginning. (i.e. /dev/sda and /dev/sdb etc) The command that worked for me was  either 'sfdisk -1' or 'sfdisk -l' i forget which...but this article was helpful: https://linuxhandbook.com/linux-list-disks/
    -from there everything in sandshark's post was straightforward. after unmounting the usb, i powered down the nas (manually) and powered it back on.
  • when performing the os6 update, it looks like older versions of the instructions said to upload both the 'prep4tor6' and 'r4tor6' using the firmware update tool. then later, the recommendation changed to upload the 'prep4tor6' with the add-on tool, then 'r4tor6' using the firmware update tool. can confirm that the latter worked on my pro 2.
  • also uh...when you log in to admin for the first time and change your password, make sure caps lock isn't on. lol. but also (in addition to my recent caps lock problem), i swear i remember having an admin password issue after an update years ago. i was going to wait for the factory reset/resync (which had it's own issues..see below) and then use the boot menu to do an os reinstall (not knowing if it would put me back to os4 or reinstall os6...) to reset the admin password, but then i tried caps lock and didn't need to....
  • once the nas started re-syncing for the factory reset, it was taking forever. (i.e. 2 hours for 1 percent...would have taken over a week at that rate, but probably would have hung itself first. i'm using a pair of WD 3TB (cmr) red drives.) i've run into this once before on this nas, so i'm thinking it might be a "rare-but-not-uncommon" issue? in any case, since it's a factory reset the data is lost anyway, so i manually powered down the unit, turned it back on, and it started resyncing again much faster. it finished overnight in about 8 hours. hope this is helpful to somebody!
Message 2 of 6
StephenB
Guru

Re: Best firmware for RNDP2000 after OS6 upgrade


@afflab wrote:

-it should prompt you for login info...type 'root' (no quotes) for the user and 'infr8ntdebug' for the password. the characters may or may not show up as you type...just type root and hit enter, then infr8ntdebug and hit enter. (or, if you have a certain add-on installed, the password might be your normal admin password?? but not sure about that..)


No, the password for tech support mode is always infr8ntdebug.

 

It'd be odd for a router to block telnet when you are on the same subnet, so that is a puzzle.

 


@afflab wrote: i'm using a pair of WD 3TB (cmr) red drives.)

WD30EFRX?

Message 3 of 6
afflab
Tutor

Re: Best firmware for RNDP2000 after OS6 upgrade

thanks stephen, yes WD30EFRX and WD30EFZX. and yeah no idea re: telnet blocking. it was weird because every 5-10 attempts the login prompt would appear (so if the router was blocking it wasn't very good at it..), but the connection would always fail before i could complete. either way once the router was bypassed it worked fine.

 

any thoughts on which firmware to run? i ended up going to 6.9.6. Any reason to go to 6.10? (esp. given DLNA issues below?)

 

i have the sonos library up and running again, but unfortunately still can't browse media on the nas thru the bluray player. initially i thought this might have something to do with smb 1 (as with sonos), but now i'm thinking it's got to do with DLNA. I know it's working because I can see the nas as a media device on the network (under network on the computer, and under DLNA on the smart tv...some videos will play that way), but it refuses to show up on the oppo player. worked fine until a year-ish ago...strange because nothing changed. i wanted to continue troubleshooting (the oppo is wired with ethernet behind an asus switch...i thought about bypassing the switch, and/or trying via wifi since that seems to work for the smart tv...), but i ran out of patience. it's an older unit (bdp-103...oppo stopped making bluray players in 2018) and right or wrong i've convinced myself that it's the culprit. too bad because it was so easy to browse the nas on its "network" interface...just navigate to your file and play it...no add-ons...it just worked.

 

plex installed easily enough. i bought an nvidia shield pro (consolation prize for the failed troubleshoot), which will replace our roku and should give me media server browsing with plex to replace the lost oppo player interface. still looking for a firmware recommendation but either way, cheers!

Message 4 of 6
StephenB
Guru

Re: Best firmware for RNDP2000 after OS6 upgrade


@afflab wrote:

 

any thoughts on which firmware to run? i ended up going to 6.9.6. Any reason to go to 6.10? (esp. given DLNA issues below?)

 


There are security updates and also fixes to the AV service in 6.10.x.  Personally I am running 6.10.9.  The most recent firmware (6.10.10) removes the ReadyCloud client (which is good), but also removes the ability to install apps from whe admin web ui (not so good).

 

Debian 8 has been archived, so installing any package that requires a new debian library will fail to install.  The solution for that problem is here:

Note post 37.

Message 5 of 6
afflab
Tutor

Re: Best firmware for RNDP2000 after OS6 upgrade

Heh..now I almost don't want to update, just in case it does fix my AV/DLNA issues....

 

Thanks for the input. I'll jump to 6.10.9 my next free evening. Plex was easier than I thought it would be...I see now why it comes up so often. And fwiw I didn't know Nvidia had a streaming media player, but I got the Shield Pro set up last night and it worked flawlessly with my NAS and Plex. (Not as "simple" as the Oppo interface was, but that's not a bad thing.) Beats the pants off Roku. But yeah I've got my library back on Sonos, media server on the Shield Pro, all data synced/redundant again and backups scheduled. Big gratitude to the community and not bad for a $390 diskless NAS in 2012...

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