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Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

kbo123
Guide

Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

I was foolish and updated my ReadyNAS 2120 unit from firmware 6.2.x to 6.9.4 without reading the readme (just assumed there'd be safety checks in there by default). 

Now I know I was supposed to update to 6.2.4 then 6.5.x then 6.9.x, but unfortunately I did not know that up front. I rebooted the NAS and the power light comes on for a second and then shuts off. 

 

I tried doing the USB Recovery thing, but it doesn't even get to the point where I can see LEDs for the boot loader.  The power LED comes on for a second and then goes off, the fans don't even spin.

 

Is this thing now a brick?  And if so can I get my data off it pretty easily?

I'm familiar with flashing these sorts of things over serial line.  Is there any way to connect serially and re-flash? 

Thanks in advance.

Model: RN21242D|ReadyNAS 2120 1U 4- Bay 4x2TB Desktop Drive
Message 1 of 16
kbo123
Guide

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

In an effort to update this discussion, I was able to connect to the serial console of the 2120 using the pinouts described here:

http://natisbad.org/NAS2/index.html#hw-serial

 

The message that shows up is:

BootROM 1.20

Booting from NAND flash

BootROM: Bad header at offset 00000000

BootROM: Bad header at offset 00010000

BootROM: Bad header at offset 00020000

...

 

Anyone know anything about how to fix this or do a tftp?

Message 2 of 16
JohnCM_S
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

Hi kbo123,

 

Do you still have the same issue even if there are no disks inside the NAS?

 

Regards,

Message 3 of 16
JohnCM_S
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

Hi kbo123,

 

Do you still need assistance on this issue? Feel free to update this thread if you still need assistance.

 

Regards,

Message 4 of 16
kbo123
Guide

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

Hi John,

Yes, I still have the problem with the drives installed or not.  Near as I can tell the bootloader may have gotten corrupt?

 

Kevin

Message 5 of 16
JohnCM_S
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

Hi kbo123,

 

How did you update from 6.2.x to 6.9.4? Is it via automatic firmware update, manual, or via USB boot?

 

Your best bet is downgrading it back to 6.2.x and upgrade it the proper way.

 

Regards,

Message 6 of 16
kbo123
Guide

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

Hi John,

 

Yes, I agree downgrading it to 6.2.x would probably fix it, if that were possible.  If you know any tricks on how to accomplish this via the serial port and a system that doesn't boot up it would be appreciated.

 

Unfortunately I updated to 6.9.4 manually without reading the release notes first.  Now I know that was a mistake.

 

Kevin

 

Message 7 of 16
StephenB
Guru

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?


@kbo123 wrote:

 

Yes, I agree downgrading it to 6.2.x would probably fix it, if that were possible.  If you know any tricks on how to accomplish this via the serial port and a system that doesn't boot up it would be appreciated.

 

You could remove the disks (labeling by slot) and then try a USB recovery to OS 6.2.x.  That will put the 6.2.x install in the flash.  Then put in a spare disk (not part of the array), and do a factory install.  Upgrade that to OS 6.9.4 using the correct procedure - which will update  both the disks and the flash.

 

When that's done: power down, restore your current disks to their original slots and power up.  The system should then complete the OS 6.9.4 install on the original disks.

 

A guide for USB recovery is here: https://kb.netgear.com/29952/How-do-I-use-the-USB-Recovery-Tool-on-my-ReadyNAS-OS-6-storage-system

 

Message 8 of 16
kbo123
Guide

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

John,

 

I tried doing a USB recovery, but the system never gets that far in the boot.  I've tried a couple of USB sticks, and I would expect to see the lights flash on it that it is being accessed (it doesn't).

 

I don't see the LED pattern on the front panel either for the "boot menu".

 

The only thing I was able to do was attach to the serial port and observe the error which was this:

BootROM 1.20

Booting from NAND flash

BootROM: Bad header at offset 00000000

BootROM: Bad header at offset 00010000

BootROM: Bad header at offset 00020000

...

 

Is there some kind of a break sequence that I can interrupt it from trying to boot from NAND?

Message 9 of 16
kbo123
Guide

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

I guess nobody in the community knows anything about uboot and how to repair it in NAND.

 

Message 10 of 16
Alein
Aspirant

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

Hi,

I have this same problem now.

Did you solve it? 

At the end I have Trying UART

Message 11 of 16
kbo123
Guide

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

I have not yet fixed this problem but I haven't really had time to deal with it.

I ordered a 360 nand clip to try and make an image of the nand so I could try to reflash the bootloader onto it.

 

I was going to try this https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16775

 

If you have any luck, let me know.

Message 12 of 16
cedric_d
Aspirant

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

Hi @kbo123,

I have the exact same problem with my RN2120, and the warranty has expired. I guess the solution to my problem is to follow what you did... I am going to connect to the RS232 serial port but I expect to have the same problem as you had. 

Did you manage to reflash a bootloader with your 360 NAND clip ?

Thanks in advance ! Regards.

Model: RN2120|ReadyNAS 2120 1U 4-Bay Diskless
Message 13 of 16
kbo123
Guide

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?


@cedric_d wrote:

Hi @kbo123,

I have the exact same problem with my RN2120, and the warranty has expired. I guess the solution to my problem is to follow what you did... I am going to connect to the RS232 serial port but I expect to have the same problem as you had. 

Did you manage to reflash a bootloader with your 360 NAND clip ?

Thanks in advance ! Regards.


Cedric, 

I haven't had the time to really dig into this problem.  There is a lot of information about this sort of thing out there though.  You might need to dig and piece things together.  They use an ARM processor with a U-Boot bootloader on the NAND.  My approach was going to be to try and capture a dump of the nand as it is.  Then I could try to construct/repair a new image to flash back on to the nand with the 360 clip.  I did buy one, but haven't tried working with it yet.  Raspberry Pi or arduino should be able to interface with the chip to extract the contents.  https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16775 

 

Message 14 of 16
Alein
Aspirant

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

Hi, it is a waste of time and resources from my point of view.

First of all; it is not a problem with FW upgrade, but with damaged NAND. During a reboot, it will fail 😞 That was my problem.

I was resoldering RAM, but without any result, I was expecting damaged RAM at the beginning. 

Copy content from another NAND and resolder it seems to be tricky. On AliE you can find such NAND memory, but you need a device to read/write content. (hardware and software). To be onest, I am not sure if NAND from AliE is working at all,  I expect that it is fake. So the best way would be to solder a socket for NAND and take it from a good NAS.

From my point of view, it is much cheaper to bay on eBay and other portals similar used NAS.

 

 

 

Message 15 of 16
kbo123
Guide

Re: Failed firmware upgrade - am I bricked?

The 360 clip should be able to attach right to the NAND without any soldering.

 

If your NAND is indeed bad, then yes the only way to repair is to solder new NAND or try to find a scrap system on ebay that still functions.

Personally i wouldn't bother trying to resolder the NAND because those pins are so close together. 

 

Message 16 of 16
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