x86 homebrew OS6 development: no warranty/support

[AMRivlin]

I am fairly certain only high powered cpu's can power the new OS. NVX was 1ghz, might not be fast enough.

[chirpa]

NVX/2100v1 are 32-bit, probably out of luck for support on this models. Looks like everything in the new release, for x86, is 64-bit. ARM is also 6.0, but another CPU arch.

[k1llah3rtz]

for what its worth, i'll +1 this effort and volunteer my NVX into the mix (although that's ultimately worthless) and my time as a hardware/OS guy.

[k1llah3rtz]

actually.. could we have a new area somewhere on this forum for those of us left behind? I'm thinking it would be good kudos for NTGR if the Jedi Council would support us in being able to repurpose our devices that we love, with OSs that are being updated and supported? i.e. FAQ/HowTos on getting other OSs to run on our devices.

For example, I have an ageing NVX - so NTGR are dropping me like a bad penny.. so what can I do with my device except turn it into a door stop?

[chirpa]

NVX and 2100v1 would need special images of whatever OS is going to go on the systems. The NTGR firmware includes two kernels (32-bit, 64-bit) to handle those two models also, as well as checking on boot for which kernel modules are needed to go with it.

My idea for an OS replacement script could include separate images of stuff, I won't be making combo images.

[chirpa]

My end goal will be like this...

# wget myscript.sh; chmod +x myscript.sh; ./myscript.sh
 # Pick an image from below:
  1. blah
  2. bleh
  3. blih
 # 1
 # Updating boot flash with 'blah'.
 # Update finished, reboot to start up in 'blah'.

This will only work with OSes that will fit in the internal 128MB flash space, and are compatible with this hardware. Synology DSM is one planned, but needs work to add NIC drivers first. ESXi won't fit in the boot flash, it would need an external 4GB+ USB to load it on; then a boot strap on the internal flash (or people with serial access can change the BIOS boot order).

The Ultra 6/Pro(6) have AMI BIOS that can change the boot order. The Ultra/Pro2/4 have a BIOS that won't let you change boot order, it is fixed to boot the internal flash. Either need to find a more generic BIOS image for those, or boot strap the internal flash.

Side note, the Pro(6) I've been using for testing, had BIOS v1.6 on it, my older BIOS add-on will put it to v2.0. Until I flashed this one, it wouldn't see my USB CD-ROM on boot up.

My conversion script will be for the true troopers. I don't plan on adding a flash restore to stock option, though others could add that in later.

[chourmovs]

i'm not sure to understand everything but i love your actual reflection
Please carry on !!

[bajorgensen]

I've been dabbling with this idea myself for awhile, but had some hopes of RAIDiator 5 arriving.
Thanks to AMRivlin for bringing this up.
Decided to hack my Ultra 6 with a standard OS, but if people are willing to contribute to a proper solution, I am all game.
I am puzzled by Netgear missing an excellent oppertunity to unify their OS base.
Now they will have to maintain RAIDiator 4, RAIDiator 5, ReadyNAS OS 6, and READdata OS.
And why on earth have they overlapping product portfolio on the SMB/ME marked?

Please be aware that ReadyNAS OS 6 source will NOT include ReadyCLOUD, ReadyDROP, webGUI, genie, replicate etc, etc.
Those components are closed source. Based on RAIDiator source, the core is pretty much stock debian.
I think there are only a few drivers missing for full HW support in up2date linux kernel: front button, LCD and ???

So what we will get access to is only a slightly modified Debian install, so why not go with stock Debian, or some other distro?
Kick starting a standard install like chirpa described does probaly not require a huge effort...
It also raises my hopes that people like http://natisbad.org/ is submitting code upstream!
Sadly it seem like the ones who needs it the most are left dangling. (SPARC units)

Do people here want the Netgear ease of setup and idiot proof setup?
In that case we need to do a lot of work to get a proper setup/recovery rutine and develop a proper web GUI.
What about some more vertical distros like NAS4Free, ClearOS, etc
Would people be willing to pay a small fee? How about a free version with a limited functionality and pay for premium/enterprise features?
Of are you seeeking a complete open source and free model?

Maybe we should start a project defining what we need as a first step?

Chirpa, will Nexenta be one of the options listed? 😉
Please join the ReadyNAS liberation movement!

BTW: I found a place for cheap long VGA cable, anyone tried theese?
http://www.pccables.com/07129.html

[chourmovs]

bajorgensen wrote:
BTW: I found a place for cheap long VGA cable, anyone tried theese? http://www.pccables.com/07129.html

Debian 6 or recent but stable 'SSH compatible' distrib should be perfect, no really need of vga , frontview or graphical install
The main limitation with actual software is the dependancies jungle, etch is out of date for most of nowadays servers technos
Maybe something lighter than debian 6 or more turnkey like freenas or other else is a good solution

[chourmovs]

chirpa wrote:
My end goal will be like this... # wget myscript.sh; chmod +x myscript.sh; ./myscript.sh # Pick an image from below: 1. blah 2. bleh 3. blih # 1 # Updating boot flash with 'blah'. # Update finished, reboot to start up in 'blah'.

LOVE

[majello]

actually i would love this.

i'll probably be buying one of the new ones sooner or later, but most of the non-open parts of os6 i'm simply not interested in. i relly don't like readyclod, readybox, genie and the rest of the bunch. good call with regard to btrfs though.

the dropbox plugin that furrently exists does more for me than most of these do. and i'm no big fan of external dependencies like admin via readycloud.

as for the webgui part: i'm no fan of the new frontend. it's much better than the old frontview, but for my tastes it still gives not nearly enough information about what's going on. and lacks some crucial functionality in my view. i've started a framework in python over christmas, that could be used quite transparently to replace the gui/frontview part. although it does need plenty of work still. i did that in python, btw, anyone interested can have a peek. this thing came out of my frustration with frontview and the direction taken on the v2 arm boxes.

cheers
s.

[NASCHARGE]

great idea chirpa.
+1 for any help i can be. testing etc..

I have a pro 6 , 4 that id like to play with..

[chirpa]

NTGR finally posted the GPL package for ReadyNAS OS 6; ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/GPL/R ... WW_src.zip

[AMRivlin]

Let the games begin. I mean, let the true user based support begin!

[AMRivlin]

Update: It is now unofficially possible using NTGR images to update legacy hardware to os6.X
See Post #3, for directions to install 6.0.4 on x86 Ultra and Pro Models. (ARM NOT SUPPORTED by this OS)
Be forewarned, this requires a SYSTEM WIPE and likely voids any warranty support from NTGR

[chirpa]

Very nice!

On the fan stuff you mention, it wouldn't take much to manually/cronjob update the fan speeds, until built-in support is there.

Looking at a 4.2 system:

ultra:~# cat /ramfs/enclosure.cfg 
fan!!0!!desc=SYS,selfcontrolled=1,minrpm=1800,required=1,alternate=0,path=/sys/devices/platform/it87.2576/fan1_input,in_path=/sys/devices/platform/it87.2576/pwm1
ultra:~# echo 255 > /sys/devices/platform/it87.2576/pwm1
ultra:~# echo 50 > /sys/devices/platform/it87.2576/pwm1

You can do the same echo lines on a 6.0 box. So setup a cronjob to watch the temp values (also referenced in the enclosure.cfg), and if the temps get too high, turn up the fan speed. The PWM value would be 0-255 (min-max).

[TWilson]

If I load the patched 6.0.4 img in post 3 using FrontView, can I later revert back to 4.2.22 img from the v6 Frontview (or whatever they're calling it in 6) or is this a one way trip?

[AMRivlin]

You can go back via a boot flash edit, I'll let others chime in with the actual how. But os6 has been rock solid during my testing, I don't have any plans to factory wipe back to 4.2.

But to answer you, yes it should be possible.

[chirpa]

You can use the USB Boot Recovery to go back to 4.2.x:
Unofficial ReadyNAS USB Recovery Guide for x86-based Systems
ReadyNAS_x86_USB_Flash_Recovery-4.2.21.zip

You will have to factory default again after downgrading, as the filesystems are not compatible between each platform.

[tarkeen]

Pleas fix Ready OS too work on NVX.

[AMRivlin]

tarkeen wrote:
Pleas fix Ready OS too work on NVX.

It is likely the NVX does not have enough cpu horsepower.

[tarkeen]

NVX fast no slow

[chirpa]

NTGR doesn't provide 32-bit kernels anymore, so the NVX (and 2100v1) are OOL (out of luck).

[Woodzzter]

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this thread. Although I do not have time to devote to it at this stage (or the space to backup my existing Pro6 to) I may sometime in the near future. Although not a hardware guy I am a software developer (although sadly not in a Linux environment) but hopefully it should not be too difficult to pickup.

As a side note to anyone saying that there is NO money in it for Netgear to port this across to run on the older x86 systems....actually there is.....simply be getting this running and gettint the Netgear/Genie app store to run on older devices, they open up a revenue stream simply from the %age they take of any apps sold for the ReadyNAS devices through the app store. Although in all honesty I have not looked if there are any paid apps for the ReadyNAS device on the app store currently

[F_L_]

This seems very promising, great job!
Just a question: Why is the app-store not working?

And does this mean that we for now need to install add-ons from source instead?
(I know that LMS will probably never be created for OS6 but there are many other good ones available already)