Re: ReadyNAS Pioneer Pro BUG: Unable to handle kernel null pointer dereference at (null)

Yoda1492 · ‎2021-01-24

Hello,

I have not been using my ReadyNAS Pioneer Pro because I have four other Netgear NASs and this NAS has been problematic in the past. Since the NV+ can not be upgraded to OS 6, I decided to retire that NAS and see if I can get the Pioneer Pro NAS working again. I tested six 1TB Seagate drives with all the tests that Seagate's Seatools has (including the long tests which take a long time) and all those tests passed. I also checked for any firmware updates for all of the drives. I then put the six drives in the Pioneer Pro, did a factory reset, and setup the NAS. The RAIDAR diags did find one drive with four spin retries so I swapped that drive out and drilled a hole in that drive so that it would not get used again. The new drive built fine when added to the RAID and then RAIDAR diags were 100% and showed no issues. I setup three backup jobs and ran those to put data on the NAS. I let that run overnight as I figured it would take a while. The next morning, I could not access the NAS via file explorer, could not HTTP to the NAS, and could not ping the NAS. Nothing was on the LCD screen on the front of the NAS. The only thing I could do was poweroff the NAS by holding in the power button. When I powered on the NAS, the NAS was back to it's old tricks where it just says READYNAS on the LCD screen and never tries to boot. The fan for the NAS was running at full speed as the NAS is loud when this happens. This is the same problem that I had with this NAS before which I explained in detail in this posting:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS-in-Business/ReadyNAS-Pioneer-Pro-corrupt-flash-...

I powered the NAS off by holding in the power button; waited two minutes and powered the NAS back on. The NAS booted fine. There are no new entries in the logs that can be seen via the HTTP admin GUI other then the backups completing that I ran the night before. Recently when I setup the NAS with the factory reset, I upgraded the OS to Firmware 6.10.4. That all worked fine.

The only new message from my previous thread is this is seen in diags with RAIDAR:

2021-01-22 22:13:40: BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at (null)

The NAS has two NICs that I bonded together with a MTU of 9000 (to use Jumbo Frames). I use CAT7 ethernet cables. The NAS is currently booted and working fine. Since I saw this message on other postings in this forum (and other places online), I thought I would see if this is a OS 6 BUG or perhaps something that could lead me to the final solution on why the NAS does not boot sometimes when powered on and just says READYNAS. A new NAS powersupply is in the NAS (as fully detailed in the above posting). The data on the NAS is fully expendable as I put the same data on all four NASs. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

StephenB · ‎2021-01-24

How much memory do you have in the NAS?

Also, do you have any apps installed?

Yoda1492 · ‎2021-01-24

Hello Stephen,

Thanks for quick reply! There are no apps installed on this NAS as I just use the NAS to RSYNC data from the other NASs. It was also just factory reset within the week so it only has on it what you get from that.

As for memory, I never added any memory. It came with 1 DIMM in the NAS. The DIMM is a 1GB DIMM. The memory tests pass that you do through the hardware via the boot menu.

Labdoc1 · ‎2021-01-24

FWIW, I had the same experience with my ProPioneer over the past year. It has os 6.10.4. From time to time, without any entry in the logs or warning, no apps and temperatures OK, it behaves as you describe. I replaced it with a used RN526x. The ProPioneer is now #2 backup to the RN526. (#1 backup is USB that goes offsite regularly).

Yoda1492 · ‎2021-01-24

Hello Labdoc1,

Thanks for the reply. It is good to know that I am not alone with this issue with this model of hardware! With this issue I would never trust it to store any data that I did not have elsewhere. If the issue can not be resolved, I will use the NAS for parts as I have three other working Netgear NASs and one retired Netgear NV+. The NAS does hold six drives and does load/run the latest OS. If the NVRAM can be replaced, I would be willing to do that if people thought that would help. I will leave this issue open for a bit to get any ideas that people think might help. The link above shows the testing that I had done before with this issue. Have a great day.

StephenB · ‎2021-01-24

I'd try removing the bond, and I'd also disable ipv6 if that is enabled.

No idea if that will help, but neither are actually needed, and it's easy to try them.

Yoda1492 · ‎2021-01-24

I disabled IPv6.

I also disabled the ReadyDLNA service as I do not need that.

I left the bond configured for now as I do not want to make too many changes at one.

I rebooted and it rebooted fine. I then shut it down, waited a minute, powered it on, and it booted fine. It is after poweron from the poweroff state that the issue happens (minus the one time of it just dropping off the network after being left on all night - that had never happened before). I will do several poweron tests and if the NAS still has the issue, I will break the network bond. I could also test with just one network cable. However, I recall the issue happening even when no network cable was attached. I will report back after several poweron tests.

Sandshark · ‎2021-01-24

The NAS will say "ReadyNAS" if there is nothing present except +5V, so a lot can be wrong. Your best bet is to acquire a VGA cable to connect to the VGA header in the unit and see if you see anything going on during boot that could explain it.

If you just want to take some stabs at it, the first thing is to get more RAM. Others have reported problems with 6.10.x on legacy systems with only 1GB of RAM. Since all Intel based native OS6 NAS come with at least 2GB, Netgear is not going to be checking that it'll work in 1GB. Since bad RAM could also be it and DDR2 RAM is so cheap these days, replacing the existing DIMM at the same time might also help.

Another real possibility is a failing power supply. If you have a spare ATX supply, you can install that externally and see if it fixes the issue. Since it takes a while to see if it's really fixed, you'll want to use masking tape to fill the gap where the cable comes out and cover the power supply fan opening so the chassis fan draws air over the drives. You may need a SATA to 4-pin Molex power adapter or 4-pin Molex splitter to make it work.

Yoda1492 · ‎2021-01-25

Hello Sandshark,

Thanks for all the input! I do have the VGA cable and previously used that with a monitor to watch the NAS poweron and boot sequence. A lot of that information and screenshots are in the link above. Back in 2016 when I was originally troubleshooting this same issue, I used a camcorder and recorded video of the NAS booting so that I could get screenshots of anything of value. I still have those videos and do not mind creating new videos if needed.

It does seem like a very low level (motherboard, RAM, NVRAM, CPU, power supply, battery) kind of issue since it happens right when you power on the system. The OS it not even booted at that point.

To do some more testing, I setup several large backups and let that run overnight. This time the NAS was working fine the next day and the backups completed like normal.

I only did a few poweroff / poweron tests which all passed, but this was not enough poweron tests for any kind of conclusions.

I have some spare RAM from various PCs. I also have a graveyard of spare power supplys from replacing all the PC factory power supplies with 650Watt or 700Watt modular power supplies. I am using a new replacement power supply that is the exact same model as the original power supply; so if the original power supply is not enough power, then the same is true for the replacement power supply. I still have the original power supply since replacing the power supply did not fix the issue. I do have 4-pin MOLEX splitters and SATA to MOLEX adapters.

I will start with looking into adding RAM first. If that does not resolve it, I will try replacing the RAM. Let me gather up the RAM that I have to see if any of that RAM is compatible with this NAS. Although the current DIMM passes all memory tests, I can certainly see how having more RAM can help. I will provide an update soonest. Thanks for the ideas and input.

Yoda1492 · ‎2021-01-25

FYI - The memory that I have in the NAS looks like this:

Yoda1492 · ‎2021-02-01

According to one online site, here are the specs of my current memory:

Yoda1492 · ‎2021-02-01

I went through my spare memory and grouped them by type (DDR2, DDR3, etc.). Since the old memory is DDR2, I am going to assume that I must use DDR2 for this NAS. The DDR2 memory that I have, looks like this:

I have at least 2 memory sticks for each of these types of RAM. The first one provides the most (4GB) total memory. Those say NVIDIA SLI on them and are new. However, those are "DUAL channel" memory and at this posting in the Netgear forums:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/New-ReadyNAS-Users-General/Memory-upgrade-for-ReadyNAS-Pro-6/m-p/10...

Fastfwd says the memory in the Netgear Pioneer Pro must be "single channel memory". Is that correct?

Would you recommend using any of this RAM in the Netgear Pioneer Pro?

If not, can you point me to RAM that is compatible with the Pioneer Pro that I can buy?

The below memory:

https://www.newegg.com/crucial-4gb-240-pin-ddr2-sdram/p/N82E16820148111?Description=ddr2&cm_re=ddr2-...

is $10.98 for 4GB, has the same (as the existing NAS memory) PC-5300 bus type, same 667MHz data transfer rate, etc.; but is "dual channel". So I need to know if that can be used or not before buying any RAM.

I also have 4 spare PCs (which still have their RAM in them) in my PC graveyard, but those are most likely PC3 or greater. Thanks for any advice on this.

Sandshark · ‎2021-02-01

"Dual channel" is a designation for a motherboard, not RAM. The ReadyNAS motherboard is not dual channel, meaning you get no advantage upgrading both DIMMs over a single one and that you can use unmatched ones. But that has no bearing on the memory architecture. If RAM is labeled "dual channel", it just means it's sold as a matching pair or DIMMs.

That chain does say the RAM must be "dual rank". What is more important is that you need what is often referred to as "low density" RAM and is shown as 2Rx8 (as opposed to 2Rx4). High density (2Rx4) RAM is often sold as "AMD only" (which is not accurate, as some Intel systems do support it), but I have no idea what your NVIDIA RAM is (a moderator has not yet made the photo visible). Both of these, BTW, are dual rank (the 2R part).

Yoda1492 · ‎2021-02-11

All,

I ordered the below memory:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PV86HJQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The memory is 2Rx8 and will take me from 1GB to 4GB. I will report back after the memory is installed and tested.

Yoda1492 · ‎2021-02-13

All,

The new RAM arrived and was installed in the NAS. There are only two DIMM slots in the NAS so I removed the existing 1GB DIMM and added the two 2GB DIMMs. I used a grounding strap and had the NAS unplugged when I installed the RAM. When I powered the NAS on, it just said READYNAS on the display and an endless row of tick marks (sometimes it just says READYNAS and other times I get an endless row of tick marks - as explained in the posting in the link above). Therefore, the RAM does not resolve the issue.

I did test the RAM via the "Boot Menu" and it passed for three passes. It took 3.5 hours, but it passed fine. I also ran DIAGs via RAIDAR and that showed no issues as well (minus the old kernel message in the title to this thread).

I am pretty confident that the issue is not:

- the drives (all tested with SEATOOLs in a PC and checked for firmware updates before being installed in the NAS)

- the RAM (new RAM does the same thing)

- the power source (outlet - tried different outlets and outlets on different breakers in different rooms)

- the powerstrip (tried it without the powerstrip when the NAS was located in a different location)

- the UPS (the problem existed before the UPS was installed)

- the 3V internal battery (replaced it)

The NAS is currently plugged directly into the UPS, but the UPS is not the issue.

The motherboard is a FLAME6 VER:1.1. I am not sure if there are firmware updates for that or not.

Most of the time, when the power is disconnected, it will do this once or twice. If the power is not disconnected, it only does this occassionally.

I did replace the power supply with the same model power supply that is in the NAS. Since I would want the replacement power supply to stay in the NAS, I would be willing to try a different model (perhaps one with more Watts). The current NAS power supply is a Sea Sonic Electronics, Model: SS-300SFD Active PFC F3. It is a 300 Watts power supply. The issue existed with the origional NAS power supply as well.

One other person in this thread mentioned that they have the same problem with their Pioneer Pro, so it is not just my NAS that has this issue.

I could get out the VGA cable and look for anything on the console. I have not done that since I upgraded to OS 6.10.4 or since my original posting in the link above. Any advice would be appreciated. At least I went from 1GB RAM to 4GB RAM for $17.48. That seemed worth my time and money. Have a great day.

Sandshark · ‎2021-02-14

You do have the older Pro motherboard, and I don't believe there is an available update. I've never had that version, so I don't know if there is just a basic incompatibility with OS6. There definately doesn't seem to be a separate configuratin file for it, but it wouldn't need one if the two versions are similar enough.

I think going back to the VGA could prove useful.