My ReadyNAS 3100 is sadly quite sick, and I'm having a heck of a time trying to recover it.
When I noticed that the 3100 wasn't on the network, I tried to power cycle it, but it never came back. I then put a keyboard and monitor on it and found that it booted to:
MBR H
SYSLINUX 3.31 v1.05 Mon Feb 22 13:55:50 PST 2010 FOUND SMBIOS Copyright (C) 1994-2005 H. Peter Anvin Unknown keyword in syslinux.cfg. Unknown keyword in syslinux.cfg. Could not find kernel image: linux
Clearly the boot device had become corrupt. So, I moved on to trying to do a reinstall by using the blink codes/button mechanism.
Well, for some reason, my 3100 doesn't respond the way the docs (http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/boot/how_do_i_use_the_boot_menu) indicate. I never get the flashes, and my reset is a button on the front, not something mounted on a PCB that I poke a pin into through the case.
So, I then decided to go the USB recovery route. I built the USB key for 4.2.24 from http://www.readynas.com/download/support/ReadyNAS_x86_USB_Flash_Recovery-4.2.24.zip, and attempted to boot from it by holding down the reset button (since my unit doesn't have a backup button). No go. So I swapped around the boot order in the BIOS to have it boot from the USB first.
With great happiness I saw it do a clean start, all the way through having initrd load, but it then just hung (no kernel boot) with all four of the red drive LEDs pulsing at even 2-3 second intervals.
I'm out of ideas. Can any of you here point me at a next step? Other than the corrupt boot image, the hardware all seems fine.
So, I moved on to trying to do a reinstall by using the blink codes/button mechanism.
Well, for some reason, my 3100 doesn't respond the way the docs (http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/boot/how_do_i_use_the_boot_menu) indicate. I never get the flashes, and my reset is a button on the front, not something mounted on a PCB that I poke a pin into through the case.
Let me be a bit more clear here. What's happening is that once I power up the machine with the reset button pressed and held, the fan (the led with the thermometer symbol) does eventually come on. I then release the reset button as documented. As I read the docs, the power light should go out, and I should be able to press the reset button to cycle through options, represented by blink codes of the fan LED. Unfortunately, once I release the reset after the initial boot, the power LED never changes (always on), and the fan LED goes out. If I hit the reset button, the fan LED comes on for a second or two and then goes out. Repeated pushes of the reset have exactly the same behavior.
