How can I unpack/extract files from a Radiator firmware package (e.g., raidiator-4.1.15)?

[sieler]

Hi,

(ReadyNAS 1100)

We've never had a ReadyNAS firmware/OS upgrade go smoothly.  The last attempt took us about 6 months

to unscrew (it left most of the /frontview files missing ... enough was left to boot and allow us to ssh in and

mount the hard drives and run NFS, so it worked as a server, but Frontview couldn't run).  

We finally recovered by finding an internal backup we did of /etc and /frontview back in 2011 and copying

those files into place.

We have the raidiator-4.1.15 file.  

We'd like to extract the /frontview and possibly the /etc files from it and selectively move some into place on our live system.

But, raidiator-4.1.15 doesn't appear to be a simple zip/tar/rar file/package, even if you strip off the first 512 bytes (i.e.,

getting past the non-standard header).  (The "file" command doesn't recognize it, either)

Any suggestions on how to unpack this file would be appreciated!

thanks,

Stan

For the curious...here's the start of the file in hex/ASCII:

hexoffset : data (hex)                                                               data (ASCII)

000000 : f629ee81 6b27eff0 2e0c1ea9 ad46093c 0636f59f d1db15da 4643e04a 51c72cd8   .)..k'.......F.<.6......FC.JQ.,.

000020 : 89447bfc 4e04117b fca02c29 6b7ce209 f06d6784 49ba2e06 fe26b50a f28b2b70   .D{.N..{..,)k|...mg.I....&....+p

000040 : 7384c4ea f86c476b 118d00dc 2d833417 0a696e66 6f3a3a6e 616d653d 52414944   s....lGk....-.4..info::name=RAID

000060 : 6961746f 722c7665 7273696f 6e3d342e 312e3135 2c74696d 653d3134 33303136   iator,version=4.1.15,time=143016

000080 : 39353736 2c73697a 653d3537 35373439 31322c6d 64357375 6d3d6362 36376365   9576,size=57574912,md5sum=cb67ce

0000a0 : 62373162 38316539 63303930 34326539 61336333 61323063 39312c64 65736372   b71b81e9c09042e9a3c3a20c91,descr

0000c0 : 3d52656c 65617365 204e6f74 65733a20 7777772e 72656164 796e6173 2e636f6d   =Release Notes: www.readynas.com

0000e0 : 2f524149 44696174 6f725f34 5f315f31 355f4e6f 7465732c 72656c65 6173655f   /RAIDiator_4_1_15_Notes,release_

000100 : 6e6f7465 733d6874 74703a2f 2f777777 2e726561 64796e61 732e636f 6d2f5241   notes=http://www.readynas.com/RA

000120 : 49446961 746f725f 345f315f 31355f4e 6f746573 0a0a0000 00000000 00000000   IDiator_4_1_15_Notes............

000140 : 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000   ................................

000160 :   * (5 lines)

000200 : 31d7ac0d 9ae6dbef 242c1ad9 4733db58 a7f15179 2e34bc6c ef5ff07c 10501e00   1.......$,..G3.X..Qy.4.l._.|.P..

000220 : 4bb28c37 ad9528ea 80183ce5 bffb5528 926fea3f 6c6add3e 80183ce5 bffb5528   K..7..(...<...U(.o.?lj.>..<...U(

[mdgm-ntgr · Accepted solution]

I've sent you a PM

[Sandshark]

I remember a similar discussion a long time back.  The SPARC .bin files created by Netgear (and Infrant before them) are encrypted.  The suggested way to recover them was to do an install and immediately following the reboot use a tool to recover deleted files.  I never tried it.

They moved away from that on 4.2.x and above.

[mdgm-ntgr · Accepted solution]

I've sent you a PM

[sieler]

thanks!

I'd hope that, given the age of the files, Netgear would release the encryption / unpacking information.

Had I known updates were encrypted, I'd not have purchased the product.  

The existence of the forum, however swayed me to buying.  thanks for the help!

[mdgm-ntgr]

The encryption was reverse engineered years ago.

Only Sparc firmware is encrypted and some official NETGEAR Sparc and legacy x86 (i.e. RAIDiator-x86) add-ons are encrypted as well.

The firmware on current models is not encrypted but as always there is some proprietary code. We do provide source code for the open source stuff we use on our GPL page.