Jump to content
XPEnology Community

Another noob needing basic help for an N40L (sorry!)


MrJonesiii

Recommended Posts

Hi all, 

 

Just got my N40L, but have had a DS409 since they came out (a LONG time ago!). 

 

Here's where I've got so far from trolling the hundreds of forum posts - 

  • I've worked out how to find out the VIN and VIP of my USB stick. 
  • How to modify mount and then the boot image so that the grub.cfg file has the right serial number for the right model, the MAC address of the N40L's NIC, and the VIP and VIN of the USB stick that it needs to ignore. 
  • I've learned that I need to disable C1 in the BIOS
  • I've learned that I need to update the BIOS to that one the Russian dude came up with to get access to the 5th SATA port (although I haven't yet been brave enough to try installing it)
  • I've learned that the USB stick needs to stay in! (You guys all seem to assume that this is a given and I can't remember reading that in the seemingly hundreds of posts I've read through trying to make sense of it all!)
  • I've learned that both the 3615 and the 3617 build work with the N40L, although I can't find why you would use one over the other. 
  • I've managed to get it working happily using DS3617xs 6.1 Jun's Mod V1.02b.img and it's running 6.1 and writing files from another computer I have here at Gig-E line rate speeds of over 110MB/s, so I'm relatively happy with staying at 6.1.7, but I would like to try and stay up to date and oh, by gosh, those annoying little flags that come up all over the UI that says there's an update can be oh-so-tempting. 
  • I've learnt that I don't know enough about all this stuff to get my N40L running 6.2.x 
  • I've learnt that I'm of such a state of ignorance with this whole exercise , that even by searching the forum posts and Googling, most of comes up may just as well be written in Chinese (and I think some of them are!). I'd really appreciate some layman's terms guidance if possible... 

 

What I don't know yet and need help with if one of you XPEnology Gods choose to bless me with your infinite wisdom and blessings - 

  • What the heck is a LZMA file and why do I need one? 
  • What do I do with a LZMA file and how do I do it? 
  • What's the difference between the DS916, 3615 and 3617 versions of the boot loader from the perspective of what we're doing here with these non-Synology hardware boxes and why would I use one over any other for my N40L? 
  • Is there a PCI card that I could insert in one of the slots that might help with video rendering for Plex? (I haven't tried using Plex on my N40L yet, just wondering if there was such a card, it would be kinda cool...)
  • Has anyone used Plex on a N40L? 
  • How do I upgrade my N40L to 6.2.x without risking bricking it and losing all the files? 

 

I am SO GLAD that you guys are doing what you're doing, and feel horrible asking what, by the looks of the myriad other posts contain, must be to the majority of members of this forum really stupid questions, but I would benefit immensely if someone could guide me through these hitches I've come up against here. 

 

Even if no one has the time to help, I still want to express my immense gratitude for what you've done for the world. Thank you, all of you. 

 

MJJ

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, so I found the Facebook page and by chance there was a post from a person who explained that to upgrade from 6.1 to 6.2, all I need to do is manually upgrade via the web interface, and replace the IMG on the USB with the latest one for the 3617, and then reboot it with that new USB image in there. Is that right? I'm going to try that now! 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Hi.

 

Really sorry it's been so long between updates. I haven't done it.

 

I've realised that I need to buy an Intel chipset based NIC to install before I do the 6.2 upgrade otherwise I will brick my N40L. I'm going to stick with the 6.1.4-15217 Update 1 until then. I've also found a very inexpensive N54L that a buddy of mine is getting rid of that has 16GB RAM so I'm going to grab that in the next week or so, find an Intel NIC and experiment with that. Once that's up and running, I’m going to transfer all the files on my N40L to the N54L and then experiment with that one.

 

Hopefully the N54L experiments will be successful and I would have been able to put 6.2 onto that, then I would be comfortable messing around with the N40L. 

 

MJJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...