Upgrade old Xpenolgy bootloader questions

[totalgaara]

Hi everyone.

 

I love my Xpenology that i build already 2 years ago, but i'm starting to worry about update, i'm using the jun's 1.02b bootloader so i can't get up to DSM 6.1.7. 

Synology is actually at DSM 6.X version with a lot of security patch, so i'm wondering if my current setup is not vulnerable like some other brand had with cryptolocker etc..

 

I started to look, i think i've to install jun's loader 0.3b but i found that maybe i will have some configuration issues : 

 

First, it's a old configuration : 

• CPU : Intel Core 2 duo  E6700
• Motherboard : Asus P5QPL-AM
• Ram  :  2 go of DDR2 (can upgrade to 4 but.. i don't use my xpenology for intense usage, it's fine i think)

 

I'm worried about the old cpu usage and the intel NIC 

 

 

What it is ? The network card ? As i can find in the driver section, it's a Atheros Gigabit Ethernet Controler and not a intel one, does that mean that i can't upgrade ? 

If i can't upgrade, can i upgrade to a vmware exsi installation ? (without loosing my data) ?

 

Thanks you for heaving reading me 

 

[merve04]

If you have a spare HDD and USB key, flash 1.03b to a new usb key with vid/pid of course... and dissconnect all your existing hard drives and install the spare one, try and boot with new usb key to see if it works or not.. if it does, you'll ultimately be limited to 6.2, you could always purchase a relatively inexpensive intel nic card if you wanted to go beyond 6.2.

[IG-88]

going to 6.2.2 with loader 1.03b is possible with a new driver package (extra.lzma) at the moment only drivers coming with dsm do work on 6.2.2 (like nic's using the e1000e driver), that can be solved

4 hours ago, merve04 said:

intel nic card if you wanted to go beyond 6.2.

that only means when going beyond 6.2.0 to 6.2.2, there is no guarantee to use 7.0

using a hardware thats already part of the platform used for a loader makes it more likely that if there is a loader that you will be able to use it, but we dont know what loader will come and what modell it will use

its a good thought to look what synology is selling as optional cards for all/most models, this hardware will most likely be supported in the next 2-3 years

ahci is a safe bet, so when buying storage extensions then a 4 or 8 port ahci compatible controller is very likely to work in the future

when it comes to nic's the e1000e seems to be a safe choice for 1G, for 10G cheaper aquantia/tehuti base cards are sold by synology but only support certain phy's chips but there is a great variety on this cards an not all with that chip will work with the driver that comes with dsm, intel ixgbe based cards look like a good alternative but even there it can happen that there is a newer chip or card revision that does not work with dsm as synology only sells/supports the old version (uses a older intel driver version for dsm)

the 918+ was a good case as the original hardware uses a realtek r8168 based chip onboard and that's the most used chip in a lot of cheaper boards, but thats a model specific thing