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Bring a new life to an old 10inch laptop


alexgoaga

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Hello,

 

I'm completely new in this community , i've hear for a long time about you guys making Synology a free service and I admire the purpose. I want to bring back an old friend of mine an Acer one : this link goes to the specific model and series https://www.acerrepairblog.us/aspire-one-nav50-ao532h-jv01-pt/hardware-specifications-and-configurations.html

 

A few days ago I started to watch some tutorials / courses about how to boot it up and make it work ( i own a DS411j and a DS210j series) and i was looking for a something more potential on a less cost effective. 

 

I managed to use the XPEnoboot_DS3615xs_5.2-5592.2 and works like a charm and i wanted something more like over DSM 6. I've tried over 100 tabs and reinstalled like 12 hours straight and it seems that i am stuck somehow in a point so i am asking for help

 

1) how or whichever is safe to upgrade the next dsm? (maybe clean install or anything)

2) In my search i found this topic witch i followed exactly but without a final good result ( Tutorial: Install/Migrate DSM 5.2 to 6.1.x (Jun's loader)). I can't find it running in sinology assistant / find . syno after update. After looking even deeper i found this thread . Unfortunately i am a windows user with a little knowledge in Linux operating systems.

 

Running the command provided in the forum i found this (Driver extension jun 1.02b/DSM6.1.x for 3615xs / 3617xs / 916+)

lspci -k | grep 'Kernel driver'
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport
        Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
        Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
        Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
        Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
        Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci
        Kernel driver in use: lpc_ich
        Kernel driver in use: ahci
        Kernel driver in use: atl1c

 

Based on the specs "atl1c: Atheros L1C Gigabit Ethernet, AR8132, AR8131, AR8151, AR8152" in the extra.lzma is not listing the "Atheros AR8114/AR8132". I know that this laptop is 10/100 but still how i can let's say transfer a driver from dsm 5.2 to the new one ? I mean what steps should i take to fulfill my xmass wish?

 

Thank you for you time,

Happy Holidays.

Alex

 

 

Thanks in advance 

Edited by alexgoaga
reposted correctly the links
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that would be the essential part

Kernel driver in use: ahci
Kernel driver in use: atl1c

 

atl1c is supported in added driver for loader 1.02b and 1.03b, so dsm 6.1 and 6.2 would be possible

ahci is the "normal" sata storage driver already in the dsm kernel

loader 1.03b needs csm mode if the bios is a newer uefi type, 1.02b will work witn both old bios mode and uefi (so its easier to test with 1.02b and if that works out you try 1.03b)

https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/13333-tutorialreference-6x-loaders-and-platforms/

 

21 hours ago, alexgoaga said:

1) how or whichever is safe to upgrade the next dsm? (maybe clean install or anything)

questions like this should be answered here

https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/7973-tutorial-installmigrate-dsm-52-to-61x-juns-loader/

there is not hat much you can take from a 5.2 version, like most plugins will not work

 if you have a lot of shares and users it might be worth updating but keep in mind the file system like ext4 is not updated that way, the default in 6.1/6.2 is btrfs and some functionality like snapshots or VMM rely on this (but i guess with that old hardware barely x64 capable its no problem as you wont use these things)

i'd suggest a update without using the old system data but keeping the raid data volume and its file system (btrfs might be a little to much for a single core cpu with 2 threads)

 

as the nic driver atl1c is part of jun's default driver set you should be abler to use the loader without any modifications and find it in network after booting, so try 1.02b without any changes and if you find it in network change the vid/pid in grub.cfg to mach the usb flash drive you used in that state you could install 6.1

if that works you can try loader 1.03b the same way

before updating to 6.2 you should read this and fix it before updating 6.1 to 6.2

https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/26723-network-down-after-dsm-login/?do=findComment&comment=137953

 

keep in mind you will not add much i terms of NAS, 6.x might offer some more packages but my guess is you will not see much improvement compared to the work you will invest, its more a learning process and if you like tinkering ...

 

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Thank you for all the shared information, it was a pleasure reading it and following it side by side. Somehow before receiving the message like ...10 minutes earlier i managed somehow to make it boot & work with DSM 6.1. I made a back-up for the HDD and stick and tried with a new ones the tutorial again following your information. It runs so smoothly but i made the following changes to have a success chance and maybe somewhere i missed something or i encountered a strange behaviour :

0.1) On my first try i was messing up the versions from the main download page, not the secondary one and i was ending with 100+ files without know from where i got it so it would be nice to have somekind of internal file tracking like a blank "1.02b.txt" in the image or the archives name (it's just a nice to have.) 

 

1) Nothing worked until i setup the new extra file in the iso , even if at the start of the process the lan drivers where working correctly, so in both cases (fresh install and updating were altered with the extra file)

2) From the 5.2 jump to 6.1 some files were keept as a migration process but it did slow the device until a mini clean was made in the apps.

3) With the 5.2 jump to 6.1 the interface somehow didnt scale correctly to my resolution (common one : 1920 x 1200 on chrome browser.)

4) With a clean install everything runs let's say more than ok we have some speed but checking the internet for some notes i found out more about the universal search that was causing on some system some delays. After logging with ssh and uprising as root based on tutorials i found the command synopkg uninstall SynoFinder witch made my dsm 6 even faster than 5.2 and i am amazed by this.

 

The other strange thing is that my device is getting a new random mac address if i do an update from 5.2 to 6.1 with the same modification in the grub file i think it was called but if i do a fresh install the "correct / real" mac is assigned to the device (this was so strange.)

 

I will make a further performance test and maybe come back with some data for all the users based on my little pc. 

 

If I may ask you a few more things before "closing the thread" :

a) What if I would buy some cheap 4 quad core intel NUC (never had one before) with some ram to have vm machine or docker on it ? or maybe the question would be what machine in your knowledge has the most gain of performance per power consumption. (for my example and small tests on my DS411j (single core 1.2 / 128 ram) i have a power consumption of 17 W/h, on the DS210J (single core 0.8 / 128 ram) consumption is 12 W/h and now on this laptop is 7 W/h on 1.6ghz with 1024 ram)

b) I didn't had with what to try , but can I make an external usb hdd to be seen as an internal one and create a raid 1 between them ?

c) in the dsm at the info tab you have the cpu temperature . On my DS210j works correctly -> cpu and hdd temps are different , on my ds411j this feature on the cpu is missing. On the mini laptop the cpu temp is stuck at 40c but the temperatures on the hdd is working correctly . Is this something fixable ?

 

As a final word,

Thank you again for the information and time spent,

Yes, i do like to thinker with things and try new stuff everyday.

Have a nice holiday.

 

 

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On 12/28/2020 at 6:30 PM, alexgoaga said:

a) What if I would buy some cheap 4 quad core intel NUC (never had one before) with some ram to have vm machine or docker on it ? or maybe the question would be what machine in your knowledge has the most gain of performance per power consumption. (for my example and small tests on my DS411j (single core 1.2 / 128 ram) i have a power consumption of 17 W/h, on the DS210J (single core 0.8 / 128 ram) consumption is 12 W/h and now on this laptop is 7 W/h on 1.6ghz with 1024 ram)

power consumption i that area will lead you to apollo lake / gemini lake type cpu's, you should not just look for intel, there might be other interesting units from asus, gigabyte, msi, ...

biggest problem with these UCFF units is that you wont get them with 2 x sata (for a nas you usually will use raid1 or you would need to run two units syncing all the time)

they usually come with one sata and a m.2 slot (nvme & sata capable), as dsm cant handle nvme as data drive (only cache) you wild need to use 2xsata and at least one would need to be ssd, resulting in lower capacity as ssd is still more expansive when it comes to 2 - 4 TB drives, usb drives cant be used as data volumes in a raid with dsm (at least not without manually tweaking and some risks)

maybe look for "normal" mini itx boards and smaller housings being able to have 2 x 2.5" or 2x3.5" hdd's

maybe ODROID H2+, ASRock J4125B-ITX, ASRock J4125-ITX, ASRock J5040-ITX

ULV CPU based notebooks can go lower but will be more expansive and might lack a 2nd sata or might not even have sata at all

 

in general is xpenology is bound to intel x64 cpu's and that will always have a higher consumption compared with arm based systems like a raspi, if  low power is more important then you might be looking for another nas system (omv?)

 

On 12/28/2020 at 6:30 PM, alexgoaga said:

b) I didn't had with what to try , but can I make an external usb hdd to be seen as an internal one and create a raid 1 between them ?

yes but with bigger updates the file you need to tweak will be reset and your raid will break and will have to rebuild, also prone to mishandling like unplugging usb drive, maybe usn as 2nd drive and one sata so at least one drive is safe

nothing for linux beginners, wimps, people wanting it easy to handle and not suggested to do

 

On 12/28/2020 at 6:30 PM, alexgoaga said:

c) in the dsm at the info tab you have the cpu temperature . On my DS210j works correctly -> cpu and hdd temps are different , on my ds411j this feature on the cpu is missing. On the mini laptop the cpu temp is stuck at 40c but the temperatures on the hdd is working correctly . Is this something fixable ?

if you want to compile your own kernel drivers, dive into the way synology handles this stuff in dsm and want to tweak things in dsm manually and might need to redo it after uddates ...

possible yes but as long as a fan control of cpu, board and psu are working by themself there is nor real need and even if the fan run's full speed, its much easier to fix that with hardware

seeing the cpu temp is just cosmetics as, you will hear it if you system runs full power because of the fan's and cpu's overheating isn't a thing for over 15 years, they throttle themself when overheating, its pretty much like the package/tweak where you can see the real cpu you used for xpenology (dsm usually has a static display of the cpu that is in the original unit) - might be nice for a few minutes but how often you look at the name of the cpu or cpu temp.

the temp feature of the hdd/ssd is a standard value in s.m.a.r.t and does not depend that much on drivers (at least for ahci)

 

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