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Odd booting behavior on HP Microserver


unmesh

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I've been running fine on a baremetal N54L and was able to get my hands on a N40L to use for remote backup. In any case, I added a PCIe NIC to it, mounted the saved synoboot.img file from my N54L installation into OSFmount and edited grub.cfg with a new serial number, the MAC addresses of the two NICs (I realize that is not necessary) and the new VID:PID of the boot USB stick. I flashed the .img file to the stick using Win32DiskImager and booted the N40 without any hard drives

 

It seemed to boot but then failed with several

error: can't find command 'common_add_option'

messages and one

error: can't find command 'loadinitrd'

 message.

 

I then took the USB stick from the N54L and booted up the N40L with it and it booted up fine to the extent that Synology Assistant saw the uninstalled DiskStation instance.

 

So I then flashed the .img that I had used for the N54L onto the new USB stick and booted it. Again boots up into the uninstalled DiskStation instance.

 

Here is the fragment that I changed in the grub.cfg in case someone can point out what I'm doing wrong with the edits

 

# JetFlash Transcend Black/Red 2GB
set vid=0x058F
set pid=0x6387
set sn=B3J4N01008
# Realtek Gigabit
set mac1=10feed039e03
# HP N40L integrated NIC
set mac2=e4115b1389bb
set rootdev=/dev/md0
set netif_num=2
set extra_args_3615=''

 

I have triple checked the USB VID:PID and I do a diskpart clean before flashing

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Serial number looks strange for me it doesn't look like from generator.
About MAC addresses - are you sure that nic1 isn't internal and nic2 pcie?
After all it doesn't matter - just MAC addresses will be swapped.

As your error messages suggests missing commands, I think you should ensure your image is flashed completely, with all partitions.
What program are you using for flashing? I've used Win32DiskImager. 

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The serial number is a previous serial number +1 and I don't remember how I got that one.

 

The first MAC address is a Realtek based add-in NIC made by TP-Link while the second is the Broadcom embedded NIC

 

I use Win32DiskImager too.

 

And here is something new. I used Win32DiskImager to flash a USB disk with the image previously used for the N54L, booted the N40L with that stick and a new hard drive, installed DS3615xs 6.2.3, enabled SSH, installed FixSynoBoot.sh, mounted /dev/synoboot1, edited grub.cfg with the same information shown above, saved a copy of it to my laptop and rebooted.

 

The N40L now shows the new serial number and MAC addresses!

 

I remounted the .img that I had created for the N40L using OSFmount, this time as read-only, and opened up grub.cfg in an editor and it is identical to the one on the USB stick.

 

Weird.

 

 

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For SN I used that -> generator

In case of the rest I'm completely confused. I have N54L as well, but I don't know what FixSynoBoot.sh is.
Only what I did to get Xpenology working on my N54L was: 
1. Flashed in modified BIOS version to N54L.
2. Switched C1E off in the BIOS and generally prepared all settings in the BIOS. 

3. Flashed USB stick with synoboot.img with prepared grub.cfg with USB stick VID, PID, Serial Number (generated on the web) and MAC address taken from BIOS and PCIE card. 
4. Booted bootloader with no problems.
I had issues on next steps, but caused by faulty HDD and loader itself was working fine. Just instalation stuck always on some point. 

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Actually it is pretty easy to determine. It can't be Microserver itself nor BIOS settings because USB stick taken from N54L works in N40L.
It must be something with USB dongle or with image written on it. If you're sure image is prepared correctly, then only possibility is that your USB stick is rubbish.
Just try another USB dongle. 

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It must be image and even more ... your changes of grub.cfg doesn't matter, because as I understand your problem is that grub is not starting.
So it must be one of:
1. grub.cfg access error.
2  grub.cfg syntax error (this can be probably caused if for editing you used wrong editor - I suggest to use Notepad++)
3. faulty or incorrect synoboot.img (I'm using this one)

I would do fresh start - from scratch as described in the guide with taking care about details.
 

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20 hours ago, unmesh said:

installed FixSynoBoot.sh

 

But why ?

 

I just "redid" my testbox, a N36L, using a clean install of DS3615xs, Jun's V1.03b, only changed the VID/PID/SN/mac.

DSM 6.2.3 25426 automaticly downloaded and installed before getting Update 3.

 

Running like a "star" :-)

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@bearcat,

 

I could only boot with the USB stick with the wrong VID/PID and wanted to edit grub.cfg while running DSM. When I SSH'ed in, I noticed that there wasn't a /dev/synoboot1 available to mount. Having used FixSynoBoot.sh on ESXi, I remembered reading that it had helped with some baremetal installs so I tried it and it did!

 

I will try and find some time to do a clean install

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@unmesh: according to installation guide I've linked earlier you don't need to edit grub.cfg to get DSM booted.
To achieve that you have to enter grub console (press "c" when you see grub menu).
In grub console you use following commands to enter your data (enter each line separately):
 

vid 0xYOUR 4 DIGITS USB DRIVE VID
pid 0xYOUR 4 DIGITS USB DRIVE PID
sn YOUR NAS SERIAL NUMBER
mac1 YOUR NAS MAC1 ADDRESS


Then, you press ESC to return to menu and you can boot DSM with adequate grub menu option.
Of course entered data will be gone after reboot. 
 

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