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Converting a Netgear ReadyNAS to Xpenology

dannieboiz

By dannieboiz
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dannieboiz Junior Member

dannieboiz

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I have an old but trusty Netgear readynas 4200 which consist of a SuperMicro X8SI6-F and a Xenon processor and 16gb of ram. It's essentially all the component of the older dell R310 server. 

 

I don't recall if it have a raid controller or if everything on the NAS is ran off the onboard SATA. 

 

Has anyone installed Xpenology on a similar NAS? I'm beginning to back things ups (16TB) worth of data and venturing into this. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
Stryt Newbie

Stryt

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Il y a 22 heures, dannieboiz a dit :

FYI I was able to install it on my NAS a few weeks ago and it's been working out great. Tried DSM 7 but it didn't see all my drive, DSM 6.2.3-25426 so far is working. 

 

What model you choose for DSM 6.2.3? For my Netgear i took ds3615 and dont work, when i do check Synology Assistant, nothing appear.

I will try with another model

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Stryt Newbie

Stryt

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Well,

 

i tried with loader 1.03b and DS3615xs_6.2.3 img and pat synology_bromolow_3615xs no result on synology assistant.

 

1 - My NAS with USB key boot - My nas state is "Booting..."

 

gm90.jpg

 

2 - Search on Synology assistant - no result - I think my nas not recovering ip, but link good. i dont understand why.

 

The pictures says : "synology server not found on local network"

 

xugg.png

 

I follow the tutorial yet - I am depressed 😵

Edited by Stryt
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Stryt Newbie

Stryt

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Il y a 4 heures, dannieboiz a dit :

Go to your router to see if you can find "Diskstation" or whatever new device on your DHCP leases then you can just go to the IP found and try. If you can't find it then you have other issues. 

 

I finally succeeded. I was a little fast when modifying the grub, having two network cards, I had declared both in "mac1", necessarily, 2 mac addresses on a network card, it didn't go very well xD.

 

thanks for the patience :)

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tigs Regular Member

tigs

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On 3/14/2023 at 5:08 AM, Luks1983 said:

Yesterday i successfully installed xpenology on my Netgear ReadyNas RN316. :)

 

Great news. 

Did you install the DSM 7 or the jun loader?

 

I have a 628x without video output and I can not get it to boot from the USB drive at all. is there any trick other than trying different USB sticks? 

I tried a few already. It always boot to REadyNAS OS. 

 

It would be great if I can load the xpenology. 

 

another question, the process of installing teh xpenology will impact the internal flash/USB boot drive, correct?  so that I can always revert to native Readynas OS, correct?

 

Thanks

 

 

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funguy Newbie

funguy

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you must go into the bios and select the usb stick as a boot device and disable the internal USB device,  if not it will default to the internal boot USB.  QNAP are the same way.    Also your external USB stick may have multiple volumes, you may need to try vol2, not just Vol1.

 

i am so ready to throw my ReadyNAS 516 out the window with its ancient OS.  But with a xenon processor and 16 GB of ram, i cannot bear to....

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Luks1983 Junior Member

Luks1983

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you must go into the bios and select the usb stick as a boot device and disable the internal USB device,  if not it will default to the internal boot USB.  QNAP are the same way.    Also your external USB stick may have multiple volumes, you may need to try vol2, not just Vol1.
 
i am so ready to throw my ReadyNAS 516 out the window with its ancient OS.  But with a xenon processor and 16 GB of ram, i cannot bear to....
Do not throw it to the trash. After xpenologied, this device can be very reliable.

Wysłane z mojego SM-S911B przy użyciu Tapatalka

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Luks1983 Junior Member

Luks1983

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Great news. 
Did you install the DSM 7 or the jun loader?
 
I have a 628x without video output and I can not get it to boot from the USB drive at all. is there any trick other than trying different USB sticks? 
I tried a few already. It always boot to REadyNAS OS. 
 
It would be great if I can load the xpenology. 
 
another question, the process of installing teh xpenology will impact the internal flash/USB boot drive, correct?  so that I can always revert to native Readynas OS, correct?
 
Thanks
 
 
Send me pm. I will write you step by step manual.

Wysłane z mojego SM-S911B przy użyciu Tapatalka

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Luks1983 Junior Member

Luks1983

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Posted (edited)
On 3/15/2023 at 6:57 PM, tigs said:

 

Great news. 

Did you install the DSM 7 or the jun loader?

 

I have a 628x without video output and I can not get it to boot from the USB drive at all. is there any trick other than trying different USB sticks? 

I tried a few already. It always boot to REadyNAS OS. 

 

It would be great if I can load the xpenology. 

 

another question, the process of installing teh xpenology will impact the internal flash/USB boot drive, correct?  so that I can always revert to native Readynas OS, correct?

 

Thanks

 

 

Hi team,

i installed DSM 7 with all minor updates on RN316. The main case was to connect this unit with external screen, in my case it was LG Oled TV. With that I was able enter int to the bios, and change boot order. I disabled internal USB flash drive which is soldered on motherboard, and set up as first boot device flash drive with TCRP Loader. After booting to TCRP installation went simply smooth with two exceptions: 

1. i had to manually edit user file *.json and add there PID and VID from my flash drive, due to script did not put this info automatically in to config file

2. i had to manually change NIC's count from "1" to "2" ( RN316 has two physical ethernet interface ), and manually add line with second NIC mac address

After building loader, i booted nas from flash drive, choose in grub my build (DS3622xs+ in latest version), boot, finded my xpenology in synology assistant and installed DSM from pat file. 

 

In your case work is more difficult because RN628x do not have video output. But as far i checked you have PCI-e slot x8 on board. And on back plate you have low profile bracket. I believe there is a way to connect external graphic card or at least some DVI extension bracket.  So the best way will be to dissasembly you unit, put it on the table, connect some low profile graphic card and check if you will receive video signal in you lcd monitor. Also there is M2 slot, i do not know if you are using it for ssd cache etc.., but also this slot can be use to move video signal on the external bracket. Let me know how it goes. Further we will think how to assembly all parts together. ;)

Regards.

 

PS. I did not impact internal USB flash. I simply disable it in bios. So this drive remain intact and there is a way to revert ReadyNAS OS 6. Right now im working on it. I want back this drive up to external drive, format it and put there TCRP loader and remove external USB flash drive. :)

 

PS.2 Sorry for my english. I'm still working on it. And try to not use a translator. ;)

 

PS3. There is also a way to move internal PCI-E slot outside readynas box. You have to use extension cable, similar to this:

kdjsic PCI-Express Extension Cable for PCI-Express Graphics Card 20cm : Amazon.com.be: Electronics

https://www.amazon.com.be/-/en/kdjsic-PCI-Express-Extension-Cable-Graphics/dp/B09JLQY1NR 

 

 

 

Zrzut ekranu 2023-03-17 094956.png

Zrzut ekranu 2023-03-17 095521.png

Zrzut ekranu 2023-03-17 095746.png

Edited by Luks1983
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tigs Regular Member

tigs

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thanks. 

 

I bought the PCI-e x8 extension cable. so I can't really do anything without a display. I need to change the bios setting to let it boot from the USB flash drive. 

 

Other two ideas are: 

1. If I can let boot from the internal M. 2 SSD, I can install vmware hypervisor, which is even better. 

2. My understanding is, as long as you do not write to the internal flash, you can always revert it to ReadyNAS by change the boot order in the BIOS to internal flash, correct? Xpenology is purely USB based loader, and it does nothing to the internal flash. Do I understand it correctly?

 

additionally, is there any way we backup the internal flash to an image and write it back when needed, in case? I believe that is what the ReadyNAS USB Recovery Tool does, correct? 

 

 

H3d176f3db8bb4dacbf6fc7824447e0bdJ.webp

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Luks1983 Junior Member

Luks1983

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Hello team, 

I backed up with success internal readynas flash drive. To do it i used flash drive with Live Clonezilla. Screen is attached, but im not sure if that will help us with anything, due to this internal storage is preety small. It has ~251MB (yes, megabytes). So actually we can put there only xpenology loader, i assume. For further infos, you can ping my via pm. 

 

Regards. 

 

PS. Right now im trying to install proxmox on this unit. 

1679303183494.jpg

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Zest Newbie

Zest

Posted
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On 3/17/2023 at 10:00 AM, Luks1983 said:

… I disabled internal USB flash drive which is soldered on motherboard, and set up as first boot device flash drive with TCRP Loader. …

Which is the correct BIOS setting (besides changing the boot priority order) for disabling the internal flash? 

I found these two that looks plausible in AMI BIOS version 2.14.1219 (2011):

  • Advanced tab: Launch Storage OpROM: Enabled
  • Boot tab: Option ROM Messages: Force BIOS

Or is it a combination of several settings that needs to be done?

 

I am a bit concerned, since I'v read threads about people bricking the device after playing around in the BIOS.

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Luks1983 Junior Member

Luks1983

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Which is the correct BIOS setting (besides changing the boot priority order) for disabling the internal flash? 
I found these two that looks plausible in AMI BIOS version 2.14.1219 (2011):
  • Advanced tab: Launch Storage OpROM: Enabled
  • Boot tab: Option ROM Messages: Force BIOS
Or is it a combination of several settings that needs to be done?
 
I am a bit concerned, since I'v read threads about people bricking the device after playing around in the BIOS.
Hi,
I have to check it. Right now i do not remember exact name of internal flash drive. But im sure there is a secondary drive, which must be disabled to avoid confusion with boot order configuration.

Wysłane z mojego SM-S911B przy użyciu Tapatalka

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Zest

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On 4/21/2023 at 6:05 AM, Luks1983 said:

Hi,
I have to check it. Right now i do not remember exact name of internal flash drive. But im sure there is a secondary drive, which must be disabled to avoid confusion with boot order configuration.

 

Thanks for offering help. I found the problem, it was the test USB boot I used (TinyCore written with balenaEtcher). When I used OMV (on the same USB stick, also written with balenaEtcher) the changed BIOS settings stuck. I used no special settings in BIOS, just changed the boot priority (disabled the internal flash).

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jackellis95 Newbie

jackellis95

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On 3/15/2023 at 6:14 PM, funguy said:

you must go into the bios and select the usb stick as a boot device and disable the internal USB device,  if not it will default to the internal boot USB.  QNAP are the same way.    Also your external USB stick may have multiple volumes, you may need to try vol2, not just Vol1.

 

i am so ready to throw my ReadyNAS 516 out the window with its ancient OS.  But with a xenon processor and 16 GB of ram, i cannot bear to....

 

Been scrolling the internet for days now trying to find how to access the BIOS and change the boot order. I have a RN316, I'm trying to install a different OS. I have reset the device and have plugged in via HDMI cable, i've logged in and now I don't know what to type into the terminal to access the boot order. Am I missing something? Thanks

Edited by jackellis95
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