Buffalo NAS-Central Forums

I've tested LSUpdater.exe installations of (my own) armel rootfs, (created using
Andreas Bach Aaen's method) on a clean Buffalo LS Live restored to using 2.10 firmware,
the original partition scheme , and the 2.6.16.16-arm1 kernel, using lb_worms initrd and micro_evtd, and mkimage.



I have some suggestions for a public new release of Freelink.

(1) use the stock Buffalo uImage.buffalo, 2.6.16.16-arm1, as in 1.10 or later
LSPro firwmare, and 2.10 LsLive firmware. Make the upgrade to this latest
Buffalo fw obligatory for LSUpdater.exe installs. I've only tested on v2 hardware,
but I think that this update on v1 hardware perhaps also eliminates the problem that
that the initial "initrd-only" step of FreelinkRev2 solves . (The "initrd-only" step
is NOT needed on a v2 LSLive running "2.10" fw (=1.10 u-boot)

The user can optionally install a rebuilt 2.6.16 Buffalo GPL kernel with lots of extra modules
afterwards.ftp://ftp.dmik.org/pub/common/buffalo/lspro/duncan_h/kernel-2.6.16.57-lsp_eabi-dh_v4.tar.gz

Existing Freelink users should upgrade by copying hddrootfs,buffalo.updated to
/dev/sda6, backup their existing rootfs (or at least, /etc) (after mounting it a second time),
rebooting into EM mode, make a new fs (ext3?) on /dev/sda2,
and untarring the rootfs into it. Then optionally copy their old /etc/passwd, hosts, hostname, shadow,
group gshadow, ssh/* , fstab etc. to the new rootfilesystem.

(2) The XFS file system already present as shipped by Buffalo needs to be supported.
This means using the same xfsprogs that ship with buffalo, NOT the debian sid armel
ones. The programs are in the initrd filesystem. They (and the libs libxfs, libxlog, libdisk)
can be installed to /usr/local (with their man pages). I just added a tarball that the user
can untar as part of the post-installation steps, if they wants to use xfs.

The user can be advised to convert the rootfs to ext3 using EM mode, obtained using
a reboot after setting TIMEOUT=EM in boot_options. (mount /dev/sda2 a second time on
e.g. /tmp/mnt, make a tarball of its contents (without other filesystems mounted on it)
to /dev/sda6, boot to EM mode, mkfs.ext3 -f /dev/sda2, mount -t ext3 /dev/sda2, mount
/dev/sad6 and restore root filesystem, change boot_options back, reboot). This should be
simple enough for a reasonably linux-aware "newbie" user. (The WIki recipe for this is an
unnecessarily-complicated procedure) But in practice, (buffalo) xfs works.

I just tested again with the latest armel xfsprogs. debian armel mkfs.xfs still produces a filesystem that fails
the xfs_check test, while the buffalo one produces a "good" filesystem that passes both buffalo
and debian armel xfs_check. I uninstalled debian armel xfsprogs.
Perhaps they are incompatible with the Buffalo GPL 2.6.16 kernels.

Are 2.6.2x non-Buffalo kernels suitable for general use? Probably not yet.




@lb_worm:
(minor detail for pre-release cleaning: your recent initrd/root has a junk hidden .bash_history)

I would say this this should be working for the TS Pro as well...

@duncan_h - I still have some issues getting armel to run on my TS Pro - so I might be better off to wait for the above to be packed...

Can I also please ask you to see what's in your /etc/mtab and if you have a log from boot up (via serial) please post it so I can compare with the TS startup.

why not 2.6.25 kernel? or 2.6.24?
that would provide tickless kernel wich means less interrupts wich means less power consuption as well as better support for sata driver and then i could use hdparm -M 128 /dev/sda to reduce the disk's rotating speed doing less noise and consuming even less power.
i want a 15 watts noiseless mini server!

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Ls Live v2, Partitions resized, Debian Armel (lenny), Kernel 2.6.25.3, xfs removed, reiserfs added, serial cable broke and Fuse 1 blowned.

because of the XFS problem.

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LS1 (2.6 kernel, foonas svn1062, 750 GB, UBoot 1.2) & LS Pro (FreeLink/jtymod/GenLink, changes all the time)
Thx to all donators!

Are we there yet?

Seriously, I really appreciate all your hardwork on this new kernel. I am a linux newbie so I don't know if a third filesystem like for example XFS is a must to be included in the kernel. I know XFS is fast and good.

One question, Can we add the support on the XFS later if its giving a lot of problem? (get the source and download it to the local HD of our LS, compile it then reboot.)
Edit;
Silly me. It is a filesystem I don't think its possible?

According to my Kill-a-watt meter , my lspro eats ~14w average.

finally i was able to post anything again , every time it says my IP is in blacklist and i keep reconnecting and every ip i get is blacklisted :/

Sorry for the long wait, very busy. I am removing logs etc at the moment ready for tar'ing. I will leave the /lib/modules alone at the mo until someone else has had a go with the image. I am also leaving the installed xfs_progs as I had no issues with them but will wait the outcome of further testing. This tar'd image will also have to be man-draulically installed from EM.

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LS used as PVR and streaming source

How geared toward Linkstations is this root-fs. Will it still be fairly easy to tweak for KBP's and TSP's?

This has all been dev'd on a KuroPRO so do not worry. I have only recently tested this on my Linkstation so its born from Kuro.

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LS used as PVR and streaming source

Any news?

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LS Pro v1:

• Freelink (Debian etch), kernel: 2.6.16.57-lsp_eabi-dh_v3, gigabit network (9k jumbo frames)
• running: mt-daapd (aka firefly), smb, amule, vsftpd, mysql, rsnapshot, micro_evtd testing
• upcoming: ampache (+ coherence), aria2, slimrat, apache, streamripper (record what my soundbridge is playing)...

Will be posted soon. I have been very busy, sorry.

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LS used as PVR and streaming source

as always .....it would be strange if you had too much free time

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LS1 (2.6 kernel, foonas svn1062, 750 GB, UBoot 1.2) & LS Pro (FreeLink/jtymod/GenLink, changes all the time)
Thx to all donators!

touchce. I expect that you do not have not much spare time either especially with your college work too.

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LS used as PVR and streaming source

One suggestion.
when packing this up it could be really good to have a version of initrd that set up the raid stuff on TS boxe's so we can skip all the buffalo stuff. This would proberly workj for the new duo boxes as well.