General info and questions

[langerak]

Hi all,

Some of you might know me from Nas Central :). Since I have a NS1 as well (dust collector atm), I want to start trying out this firmware, but I have some general questions.

- The OS, on what is it's based?
- I see ipkg as a package manager inside the .img file?
- The webshell, how does it handle system commands? I might want to add functionality / test things out as well.

About the OS, is there a specific reason for choosing something non-Debian (sorry if this might sound rude, just interested)? Or is this something planned for later releases as "other" OS relase? Since the "squeeze" release of Debian, there has been outstanding ARM support (as I have that running on my other NAS'es, the NS2 and EDMiniV2). One major plus with Debian (imho), is that you don't have to compile most of the software, as it may be in the repo's. But as stated, this might sound rude, as I am very curious why certain decisions were made.
On the other hand, are you interested in porting the fvdw firmware to Debian? I can help with that if you are interested :).

While on vacation in Portugal now, when back in Holland, I want to install it on my NS1. Are you interested in a full review of it and I place it on my blog? (http://lacie.busfreaks.nl) Note that the domain is temporary.

I hope we can share some thoughts in here and if all goes well, I want to try to participate in this project :).

[fvdw]

Hi langerak, welcome to this forum

It is based on linux, it runs currently a 2.6.33.1 (vanilla) kernel dedicated compiled for this device using the orion git and adding there some kernel patches and main board setup routine.
Its running Debian as that (I guess) will not support the motherboard of this device, also note that this device has a small system memory, only 16 MB. So running a full blown debian setup with all kind of options will not work as the meory is simply too small
Of course you can use ipkg and even some a very few routines from optware are used (libraries) however most of the software is compiled for this nas. My experience with optware is that it is not always working as we like. And compiling it yourself is also a challenge and gives more freedom to uses latest version. Most of the binaries I even compiled on the device itself. It helped me to learn Linux.. ;)

The web shell is based on php scripts and those can be used to execute system commands. In fact that is done by many scripts.

We are open to almost anything but as said I doubt if you will be able to get Debian running as the hardware is not supported by Debian to my knowledge, but I might be wrong, but is it worth it ?? we are doing fine I guess with this kernel we have now.

A review from a user is always welcome and can only bring us useful feedback to improve the firmware further. I am looking forward to your review. Preferable version 8-0 should then be reviewed as it is the latest version. Would be nice if you could post the review here as well.

PS this firmware will also run on the lacie nwsp vs2 only a different kernel needs to be used compiled for that hardware, but that is relative easy as it is supported in the kirkwood git of the linux kernel. I already compiled a kernel for it but did not test it yet as its summertime and than I also spend time away from the computer. Currently I have been running it on the nwsp vs2 in test version using the Lacie kernel, but it needs some work as there some commands in the firmware using features of the kernel that are dedicated for the hardware of the spd802 and nwsp1. This mainly concern buttons control, LED's and standby and reboot routines. Also kernel dependent programs like nfs server or ntfs-3g driver need to be adapted when not using the same kernel.

[langerak]

Hi,

Would Debian really be that hard and impossible to install? If I take your kernel with its modules then I should at least be OK and booting :). If I can maintain the same partition layout as with your firmware, that should be OK. I only need to set the root device in the kernel to "rw" once, because of the debootstrap / install process (done that on the NS2 and Edmini as well). And using the armel repo of Debian, I'm almost certain that this will work, but that's up to us / me to find that out.

The small memory amount will be fine for Debian, with a plain install and a little swap space it should be pretty manageable. If you install Openssh and work from there on, all should be pretty straightforward. And maybe we can write a php script as interface similar to synaptic / aptitude, in my opinion, that would be really cool!
But know that I really like your firmware and it's pretty good what I see from the screenshots etc, but if we can expand it's functionality simply enough, then why not :).

I need to dig out my PHP knowledge after this, but alot of info should be at hand in the present scripts :).

When the review is done (latest fw) I'll let you know, so you can read it.

Given the options above and that your FW runs on the NS2 as well would make a killer NAS out of the NS2 don't you think?

[fvdw]

doesn't Debian needs its own kernel ?? If not then it could run but then I see not so much advantages other than the binaries from the debian packages. The only way to find out is just try it.
Setting root to rw is no problem, I do it already in the current firmware boot to mount the root file system rw

I am not an expert nor have any experience with openssh but I remember reading about in the past that 16 MB is probably not enough. Also with the firmware as it is there is no real need to use it, but I can be wrong

Yes the nwsp2 having 256MB of ram and a 800 Mhz processor with this firmware would be an excellent NAS.
Certainly for the price they offer this device today (100 euro including 1 TB harddisk)

[langerak]

I have my nas devices and HP t5325 running on debian with a vanilla built kernel, crosscompiled and converted to a uImage. That runs perfect, so should work in this case.

As for ssh, maybe that would be nice to be able to switch it on or off and thus saving resources when not needed.

I will try debian next week on the ns1 and see where that leads me to :).

[fvdw]

well I learned again something today.
I always thought Debian needed its own kernel.

PS about the vanilla kernel, I posted the kernel patches I used to compile it in the download section of the forum.
I also compiled more kernel modules then present in the current firmware for future use. They are not included as they are not used yet. I can post them as well in the download section of the forum if you are interested

[langerak]

Never too old to learn ;). I thought the same a year ago when starting with this stuff :P.

The patches are useful, I might compile a newer kernel for myself then if needed, but will start with your kernel, which should be enough for now. Also, the unneeded modules are welcome, maybe we can use them in a next firmware release :).

Btw, if needed, I can host some large files as well, I have my own dedicated server with full duplex 100 Mbit link and 1 Tb of storage. If you need it for hosting large files, let me know!

[fvdw]

Never too old to learn ;)...The patches are useful....

Thats an understatement langerak :D without them you are in bad position when trying to compile a new kernel. many hours have gone in to get those patches... 8-)

I posted the modules in the download section

About hosting larger files, thanks for the offer and we will keep it in mind but for the moment we are fine here at plugout server although a prefer to have a backup in case this one crashes, but of course i also have a copy on my PC

[langerak]

Thanks for making those available! I'll look into them as soon as I get home :).

Oh, btw, I can script in Bash a bit and maybe I can create a small bash script which will act as an installer for the firmware. Let's say it asks for the harddisk on the Linux host and downloads the software on it's own and copies the relevant files automatically and partition disks and even set the harddisk sectors based on the size? Interested? That's not much work for me but will benefit alot of people I think:).

[fvdw]

Thanks for making those available! I'll look into them as soon as I get home :).

Oh, btw, I can script in Bash a bit and maybe I can create a small bash script which will act as an installer for the firmware. Let's say it asks for the harddisk on the Linux host and downloads the software on it's own and copies the relevant files automatically and partition disks and even set the harddisk sectors based on the size? Interested? That's not much work for me but will benefit alot of people I think:).

no problem, hope they are useful to you and you come up with some useful applications ;)

About the bash script, in principle thats the way I implemented the firmware upgrade menu for the Lacie, but it uses the bourne shell as bash isn't standard incorporated but thats not a big difference. The issue was that starting and executing the script by the firmware not always went well for unclear reason. As I had no Lacie nwsp1 I could not try it myself and find the problem. So I abandoned it for the time being and just supply a shell sript and an upgrade package to be executed in putty. For most users it seems to be no problem. But I agree an up[grade via de webinterface would be nicer and preferable.
Be aware that on the lacie each upgrade will require a dedicate script and you are writing to the active system partition, so stopping of applications may be required to prevent failure. Also you need sequential upgrades on the lacie. Thats also not nice. On the Philips it is much more convenient as you write a new system image to a not used partition and than swap the boot flag. U-boot of the Philips looks to which partition the boot flag is set (sda1 or sda2) and than loads the kernel and firmware from that partition. Thats the reason why in the how to I let people make an sda1 and sda2 partition as well on the lacie. The intention was to use those in a similar way as on the Philips. Until today I had no time to look to that. I don't like to change U-boot in fash as when it goes wrong your Nas may become useless. I think there are other ways to run the firmware for instance by mounting sda1 or sda2 on a folder in the root file system and than run the firmware in a chrooted environment from that mount point. I did some tests with that in the past and it works ok, only the boot script needs some adaptations.