Installing Debian Wheezy on Buffalo Linkstation Pro

To begin with, I needed a nasik. And I bought myself a used one, but with a gigabit and two USB ports. About standard nas firmware, of course, apart from synology, I will not talk, and judging by the subject, it is clear that we will change it. Actually, the NAS model was initially chosen with the ability to install something else, native - Debian for example. After the ghent, Debian is certainly a very conservative distibutive. Therefore, I am sure that the tango with this nasik is not over yet. Expect the gentushka soon :) In the meantime, let's get acquainted with the debian. The character of this nasik is still the same. 2 weeks spent (usually after robots 3-4 hours). Not only had the console cable not yet been made, it was difficult to understand. And now, as a native.
I must say right away that there are bugs in the installation wedge that prevent you from installing a working system. Here I will give you all the details. If you decided to% username% to please your network drive with a fresh kernel, then you will have to cut it!

Let's start with the technical specifications. Of course, for 2013 this is already a rarity, and my router has a steeper percentage, and there are more operas . But it copes with its task perfectly. And it pleases.

Technical characteristics of this device:
Buffalo Linkstation Pro V1
Processor: Marvell 88F5182
Technology: System on Chip (SOC)
Technology: ARM926EJ-Sid (wb) [41069260] revision 0 (ARMv5TEJ)
Frequency 400Mhz
Bus: = 200Mhz
RAM: 128MB 2 NANYA NT5TU32M16AG or Elpida EDE5116AF DDR2 SDRAM
Flash memory: SST 256K CMOS Multi-Purpose
NIC: Marvell 88E1111 Gigabit Ethernet Transceiver ("Alaska" series).
USB: 2 - USB 2.0 Max: 480 Mbps (HS Mode), Max: 12 Mbps (FS Mode)
SATA Controller: Marvell Serial ATA Adapter

inside except SATA there is still a place for eSATA wiring, thanks for the present, Buffalo!

For installation, I used a Serial cable to ... but here it’s clear what the console cable is for. The main thing is that you% username% do not have to have Serial connections. After all, not everyone wants to do the wiring on the board (knows how) .

Let's start

For installation you need:
TFTP server (I used tftpd32, you can download it from tftpd32.jounin.net)
Installation files uImage.buffalo - the kernel, and initrd.buffalo ram-disk (you can download http.us.debian.org/debian/dists / wheezy / main / installer-armel / current / images / orion5x / network-console / buffalo / lspro).
Only these two files. we don’t need config-debian.
A router is also desirable, and configure the subnet to it at 192.168.11.x.
Write the address 192.168.11.1 to the computer from which we will do all the operations.
Or if you are on a laptop, and the router is far away, and you are too lazy like me, then you can safely% username% register the subnet on the router, or just change the mask to / 16 (255.255.0.0) and bridge the network card of the laptop with Wi-Fi, register on the bridge you need the address, and connect it with a cross-patch patch cord to linkstation.

In addition, the NAS during reboot in tftp will emit a “sound of a cardiogram”, this is normal. A short press of the POWER button can turn off the sound, if that :)

I will not paint the debian installation (I shot a video screen). Here are only the main nuances:
Copy as much as possible all the data from your NAS. To avoid data loss.
When setting up disk layout, you can safely use Guided, that is, give the installer the ability to do the% username% markup for you. But then you will need to change a couple of values: change the formatting of / boot and / to ext3 and remove the boot-flag from the / boot partition

Install Debian on a USB drive does not work. After all, the USB controller is initialized only after the system boots.

To boot from tftp you need to do in the correct sequence:
1. Turn off the NAS completely. And then pull out the power cord for 3-4 seconds, and connect the power naturally.
2. Holding and holding the RESET button on the back of the device, press the POWER button. A melody should play. At this point, you already have tftp server turned on and configured. (port 69, if you forgot. in the root of tftp there are only 2 files uImage.buffalo and initrd.buffalo downloaded from the debian repository).

Partitioning the disk should be msdos. The first ext3 partition (where there will be only a kernel and a ram disk). A section without a boot flag. For uBoot, the boot flag is not needed. It was also found that you can install the partition on ext2 / boot, but did not try it.

Recommended partition table:
1. primary, size 128M, mount / boot, ext3
2. primary, size 7G, mount /, ext3
3. logical, size 384M, mount swap, swap
4. logical, size -inf, mount / home, ext3 | 4

As I already mentioned, there is a bug in the installer that does not install three packages:
uboot-envtools - responsible for controlling the memory of uBoot.
uboot-mkimage - creates a uBoot compatible kernel and ram disk image.
flash-kernel is an add-on for automatically creating a kernel and a ram disk using uboot-mkimage, then writing it to the / boot partition, while backing up old kernels.
You will need to install them yourself before make the system bootable.



To install the necessary packages, open an additional terminal window, go to the shell, mount proc and dev. chroot in target and there already apt-get what we need.

mount -t proc none / target / proc
mount -o bind / dev / target / dev
chroot / target / bin / bash
apt-get install uboot-envtools uboot-mkimage flash-kernel

After successful installation of the packages, click make the system bootable and complete installation.

If you want to access the system from the uBoot flash and you already have uboot-envtools installed, run the following command:
echo “/ dev / mtd0 0x3F000 0x1000 0x1000”> /etc/fw_env.conf

From the firmware files, you can extract the kernel and ram-disk (for recovery).
You can load on tftp, and flash the pump with the stock firmware, in case you want to return everything back.
buffalotech.com/support-and-downloads/download/LSPro_103.zip A

useful utility written in Java for stock (original) firmware.
need jre.
(reference sourceforge.net/projects/linkstationwiki/files/acp_commander )



Video tutorial, as promised. I recommend watching the video before installation.

If you disassembled your pump and accidentally put a scarf on an aluminum case, and then turned it on. And now he does not start, do not worry - most likely the fuses have blown. Try using a multimeter to check the fuse near the power input (black ones). One fuse for + 12V another for + 5V. Most likely they burned down. In order not to look for replacement parts for a long time - a hint: almost any PCI> USB board. They have such fuse. :)

Immediately answers to some questions:
1. Yes, you can put your owncloud, but your mother will lag. 400 MHz processor.
2. Yes, Nasik sees 2TB hard drives. moreover, it has an unsoldered eSATA port, which is not so difficult to install.
3. Yes, it is very quiet and cold. On Debian there is even an ace to control the fan, LED, and more.
4. Yes, it can also be used as an alarm clock. he has a speaker. loud by the way.
5. According to NFS, the read / write speed is up to 42/38 Mb / s (I have not raised the samba yet).
6. Yes, the percent can be overclocked. but why?
7. Price? I took it for 26 euros on Ibei with delivery and a hard drive of 250 GB.

Thank you for your attention. I will be glad to answer all your questions.