Netgear Stora MS2110 rootfs Bad Magic Number

KodexMedia,

> it sounded like there may have been some kind of
> IDE to SATA thing going on on this motherboard, or
> at least there was 2 SATA controllers which was
> why many has trouble getting all 4 drive bays to
> work.

Yes. I actually saved the post where this box was booted off USB rootfs, and then in Debian all 4 drives were spun up by the kernel.

Tested by CodeJack:
https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,25120,132900#msg-132900

Usually with 4-bay NAS, 2 of the drives are under the SoC controller, the other 2 are under PCIe SATA controller. Sometime, 4 drives are under 2 PCIe SATA controllers.

> I learned there's a lot of confusion due to
> the later models of ix4-200d adding more nand
> storage and other tweaks so has been tricky as it
> seems lots of info is mixed.

That might have been where the failure to see all 4 drives were reported.

> I'll let you know how it goes, and I have more
> "tinkering time" in the winter months generally
> but happy to help contribute and test things.

Cool!

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

bodhi,

> > I learned there's a lot of confusion due to
> > the later models of ix4-200d adding more nand
> > storage and other tweaks so has been tricky as
> it
> > seems lots of info is mixed.
>
> That might have been where the failure to see all
> 4 drives were reported.

That and I noticed the older posts used some possibly incorrect methods, many link to a few githubs (I'm thinking specifically of this one https://github.com/bakulapal/ix4) that are all about doing what you seemed to work out already but I noticed many times there were signs of the ix2 key words so I started to think that perhaps they were trying to use firmware that was tweaked for only 2 bays. Regardless its interesting many others failed getting all 4 bays working. Ultimately it seems the history of ownership businesses liked to keep as much hidden and secret as possible (such as offering the open source software but only for a fee to ship a CD directly) which also does not help.

I'll be giving this a try tonight and see where I can get. Hopefully my old netbook running 32 bit linux doesn't cause any issues. If I run into a bump I can try a Virtual Machine or Tails booted via USB. After a few of these projects are done I plan to change a Chromebook to a nice linux laptop, probably as a portable media watching station as it seems like a perfect fit for travel, but the 32bit linux Mint has been a lifesaver for things like this. One day I hope to be mostly Linux based as I keep learning.

=========================================
Hardware I'm tinkering with:
- iOmega StorCenter ix4-200d NAS (non cloud 32mb nand early model)
- PogoPlug v4-A3-01 dug this out after finding this forum to tackle next
- Raspbery Pi 3b & 3b+ with GPIO Touchscreen that's not working on piCorePlayer

bodhi,

Ok so I think I may be missing some important step or perhaps doing something out of the proper order. I keep getting a few errors but I'm assuming the most important is the first to show after the reboot following all the code > printenv > boot. I noticed a lot of mention of ext2 in that link and in my UBOOT screen so I was trying variations of using ext2, ext3 but I seem to constantly get

Bad partition 1
Bad partition 1
## Booting image at 00800000 ...
Bad Magic Number

as the result of the initial reboot. I'll put my steps below, I'm still learning so assuming its something I don't know like if the fdisk bootable flag needs to be set to on/off (tried that also). But at this point I've tried too many combinations and feel lost. Every few times I would also write 0s over the first USB partition to be sure there were no errors from the previous failed attempts.

01. Reboot/Boot my linux Mint netbook and open up the terminal, insert the USB flash drive.
02. sudo -i to enter root mode
03. lsblk to list block devices available
04. seems to be sdb (sdb1) if I keep using the same USB port.
05. fdisk /dev/sdb
06. d to delete current partition
07. n to create new partition
08. p for primary partition, 1 for the single partition, enter for default setting
09. a toggle boot flag on (only started trying this lately as my tests without this failed but seems to have no effect)
10. w write changes
11. sync to verify its synced

12. lsblk again to double check ID hasn't changed (seems to always be sdb1)
13. mkfs.ext2 -L "rootfs" /dev/sdb1 (tried ext3 also a bunch of times originally)
14. yes to clear previous filesystem

15. lsblk to verify ID hasn't changed
16. parted -l to double check ID and mounts partition for next step

17. tar xjf '/home/user/Downloads/Debian-6.5.7-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2' -C /media/user/rootfs
18. eject USB flash drive and put in top USB of ix4-200d NAS
19. Open putty on Win10 with uart TTY to USB chord Com 4 @ 115200 Serial connection (network cable plugged into a "docking station" which is plugged in via type C) (If this may be the issue I could try using my desktop with a motherboard plug)
20. hit enter on booting and enter the commands one line at a time then printenv > boot

And I seemt to always keep getting that same error no matter how I try variations. I tried leaving the 2 3.5"HDDs blank with no partition, ext2, ext3, tried making 3 different USB boot sticks with ext2, ext3, with and withtout activating the bootable flag. Am I missing a step or is one of my steps incorrect? I noticed after a lot of attempts that I cannot start with the 4TB HDDs but could having two different size HHDs be the problem? They do show up during the UBOOT bootup screen.

Do I need to add a partition for swap or something as partition 1? I don't know enough about swap yet and thought that was after this step but I also tried a couple times using the same steps on the HDDs itself but I always kept the USB stick plugged in but that didn't seem to help either. The NAS would always keep resetting and its likely due to some possible errors but I can't understand if they are important or not. I'll list some below, if the full boot log helps I can attach that.

One of the early tries I got this error but haven't been able to reproduce it so not sure what step I did different that time:
** Block device usb 0 not supported
** Block device usb 0 not supported
## Booting image at 00800000 ...
Bad Magic Number
Unknown command 'usb' - try 'help'
-------------------------

The rest are only lines I "think" may be errors (pulled out randomly but in order of sequence)
cat: can't open '/sys/block/sdc/removable': No such file or directory
cat: can't open '/sys/block/sdd/removable': No such file or directory
mdadm: cannot open /dev/sdb1: No such device or address
cat: can't open '/sys/block/sdb/sdb1/size': No such file or directory
mdadm: No devices to examine
cat: can't open '/sys/block///size': No such file or directory
mdadm: No devices to examine
cat: can't open '/sys/block///size': No such file or directory
e2fsck: Invalid argument while trying to open /dev/md0

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
mount: mounting /dev/sdc1 on /usb_drive failed: Invalid argument
Going in to Network Imaging Mode
umount: cannot umount /dev/md0: Invalid argument
umount: cannot umount /usb_drive: Invalid argument
umount: cannot umount /sysroot/boot/etc: Invalid argument
umount: cannot umount /dev/md0: Invalid argument

----------------------------

The below lines are when I try using ext2 instead of ext3:
EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
cat: can't open '/sys/block/sdc/removable': No such file or directory
cat: can't open '/sys/block/sdd/removable': No such file or directory
mdadm: No devices to examine
cat: can't open '/sys/block///size': No such file or directory
mdadm: No devices to examine
cat: can't open '/sys/block///size': No such file or directory
Sys UUID is :0
ext2fs_check_if_mouEXT2-fs: unable to read superblock
nt: No such fileFAT: unable to read boot sector
or directory while determining whether /dev/md0 is mounted.
e2fsck: Invalid argument while trying to open /dev/md0
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
mount: mounting /dev/sdc1 on /usb_drive failed: Invalid argument
Going in to Network Imaging Mode
umount: cannot umount /dev/md0: Invalid argument
umount: cannot umount /usb_drive: Invalid argument
mount: mounting /sysroot/boot/images/config on /sysroot/boot/etc failed: No such file or directory
umount: cannot umount /sysroot/boot/etc: Invalid argument
umount: cannot umount /dev/md0: Invalid argument
Constructing root filesystem...
cp: cannot stat '/sysroot/mnt/apps/ram': No such file or directory
------------------------------------

Thank you

=========================================
Hardware I'm tinkering with:
- iOmega StorCenter ix4-200d NAS (non cloud 32mb nand early model)
- PogoPlug v4-A3-01 dug this out after finding this forum to tackle next
- Raspbery Pi 3b & 3b+ with GPIO Touchscreen that's not working on piCorePlayer

Here is the fresh bootup screen from the serial, I'm assuming since it says v1.0.0 I cannot use the ext4 filesystem until after I get Debian to boot.

_ _ _ _
| \/ | _ _ _ __ _____| | |
| |\/| |/ _` | '___\ \ / / _ \ | |
| | | | (_| | | \ V / __/ | |
|_| |_|\,_|_|_| \_/ \___|_|_|
_ _ ____ _
| | | | | __ ) ___ ___ | |_
| | | |___| _ \ / _ \ / _ \| __|
| |_| |___| |_) | (_) | (_) | |_
\___/ |____/ \___/ \___/ \__| **uboot_ver:v1.0.0**

** MARVELL BOARD: IX4-110 LE

U-Boot 1.1.4 (Jul 23 2009 - 14:25:44) Marvell version: 3.4.4

U-Boot code: 00600000 -> 0067FFF0 BSS: -> 006904EC

Soc: 88F6281 A0 (DDR2)
CPU running @ 1200Mhz L2 running @ 400Mhz
SysClock = 400Mhz , TClock = 200Mhz

DRAM CAS Latency = 5 tRP = 5 tRAS = 18 tRCD=6
DRAM CS[0] base 0x00000000 size 256MB
DRAM CS[1] base 0x10000000 size 256MB
DRAM Total size 512MB 16bit width
Found 0x20 i2c device
Toggle power status
Set Power State as Always On
Addresses 8M - 0M are saved for the U-Boot usage.
Mem malloc Initialization (8M - 7M): Done
NAND:32 MB
Found ADT7473, program LED ...(led_volt=90) OK
Found ADT7473, program thermal/Fan ...(pwm_min=0) (pwm_max=130) (therm=67) (temp_min=60) OK

Marvell Serial ATA Adapter
Integrated Sata device found


CPU : Marvell Feroceon (Rev 1)
Found initrd at 0x2d4000

Streaming disabled
Write allocate disabled

Module 0 is RGMII
Module 1 is RGMII

USB 0: host mode
PCI 0: PCI Express Root Complex Interface
PEX interface detected Link X1
SCSI: AHCI 0001.0000 32 slots 3 ports 3 Gbps 0x7 impl IDE mode
flags: 64bit ncq stag led pmp slum part
scanning bus for devices...
timeout exit!
timeout exit!
Net: egiga0 [PRIME], egiga1
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
Marvell>>
Marvell>>

=========================================
Hardware I'm tinkering with:
- iOmega StorCenter ix4-200d NAS (non cloud 32mb nand early model)
- PogoPlug v4-A3-01 dug this out after finding this forum to tackle next
- Raspbery Pi 3b & 3b+ with GPIO Touchscreen that's not working on piCorePlayer

KodexMedia,

> Here is the fresh bootup screen from the serial,
> I'm assuming since it says v1.0.0 I cannot use the
> ext4 filesystem until after I get Debian to boot.

> ** MARVELL BOARD: IX4-110 LE
>
> U-Boot 1.1.4 (Jul 23 2009 - 14:25:44) Marvell
> version: 3.4.4

Correct, with this stock u-boot, your rootfs must be Ext2, or Ext3.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

Well I tried learning about USB and formatting and killed 2 USB sticks now trying various things but I simply can not get past the UBOOT error

>- Bad partition 1
>- Bad partition 1
>- ## Booting image at 00800000 ...
>- Bad Magic Number

When using Method 3 (HDD) or
if trying Method 1 (USB) I always get

>- Bad partition 0
>- Bad partition 0
>- ## Booting image at 00800000 ...
>- Bad Magic Number

Ironically enough I get more random errors when I try to use only fdisk and mkfs in the command line. But when I use gparted GUI I only get the above erros. Perhaps I am missing some setting or picking the wrong options but I dont yet understand Method 2. I will need to take time to draw some diagrams and cheat sheets because I have been using my Windows machine to connect via Putty and Tftpd64 to read the TTL USB com4 connection. The few videos I could find were not helpful learning what I need to do tftp on linux CLI.

I think the older 32bit mint was causing erros not having up to date software. I only learned how to use the TTL to USB and the software they provided was for Win10 so thats what I have been using.

How important is it to do everything in the command line only? I saw the comment that formatting has to be done via command line but despite all the tutorials and instructions I can find it never works for me.....or perhaps I have an ix4-200d NAS that cannot boot from USB. But I thought it was confirmed that did work so it makes me think its user error from me not knowing enough about linux. I get lost quite quick with lots of command line stuff if I don't take detailed notes.

Another thing I noticed is my 32bit linux mint (v16 i think) had simple fdisk options but now there are like 30+ various linux type file systems so perhaps #83 is not good anymore? My googling seems to point to the fdisk or mkfs being where I keep messing up but I have no clue where to look unless my download got corrupted. I will redownload the tar zipped file again and try again tomorrow, but I don't get why I get "Bad Partition 1" when using "" the HDD and "Bad Partition 0" when trying "Method 1" the USB, all the steps are very close to the same since I am using a powered USB to SATA dock to access the HDD's. I have no other way of using a 3.5" drive outside the ix4-200d NAS.


The USB to TTL instructions say I must on Windows do:
5) Disable any TFTP servers on system if any exist
6) Set the following static IP address - 10.4.50.5 (but for some reason I have it set to 10.4.50.165 and has worked with the official firmware)
7) Turn off Windows Firewall
8) Start the server program TFTPD64.EXE
9) Start putty
a. Select connection type serial
b. Set speed to 115200
c. Set serial line to the Com port assigned to the TTL cable
e. Select “serial” category on left
f. Ensure data bits 8, stop bits 1, Parity None, Flow XON/XOFF
g. Set the values accordingly if necessary
10) Open the session (“Open” button at bottom)

so I assume thats the IP address I willneed to set the tftp at, Im sure there's a way to find out what the server IP will be once I figure that all out.

=========================================
Hardware I'm tinkering with:
- iOmega StorCenter ix4-200d NAS (non cloud 32mb nand early model)
- PogoPlug v4-A3-01 dug this out after finding this forum to tackle next
- Raspbery Pi 3b & 3b+ with GPIO Touchscreen that's not working on piCorePlayer

KodexMedia,

With method 2, it's best to use a Linux box for tftp server. Any Linux distro would support a tftp server. Or you can run a Linux VM on your Window x86-64 box.

Quote

- Assuming the tftp server box's IP address is 192.168.0.200, and the IP address you've chosen for this box is 192.168.0.100 (and therefore your router IP address is 192.168.0.1). Below, adjust the ipaddr and serverip to conform to the real IP addresses in your network environment.

On the Linux box for tftp server, you would become root, create a /tftproot folder, and then copy the uImage and uInitrdto that folder

su -
mkdir -p /tftproot
cd /tftproot
# copy the uImage and uInird files to here

Assuming the router is 192.168.0.1, your Linux box for tftp server has IP address of 192.168.0.200.

Now power up the ix4. Interrupt u-boot count down. And chose an IP address (100 or any number in 2..255, except 200) for the ix4,

setenv ipaddr 192.168.0.100
setenv serverip 192.168.0.200

Try pinging the tftp server

ping 192.168.0.200

If the ping is successful, run the commands to load and run the kernel

setenv bootargs 'console=ttyS0,115200 root=LABEL=rootfs rootdelay=10 earlyprintk=serial'
mw 0x800000 0 1
tftpboot 0x800000 uImage
tftpboot 0x2100000 uInitrd
bootm 0x800000 0x2100000

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2025 01:17AM by bodhi.

Ahh ok, thank you. That makes more sense. I havn't been using a router but luckily I just turned an old Netgear into a DD-WRT so I can set the IP to 192.168.0.1 and I think I already had it set for my computer to be 192.168.0.100 so that will help make things much easier.

I'm loooking over the commands and info about tftp-hba and tftpd-hpa as the tftp server and host. Now have my live "linux mint v21 Mate" bootable USB running on my dell mini desktop comp that has a network port. Perhaps my type C dock I had to use to attach a network cable to the laptop was causing a problem. This setup "should" I hope eliminate all other possible issues.

One thing tricky is I only have a Franklin Mobile Hotspot as my source of internet so been using a cheap WiFi extender to pull my internet and push it through the Ethernet cable when I need to use Ethernet. I hope to find a way to plug it into the USB port of the Router and pull internet from there but thats a whole other project.

I'll let you know how it goes after I get it all installed and working. Waiting on a huge apt upgrade taking forever.

=========================================
Hardware I'm tinkering with:
- iOmega StorCenter ix4-200d NAS (non cloud 32mb nand early model)
- PogoPlug v4-A3-01 dug this out after finding this forum to tackle next
- Raspbery Pi 3b & 3b+ with GPIO Touchscreen that's not working on piCorePlayer

> Ahh ok, thank you. That makes more sense. I havn't
> been using a router but luckily I just turned an
> old Netgear into a DD-WRT so I can set the IP to
> 192.168.0.1 and I think I already had it set for
> my computer to be 192.168.0.100 so that will help
> make things much easier.

It was just an example. You can also keep whatever DD_WRT router IP is, and adjust the serverip and ipaddr to conform to that subnet.

>
> I'm loooking over the commands and info about
> tftp-hba and tftpd-hpa as the tftp server and
> host. Now have my live "linux mint v21 Mate"
> bootable USB running on my dell mini desktop comp
> that has a network port. Perhaps my type C dock I
> had to use to attach a network cable to the laptop
> was causing a problem. This setup "should" I hope
> eliminate all other possible issues.

tftp works regardless of what type of network (wifi or ethernet), as long as all relevant nodes are connected.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

I'm mostly doing it to be sure I don't make any errors. Its quick and simple enough and then I can copy the instructions without accidentally using the wrong number. I got the packages installed. I think I have the server all set but the ping goes 100% fail so trying to figure out if I missed something. Then find a manual for the tftp-hpa client, it says no man available when i do "man tftp-hpa" and nothing happens when i simply type "tftp-hpa" just an error.

The few search results so far failed helping me find the com port of the TTL cable but put that on pause because getting the server and client running is the more important step. I'm assuming I should have the NAS attached to the router the computer is attached to. Only ever used putty to do serial stuff so I'll figure that out as I go.

=========================================
Hardware I'm tinkering with:
- iOmega StorCenter ix4-200d NAS (non cloud 32mb nand early model)
- PogoPlug v4-A3-01 dug this out after finding this forum to tackle next
- Raspbery Pi 3b & 3b+ with GPIO Touchscreen that's not working on piCorePlayer



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2025 07:36PM by KodexMedia.

Ok i've figured out finding the serial which was ttyUSB0 and I was able to get that up and running with
"sudo screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200,cs8"
and view the UBOOT bootup cycle that repeats and stop the process. I was able to copy the files to /tftproot last night and there still there.

I just have to find out why the server doesn't see the pings and I think I am ready to try and flash.

=========================================
Hardware I'm tinkering with:
- iOmega StorCenter ix4-200d NAS (non cloud 32mb nand early model)
- PogoPlug v4-A3-01 dug this out after finding this forum to tackle next
- Raspbery Pi 3b & 3b+ with GPIO Touchscreen that's not working on piCorePlayer

Hmmm, ok so let me double check I have all the physical stuff correct because I think I have this all done but my server seems to keep stopping and getting errors that it cannot be restarted as I test things. But the bigger issue I think is this serial comm connection, I can interrupt the UBOOT bootup but I cannot seem to get text to type or paste about 40% of the time and occationally because I have to retype some letters or numbers so for example on screen it shows "setenv ipaddr" but the error says i typed "setnvvvv ipaddr" I have to assume because I wait, then tap the letter again until it shows. So it seems I have a bad connction. I tried both a USB connected keyboard after I thought my wireless keboard was low on batt but I can type 100% normally on any other window/terminal. And this only happens when I run the "sudo screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200,cs8" to activate the view of the NAS UBOOT bootup screen.

So I have my dd-wrt netgear router set to 192.168.0.1 with two ethernet cables connected to the NAS top ethernet pot and my linux box (I got too frustrated and did a full install to an old iMac mini so no more live USB or work arounds). The USB to TTL is on the NAS to the USB port of the LinuxMacMini that shows it is ttyUSB0 and obviously working as I have not changed or unplugged any of the 3 TTL connections. But because my tftpd-hpa server seems to be stopping with the error...

systemctl status tftpd-hpa ----> shows error (code=exited, status=71) [In Red Text]
----> tftpd-hpa.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. [In Yellow Text]
----> Failed to start tftpd-hpa.service - LSB: HPA's tftp server
systemctl restart tftpd-hpa ----> Job for tftpd-hpa.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status tftpd-hpa.service" and "journalctl -xeu tftpd-hpa.service" for details.

systemctl status tftpd-hpa.service ----> shows same results and "statustftpd-hpa"
journalctl -xeu tftpd-hpa.service ----> basically shows the same info

systemctl stop tftpd-hpa ----> shows no results so maybe it worked ...... but then trying
systemctl start tftpd-hpa ----> shows the same errors from above.

I'll try rebooting and see of that helps.

=========================================
Hardware I'm tinkering with:
- iOmega StorCenter ix4-200d NAS (non cloud 32mb nand early model)
- PogoPlug v4-A3-01 dug this out after finding this forum to tackle next
- Raspbery Pi 3b & 3b+ with GPIO Touchscreen that's not working on piCorePlayer