NSA310 - Is there a good 2020 step-by-step guide to follow?

Hi everyone.

I have a NSA310 which I want to install Linux on. It seems to run original Zyxel firmware, so I assume I need to start from scratch.

Reading various posts on this forum I get the hope that it is still viable in 2020 to load Linux onto this device.

Can anyone here point to an updated step-by-step guide or maybe a series of relevant forum posts that I should follow, in order to be succesful?

Best regards,
Christian



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2020 05:00AM by dcompost.

Christian,

Basically, you can install new Debian rootfs and new u-boot in one session inside stock OS.

Debian rootfs Debian-5.2.9-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2:

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096

New NSA310 u-boot:

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,12381

Ask more questions if you are not sure about something. The best 1st step is prepare is to connect serial console if you could do that.

-bodhi
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Hi Bodhi,

Thank you for your reply.

To enable the serial console, I should solder a serial connection like the attached picture (from the cnx-software article), correct?

After that I will proceed with Debian rootfs and then new NSA310 u-boot.

If I have misunderstood anything please let me know.

-Christian

Christian,

I am not familiar with that picture so cannot tell if it is correct.

Note that serial console is so that if anything goes wrong during installation, you will have a rescue path. The actual installation step don't need to interact with serial console. Everything is done inside stock OS at command line.

There must be a good picture somewhere. I also cannot recall if this NSA310 box has a serial port header already installed. The other Zyxel boxes such as NSA320,325,326 all have factory install header. Have you opened the box and look at the board to see if there is such header?

-bodhi
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Christian,

Take care that you determine exactly which NSA310 you have. There are at least 3 different NSA310 models each with their own DTB file (NSA310 - kirkwood-nsa310.dts, NSA310A - kirkwood-nsa310a.dts and NSA310S - kirkwood-nsa310s.dts). I have both the NSA310 and NSA310S models which already have serial port header installed. The NSA310 appears to be what is in your photo, the NSA310S serial is near the Ethernet port. You can see a better photo of both on the OpenWrt page. Although they confuse things by mentioning a NSA310b which I've never seen. From what I can determine the difference between the NSA310 and NSA310A is primarily the 310A lacks the red USB LED and uses a different thermal sensor than the NSA310. Both of these use the 88F6281 version of the Kirkwood processor. The NSA310S uses a different Kirkwood processor (88F6702).

Not exactly.

The NSA310S is an entirely different box. This does not count as NSA310.

The NSA310 has 3 variations. In my kernel release they correspond to these DTBs:

kirkwood-nsa310.dtb
kirkwood-nsa310a.dtb
kirkwood-nsa310b-lmsensor-redusbled.dtb

kirkwood-nsa310.dtb: this is the original model.

kirkwood-nsa310a.dtb :This variant does not have the red USB Led.

kirkwood-nsa310b-lmsensor-redusbled.dtb: This 3rd variant has lm85 sensor and red USB Led.

If you are not sure which model you have beforehand, regardless which DTB from the 3 above that you use, it should run OK on all 3 models. After you logged in, you can then see the behavior and then choose the correct one.

-bodhi
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2020 02:52AM by bodhi.

Hi bodhi and rayknight.

Good news, the serial connection header is present on the PCB (see attached picture), and I do have a spare TTL<->USB converter in case something goes wrong and I need the serial connection to rescue the NSA310.

I will power it up later this week and determine which .dtb file I should apply.

Thank you both for taking the time to reply and help out. I will keep you posted on the results.

Thanks,
Christian

Hi bodhi,

I am unsure of the next step(s).

I followed your guide using the instructions from 25 Aug 2019 for Debian rootfs Debian-5.2.9-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2:
https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096

I did everything as root, and in step 3 I changed the fstab file on the USB stick from ext3 to ext4
In step 5 I plugged in the USB stick to my NSA310 and powered it up but it did not automatically boot from the USB stick.
I also tried (via serial console) to abort autostart and use the commands "usb start" (it finds 1 device) and "usbboot" (says no boot device).

It must be something simple I have overlooked. What do you suggest I try?

Edit: The U-boot installed is "U-Boot 1.1.4 (Feb 22 2011 - 10:31:35) Marvell version: 3.4.19" . Should I have used the "Debian-4.12.1-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2 (24 Jul 2017)" instructions instead?

Thanks,
Christian



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2020 02:33AM by dcompost.

Christian,

You need to install new u-boot to get it booting automatically. As I mentioned:

Quote

Basically, you can install new Debian rootfs and new u-boot in one session inside stock OS.

Debian rootfs Debian-5.2.9-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2:

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096

New NSA310 u-boot:

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,12381

Running with stock u-boot is OK but it will need more settings changes in u-boot envs to boot the Debian rootfs on USB.

-bodhi
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