Issue when installing Bullseye on ReadyNAS Duo v2

Hello all,

I'm trying to install Debian Bullseye on my old NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo v2. I am getting to the point where I should configure Network hardware, but the installer says "No network device found"?! The NAS is working fine with the stock OS, so it is not about a hardware malfunctioning.

I've created the uImage using this commands:

wget http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-armel/current/images/kirkwood/netboot/marvell/guruplug/uImage
wget http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-armel/current/images/kirkwood/netboot/marvell/guruplug/uInitrd
wget http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-armel/current/images/kirkwood/netboot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-28-marvell
wget http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-armel/current/images/kirkwood/device-tree/kirkwood-netgear_readynas_duo_v2.dtb

sudo apt install u-boot-tools

cat vmlinuz-5.10.0-28-marvell kirkwood-netgear_readynas_duo_v2.dtb > vmlinuz_rnduov2

mkimage -A arm -O linux -T multi -C none -a 0x00008000 -e 0x00008000 -n "Debian Bullseye armel kernel" -d vmlinuz_rnduov2 uImage_rnduov2

After that I follow these steps:

usb reset
fatload usb 0:1 0x1200000 /uImage_rnduov2
fatload usb 0:1 0x2000000 /uInitrd
usb stop
set bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 earlyprintk
bootm 0x1200000 0x2000000

The Debian installer starts as usual, but it later fails at the network configuration step.
I tried with both plugged and unplugged ethernet cable, same result. I assume I missed to upload the proper driver, just don't know when and how to do it?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/2024 12:09PM by metodi.

metodi,

> The Debian installer starts as usual, but it later
> fails at the network configuration step.
> I tried with both plugged and unplugged ethernet
> cable, same result. I assume I missed to upload
> the proper driver, just don't know when and how to
> do it?

Unlikely because of network driver. Most Kirkwood boards use the same ethernet driver which should be in vmlinuz-5.10.0-28-marvell.

You should be able to boot with this bullseye rootfs Debian-5.13.6-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2.

-bodhi
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bodhi,

Thanks! I managed to install (and reinstall a couple of times already) Debian on this NAS.

In the post, you linked, I found something interesting:
"Linux Kernel 6.8.x Kirkwood package and rootfs for... Iomega ix4-200d... and all other Kirkwood plugs that are already in the mainline."

I do have one of those - Iomega ix4-200d (not Cloud Edition) devices and I am stuck with 4x2TB drives. I was googling it, but I cannot find confirmation if this NAS can handle drives larger than 2 TBs (GPT)? In a post on this forum you mentioned that the u-boot is old and do not understand GPT. Is there a newer version, which can enable this device to handle 3, 4 or more TB drives?

metodi,

> I do have one of those - Iomega ix4-200d (not
> Cloud Edition) devices and I am stuck with 4x2TB
> drives. I was googling it, but I cannot find
> confirmation if this NAS can handle drives larger
> than 2 TBs (GPT)? In a post on this forum you
> mentioned that the u-boot is old and do not
> understand GPT. Is there a newer version, which
> can enable this device to handle 3, 4 or more TB
> drives?

The Iomega ix4-200d is an old Kirkwood box, so I don't think its u-boot supports GPT.

Unfortunately I don't have new u-boot for this box. Note that it is not on the supported list in my u-boot releases.

-bodhi
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To clarify:
Is this Kirkwood box unable to recognize/handle a GPT drive at all, or it just can't boot from one? I mean what if I use a small MBR drive on SATA0 (disk1) to install Debian on it, and for the SATA1-3 (disk 2-4) I use larger GPT drives? Will Debian then be able to handle the GPT or is this a function of u-boot itself and cannot be worked around?

And one more question:
If the box cannot handle GPT, can I use 4+ TB MBR drives, but with the sector size set as 4096 KB instead of 512 KB?!

Linux can handle GPT. That is unrelated to how the bootloader managed to start it. So yes, if your u-boot doesn't support GPT and you use a single MBR disk to load Linux, Linux will be able to use GPT on the other disks.
Probably it can even use GPT on the MBR disk, if you create a hybrid partition table.

Quote

If the box cannot handle GPT, can I use 4+ TB MBR drives, but with the sector size set as 4096 KB instead of 512 KB?!

How do you set that sector size?
And I don't know much about the internals of u-boot, but I wouldn't be surprised if it can't handle sector sizes different from 512 bytes.

> Linux can handle GPT. That is unrelated to how the
> bootloader managed to start it. So yes, if your
> u-boot doesn't support GPT and you use a single
> MBR disk to load Linux, Linux will be able to use
> GPT on the other disks.

+1.

And you can also store the rootfs on the large GPT disk. The MBR disk could contain only kernel files, and then the rootfs can be on the other GPT disk. But to keep it simple, store the entire rootfs on the MBR disk, since you've already dedicate a large disk for booting and so might as well use it for running the system.

> Probably it can even use GPT on the MBR disk, if
> you create a hybrid partition table.

I would not use hybrid. Too cumbersome. But it will work.

>

Quote

If the box cannot handle GPT, can I use 4+
> TB MBR drives, but with the sector size set as
> 4096 KB instead of 512 KB?!

> How do you set that sector size?
> And I don't know much about the internals of
> u-boot, but I wouldn't be surprised if it can't
> handle sector sizes different from 512 bytes.

With stock u-boot, use 512-byte sector size. IIRC, modern u-boot can work with 4096-byte sector.

-bodhi
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Mijzelf Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Linux can handle GPT. That is unrelated to how the
> bootloader managed to start it. So yes, if your
> u-boot doesn't support GPT and you use a single
> MBR disk to load Linux, Linux will be able to use
> GPT on the other disks.

@Mijzelf, @bodhi,

Thanks, guys! I found that my unit has no serial console header, so I ordered one and will solder it sometime next week. The idea is to use 160 GB MBR disk (the smallest I have) as drive1 to install and boot Debian from. I will use (or at least try to) 6 TB disks for drives2-4, so I hope to utilize about 18 TB of RAID0 storage space.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2024 12:17PM by metodi.

I suggest you to consider to create 3 6TB volumes instead. Apart from having one big volume raid0 has no advantages here. It won't be faster, as the NIC is the bottleneck, and not the raw throughput of a single disk. But it has disadvantages. A single disk failing will kill all your data, and all disks will have to spin up to access the volume.

I have an issue with the serial console and I'm not getting any readings from the device. When pludgged in, the adabper's LED starts blinking, as it is connecting and transfering data, but the terminal stays silent?! I have double and triple checked tha soldering on the ix4, and test the adapter on another device (the NETGER NAS, this topic was initiated for). Soldering looks fine, and the UART is working on the NG device. Is there any way, other than UART to flash uboot/Debian to that device?

metodi,

> Is there
> any way, other than UART to flash uboot/Debian to
> that device?

Unfortunately, there is no safe way to run Debian rootfs on the ix4-200d without serial console.

-bodhi
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