Hi everyone,
As some may know, I recently tinkered on the Synology DS216 and managed to get Debian up and running on it. I also own a Synology DS214 but I didn't do much on it until now as i was unable to get the UART interface to work, until I got it to...
UART TTL
Someone already got Debian to run on the DS214
here and properly described the UART interface pinout. It happens to be similar to the DS216 UART pinout.
However, in my unit, following those instructions led to nothing. Indeed, it happens that
my DS214 won't boot if TX or RX is plugged in the header before powering on the unit.
This is a very strange behavior and it's truly annoying .
I was about to give up on this box when I discovered this, and then I found a note about it in the DS214 DTS...
I think that the DS214 Debian install guide post should be edited, as someone obviously wants to get a working serial console before digging into the DTS.
U-BOOT
With that said, let's dive to the core of the subject: u-boot.
As described
here, the stock u-boot is terrible and being unable to saveenv is just infuriating. I also think that compiling the stock u-boot from source each time I want to make persistent edits to the environment isn't a great solution at all.
So here I am, tossing a bottle into the sea in the hope that someone could help me compile a mainline u-boot for this box.
I think I gathered many useful logs I attached to this post. Sadly the stock u-boot GPL tarball seems no longer available...
DDR
Unlike what has been said before, this unit isn't hard to tear down at all once you know what to do. The enclosure is exactly the same on the DS216 and probably other Synology hot swap boxes, so I may post a guide about this later.
My unit has two Samsung K4B2G1646Q-BCK0 RAM chips soldered on board (I found exactly the same two chips on my DS216 unit).
Those are 256MB DDR3 1600Mhz capable chips, but as the attached stock bootlog shows, those are run at 1066Mhz in the DS214 even though the MV78230 SoC is 1600Mhz capable.
Thanks for your help,
Robin.
Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2024 08:11AM by Robin.