NSA325 flashing questions

Hello,

I bought a couple of 4TB WD disks for my NSA325, which I want to use in RAID 1 and decided that it's a good time to make the box more configurable by either installing a proper Linux distribution or something like Open Media Vault / OpenWRT. Essentially I'd like to have a web interface for common setup + SSH console and access to package repository for fine tuning. Recommendations about such interface are welcome.

As I understand, the first step for that is to upgrade U-Boot. I have some questions about this process.

1. If I upgrade U-Boot according to instruction, will it be possible to use manufacturer's system / interface as a backup option?
2. Where should new system be installed - USB flash drive or some HDD partition?
3. I have a bad block at NAND (Bad eraseblock 162 at 0x000001440000) - how problematic is it?
4. Considering the note from instruction:
   

   Quote
   bodhi
   Note: for boxes such as Pogo V4 and Zyxel NSA3xx, the mtd partition definition are kept the same as stock definition, therefore is different from the one above.

   - should I type "mtd1" everywhere instead of "mtd0"? The output of the appropriate commands from step 1 is below.

cat /etc/fw_env.config

# Configuration file for fw_(printenv/saveenv) utility.
# Up to two entries are valid, in this case the redundand
# environment sector is assumed present.
# Notice, that the "Number of sectors" is ignored on NOR.

# MTD device name       Device offset   Env. size       Flash sector size       Number of sectors
# NAND example
/dev/mtd1               0x0000          0x20000         0x20000                 4

cat /proc/mtd

dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00100000 00020000 "uboot"
mtd1: 00080000 00020000 "uboot_env"
mtd2: 00080000 00020000 "key_store"
mtd3: 00080000 00020000 "info"
mtd4: 00a00000 00020000 "etc"
mtd5: 00a00000 00020000 "kernel_1"
mtd6: 02fc0000 00020000 "rootfs1"
mtd7: 00a00000 00020000 "kernel_2"
mtd8: 02fc0000 00020000 "rootfs2"

Thanks in advance!

odmink0,

> As I understand, the first step for that is to
> upgrade U-Boot. I have some questions about this
> process.
>
> [*] If I upgrade U-Boot according to
> instruction,
> will it be possible to use manufacturer's system /
> interface as a backup option?

No, after you installed new u-boot for the NSA325, you will no longer able to boot stock OS on NAND.


> [*] Where should new system be installed - USB
> flash drive or some HDD partition?

If you use RAID, I'd recommend installing the rootfs on USB.

> [*] I have a bad block at NAND (Bad eraseblock 162
> at 0x000001440000) - how problematic is it?

Not a problem.

> [*] Considering the note from instruction:
>

Quote
bodhi
> Note: for boxes such as Pogo V4 and Zyxel NSA3xx,
> the mtd partition definition are kept the same as
> stock definition, therefore is different from the
> one above.
>

- should I type "mtd1" everywhere instead
> of "mtd0"? The output of the appropriate commands
> from step 1 is below.
> [/list]
>


Eventhough the mtdparts definition is the same as stock, you still need to use the new /etc/fw_env.config, which is

cat /etc/fw_env.config

# MTD device name	Device offset	Env. size	Flash sector size	Number of sectors 
/dev/mtd0 0xc0000 0x20000 0x20000

Basically, the stock envs on mtd1 are untouched by the installation. The new envs for new u-boot is at 0xc0000 on mtd0 (this is the same for all my Kirkwood boxes u-boots).

The reason behind it is to unify all Kirkwood u-boots envs at the same and best location on mdt0. And preserved the Zyxel NSA32x boxes all mtds except mtd0, so that in the future (when I have time to work on), we can boot stock OS.

> cat /proc/mtd

> dev:    size   erasesize  name
> mtd0: 00100000 00020000 "uboot"
> mtd1: 00080000 00020000 "uboot_env"
> mtd2: 00080000 00020000 "key_store"
> mtd3: 00080000 00020000 "info"
> mtd4: 00a00000 00020000 "etc"
> mtd5: 00a00000 00020000 "kernel_1"
> mtd6: 02fc0000 00020000 "rootfs1"
> mtd7: 00a00000 00020000 "kernel_2"
> mtd8: 02fc0000 00020000 "rootfs2"
>

The above is correct.

-bodhi
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2019 12:26AM by bodhi.

bodhi,

Many thanks for the answers - I managed to update U-Boot, installed working system to flash drive (with 4.12.1 kernel for the time being) and installed OpenMediaVault on it - trying to configure it now.