Lenovo Iomega ix2 Network Storage 2-Bay

I have seen the following device for sale on the bay of fleas.

does the community have any experience of hacking the uboot and or running debian on it?

is it considered doable?

is it already covered by one of the other kirkwood boxes?

Product description
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/servers/network-storage/lenovoemc/ix2/index.html

Chipset Information
https://origin-www.marvell.com/embedded-processors/kirkwood/

Cheers

I do not see anyone has hacked it to put in new uboot or OS yet, but it can be rooted and someone has hacked inside to serial port booting and the video posted shows the full boot including being able to interrupt uboot (although they did not).

@Gravelrash,

> is it already covered by one of the other kirkwood
> boxes?
>

Yes. You can run the current 4.0.0-kirkwood-tld-2, it should work.

ll /boot/dts | grep iomega
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12060 Apr 30 14:23 kirkwood-iomega_ix2_200.dtb

As for u-boot, I will have to look at it closer to see if there is an existing kirkwood u-boot that close to this box. That, plus the GPL source code would be almost enough info to build new u-boot. If you got the the box, the first thing you should try is get in with serial console or ssh and dump stock u-boot and then try UART booting wiht it.

-bodhi
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According to the serial bootlog, the ix2-200 is 88F6281, similar to the iConnect. I think we could try UART booting this box using the existing iConnect u-boot.

-bodhi
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Thanks. I will stick a bid in and see if I get lucky

Some earlier attempts:

No serial output from kernel on Iomega ix2-dl(ng)

megov - I've tried UART boot via kwboot on Lenovo/Iomega ix2-dl - but without success. :/

LeggoMyEggo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Some earlier attempts:
>
> No
> serial output from kernel on Iomega
> ix2-dl(ng)
>
It's a different version of the Iomega ix2. The above is ix2-dl, which I believe has a different Marvell SoC (88F6282), the i2-200 is a cheaper version with 88F6281. This ix2-200 is more like the iConnect than its own ix2-xx cousin.

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Must be wishful thinking on my part, the IX2-dl is available new for $60.00 shipped on Amazon. It's got the 1.6Ghz processor and 256MB of RAM. No USB 3.0 or ESATA though. But otherwise would make a pretty nicely performing cheap Debian Server and 2 bay NAS. Did I say it's $60 shipped? That's cheaper than a Raspberry Pi with two external enclosures if that is any measure.

Edit: @gravelrash - Looks like there might be a couple different models of these, one perhaps simply a rebranded IX2-200 (when Lenovo first acquired Iomega) and the model I refer to the IX2-dl which must have been introduced later after the acquisition. Having shopped for cheap NAS's before (but none bought because of budget), I learned you have to be really careful with what you buy as it might depend on the version i.e. V1,V2,etc whether you get a better processor or more RAM or USB 3.0. In other words, you really have to pay attention to the model number.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2015 12:03AM by LeggoMyEggo.

Leggo,

Yup. It is a very good price for a diskless 1.6GHz 2-bay SATA NAS with 256MB. OTOH, the rPi is a different beast, with graphic/HDMI as the main capability (which make it a media player or mini PC, not a NAS). So I would never use the rPi as a NAS, especially with 100Mbs ethernet.

-bodhi
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2015 05:29AM by bodhi.

@all
Thankyo all for the feedback and information around this and it's cousins. Should I be successful in winning this I intend to use it as a nas so if it doesn't get the 'Debian treatment' its no biggy. If it can have be debianed then fun awaits :-)

bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Leggo,
>
> Yup. It is a very good price for a diskless 1.6GHz
> 2-bay SATA NAS with 256MB. OTOH, the rPi is a
> different beast, with graphic/HDMI as the main
> capability (which make it a media player or mini
> PC, not a NAS). So I would never use the rPi as a
> NAS, especially with 100Mbs ethernet.

Yes using a Pi as a NAS is not optimal but lots of people do it. Plus it's the universal point of comparison device.

Having researched this quite a bit, IMO the best bang for the buck 2 Bay hackable NAS is the ReadyNAS 102. See the write up here:

Tear Down and Debianizing the ReadyNAS 102

Leggo,

> Having researched this quite a bit, IMO the best
> bang for the buck 2 Bay hackable NAS is the
> ReadyNAS 102. See the write up here:
>
> Tear Down and
> Debianizing the ReadyNAS 102

I think the NSA325v2 is about the same as the ReadyNAS 102 (but 1 less USB 3.0 port), and less expensive. I've not done a side-by-side comparison but it seems they are not much different in term of specs?

-bodhi
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Another good beast for comparison. Is the HP t5325 .

Its a thin client but its got sata and graphics too along with the *21 chipset.

bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think the NSA325v2 is about the same as the
> ReadyNAS 102 (but 1 less USB 3.0 port), and less
> expensive. I've not done a side-by-side comparison
> but it seems they are not much different in term
> of specs?

Over at Amazon (at least today LOL), the RN102 is $25 cheaper new than the NAS325v2. Not sure what the previously owned (i.e. eBay, Craigslist, etc) market looks like.

if only things were this cheap and plentiful this side of the pond...... ah well...

Gravelrash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> if only things were this cheap and plentiful this
> side of the pond...... ah well...

It's all relative - I don't have enough money to purchase either one so what difference does it make if it's cheaper over here..........Sigh.

Edit: I opened my big mouth.....this morning the RN102 was ~$127ish which it's been for the longest time, this evening it's $168. So much for a good deal :(

NETGEAR ReadyNAS 102 2-Bay Diskless Network Attached Storage (RN10200-100NAS)
by Netgear
151 customer reviews | 54 answered questions
List Price: $229.99
Price: $167.94 & FREE Shipping. Details
You Save: $62.05 (27%)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2015 04:01PM by LeggoMyEggo.

I thought the NSA325V2 is a little less expensive whenever I looked. But if this RN 102 is $127 at one point then it is indeed a better price. The NSA325V2 was about US$ 135-145 at the lowest.

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Just to cap the original post.....someone beat me by one whole English pound...

I got the "old one" ix2-200 with 1,0 GHz CPU.
Debian is running fine, but I think there is something wrong with the DTB.
The box has only one LAN port but the kernel recognizes two.

[    0.000000] Linux version 4.2.0-kirkwood-tld-1 (root@tldDebian) (gcc version 4.9.2 (Debian 4.9.2-10) ) #1 PREEMPT Mon Aug 31 23:12:00 PDT 
2015
[    0.000000] CPU: Feroceon 88FR131 [56251311] revision 1 (ARMv5TE), cr=0005397f
[    0.000000] CPU: VIVT data cache, VIVT instruction cache
[    0.000000] Machine model: Iomega StorCenter ix2-200
...
...
[    0.171131] [Firmware Info]: /ocp@f1000000/ethernet-controller@72000/ethernet0-port@0: local-mac-address is not set
[    0.171257] [Firmware Info]: /ocp@f1000000/ethernet-controller@76000/ethernet1-port@0: local-mac-address is not set

The default "eth0" device doesn't get an ip adress and setting things manually doesn't help

[   19.219442] mv643xx_eth_port mv643xx_eth_port.0 eth0: link up, 1000 Mb/s, full duplex, flow control disabled
[....] Configuring network interfaces...Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.3.1
Copyright 2004-2014 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth0/00:d0:b8:11:c6:61
Sending on   LPF/eth0/00:d0:b8:11:c6:61
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 9
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

bringing up "eth1" is working fine, so my solution atm is to bring eth1 up at boot, not eth0

I tried UART booting with this device, but the upload doesn't even start.

The other device mentioned here is the "ix2-dl", another interesting device but it has less usb ports.
and no USB 3.0 compared to the NSA325 (v2)

@pengu,

What? you have the iomega ix2-200, too? are you opening a shop ? :) do you need a contracted consultant? :))

The mainline ix2-200 DTS is defined with 2 ethernet ports. Perhaps you have a slightly different version of this box.

-bodhi
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@pengu,

Pls post the serial bootlog in Debian forum with new topic "Debian on ix2-200...".

-bodhi
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done :-)