Unfortunately no one can be told what fun_plug is - you have to see it for yourself.
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I have received some write errors on one of my disks.. The disk is brand new, so maybe it was just some network errors.. i'm not sure.. Could somebody explain in (simple) steps how to do a disk check?.. Do i need to install a custom firmware?.. And what are the risks involved? I have revision B of the DNS-323 btw.
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Do you have telnet or ffp installed? If so, have a look at this
http://www.inreto.de/dns323/fsck/
This boots a custom linux image, but when you reset/power off the unit it will return to your current setup, i.e. it will fix a disk or two but make no permanent changes to the unit's firmware etc.
There are other ways of doing this - usually involving a modified/custom fun_plug but they all use e2fsck (the disk check program). If you search the forum for e2fsck you will find lots of threads on this.
I have no idea what the differences are between revA & B of the hardware, or if this is relevant though...
lu
PS. what is your disk configuration - 2 seperate drives, raid, jbod?
Last edited by luusac (2008-09-10 02:00:15)
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what is ffp?.. or do you mean ftp?.. anyways i think i need to replace the drive, because i just received this email:
"Hello Administrator,
Right Hard Drive Has Failed
Sincerely,
Your DNS-323"
and the light went from blue to red.. so i guess it's no good.. although if i reboot i can still access the drive and read from it.
what i need to know is the SMART status of the drive so i can RMA it.. too bad the web control panel doesn't have any disk checking features whatsoever.. it's something you would expect from this kind of equipment tbh.
I'm a bit wary of flashing with custom firmware, because it doesn't say if it is for Rev A or B.
disk configuration is separate drives
Last edited by BuckyBoy (2008-09-11 16:06:23)
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The drive may not be bad. The DNS does occasionally make erroneous drive failure conclusions.
As for ffp, it is a compalation of programs put together by fonz that allow extended capabilities of the unit. It is not firmware and it does not interfere with flash. The software is placed on the hard drive and is run from there. If you don't want it anymore, you simply delete it. The biggest advantage of ffp is that you can telnet into the DNS to get a shell prompt. From here, it is like you are sitting right at a computer and can do pretty much whatever you like. This allows you to run other programs, change setups, and run diagnostics.
For example, in a RAID1 array, getting a degraded (failed) disk message is not too uncommon. Most cases, the disk is fine and it is an error in the way the DNS's firmware checks for failures. A simple fix for this is to use mdadm (the software raid configureation program) to remove and then add the drive back into the array. This will cause it to sync all the data again (takes a couple of hours) and will take care of things. Of course, in a real drive failure, this won't work. Another thing that can be run is e2fsck, wich is the filesystem checking utility.
I would be cautious of any custom firmware, because you don't know if it will work or brick the unit. As for firmwares, though, Rev. A and Rev B make no difference for the DNS; the firmware is the same for both hardware revisions.
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ok thanks, i understand now how it works.. but i'm still not sure if i should do this, because i just read the following about telnet installation:
"I like this method better than running as fun_plug since the latter causes the FS not to be cleanly umounted, leading to filesystem corruption over time. Dlink's firmware is really crappy, and doesn't check the filesystem. I have informed Dlink about this fact."
so i really don't want filesystem corruption.. i'm using the DNS-323 for backups.
perhaps i should consider using the custom firmware for telnet access?.. has anyone tried this on a Rev B DNS-323?.. is it really safe?.. I'm talking about this firmware btw: http://pedro.larroy.com/files/FrodoII-firmware
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if you use the fsck from the linux image that fonz has provided (see the link in my first post) none of the drives will be mounted when you check the fs - this method is really easy, the others may or may not require a little configuring to get right. If you don't want to use 'stand-alone' telnet or ffp telnet the rest of the time all you need to do is rename the "fun_plug" file to something else then telnet won't run - the dns323 will operate in a 'just out of the box' mode. Personally I have ffp 0.5 on a usb stick plugged into the back of the dns323 and so telnet etc are not actually run from the hdd anyway.
lu
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That is not true that fun_plug causes the system to not be cleanly unmounted. I have had my unit for several years and have never had a corrupted filesystem when I check it. Next, is a custom firmwar safe? Define safe. It is a reletive term relating to the risk you are willing to accept. People have briked their units installing stock Dlink firmware. I recently had this happen to me on a DLink router. Here is the big difference: If you brick the unit flashing a custom firmware, then you will own a brick; DLink will not cover it under a warranty. The great advantage of fun_plug is that it is stored external to the unit. You can just take out the disk or erase it and it is gone. Next, do you know the guy who wrote the custom firmware? Do you personally know anyone who has this installed? It comes down to a trust issue. Do YOU trust the guy who wrote this enough to risk the price of your DNS?
By the way, you can use fun_plug to run telnet off the ram disk, too. All you have to do is have fun_plug copy the files to the ramdisk and then execute them from there.
Last edited by bq041 (2008-09-12 17:27:44)
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so i did the e2fsck and the disk has indeed bad sectors and read problems.. the other disk is fine.. so the DNS-323 was right after all. :-).. time to RMA.
thanks for help, guys!
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