DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

jcard wrote:

-support for rev-C1 boards through backported 2.6.36 patch

Hi. I have a C1 board. What do you mean by backport? Could you provide me with a link for this?

Thanks.

I'm not much of a Linux guy, but does your firmware support the new 4K drives? (since you managed to update the kernal, if I'm reading that right).

Even if you don't support 4k sectors automatically, one cool feature would be to allow the user to input the start sectors for each drive and partition when formatting them. That way, the user could ensure that they are aligned for 4K sectors. For me, personally, getting 4K support in a RAID setup is very important.

congee wrote:

I'm not much of a Linux guy, but does your firmware support the new 4K drives? (since you managed to update the kernal, if I'm reading that right).

Even if you don't support 4k sectors automatically, one cool feature would be to allow the user to input the start sectors for each drive and partition when formatting them. That way, the user could ensure that they are aligned for 4K sectors. For me, personally, getting 4K support in a RAID setup is very important.

0.1B6 aligns partitions on 4K boundaries (and size) by default, regardless of the disk capabilities (as it seems to exist some difficulties detecting such drives -- I have no AF drives).

Standard disks don't suffer for this, and AF disks can benefit. I read a few credible reports saying that write speed can be degraded up to 30%)

jcard wrote:

0.1B6 aligns partitions on 4K boundaries (and size) by default, regardless of the disk capabilities.

This alone just sold me on the custom firmware.  A couple of days ago I saw the WD20EARS for $81 while the WD20EADS was $119!  Once 0.1B6 is released, I can use the EARS drives without slowing degrading performance.

thomasO wrote:

i currenty use fun_plug/ffp.

I wanted to test altf4 and copied tar and fun_plug (renamed to altf4.sh) to the device (hd_a2) next to the fun_plug file

after I start the shell I can not access any longer the dns323...

the tar ball was extracted though

whats wrong?

Without further details, I'm afraid that I can't help you.

What you mean by "I can not access any longer the dns323"? Is it dead? Did you reboot the box? How long did you waited after executing the "altf4.sh"? How did you tried to establish contact with the box? Are you using DHCP or a fixed IP? Are you using RAID? What level? What hardware board revision is your box?  What is the vendors firmware version the box is running? Did a alt-f log file exists? What is its contents? Did you tried it after a fresh reboot? Have you stopped all running ffp and box services? Have you tried to download the files  again and repeating the procedure from the start? Have you read the wiki?

I'm sorry...

jcard wrote:

Without further details, I'm afraid that I can't help you.
...
I'm sorry...

ok i understand.. well I probably did not read every page of the wiki.

i started the script manually (no reboot). i waited a couple of minutes. only one HD in dns323. rev b1 hardware. fw updated to 1.08.

the "button led" keeps blinking and i can not access via telnet or webadmin. I can ping the box.

looking at the log below the script seems to have problmes to be fully executed? what could be the reason for that? well ok i could just rename the sceript to fun_plug, but i worry that a problem will not go away and that i dont have access to my box afterwards.

thanks!

log content:

Stopping lighttpd
WARNING: minidlna: Not running
Stopping telnetd
Stopping transmission-daemon
$Shutting down SMB services: 
$Shutting down NMB services: 
PID   USER     COMMAND
    1 root     init                                
    2 root     [ksoftirqd/0]
    3 root     [events/0]
    4 root     [khelper]
    5 root     [kthread]
   11 root     [kblockd/0]
   14 root     [khubd]
   49 root     [pdflush]
   50 root     [pdflush]
   52 root     [aio/0]
  189 root     [scsi_eh_0]
   51 root     [kswapd0]
  190 root     [scsi_eh_1]
  197 root     [mtdblockd]
  214 root     [kcryptd/0]
  215 root     [kmirrord/0]
  228 root     [loop0]
 1486 root     chkbutton 
 1544 root     fancontrol 0 
 1560 root     -sh 
 1832 root     /ffp/bin/sh 
 1860 root     /bin/sh ./altf.sh 
 2039 root     ps 
              total         used         free       shared      buffers
  Mem:        61812        36688        25124            0        14116
 Swap:       530104            0       530104
Total:       591916        36688       555228

thomasO wrote:

jcard wrote:

Without further details, I'm afraid that I can't help you.
...
I'm sorry...

ok i understand.. well I probably did not read every page of the wiki.

i started the script manually (no reboot). i waited a couple of minutes. only one HD in dns323. rev b1 hardware. fw updated to 1.08.

the "button led" keeps blinking and i can not access via telnet or webadmin. I can ping the box.

looking at the log below the script seems to have problmes to be fully executed? what could be the reason for that? well ok i could just rename the sceript to fun_plug, but i worry that a problem will not go away and that i dont have access to my box afterwards.

thanks!

Thanks.

Although it shouldn't matter, is your disk on the right or left bay?
Have you tried a 2nd time, right after a reboot? You will have to change the altf4.sh permissions to executable (chmod +x altf4.sh)

From the posted log, no extraneous processes where running, and enough memory was available for the reloading process.

1-As you say that the "button led" keeps blinking, it means that the new kernel was reloaded and had booted; but the fact that the led did not stop blinking means that the root filesystem init script did not run.

2-The fact that you could ping the box also means that the kernel ip autoconfiguration was successful.

I have no idea what was wrong... had someone the need to do something special?
Similar symptoms?
Has someone succeeded?

Hi Jcard,

I haven't yet tried alt-f but thanks in advance for the tremendous work.  Does alt-f support any type of firewall such as iptables? I would like to use this directly connected to the internet, but a test with the regular firmware was compromised within one hour!

thomasO wrote:

Thanks for your feedback.

So the log file is from the last moment before the new kernel was loaded?

Yes, it is not possible to store the kernel boot messages if booting does not succeed, as there are no disks where to store the messages.
And to see the boot sequence messages you need a serial port.

HD is on the right side. I tried it a few more times..

Ah! an instant of inspiration... you said that the power led keeps blinking.
Exactly how? A rapid but constant blink rate, or as a fast heartbeat rate?

When Alt-F mounts filesystems, which it does at boot time or when a disk or usb pen/disk is inserted,
it does a filesystem check and repair (fsck); while it does it, the blue power led blinks with at a fast heartbeat rate. And booting stops while this happens (yes, I know, but it is a feature, not a bug

If you don't use fonz reloaded fsck to clean your filesystems (or my own clean boot script posted some time ago), then your disks are very likely "dirty", and they will be checked. This might take a long time, depending on the disk size.

Please try again and if the power led blink rate is more like a fast heartbeat, please wait a couple of tens of minutes, depending on your disk size.
This process took 5 minutes to accomplish on an almost empty (3 used GB) out of a 230GB USB disk.

I had forgot this feature... and it might explain why some people thinks that the boot process has failed!

Maybe I need to rename the script to fun_plug and give it a try. hmm.

It should make no difference.

Thanks

Hej Jcard,

Finally got alt-f working.  Seems I was having memory problems.  The last thing I did before it worked was turning off a few services within the dlink firmware, upnp and itunes server, and I removed the bonjour add-on as well, I think this last could have been the issue.  Anyway, then it worked, repeatably.  It's the reloaded I was doing.

Very nice, thanks for all the hard work.  Why aren't those clowns at Dlink hiring you to do this stuff for their products?

I'd like to get it running on every boot now, and I'm not certain what the best way to do this is.  I'm figuring I'll play it safe and not flash the firmware just now and instead use the reloaded each time.

I've got a B1 board with ffp.  So my question is...

Do I just replace the existing fun_plug script with the alt_f fun_plug?  Or should I let the normal ffp run, and put the alt_f script in the start folder of ffp and let it do the reloaded thing after ffp has got going?

Cheers

Haim

haim wrote:

Hej Jcard,

Finally got alt-f working.  Seems I was having memory problems.  The last thing I did before it worked was turning off a few services within the dlink firmware, upnp and itunes server, and I removed the bonjour add-on as well, I think this last could have been the issue.  Anyway, then it worked, repeatably.  It's the reloaded I was doing.

Excelent!

Did you examine the alt-reloaded.log file from the unsuccessful reloads? Was there suspicious process listed in the ps command? I try to terminate all processes but the fan controller.

What was the box behaviour when failing? No pings? no power/disk leds blinking? No alt-f.log file?

All hints are welcome, to help other users succeed.

I also think that Alt-F has potentialities, but I'm a bit disappointed with the lack of reports and the the meager download figures...

Very nice, thanks for all the hard work.  Why aren't those clowns at Dlink hiring you to do this stuff for their products?

I'd like to get it running on every boot now, and I'm not certain what the best way to do this is.  I'm figuring I'll play it safe and not flash the firmware just now and instead use the reloaded each time.

I've got a B1 board with ffp.  So my question is...

Do I just replace the existing fun_plug script with the alt_f fun_plug?  Or should I let the normal ffp run, and put the alt_f script in the start folder of ffp and let it do the reloaded thing after ffp has got going?

Cheers

Haim

When Alt-F detects and mounts a disk or pen partition, if a directory called ffp exists, then a link is created and "/ffp/etc/rc start" is executed, and ffp binaries (and packages) can be used.
Alt-F even has a ffp "Packager Manager".
However, Alt-F binaries have precedence over ffp, and you should disable all not needed ffp services, to avoid conflicts.

So, it is safe to use the provided Alt-F fun_plug by default, but remember to comment the ONCE line on it, near the top, otherwise it will only work once :-)

Last edited by jcard (2010-11-13 22:24:53)

Thanks for the quick reply.

I had tried popping a nameserver in, the one for my ISP.  Now I've tried with both of the ISP's nameservers, 1 and 2.  Didn't work.
So I gave googles public nameservers a try, and it worked   So thats nicely solved.  Bit surprised my ISP's didn't work, but hey.

Re: the original booting problem.

The alt_reloaded log was being created, and not the alt_f.log.  I had posted the reloaded log to you before some time ago and you suggested it looked ok and memory was ok, but it must have been on the edge.
The box was dropping off the network, couldn't ping.  Holding in the power button did nothing at all, so had to pull the plug.

I don't know if the process was showing up in ps.  It was a dlink supplied plugin, for bonjour service.  Could be worth suggesting people remove any dlink plugins, but I'm not sure many people would be using them anyway, there are only a few and most things are better served using a ffp package.

Good that you posted about fsck running and the heart beat flashing power button, as when that started I knew it was working   That ran for a while and then all was ok.

Yeah, a bit odd more people are interested, I would have thought those who were already running ffp would be pretty keen as this seems like the way forward.  But perhaps those who have their boxes set up how they want them don't want to muck around with it any more.

Right, I'll see if I can get it running every boot now, and pop some packages in too.

Cheers again