Need some help from a Linux Guru

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Fritz

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Apr 6, 2015
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I'm dumb as a rock when it comes to Linux. :(

I have a Lenovo / Iomega iX2 NAS that I'm trying to resurrect. I'm starting out with 2 empty HDs so I need to install the Linux based OS on one of the drives. As I understand it, the bootloader is in firmware and the OS is on the HD. I've found instructions on how to do this but unfortunately they are as clear as mud to me. Thet create more questions than answers. No doubt this is because they assume I'm familiar with Linux but unfortunately I am not. I have taken the first step towards getting there by installing Ubuntu on a computer and it's up and running.

The instructions for what I'm trying to accomplish are here -

Install firmware on a fresh disk (EZ Media & ix2-ng) - NAS-Central Iomega Wiki

For starters, what exactly do I need to download and why? Do I need both or just one?

Next step "Extract the file to a FAT formatted USB stick, of at least 1GB." What file might that be? there are several files in each zip and I have no clue as to which one I need to put on the flash drive. :confused:

If someone could help me get rolling I would be forever grateful. :)
 

Continuum

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The instructions are not overly clear. Looking over the instructions, here is my interpretation. You likely need only the zip file that corresponds to your model. After downloading the appropriate file, you unzip the archive to a USB disk

user@computer:$ unzip ix2-ng-4.0.2.9960-recover.zip /path/to/usb

change the directory to /path/to/usb/emctools/ix2-ng_images

Extract the files in the images.tgz

user@computer:$ tar -xvf imager.tgz

Put Zimage and initrd onto the NAS's hardrive

****WARNING****Double check the path to the NAS Harddrive below. dd will glad overwrite any device or file. This can be very bad if the wrong device is specified!

user@computer:$ dd if=/path/to/usb/ecmtools/ix2-ng_images/zImage of=/path/to/NASharddrive seek=2048
user@computer:$ dd if=/path/to/usb/ecmtools/ix2-ng_images/initrd of=/path/to/NASharddrive seek=8192

You may need to perform the above two commands as root or using sudo.

Eject or umount the USB and NASHarddrive. Plug both into the NAS and boot the NAS.

user@computer:$ umount /path/to/usb

Hope this helps.
 
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Fritz

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Last edited:

ttabbal

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By using dd, you write raw sectors. It doesn't matter if your drive is formatted, it just writes where you tell it to. Be absolutely certain which device you specify. If you are wrong, dd will nuke any drive without warning.

Lsblk will list block devices the system can see. You can use fdisk -l /dev/sda as an example, to display the partition table to make sure it's not an important drive. If smartmontools is available, you can get drive serial numbers and such from there.
 
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Fritz

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I'm extracting zImage and initrd in Windows using WinRAR 64bit. Is this ok?
 

Continuum

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That will likely be OK. The archive just needs to be unpacked. How you do that should not make a difference.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
 

Fritz

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Just put the extracted file into the root of the USB Drive and Ubuntu claimed it couldn't find the file....
Never mind. Think I read the I as an l.
 

Fritz

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I'm slowly but surely stumbling through it. Next step is to put the drive in the NAS along with the USB Drive and then pray. Linux will never become a household OS. :confused:
 

ttabbal

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To be fair, you're hacking on an embedded system that just happens to run Linux. Linux setups for desktop/laptop machines have nice installers that walk you though it, much like Windows. The manufacturer could have written at least a shell script for you to do this, but they chose not to.
 

Fritz

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I actually bought this NAS for the HD's in it. It was a good bit cheaper than the HD's alone. I planned to do what I'm now doing tho. I know of no other NAS that works this way. My Synology, which I just sold was easy peazy. Just put the drives in and it's automatic from there. I also have a couple of low end Zyxel NSA310's that are also this way, no hacking required, just put the drive in it, turn it on and then wait for it to show up on the network. One things for sure, this is my first and last Lenovo NAS.
 

Fritz

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put the drives in the NAS, plugged inthe USB drive and powered it up. After about 10 seconds the light changes fron white to red with no USB drive activity. I'm done for today. I'll pick up where I left off tomorrow.