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Post by kniteowl on May 19, 2008 12:07:12 GMT 7
Hi teng, I had changed the first boot device to USB-HD, but I cannot success to use the "factory reset.sh" to rebuild the OS. Could you let me know other suggestion to reinstall the OS? If using the factory reset.sh, you do NOT need to use a bootable USB, as I stated in the previous post, the USB is not setup to boot at all, it is setup to boot from the internal hard disk (flash). To use this script, your N5200 MUST still be bootable from the internal Hard disk (flash). During the normal boot process, there is a process that checks for all connected USB devices and if it finds one that has the factory reset.sh file on it with the firmware file, then it loads that before doing anything. This however does not work if your flash is dead, or your firmware on the system is broken to the point that it no longer boots. From your statement above, I would guess that you have added the VGA Header and possibly the Keyboard/Mouse also. If this is the case and you are able to set the USB to bootable, you will need two things to fix the system. This is if nothing is wrong with the flash drive, other than the fact that the firmware is totally broken. Boot the system with a monitor attached and see what appears, if the flash drive is booting, but crash somewhere, then it would be a good sign that the flash is still good and fixable. *** Note: If you have data on your RAID already and want to keep them safe, unplug your drives from the system before performing these steps. Once completed, you can put your drives back in. 1. You will need to format your USB drive as bootable, I normally prefer a Linux system for this, but you can use DOS if you prefer. Google Bootable USB and you will find many ways to make a bootable thumb drive. 2. Next, you will need to copy over an image of a working firmware onto the USB device. Jaysung said he had one already, you might send him a message to see if he can give it to you, if not, let me know and when I get home, I can dump a copy of mine. May take me a week or so to get this though. 3. Boot from the USB device and using a program like "dd" or "physwrite" (again, google is your friend here) write the image from your USB device to the internal flash. 4. Remove the USB device and reboot the system, if all goes well, you will be back up and you can make all your personal settings, then shutdown again and plug in all your drives and you should be all set. Teng
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Post by psyentific on May 22, 2008 3:41:45 GMT 7
Yes, I think I didn't have the gender changer right; I will go get one of those 3.5 to 2.5 IDE converters you are talking about and try that.
Assuming I do get it to show up as a normal hard drive, can I just copy across the firmware and then expect the Thecus to boot up finally?
Anyone had any luck asking Thecus to send/sell them a new Afaya card with firmware already installed? Seems like that would be a relatively straightforward solution to a problem for them.
Thanks.
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Post by stanley on May 22, 2008 21:15:40 GMT 7
Hi Teng,
I installed the Fedora 9 to USB and can bootup the N5200, but I do not know how to use "physwrite" and where can I find the N5200 image file. Would you please help me?
Thank you! Stanley
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Post by kniteowl on May 28, 2008 11:01:17 GMT 7
Stanley,
If you are booting your USB with Fedora 9, then you don't need "physwrite", "physwrite" is only used, if you are in a DOS or Windows environment. You are in a Linux environment already, so you will be using "dd" instead. "dd" is in all Linux/Unix system already, so not need to search for it.
How much Linux do you know, as a starting point, as these commands WILL cause major problems if done incorrectly.
Of course, this is not the easiest way, but until there is an easier way, here is how you can recover if all else fails and you are no longer in the warranted period and you have the VGA header and keyboard installed.
The following requires a USB boot device that is formatted with some variant of Unix/Linux. Can be a CDRom drive, or a Thumb Drive, this can even be done with PXE if you happen to have a boot server available.
1. Format a USB drive so that is is bootable with some kind of Linux/Unix.
2. Get a copy of a disk image from a working N5200 or N5200pro, it does not matter, as both firmware are the same and it is at boot time that it decides which is which.
*** Anyone want to offer up a clean image? Mine has stuff loaded, so it would take me some time to strip off the stuff I don't want to include. If someone has a new one or one that they are blowing away and reseting to factory default, we would be all greatful if you are willing to share an image of your flash drive for the greater good of all users here ;D
Take a clean system, and create a new folder share. Install the SYSUSER and SSHD module, then connect up with PUTTY. Change to the share that you created using "cd /raid/data/<your share name here>". Once there, run the following command "dd if=/dev/hda of=./n5200-backup.img bs=1024" Copy the "n5200-backup.img" file to your local machine and we can discuss how to get this to those who need it. ***
3. Copy the image to the USB device, then boot the N5200 from the USB device.
4. Go to where you place the image file. For this example, we will say that it is in a folder called "n5200" off the root.
cd /n5200
5. overwrite the flash drive with the good image. For this example, the image is called "n5200-backup.img"
dd if=./n5200-backup.img of=/dev/hda bs=1024
6. power down the N5200 and remove your boot device, then power on the N5200 again. You should now be back up and running again.
Teng
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Post by stanley on Jun 1, 2008 13:31:34 GMT 7
Hi Teng, I cannot recover the flash disk, I would like to show you the attached print screen from the N5200. www.flickr.com/photos/stanley_ng/2540992302/1. I place the image file on Desktop "hda" 2. the 44pin flash disk mounted on /dev/sda1 3. how to Take a clean system, and create a new folder share. Install the SYSUSER and SSHD module, then connect up with PUTTY. Change to the share that you created using "cd /raid/data/<your share name here>". the command is dd if=./hda of=/dev/sda1 bs=1024 Could you let me know where I am wrong? thks! Stanley
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Post by stanley on Jun 1, 2008 20:12:51 GMT 7
Hi Teng/Jeronimo,
I just repaired my N5200, it can smooth running and I installed 1G DDR400. Thank you for your great help.
CHEERS!!! ;D
thks! Stanley
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Post by kniteowl on Jun 2, 2008 9:40:03 GMT 7
Glad that you got it working again.
Teng
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Post by psyentific on Jun 7, 2008 6:21:52 GMT 7
Can you tell us how you did it? Also, can someone post a known-good image of the flash "Afaya" card? Finally, I can't get the Afaya card to appear on my computer. My buddy (more technical than me) is over here with gender changers, converters, jumper cables, and still says he can't get Pin 1 to be in the right place. Is it really this hard? For those of you that got the flash card to mount on your PC as a drive, what *exactly* did you do? I'm thinking maybe mine is completely dead, which is why I can't get it to mount. Also, I talked to Thecus tech support some more and asked them to sell me a new Afaya card, and they said they'd talk to their US distributors. Nothing heard since. If you google Thecus distributors, you will find the US ones are AMAX and ASI - I may try calling them directly if I get desperate. Thanks, Cam Hi Teng/Jeronimo, I just repaired my N5200, it can smooth running and I installed 1G DDR400. Thank you for your great help. CHEERS!!! ;D thks! Stanley
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Post by stanley on Jun 8, 2008 12:43:08 GMT 7
please see my posted on next subject!!
if you cannot access the flash "Afaya" card, you can order from other manufactures. This is industrial standard of 100% compatible!!
or you can try to use the Linux OS "fdisk" and "format" the flash card. That might be ok!
Stanley
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Post by psyentific on Jun 18, 2008 11:17:28 GMT 7
The problem with reformattting the flash disk, or ordering a new one, is that I have to have a good image to put on it. Which I don't. Or do you just dump the firmware on there and that's it? I think I will do it the hard way and order a new Thecus, swap the card, and return it as defective. It's not like their support offered me any solutions... please see my posted on next subject!! if you cannot access the flash "Afaya" card, you can order from other manufactures. This is industrial standard of 100% compatible!! or you can try to use the Linux OS "fdisk" and "format" the flash card. That might be ok! Stanley
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Post by jaysung on Jun 20, 2008 3:37:25 GMT 7
Hello, for all who need an image of firmware 2.00.08 it can be found here: www.masterid.de/hdaWhen you encounter problems feel free to ask at info at the VERY same domain as stated in the link above. Sorry. Trying to keep spam to a minimum which does hardly work. Cheers Jeronimo PS.: Upload still going. Done within 40 minutes approx. Hope it will work.
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Post by mofomofo5 on Jul 4, 2008 2:35:00 GMT 7
1. Format a USB drive so that is is bootable with some kind of Linux/Unix. 2. Get a copy of a disk image from a working N5200 or N5200pro, it does not matter, as both firmware are the same and it is at boot time that it decides which is which. *** Anyone want to offer up a clean image? Mine has stuff loaded, so it would take me some time to strip off the stuff I don't want to include. If someone has a new one or one that they are blowing away and reseting to factory default, we would be all greatful if you are willing to share an image of your flash drive for the greater good of all users here ;D Take a clean system, and create a new folder share. Install the SYSUSER and SSHD module, then connect up with PUTTY. Change to the share that you created using "cd /raid/data/<your share name here>". Once there, run the following command "dd if=/dev/hda of=./n5200-backup.img bs=1024" Copy the "n5200-backup.img" file to your local machine and we can discuss how to get this to those who need it. *** 3. Copy the image to the USB device, then boot the N5200 from the USB device. 4. Go to where you place the image file. For this example, we will say that it is in a folder called "n5200" off the root. cd /n5200 5. overwrite the flash drive with the good image. For this example, the image is called "n5200-backup.img" dd if=./n5200-backup.img of=/dev/hda bs=1024 6. power down the N5200 and remove your boot device, then power on the N5200 again. You should now be back up and running again. Shouldn't it be possible to remove the Afaya DOM from the Thecus unit and connect it to a working PC and to image it? I haven't checked but I assume the DOM can be unplugged and connected as a normal IDE device. That could be a lot easier than adding a VGA port, booting Fedora from USB, etc.
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Post by mofomofo5 on Jul 4, 2008 2:41:05 GMT 7
Finally, I can't get the Afaya card to appear on my computer. My buddy (more technical than me) is over here with gender changers, converters, jumper cables, and still says he can't get Pin 1 to be in the right place. Is it really this hard? For those of you that got the flash card to mount on your PC as a drive, what *exactly* did you do? I'm thinking maybe mine is completely dead, which is why I can't get it to mount. Were you able to connect this to a computer? I'd love to try this method.
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Post by psyentific on Jan 19, 2009 5:14:09 GMT 7
So, I did buy a new one and swap parts until it worked again - there was nothing wrong with mine, but there was a second power supply cable that had somehow become disconnected from the inside of the backplane (not sure how). Without this cable connected, the Thecus 5200 will boot, but will stall on self-test. Just FYI. Psy So, am I to understand that the N5200 doesn't really boot off USB (god knows, mine won't!) - unless maybe you solder in the video/keyboard/mouse connectors and change the BIOS to force it to boot off USB? Seems like a lot of work, but mine is dead at the moment. Does anyone know how to get the flash daughterboard/raid controller to mount on the desktop as a flash drive, so I can transfer fresh firmware to it directly? I tried with a 2.5 IDE converter but no luck getting the mac to see it. Also, the male/female aspects of the connector mean you need an oddball gender changer which I was able to come up with, but still no luck. At this point, it seems I have to buy a new one and swap parts until the old one starts working & then return. Any better suggestions?
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