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Post by cheburashka on Aug 23, 2007 2:53:42 GMT 7
I've been working on getting a regular (gentoo) distro functioning on my n5200 with a current (2.6.22 at the moment) kernel. So far the only parts that are touchy are the LCD screen (the "ICH4_GPIO" kernel module and supporting thecus apps), and getting the disk LED's to work (appropriately patching the mv_sata driver).
To avoid reinventing the wheel, have others experimented/made progress/constructed working patches?
(I have some trouble understanding why more people don't switch to an ordinary distro, since all of the "features" missing from various firmwares and added to the pro are just GPL'd things from the net, and most of them in fact are built into current vanilla kernels...)
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Post by tairus on Aug 23, 2007 22:29:21 GMT 7
i didn't look precise at source code of Thecus firmware, but as far as i know it doesn't include only firmware encryption/decryption part. Everything else should be there.
I guess, you only need to merge bootloader part from ordinary linux and it should become fully working linux with full source code.
i would try by myself if u couldn't be so busy..
correct me if i'm wrong.
By the way, i tried to backup whole flash disk by acronis but couldn't. Acronis true image locks up on processing first partition. Is it because protection of flash disk or what? Actually i wanted to put 8GB CF to make more room for customisations.. so now i'm stuck on backup process...
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Post by digitalchaos on Aug 23, 2007 23:01:01 GMT 7
The capability of doing this was one of my first questions that I couldn't find an answer to. My unit will be showing up soon but I am not sure when I will have some free time to poke around. Good to know others are interested in trying!
cheburashka - you really only need the CF card to boot into the kernel. After that you could run everything off the RAID.
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Post by cheburashka on Aug 23, 2007 23:49:46 GMT 7
I must have misspoken - im way past the installation point and working on particular functionality.
You dont need a cf card by the way. My root is sde1 although theres no reason you couldnt put root right on a raid partition. You just put your kernels in hda3 and modify the grub configuration on hda1 using the stock cf. This means i can boot into the thecus firmware for repairs.
To get full functionality, you have to get several important modules (the mv-sata driver for the sata controller and ich4-gpio for the watchdog) to work in light of header changes upstream. Ive got mv sata working, but not with all of thecus' patches (these seem to involve leds and spin down). As of tonight, I also have ich4_gpio working.
One of the last pieces is the avr daemon (in the "AVR" GPL'd source directory.) (When I first posted this, I thought that this source had not been included, but I was mistaken.) Sadly, the source is not in ordinary unix toolchain format, but something else I don't recognize. So that's a pain. This component is what updates the LCD and makes the buttons on the front panel responsive. In effect, ive got a fully functional os on the box, but without the lcd and front panel buttons. Actually, if ppl want a kernel that boots and can load root from sata or raid, let me know.
And it would be nice if other people started participating in this project...
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Post by tairus on Aug 24, 2007 12:46:20 GMT 7
so, do you want to say you compiled whole OS without using any pre-compiled binaries and it works? Actually i don't care much about LCD and front panel buttons. it looks interesting! i would like to see cleaned OS with gcc integrated to be able to compile something which is absent. I already soldered KBD/Mouse/VGA connectors, so my N5200 became just normal PC. And yesterday i added 8GB CF as primary slave device. Now i have plenty of free space can you upload what you've done?
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Post by cheburashka on Aug 24, 2007 22:43:11 GMT 7
Yes, your description of what I've done sounds about right. What I'm running is a standard gentoo distribution (the hardened server profile), including gcc and a fully working toolchain. The only deviation from standard is a kernel patch and use of the (patched for LEDs) mv_sata module. I'm happy to upload the kernel patch, mv_sata, and my current kernel and initramfs (and lib/modules). It is stable (as of last night, knock on wood). Link-bonding and iscsi are questionable, however (the userspace tools have not caught up to recent iscsi changes in the kernel). And you can't set spin-down on the SATA discs. But other than that, everything appears to be there and working It would be more of a pain to upload my whole root -- I was planning to do that after I got everything working, because I have to strip out all of the me-specific stuff first. It's a pain in the butt, so I don't want to do it too many times and was going to wait until I had a more complete package (LCDs, LEDs, etc.). But if you think it'll get you onto this project, then I might do it Re the LCD -- if someone could just figure out exactly which (make and model) LCD screen the n5200 uses, then we could use open source applications for it and have substantially greater functionality. But where should I upload to?
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Post by digitalchaos on Aug 25, 2007 14:58:02 GMT 7
How big is the upload going to be? I might be able to take care of hosting for you.
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Post by cheburashka on Aug 26, 2007 14:34:20 GMT 7
How big is the upload going to be? I might be able to take care of hosting for you. A kernel source patch would be under 100k. A kernel with modules and initramfs would by less than 10 MB. An entire root filesystem would be (if I can get it down to it) ~5 GB. Keep in mind that if you post this, people are going to start downloading. Oh, and updates: LCD: The LCD screen does not, in fact, appear to actually be an LCD screen. It appears to be an LCD screen attached to a programmable UART called the ATMEGA168. There is Thecus-written code inside the ATMEGA (I think) which runs the LCD. The userspace LCD programs appear to be uartpkg, agent, and agent2. The source for this is either missing or in the AVR package, the toolchain for which is included but requires a license. So I was able to get the LCD to go from "self testing..." to "Thecus n5200" but that's it so far. iSCSI: The iscsi target appears to work. I'm not sure about the iscsi initiator--there's a build issue with the userspace tools. mv_sata: Still missing the function that lets it be told to spin down. UPDATE: Both iSCSI target and initiator are running and should work. I don't use these, so I really don't know how to fully test them. The distributed snapshot application (ddsnap) is also running and should work, and again I don't use it so don't know how to fully test it.
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Post by digitalchaos on Aug 27, 2007 6:59:09 GMT 7
I do not mind hosting ~10meg files. Just compress the stuff first. I can host larger files but we should just distribute the link via PM to the people who are actively helping this until we get a final release ready. A 5 gig download is probably better done via some bittorrent though.
I will PM you with the hosting details soon.
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Post by cheburashka on Aug 27, 2007 10:32:36 GMT 7
I do not mind hosting ~10meg files. Just compress the stuff first. I can host larger files but we should just distribute the link via PM to the people who are actively helping this until we get a final release ready. A 5 gig download is probably better done via some bittorrent though. I will PM you with the hosting details soon. OK. That will be the kernel patch, kernel, initramfs, and modules.
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Post by tairus on Aug 29, 2007 3:30:47 GMT 7
cheburashka, can you upload your modifications for example to rapidshare.com? It provides virtually unlimited space.
how big it will be if you will just tell which exactly distro (including version) you used + upload patches.
I think in this case it will not be bigger than 100MB.
I'm not sure how deep i will able to be involved into project because i have other project on hands. I would like to try to compile it by myself and install on N5200. After that i will able to dig into sources and try to modify it.
Willl your patched linux have whole functionality of thecus firmware including web interface and functional RAID 5 (i don't care about LCD and front-end buttons)? my N5200 already has functional RAID5 and i need use it while i'm modifying it little by little
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Post by cheburashka on Aug 29, 2007 11:13:05 GMT 7
Here is a link to the kernel patch: rapidshare.com/files/51963637/gentoo4thecus.2.patch . This is against the gentoo 2.6.22-gentoo-r5 kernel, but it should work against any 2.6.21 + kernel. I used the standard gentoo x86 distro. Raid 5 definitely works (and it preserved all data). The web interface does not (yet). However, I should note that I suspect from your request and description of how you thought it would work that you're really misunderstanding what I did... I think you'd be a lot happier, instead of with a patch, then with a working kernel and initramfs. Or, if you're more novice, then with a full root tarball. That is not a 100 MB file
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Post by tairus on Aug 29, 2007 15:16:03 GMT 7
thanks! no problem, i can compile kernel by myself
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Post by tairus on Aug 29, 2007 15:18:06 GMT 7
by the way, according to info i've got from my N5200, it's based on slackware linux.
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Post by tairus on Aug 29, 2007 15:47:02 GMT 7
cheburashka,
can you give me link to source code DVD/CD ISO of gentoo? Also link for installation CD/DVD would be good as well.
There are many different CDs/DVDs with different versions of components.
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