Possibility of running own OS ?

[walken]

I dont have a N5200 yet, but I'm considering buying one to use as a home NAS+server (http,ftp,mail,...)

Ideally I'd like to run debian. I've done this with other devices, just not the N5200 yet.

I have a few questions to ask:

1- In the vendor firmware, what's in flash and what's on disk ? Is the kernel on flash ? is there anything on disk besides user config files ?
2- Can someone post output for dmesg; cat /proc/mtd; cat /var/log/dmesg (if any) on a freshly booted N5200 with SSH installed ?
3- Is there a known way (jumper, bootloader, config, whatever) to get the N5200 to start from an on-disk kernel ?

Sorry guys I'm such a noob I'll post again when I figure out how to get things done.

[dbridges]

Have a look at this post.

thecususergroup.proboards106.com/index.cgi?board=n5200modifications&action=display&thread=1160969119

Underneath it's a standard pentium based pc.

[impi]

it shoud be possible...
the box uses the grub boot loader. with some changes in the bootloader config you can view the boot device selection (default, there are two entries (Normal/Factory)) over the serial interface.
for myself i thought also about my own linux on the box (without webinterface, only samba filesharing, teamspeak...), but i haven't time yet to make it.

i will post a screenshot from the boot selection later...

[omega]

Hi impi,

welcome to the forum...

I thought I've posted something about this issue, but I cannot find it....

It should be very easy to get a Linux system running on the N5200. I bet that if you could connect an CDROM drive it will boot Knoppix without any problems.

So getting 95% of a own Linux system running could need 1 week of work, doing the final 5% will keep you for the next year busy.....

Andreas

[impi]

the promised screenshot...

[omega]

Impi,

thanks for the screenshot....

But the one thing made me really smile: google vi basics in the task bar ;D

Andreas

[walken]

impi said:

the promised screenshot...

Thanks impi, that's exactly what I wanted to know !