Install Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) On Buffalo Linkstation Mini

From NAS-Central Buffalo - The Linkstation Wiki

Latest revision as of 22:53, 11 August 2012

WARNING! There is a possibility that you could brick your NAS with these instructions. Please make sure that you read the entire page carefully. These instructions may void your warranty. Proceed at your own risk.

Linkstation Mini

Overview

The following process converts a Buffalo Linkstation Mini (model LS-WSxxxxGL/R1) into a GNU/Linux server running Debian version 6.0.5 (Squeeze) with the Debian 6.0 Linux kernel (version 2.6.32-45). No disassembly required. Both RAID1 (Mirroring) and RAID0 (Striping) configurations are supported. Here is how the process works:

1. Use ACP Commander software to establish Telnet session with device
2. Uncouple secondary drive partitions from existing RAID configuration
3. Partition and format secondary drive, install Debian 6.0 (Squeeze), and prepare for initial boot
4. Reboot device, establish SSH session with device, and complete installation

Requirements

1. Buffalo LinkStation Mini models LS-WSxxxxGL/R1 running stock firmware (LS-WSXxxxxTL/R1 models will not work)
   • If your device has already been modified to run another operating system and/or firmware, you should revert to stock firmware
   • This process was tested with model LS-WS1.0TGL/R1, but other models may work as well
2. Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop Edition CD-ROM (download and burn this disc image)
3. Computer which can boot the Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop Edition CD-ROM and access the network successfully (most modern computers meet this requirement)

Instructions

Note: Do not attempt to execute the following commands as a single script. Instead, copy and paste each block of commands into a shell window and monitor the resulting output for errors

Prepare Device

1. Disconnect power cable from device
2. Disconnect all USB devices (and keep them disconnected for the duration of this process)
3. Move device switch to "on" position
4. Attach device to network
5. Connect power cable to device
6. Wait for device to finish booting (no blinking lights)
7. Open device web interface (factory default address is http://192.168.11.150, or use the IP address assigned by your network)
8. Login (user = admin, password = password)

WARNING! The next step will erase all data on your Linkstation Mini. It is recommended that you backup your existing data. Proceed at your own risk.




9. Remove existing RAID configuration (Disk Management | RAID Setup | RAID Array 1 | Change RAID Array ...)
10. Create new RAID1 (mirroring) array (Disk Management | RAID Setup | RAID Array 1 | RAID Mode: RAID1 ...)
11. Wait for "Building RAID Array" to complete

You may proceed immediately after the array has been built (you do not need to wait for the drive check to complete)

12. Boot Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop Edition CD-ROM on computer
13. Select language as desired (English)
14. Click on "Try Ubuntu 10.04 LTS" (to use Ubuntu without making any changes to your system)
15. Open a new terminal window (Applications | Accessories | Terminal )
16. Start a new bash shell with root privileges

    sudo bash
    
    

17. Install OpenJDK (for running ACP Commander software)

     apt-get update
     apt-get -q -y install openjdk-6-jre
    
    

18. Download ACP Commander software (acp_commander.jar)

     wget http://downloads.buffalo.nas-central.org/Users/rpinchbeck/lsmini/acp_commander.jar
    
    

19. Determine IP address of device and assign it to environment variable (substitute appropriate IP address)

     IP_ADDRESS=192.168.11.150
    
    

20. Instruct device to enable Telnet and remove root password

     java -jar acp_commander.jar -t ${IP_ADDRESS} -o
    
    

21. Establish Telnet session with device

     telnet ${IP_ADDRESS}
    
    

22. Login as root (no password required)
23. Set recent date and time (prevent error messages about file dates, format=MMDDhhnnYYYY)

     date 081300002012
    
    

24. Kill all unnecessary processes

     kill -9 $(ps | grep -vE '\[.*\]|(init)|(syslogd)|(klogd)|(getty)|(telnetd)|(-sh)|(ps)|(VmSize)|(grep)|(kill)|(awk)' | awk '{print $1}')
    
    

25. Disable all active swap paritions

    swapoff -a
    
    

WARNING! Your device will no longer boot after the next step. You must complete the installation of the Debian operating system before your device will boot again.




26. Free secondary drive (/dev/sdb) partitions from RAID configuration

     mdadm --manage /dev/md0  --fail /dev/sdb1
     mdadm --manage /dev/md1  --fail /dev/sdb2
     mdadm --manage /dev/md10 --fail /dev/sdb5
     mdadm --manage /dev/md2  --fail /dev/sdb6
    
     mdadm --manage /dev/md0  --remove /dev/sdb1
     mdadm --manage /dev/md1  --remove /dev/sdb2
     mdadm --manage /dev/md10 --remove /dev/sdb5
     mdadm --manage /dev/md2  --remove /dev/sdb6
    
    

27. Make sure secondary drive is not in use

     if hdparm -z /dev/sdb ; then echo; echo "SECONDARY DRIVE READY (/dev/sdb)"; echo; else grep sdb /proc/mounts /proc/mdstat; echo "Please check that /dev/sdb is not in use"; fi;
    
    

The following commands will delete all existing partitions on the secondary drive and reconfigure it as follows...

Partition	Mount	Size	Type	Description
1	/boot	128MB	fd	linux raid autodetect
2	swap	512MB	82	linux swap
3	/ (root)	12GB	fd	linux raid autodetect
4	/srv	100%	fd	linux raid autodetect

28. Repartition secondary drive (substitute partition sizes as desired)

     PARTITION1_SIZE=128MB
     PARTITION2_SIZE=512MB
     PARTITION3_SIZE=12GB
     echo -e "d\n1\nd\n2\nd\n3\nd\n4\nn\np\n1\n\n+${PARTITION1_SIZE}\nn\np\n2\n\n+${PARTITION2_SIZE}\nn\np\n3\n\n+${PARTITION3_SIZE}\nn\np\n\n\nt\n1\nfd\nt\n2\n82\nt\n3\nfd\nt\n4\nfd\nw\n" | fdisk /dev/sdb
    
    

29. Create and activate swap partition

     mkswap /dev/sdb2
     swapon /dev/sdb2
    
    

30. Create RAID volumes

     echo "y" | mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md11 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 missing /dev/sdb1
     echo "y" | mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md13 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 missing /dev/sdb3
    
    

31. Format RAID volumes

     mkfs.ext3 -F /dev/md11
     mkfs.ext3 -F /dev/md13
    
    




Install Debian System

32. Mount RAID volumes

     mkdir -p                /mnt/lsmini
     mount -t ext3 /dev/md13 /mnt/lsmini
     mkdir -p                /mnt/lsmini/boot
     mount -t ext3 /dev/md11 /mnt/lsmini/boot
    
    

33. Install custom boot loader (force boot from /dev/md13)

     cd /mnt/lsmini
     wget http://downloads.buffalo.nas-central.org/Users/rpinchbeck/lsmini/initrd-md13-armv5tejl-softfloat-1.0.tar.gz
     tar --extract --verbose --same-permissions --gzip --file /mnt/lsmini/initrd-md13-armv5tejl-softfloat-1.0.tar.gz
    
    

34. Install custom kernel (Debian 6.0 Linux kernel 2.6.32-45)

     cd /mnt/lsmini
     wget http://downloads.buffalo.nas-central.org/Users/rpinchbeck/lsmini/debian/6.0/kernel-2.6.32-45-debian-lsmini.tar.gz
     tar --extract --verbose --same-permissions --gzip --file kernel-2.6.32-45-debian-lsmini.tar.gz
    
    

35. Install root filesystem (from archive of debootstrap stage 2 files)

     cd /mnt/lsmini
     wget http://downloads.buffalo.nas-central.org/Users/rpinchbeck/lsmini/debian/6.0/bootstrap-debian-6.0.5-armel-stage2.tar.gz
     tar --extract --verbose --same-permissions --gzip --file /mnt/lsmini/bootstrap-debian-6.0.5-armel-stage2.tar.gz
    
    

36. Prepare host settings (adjust host name and IP addresses as needed)

     HOST_NAME=lsmini
     HOST_ADDRESS=192.168.1.77
     HOST_NETMASK=255.255.255.0
     HOST_GATEWAY=192.168.1.1
    
    

37. Configure network interface (/etc/network/interfaces)

     echo "# Used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8). See the interfaces(5) manpage or"  >/mnt/lsmini/etc/network/interfaces
     echo "# /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples for more information."          >>/mnt/lsmini/etc/network/interfaces
     echo "#"                        >>/mnt/lsmini/etc/network/interfaces
     echo "auto lo eth0"             >>/mnt/lsmini/etc/network/interfaces
     echo "iface lo inet loopback"   >>/mnt/lsmini/etc/network/interfaces
     echo "iface eth0 inet static"   >>/mnt/lsmini/etc/network/interfaces
     echo " address ${HOST_ADDRESS}" >>/mnt/lsmini/etc/network/interfaces
     echo " netmask ${HOST_NETMASK}" >>/mnt/lsmini/etc/network/interfaces
     echo " gateway ${HOST_GATEWAY}" >>/mnt/lsmini/etc/network/interfaces
     rm -f /mnt/lsmini/etc/udev/rules.d/[0-9]*-persistent-net.rules  # remove all persistent network devices (force auto detection of eth0)
    
    

38. Configure host name (/etc/hostname)

     echo "${HOST_NAME}" >/mnt/lsmini/etc/hostname
    
    

39. Configure mapping from address to host name (/etc/hosts)

     echo "127.0.0.1 localhost"           >/mnt/lsmini/etc/hosts
     echo "${HOST_ADDRESS} ${HOST_NAME}" >>/mnt/lsmini/etc/hosts
    
    

WARNING! Do not modify the last column of /etc/fstab... any value other than zero will cause the device to hang on startup. Basically, the system fails to detect the RAID volumes, sends the failure message to the console, waits for keyboard input (that can never arrive), and cannot respond to pings or any other network traffic. Don't find out the hard way.




40. Configure mount points (/etc/fstab)

     echo "/dev/sdb2   none      swap   sw,pri=1                     0  0"  >/mnt/lsmini/etc/fstab
     echo "/dev/md13   /         ext3   noatime                      0  0" >>/mnt/lsmini/etc/fstab
     echo "/dev/md11   /boot     ext3   noatime                      0  0" >>/mnt/lsmini/etc/fstab
     echo "none        /dev/shm  tmpfs  noatime,nodev,nosuid,noexec  0  0" >>/mnt/lsmini/etc/fstab
    
    

41. Configure network name resolution (/etc/resolv.conf)

     cp -a /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/lsmini/etc/resolv.conf
    
    

42. Change root password (new password = lsmini)

     SED_FILE='/mnt/lsmini/etc/shadow'
     SED_SEARCH='^\s*root\:\*?\:'
     SED_REPLACE='root:$6$bmlbpJYn$xAgZr6KxoRLjDcPZNDBcnMF52gZrU7xkib43LhSlAvzVS4OqmiHaxB0GInPtoaPQ2FguHQQuxM95cMfvUnYn31:'
     sed -r "s~${SED_SEARCH}~${SED_REPLACE}~" -i "${SED_FILE}"
    
    

43. Workaround bug in Debian 6 (/etc/network/run links to /dev/shm/network, but directory is missing, which prevents network interfaces from starting)

     mv /mnt/lsmini/etc/network/run run.original
     mkdir /mnt/lsmini/etc/network/run
     touch /mnt/lsmini/etc/network/run/ifstate
    
    

44. Prepare for reboot (Overwrite factory-installed boot files with custom ones)

     cd /mnt/lsmini
     rm -rf /boot/*
     cp -a /mnt/lsmini/boot/* /boot/
    
    

45. Wait for RAID synchronization to complete

     while egrep -iq '(recovery)|(resync)' /proc/mdstat; do
         clear
         cat /proc/mdstat
         sleep 5
     done
     clear
     cat /proc/mdstat
     sync
    
    

46. Unmount RAID volumes

     sync
     cd /mnt
     umount /mnt/lsmini/boot
     umount /mnt/lsmini
    
    

47. Reboot device

     sync; reboot; logout
    
    




Configure Debian System

48. Wait for device to finish booting (no blinking lights)
49. Assign new IP address to environment variable

     IP_ADDRESS=192.168.1.77
    
    

50. Use SSH to login as root (password = lsmini)

     ssh root@${IP_ADDRESS}
    
    

51. Change root password to something hard to guess

     passwd root
    
    

52. Select timezone

     dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
    
    

53. Ensure that date and time are correct

     date
    
    

54. Make sure primary drive is not in use (/dev/sda)

     if hdparm -z /dev/sda ; then echo; echo "PRIMARY DRIVE READY (/dev/sda)"; echo; else grep sda /proc/mounts /proc/mdstat; echo "Please check that /dev/sda is not in use"; fi;
    
    

55. Repartition primary drive (must have same partition sizes as secondary drive)

     PARTITION1_SIZE=128MB
     PARTITION2_SIZE=512MB
     PARTITION3_SIZE=12GB
     echo -e "d\n1\nd\n2\nd\n3\nd\n4\nn\np\n1\n\n+${PARTITION1_SIZE}\nn\np\n2\n\n+${PARTITION2_SIZE}\nn\np\n3\n\n+${PARTITION3_SIZE}\nn\np\n\n\nt\n1\nfd\nt\n2\n82\nt\n3\nfd\nt\n4\nfd\nw\n" | fdisk /dev/sda
    
    

56. Format and activate swap partition on primary drive

     mkswap /dev/sda2
     swapon /dev/sda2
    
    

57. Automatically mount swap partition during boot

     echo  "/dev/sda2   none      swap   sw,pri=2                     0  0"  >>/etc/fstab
    
    

58. Add primary drive partitions to RAID volumes (/dev/md11 and /dev/md13)

     echo "y" | mdadm --manage /dev/md11 --add /dev/sda1
     echo "y" | mdadm --manage /dev/md13 --add /dev/sda3
    
    

59. Create large RAID volume on /dev/md14 (substitute RAID level as desired; 1=Mirroring, 0=Striping)

     RAID_LEVEL=1
     echo "y" | mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md14 --level=${RAID_LEVEL} --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda4 /dev/sdb4
    
    

60. Format large RAID volume

     mkfs.ext3 -F /dev/md14
    
    

61. Mount large RAID volume (as /srv)

     mount -t ext3 /dev/md14 /srv
    
    

62. Automatically mount large RAID volume during boot (as /srv)

     echo "/dev/md14   /srv      ext3   noatime                      0  0" >>/etc/fstab
    
    

63. Clean up mdadm.conf (allow detection of all RAID volumes during boot)

     SED_FILE='/etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf'
     SED_SEARCH='^\s*ARRAY\s+.*$'
     SED_REPLACE=''
     sed -r "s~${SED_SEARCH}~${SED_REPLACE}~" -i "${SED_FILE}"
     mdadm --quiet --detail --scan >>/etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
    
    

64. Disable login terminals (prevent error messages in /var/log/syslog every 5 minutes about /sbin/getty respawning too fast)

     SED_FILE='/etc/inittab'
     SED_SEARCH='(^\s*[0-9]+\:[0-9]+\:respawn\:\/sbin\/getty\s+[0-9]+\s+tty[0-9]+\s*$)'
     SED_REPLACE='#\1'
     sed -r "s~${SED_SEARCH}~${SED_REPLACE}~g" -i "${SED_FILE}"
    
    

65. Allow USB flash drives formatted with the VFAT file system (Windows) to be mounted automatically in /media/usb

     SED_FILE='/etc/usbmount/usbmount.conf'
     SED_SEARCH='^(\s*FILESYSTEMS\s*=\s*\")(.*)(\"\s*)$'
     SED_REPLACE='\1\2 vfat\3'
     if ! grep -E '^\s*FILESYSTEMS\s*=\s*\"((vfat\s+[^\"]*)|([^\"]*\s+vfat\s+[^\"]*)|([^\"]*\s+vfat))\"$' "${SED_FILE}"; then sed -r "s~${SED_SEARCH}~${SED_REPLACE}~g" -i "${SED_FILE}"; fi
    
    

66. Configure package sources (/etc/apt/sources.list)

     echo "deb      http://ftp.debian.org/debian  squeeze          main contrib"  >/etc/apt/sources.list
     echo "deb-src  http://ftp.debian.org/debian  squeeze          main contrib" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
     echo "deb      http://security.debian.org    squeeze/updates  main contrib" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
     echo "deb-src  http://security.debian.org    squeeze/updates  main contrib" >>/etc/apt/sources.list
    
    

67. Update package lists

     apt-get update
    
    

68. Wait for RAID synchronization to complete

     while egrep -iq '(recovery)|(resync)' /proc/mdstat; do
         clear
         cat /proc/mdstat
         sleep 5
     done
     clear
     cat /proc/mdstat
     sync
    
    

69. Restart device

     sync; reboot; logout
    
    

Congratulations! You should now have a working Debian 6.0 server running on a Buffalo Linkstation Mini.




Extras

70. Add user (never login as root again, use sudo command instead)

     USER_NAME=visitor
     adduser ${USER_NAME}
    
    

71. Allow user to become super user (using sudo command)

     echo "${USER_NAME}    ALL=(ALL) ALL" >>/etc/sudoers
    
    

See Also

• Revert Buffalo Linkstation Mini To Stock Firmware
• Install Debian 5.0 (Lenny) On Linkstation Mini
• Install Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackelope) On Linkstation Mini
• Install Gentoo On Linkstation Mini
• GenLink for ARM9

References

• Debian website
• Installing new Debian systems using debootstrap
• Custom initrd which boots from /dev/md13