Revive your arm9 box from scratch

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Contents

About

The Uboot Bootloader is the ONLY thing in flash on this boxes (the Kurobox Pro is an exception here with its 256 MB NAND flash). Most boot problems therefore are related to messed up HDDs. As long as it is working you can always revive your box via tftp from scratch. Even with (a) completely blank HDDs. If you encounter the problem that tftp does not work anymore your only chance might be JTAG for revival.

This guide should help you in the quest of reviving your arm9 box as long as your Bootloader is still working properly.

General Procedure

1) Get TFTP Server + Kernel and initrd

The TFTP Boot program contains an TFTP server for Windows, the Kernel and initrd for the Buffalo.

2) Configure Nics

  • Connect the Buffalo directly to a computer.
  • Set the IP address of the computer to 192.168.11.1

3) Boot The Unit

  • Launch the TFTP Boot program.
Make sure is says is is Listening On: 192.168.11.1
If it is not listening on 192.168.11.1, then it does not see the network adapter as being active. So either briefly power the NAS on, and restart the TFTP Boot program, then power off the Buffalo. Or try using a hub or a router.
  • Power on the Buffalo
  • The TFTP Boot Program should say that two files where pulled - initrd.buffalo and uImage.buffalo
It should only take ~30 seconds for the boot loader to pull these two files. If it takes longer than 2 minutes then the boot loader is not going to pull the files.
TFTP Boot

4) Update Firmware

  • If the Buffalo pulled the kernel and initrd from TFTP, wait till the power led is green.
  • Modify the lsupdater.ini files, which is included in the firmware update.
Add the following lines to the bottom of the file 
[specialflags]
debug = 1
In the config section of the window that opens - select Do not check version, Delete user-config, and Force Update
  • Finally Update Firmware
Debug Options

Box Specific Hints

LS Pro, Old LS Live

If you have a arm9-Linkstation and you tried 11a. and if 11b. is no choice because you have valueable data on the box then you need to recover the data before.

1. Disassemble your box:
LS Pro & LS Live v1

2. Connect the hdd to a workstation running Linux. Knoppix for example is recommended as you can boot it directly from CD/DVD.

3. If the HDD isn`t defective then the partitions should even be mounted automatically.

4. Backup your data (most easiest if you connect a second hdd for backup)

5. Now try 11b from the general instructions.

6. In case even 11b did not work then you can rebuild the partitions from scratch. Look at Custom_Partitions_on_the_LS_Pro for instructions.

LS Live v2

SEVERAL BOXES were bricked by flashing the stock firmwares. use the 2.06 for unbricking!


If you have a arm9-Linkstation and you tried 11a. and if 11b. is no choice because you have valueable data on the box then you need to recover the data before.

1. Disassemble your box:
LS Live v2

2. Connect the hdd to a workstation running Linux. Knoppix for example is recommended as you can boot it directly from CD/DVD.

3. If the HDD isn`t defective then the partitions should even be mounted automatically.

4. Backup your data (most easiest if you connect a second hdd for backup)

5. Now try 11b from the general instructions.

6. In case even 11b did not work then you can rebuild the partitions from scratch. Look at Custom_Partitions_on_the_LS_Pro for instructions.

Terastation Pro v2, Terastation Live

If you have a arm9-terastation and you tried 11a. and if 11b. is no choice because you have valueable data on the box then you need to recover the data before.

Look at Manual Recovery on a seperate computer.

After you recovered the data try 11b.

In case even the "Rebuild Partition Table" Option does not help follow this steps to rebuild the partitions on all HDDs:

1. To rebuild your disk you will need to connect your disk to a PC running Ubuntu, Knoppix or similar. These two programs offer a downloadable bootable CD which you can use on most computers. Simply install/connect the TSP disk to your computer and boot up your computer with the bootable Ubuntu or Knoppix CD. The information below is based on commands used on a computer running Ubuntu. Please remember that you will require all the files you extracted from the firmware file in the directory of your choice once you have booted with Ubuntu. A USB memory stick is quite useful for this purpose.

2. Once booted with Ubuntu, create a directory on your desktop called tsp (right click the desktop and choose new folder). Copy all the firmware files, including the unzipped password protected files to the tsp directory on your desktop.

3. Open a terminal window from the applications menu at the top left hand side of the screen and type: 

sudo –s -H
fdisk –l

(you should see the name of your disk, probably something like /dev/hda or /dev/hdb or /dev/sda or /dev/sdb. If you have more than one disk you might be able to differentiate them by size) this might help to find out the device name 

cat /proc/partitions

4. Once you know the name of your disk type: 

cfdisk /dev/???

(replace ??? with the three letter code of your disk. We will use sda as the three letter code for the following example)

5. If there are any existing partitions delete all of them using the up and down arrow and the delete menu at the bottom of the screen

6. Create the following partitions using the arrow keys and the menus on the bottom of the screen: 

sda1 Bootable Primary Linux 205MB
sda2 Primary Linux 500MB
sda5 Extented Linux/Swap 510MB (might be optional)
sda6 Extended Linux XXXXMB (remainder of the disk – might be optional)

(If you are planning on "customising" your unit, you should consider increasing the sda2 partition size)

7. Write the changes before you exit cfdisk

8. You should now format your partitions: 

mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
mkfs.xfs /dev/sda2
mkfs.xfs /dev/sda6
mkswap –c /dev/sda5

(the –c is optional)

9. Mount the /boot and /rootfs file systems: 

mount –t ext3 /dev/sda1 /boot
mount –t xfs /dev/sda2 /rootfs

10. Copy the files initrd.buffalo and uImage.buffalo to /boot: 

cd /home/ubuntu/Desktop/tsp/
cp initrd.buffalo /boot
cp uImage.buffalo /boot

11. Extract the content of hddrootfs.buffalo.updated to /rootfs: 

cd /rootfs
tar zxvf /home/ubuntu/Desktop/tsp/hddrootfs.buffalo.updated

12. Unmount the 2 file systems: 

umount /dev/sda1
umount /dev/sda2

13. Disconnect the disk from your computer and reinstall the disk in the TSP

14. Turn on (reboot) your TSP

15. Your TSP should boot normally and you should see Loading Kernel on the LCD display, try running the TSUpdater again.

16. If you are still having problems, rebuild all remaining TSP disk in the same manner. Then run TSUpdater again.

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