Back in January, Computer Geeks had a kickass deal on a network NAS enclosure, both SATA and IDE flavors. A lot of people got in on the deal, and the NAS does a decent job of what it's designed to do, but people had questions and other issues with it.
Link to the Original Thread which had a lot of us providing info about it.
There was a lot of great info going on, people taking the thing apart, posting up pics and parts lists, etc. The big question was whether or not you could run OpenNAS or the Linksys NSLU2 Linux on it, among other things.
Note: There are two versions of this NAS - the NS-349 which is the IDE version, and the NS-349S which is the SATA version. They are similar, but use different mainboards and firmwares!!! DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FLASH ONE WITH THE FIRMWARE OF THE OTHER!!! Fair warning.
Well, I recently did some digging around after the dust settled, as I finally got around to throwing a drive in my NAS. After spending a day on the internet, I came up with some interesting info. So before I get too far, most of this info needs to be credited to the OpenNAS team, as well as lochness from the FSC NExt team, and Robert from the Longshine boards. A lot of my info is stolen from what they've done - however everything pertaining to the A-Tec NS-349(S) is new info based on a bunch of educated guesses from me, and I also want to thank VirtualLarry for much of his digging from the previous thread - he did a good deal of the legwork that helped me find all this.
I haven't found the base firmware for the IDE version yet, as I don't have the IDE model. But more on that later.
The base firmware is fine, you really do want to update to the most recent version possible as the NAS itself runs far faster (Web UI, etc) than what shipped with it. That's all fine and dandy if all you want is NAS functions. But there's more... oh so much more.
The interesting thing about this NAS is it's mainboard - and that's the important part. The fact that it's a Freescale PPC 8241 CPU means it can (and does) happily run Linux PPC. The problem is getting at it. The key to all this is the mainboard - which just happens to be Netronix NH-231. If you're familiar with the original thread, that NAS should look quite familiar.. In fact, it's the exact same thing, and the mainboard is the same as our NS-349S, minus the eSATA port not having been included.
Note: Many of the links following are in German - you will want to use Google's translator to help you out!
Now interestingly, OpenNAS claims to support the LCS-8311, which as we've just learned is the same as the NS-349S. OpenNAS does support the Netronix NH230 mainboard which is what the IDE version uses, but more on that later. Anyhow, information on OpenNAS's site should get you going. The catch here is - I'm pretty sure you need to mod your board with the JTAG header in order to install it. Please note, when I get to talking about Debian - that also would require the JTAG serial interface as well. OpenNAS has info on how to make the JTAG/Serial connections, it's not too terribly difficult. But we've gotten a lot of info already that makes the JTAG less necessary unless you strictly want Linux on this unit.
So where did OpenNAS take me? Well, it opened up the LCS-8311, but they also mention another product - the Fujitsu Seimens SBLAN2. This little guy is indirectly interesting. Basically, it's the IDE version (NH230 mainboard), appears to be available only in Germany, and is quite popular. Googling it brings up a lot of posts in the German Fujitsu Seimens (FSC from now on) forums. Why is this interesting? Because in digging around I came across it's brother, the AMS150. Why is this interesting? Take a look - familiar isn't it? After digging around, it turns out the AMS150 actually uses the very same Netronix NH231 mainboard. SWEET... and better yet, the AMS150 seems to be fairly well supported by FSC and the community! FSC ships the AMS150 with a Twonky license - for those that don't know Twonky is a media server.
Well, where to go from here? I've given a lot of information, but nothing majorly useful. Sorry for the suspense... but we had to go from there to here in order to go to what's NExt.
NExt is a firmware extensions package which you can add to the AMS150 and SBLAN2 to provide additional functionality like:
* Telnet
* SSH
* NFS
* PHP
* mySQL
* CUPS print server
This list only a partial list of some of the more interesting extension. There's many, MANY more available. But more importantly, NExt doesn't require a new OS on the NAS, and as such doesn't need you to add the JTAG interface. But what good does it do for us if it's for the AMS150? We have an NS-349S! Doing a little digging around, I found there's absolutely no physical differences in the core of the Netronix NH231 mainboard between our NS-349S, the Longshine LCS-8311, and the FSC AMS150, aside from a few buttons or connectors (eSATA particularly). What's more, NExt also happens to directly support the LCS-8311 as well! BONUS! But we has an NS-349S!!!
This is where I decided to get a little brave. Longshine happens to have a more recent firmware than the NS-349S, version 2.22 in fact as opposed to version 2.1. Oooh... I linked the firmware - that's important isn't it?
Yup - the step I took was to flash my NS-349S with the Longshine firmware. But... it's not that simple. You try to upload the firmware and the NS-349S's web interface gives you the finger, asking you to use the correct file. A little JavaScript-fu told me that it's looking for a filename with the extension of .web. Well, if you bothered to extract the firmware from the RAR file (RAR is extremely popular in Germany mind you), you'd notice it is a .web file. What could be wrong? Bad file data? Nope. It's also checking the front end of the file name to see if it's NH231_AC - the AC standing for A-Tec Corporation. HAH! Rename the the file from NH231_LONGSHINE_V2.22_3-11-2009_.web to NH231_AC_V2.22_3-11-2009_.web, and assuming your browser isn't being a PITA, in 3 minutes your NAS should upload, flash and reboot itself. Assuming all goes well, you should be able to log in (all the original settings/logins should be the same as before you flashed it), and you'll be greeted by a bright red Longshine LCS-8311 web interface, which incidentally is exactly the same as the A-Tec interface aside from minor cosmetic differences... and the addition of the eSATA button.
We now have an LCS-8311!!! Okay... so? So... we can install the previously mentioned NExt! First - go to the following site URL which you will be prompted to log into:
http://www.internetteam.de/zap...download/firmware/FSC/
Use the login credentials "amsadmin" and "ams150" for the pass. Don't worry, you're not breaking in - lochness has this info posted on the FSC forums in his sig. Once there, you'll want to traverse down the NExt folder to /NExt/Base/LCS-8311. We need to install the Base extensions before we can install anything else. Each download will have a corresponding README - if you want to know more... READ THEM!
At this point, download the latest NEXT_base_LCS-8311 version. Again, I'm not hotlinking, because this can change anytime. The appropriate file will have the version number followed by --ntx_libra.tgz. Download it, and cuddle it for a bit. Not too long though, because you're going to want to load these extensions into your NAS! You should know how to do this if you've gotten this far. Let it rip, wait for the load to complete (about 2 minutes), then log into your NAS again.
Notice anything different? I bet you don't! That's because no visible changes are made on the Web UI by loading this extension. But now, we're primed to load the actual fun stuff!
Traverse your way back up to the /NExt top directory, and go ahead and fall into the Addons folder. I'm going to walk you through only two addons - the rest you can do yourself because they all follow the same procedure, and you can pick and choose what you want to install.
The first two we want to download are NEXT_php followed by NEXT_webadmin. It will be obvious why once we're done. Go ahead and download the files. Once they're done, we need to change the file name in order to get them loaded. Rename each file simply by adding --ntx_libra at the end of the filename before the [/b].tgz[/b]. There's no need to explain why, aside from the fact that the extension loader looks for the filename ntx_libra.tgz starting from the end of the file name. After you've renamed both, go ahead and load each extension, order doesn't really matter I don't think. Once each one loads, reboots and reloads, give the NAS one more reboot for good measure.
At this point, you should be able to open a browser and enter the following URL:
http://<Your NAS Name/IP Here>:81/phpwebif/index.php
Obviously... change <Your NAS Name/IP Here> to whatever your actual NAS name or IP address is. You will be greeted by a slick little login prompt - log in with your NAS admin/root username and password, and welcome to the NExt Webadmin UI! From this page, you can manage any additional Addons you install using the same method as above (download/rename/load extension). They work pretty much the same as services do in Windows on this page. If the Addon has it's own interface (Like CUPS for example), there will be a link labeled Interface next to the Readme, which will take you directly to that module's interface.
At this point... go nuts! The Base extension I believe loads BusyBox among other things, so you can install the Telnet or SSH server and go play at the shell level. There's tons of Addons available - they're always making news ones too. Also check the Addons.Beta folder, there's some fun ones in there too. Read the READMEs, and have fun with it. Keep in mind that some of these Addons duplicate some of the functionality of the original firmware extensions (which are loaded at this point!!!), so you may want to go into the main NAS web interface and disable them (iTunes, UPnPAV, Web Server, etc) before installing the corresponding Addon.
One final note - the LCS-8311 firmware that we now have loaded fully supports the eSATA port. From what I can tell, if you feel like modding your NAS, all you need is the appropriate connector to solder onto the mainboard, and you'll have a fully working eSATA connector. Sounds like fun!
Next post will be for the IDE version - which incidentally I found can load Debian. I'll be taking my time on that though.
Link to the Original Thread which had a lot of us providing info about it.
There was a lot of great info going on, people taking the thing apart, posting up pics and parts lists, etc. The big question was whether or not you could run OpenNAS or the Linksys NSLU2 Linux on it, among other things.
Note: There are two versions of this NAS - the NS-349 which is the IDE version, and the NS-349S which is the SATA version. They are similar, but use different mainboards and firmwares!!! DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FLASH ONE WITH THE FIRMWARE OF THE OTHER!!! Fair warning.
Well, I recently did some digging around after the dust settled, as I finally got around to throwing a drive in my NAS. After spending a day on the internet, I came up with some interesting info. So before I get too far, most of this info needs to be credited to the OpenNAS team, as well as lochness from the FSC NExt team, and Robert from the Longshine boards. A lot of my info is stolen from what they've done - however everything pertaining to the A-Tec NS-349(S) is new info based on a bunch of educated guesses from me, and I also want to thank VirtualLarry for much of his digging from the previous thread - he did a good deal of the legwork that helped me find all this.
Alright, down to business. The base firmware for the A-Tec NS-349S SATA version are available here. The firmware extension are also available (which give you BT, iTunes, UPnPAV, etc).
I haven't found the base firmware for the IDE version yet, as I don't have the IDE model. But more on that later.
The base firmware is fine, you really do want to update to the most recent version possible as the NAS itself runs far faster (Web UI, etc) than what shipped with it. That's all fine and dandy if all you want is NAS functions. But there's more... oh so much more.
The interesting thing about this NAS is it's mainboard - and that's the important part. The fact that it's a Freescale PPC 8241 CPU means it can (and does) happily run Linux PPC. The problem is getting at it. The key to all this is the mainboard - which just happens to be Netronix NH-231. If you're familiar with the original thread, that NAS should look quite familiar.. In fact, it's the exact same thing, and the mainboard is the same as our NS-349S, minus the eSATA port not having been included.
Note: Many of the links following are in German - you will want to use Google's translator to help you out!
Now interestingly, OpenNAS claims to support the LCS-8311, which as we've just learned is the same as the NS-349S. OpenNAS does support the Netronix NH230 mainboard which is what the IDE version uses, but more on that later. Anyhow, information on OpenNAS's site should get you going. The catch here is - I'm pretty sure you need to mod your board with the JTAG header in order to install it. Please note, when I get to talking about Debian - that also would require the JTAG serial interface as well. OpenNAS has info on how to make the JTAG/Serial connections, it's not too terribly difficult. But we've gotten a lot of info already that makes the JTAG less necessary unless you strictly want Linux on this unit.
So where did OpenNAS take me? Well, it opened up the LCS-8311, but they also mention another product - the Fujitsu Seimens SBLAN2. This little guy is indirectly interesting. Basically, it's the IDE version (NH230 mainboard), appears to be available only in Germany, and is quite popular. Googling it brings up a lot of posts in the German Fujitsu Seimens (FSC from now on) forums. Why is this interesting? Because in digging around I came across it's brother, the AMS150. Why is this interesting? Take a look - familiar isn't it? After digging around, it turns out the AMS150 actually uses the very same Netronix NH231 mainboard. SWEET... and better yet, the AMS150 seems to be fairly well supported by FSC and the community! FSC ships the AMS150 with a Twonky license - for those that don't know Twonky is a media server.
Well, where to go from here? I've given a lot of information, but nothing majorly useful. Sorry for the suspense... but we had to go from there to here in order to go to what's NExt.
NExt is a firmware extensions package which you can add to the AMS150 and SBLAN2 to provide additional functionality like:
* Telnet
* SSH
* NFS
* PHP
* mySQL
* CUPS print server
This list only a partial list of some of the more interesting extension. There's many, MANY more available. But more importantly, NExt doesn't require a new OS on the NAS, and as such doesn't need you to add the JTAG interface. But what good does it do for us if it's for the AMS150? We have an NS-349S! Doing a little digging around, I found there's absolutely no physical differences in the core of the Netronix NH231 mainboard between our NS-349S, the Longshine LCS-8311, and the FSC AMS150, aside from a few buttons or connectors (eSATA particularly). What's more, NExt also happens to directly support the LCS-8311 as well! BONUS! But we has an NS-349S!!!
This is where I decided to get a little brave. Longshine happens to have a more recent firmware than the NS-349S, version 2.22 in fact as opposed to version 2.1. Oooh... I linked the firmware - that's important isn't it?
Yup - the step I took was to flash my NS-349S with the Longshine firmware. But... it's not that simple. You try to upload the firmware and the NS-349S's web interface gives you the finger, asking you to use the correct file. A little JavaScript-fu told me that it's looking for a filename with the extension of .web. Well, if you bothered to extract the firmware from the RAR file (RAR is extremely popular in Germany mind you), you'd notice it is a .web file. What could be wrong? Bad file data? Nope. It's also checking the front end of the file name to see if it's NH231_AC - the AC standing for A-Tec Corporation. HAH! Rename the the file from NH231_LONGSHINE_V2.22_3-11-2009_.web to NH231_AC_V2.22_3-11-2009_.web, and assuming your browser isn't being a PITA, in 3 minutes your NAS should upload, flash and reboot itself. Assuming all goes well, you should be able to log in (all the original settings/logins should be the same as before you flashed it), and you'll be greeted by a bright red Longshine LCS-8311 web interface, which incidentally is exactly the same as the A-Tec interface aside from minor cosmetic differences... and the addition of the eSATA button.
We now have an LCS-8311!!! Okay... so? So... we can install the previously mentioned NExt! First - go to the following site URL which you will be prompted to log into:
http://www.internetteam.de/zap...download/firmware/FSC/
Use the login credentials "amsadmin" and "ams150" for the pass. Don't worry, you're not breaking in - lochness has this info posted on the FSC forums in his sig. Once there, you'll want to traverse down the NExt folder to /NExt/Base/LCS-8311. We need to install the Base extensions before we can install anything else. Each download will have a corresponding README - if you want to know more... READ THEM!
At this point, download the latest NEXT_base_LCS-8311 version. Again, I'm not hotlinking, because this can change anytime. The appropriate file will have the version number followed by --ntx_libra.tgz. Download it, and cuddle it for a bit. Not too long though, because you're going to want to load these extensions into your NAS! You should know how to do this if you've gotten this far. Let it rip, wait for the load to complete (about 2 minutes), then log into your NAS again.
Notice anything different? I bet you don't!
That's because no visible changes are made on the Web UI by loading this extension. But now, we're primed to load the actual fun stuff!Traverse your way back up to the /NExt top directory, and go ahead and fall into the Addons folder. I'm going to walk you through only two addons - the rest you can do yourself because they all follow the same procedure, and you can pick and choose what you want to install.
The first two we want to download are NEXT_php followed by NEXT_webadmin. It will be obvious why once we're done. Go ahead and download the files. Once they're done, we need to change the file name in order to get them loaded. Rename each file simply by adding --ntx_libra at the end of the filename before the [/b].tgz[/b]. There's no need to explain why, aside from the fact that the extension loader looks for the filename ntx_libra.tgz starting from the end of the file name. After you've renamed both, go ahead and load each extension, order doesn't really matter I don't think. Once each one loads, reboots and reloads, give the NAS one more reboot for good measure.
At this point, you should be able to open a browser and enter the following URL:
http://<Your NAS Name/IP Here>:81/phpwebif/index.php
Obviously... change <Your NAS Name/IP Here> to whatever your actual NAS name or IP address is. You will be greeted by a slick little login prompt - log in with your NAS admin/root username and password, and welcome to the NExt Webadmin UI! From this page, you can manage any additional Addons you install using the same method as above (download/rename/load extension). They work pretty much the same as services do in Windows on this page. If the Addon has it's own interface (Like CUPS for example), there will be a link labeled Interface next to the Readme, which will take you directly to that module's interface.
At this point... go nuts! The Base extension I believe loads BusyBox among other things, so you can install the Telnet or SSH server and go play at the shell level. There's tons of Addons available - they're always making news ones too. Also check the Addons.Beta folder, there's some fun ones in there too. Read the READMEs, and have fun with it. Keep in mind that some of these Addons duplicate some of the functionality of the original firmware extensions (which are loaded at this point!!!), so you may want to go into the main NAS web interface and disable them (iTunes, UPnPAV, Web Server, etc) before installing the corresponding Addon.
One final note - the LCS-8311 firmware that we now have loaded fully supports the eSATA port. From what I can tell, if you feel like modding your NAS, all you need is the appropriate connector to solder onto the mainboard, and you'll have a fully working eSATA connector. Sounds like fun!
Next post will be for the IDE version - which incidentally I found can load Debian. I'll be taking my time on that though.
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