Sunday 27 September 2009

Upgrading Buffalo LS2 to kernel 2.6

Somehow, I managed to screw up my OpenLink/Debil/Debian installation on my aging Buffalo Linkstation2 while trying to get a newly bought Brother HL-2140 work with it. Somehow, the repository contains the latest lenny code which broke the dependencies and the only way I could resolve the problem is by upgrading to latest kernel 2.6 and have FreeLink/u-boot/Lenny combination.

It took me quite a while to get everything working and I'm yet to get the samba etc. work yet. Up to now, I've 2.6 working with u-boot. Thanks to the experts in NAS-Central forum, u-boot works perfectly the first time, but initially, the 2.6 kernel won't boot. Spent few hours googling on the net trying to find the solution and finally found that I need to compile fix_ext2_magic and run it to fix the /dev/hda1 partition.

Nice links & how-tos to start with:


What in the to-do list for the next few days:

1. Get SAMBA working and reinstate all accounts
2. Get lightttpd/php5/postgress working
3. Get torrentflux working
4. Get cups working with the new laser printer

Update 1: Okay, I screwed up big time. I f***ed-up the installation. The LS2 rebooted every 10-15 minutes for no reason after I upgraded to Lenny. But the following discussion saved me .. (after hours trying to find the reason why ...)


Another problem I faced, after screwing up another time .. I did format the partition .. guess am just unlucky .. u-boot couldn't read the partition .. yet the above discussion save me another time ..

Problems/solutions:

1. Couldn't boot up kernel 2.6, solution .. need to run fix_ext2_magic (might need to recompile yourself)
2. LS2 rebooting itself for no reason, remove ntpd package and install openntpd instead.
3. U-boot couldn't read your /dev/hda1, probably you've created a new filesystem with larger inode size .. use 128 instead ..

Update 2: Adventure begins ...!! Somehow, the aging HD in the LS2 showing a bad sign .. bad sectors found in the first partition .. the HD has served me well for over 5 years now. Probably I made it worst by plugging and unplugging it from my PC. Checking the price & capacity for an IDE drive .. most shops carry the max 500GB and the price is .. guess .. the same as 1TB/SATA.

Guess where I went first? Yes .. EBAY :) Looking for SATA to IDE converter and found one that might work here:



Will update further when I got the adapter and hopefully it will fit perfectly inside the LS2 enclosure.

Update 3: I received the adapter but I broke the ribbon cable while trying to tight-fit the adapter+SATA drive into the LS2 enclosure .. I don't have any crimper that I could use .. and probably not a good idea either since the header makes the overall length longer and I probably will break it once more. One option is to desolder the header on both the adapter and LS2 and replace it with 5 short CAT-6 cables soldered directly to the LS2 board and the adapter. But ughh.. 40 pins each to desolder and resolder.. probably will do it when I've got time. For now, probably need to reuse the old Dell GX60 that I've as a NAS replacement. I've got another adapter which I could use inside the Dell.. until I've time to do the desoldering/resoldering .. GX60 will be my next thrashing victim :)

2 comments:

9W2PJU said...

haha, torrentflux is cool.
but torrentflux-b4rt is better.

9M2TPT said...

He..hee.. bro .. I had torrentflux-b4rt before .. so that is the one going to the LS2 again this time .. :)

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