Welcome to the Open MSS-II mini wiki at Scratchpad!
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Welcome to the Open MSS-II miniwiki at wikia.
This is the new place where to collect all the MSS-II info in a central place.
why do we need this mini-wiki
- the forum at http://www.openmss.org/forum/ does not seem to be a reliable place to store info permanently
- the MSS-II uses a different board, cpu and kernel. The MSS-II is very similar to the LS-Pro because it is based on the same Orion chipset and reference design.
see:
http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Turbostation
to find out how to begin.
Hardware
Pictures of the board
http://downloads.linkstationwiki.net/uploads/MSS-II/IMAGES/
Mods
Gain serial access
Gaining serial access is easy as the headers are already soldered to the board.
The connector is CON7, which in the picture above has black pen marks near it.
The pins in order from closest to Marvell chip to farthest: Rx, GND, Tx, VCC(3.3V)
The serial signals are still at TTL levels, so they need to be converted to RS232 levels before they can be connected
to a standard serial port. Creating a Serial port discusses how to connect signals
like this to a computer.
What new capabilities does serial access provide?
Uboot control, loading other kernels/initrds via tftp
Additional HDD possible?
There are holes for an additional SATA connector (and maybe power as well), so adding a second drive may be relatively easy. The part number of the connector required is MOLEX - 67491-0020
LEDs
The top LED shows status/error information through a series of green/amber flashes.
| Green | Amber | Status |
| 1 | 4 | /share file system error or bad power supply |
| 1 | 3 | Boot Error - Attempting to boot from disk 0 |
| 2 | 3 | Boot Error - Attempting to boot from disk 1 |
| 1 | 2 | HDD S.M.A.R.T. Error - Attempting to boot from disk 0 |
| 2 | 2 | HDD S.M.A.R.T. Error - Attempting to boot from disk 1 |
| 1 | 1 | RAID Error |
| 1 | 0 | Sleep Mode - Disks are powered off |
Software
Analysis of the stock OS
what is installed by default, why is it needed for what?
-- Web Server configuration ?
You may manually go to the web page "/advanced/advanced_web_service.asp" and it gives you some configuration screen that looks like you could set up a web virtualhost on some of your shares.
-- Added by vapula@endor.be
The "/advanced/advanced_web_service.asp" is broken. It does nothing. (Firmware 3.1.28).
To read some debugging information you can access "/advanced/mss_dbg_1.asp" and navigate with "Next" button.
A new software/firmware is in preparation at Maxtor, apparently: http://seagate.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/seagate.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5044
(...) Q. It says the new Central Axis software adds “secure web access”. What will that allow me to do with my MSS II? A. Having secure web access on your network drive means you can access content without disrupting your firewall; including: * Access content on your Maxtor Shared Storage II drive securely from any Internet connected PC or laptop browser * Invite friends, family and colleagues to access select content * View images and slideshows * No special client software required, no disruption to your firewall (...) Q. How will I know when I can download the software upgrade for my MSS II network drive? A. The software upgrade will be available this spring. To receive notice when it is available, you can provide your email address at maxtorsolutions.com
-- Added by laxyf@yahoo.fr, March 2008
The Seagate upgrade to the MSS2 (to allow remote file access) is now available for download from Seagate's Support/MSS2/Download page. File access is free and unfiltered and is via GlobalAccess.Seagate.com --Added by SWGeek May 8, 2008 ---
Prebuilt Binaries and Packages
There is an optware feed for mssii at http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/mssii/cross/unstable The instruction for ipkg installation and configuration is at http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/MSSII/HomePage
Due to similarities to the LSPro, certain binaries will work fine on the MSS-II.
ushare http://downloads.linkstationwiki.net/Users/kaiten/ushare-1.0+libupnp-1.4.6_arm9.tgz ncurses http://download.linkstationwiki.net/arm9-LS_Pro/Genlink/Binaries/armv5tejl-softfloat-linux-gnueabi/ screen http://downloads.linkstationwiki.net/Uploads/LSPro/Binaries/
Howto`s
Replace the hard drive
To replace the hard drive, you must properly partition and format the drive, and then put the software image on it. These instructions are written assuming the hard drive being prepared for the MSS2 is attached to a Linux computer. Be VERY careful as it is possible to lose data on your computer if you do these operations on the wrong disk. Using this procedure you should be able to put a larger drive in the unit, although I have only tested this with a 20 gig drive.
You may use a Parted Magic LiveCD (http://partedmagic.com/, only 40 MB), but your favorite Linux distro do the job as well.
Step 1: Partition the drive.
Two examples of how users' drives were formatted:
Disk /dev/sdd: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdd1 * 1 32 257008+ 83 Linux /dev/sdd2 33 64 257040 83 Linux /dev/sdd3 65 96 257040 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sdd4 97 38913 311797552+ 5 Extended /dev/sdd5 97 159 506016 83 Linux /dev/sdd6 160 38913 311291473+ 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 1 32 257008+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb2 33 64 257040 83 Linux /dev/sdb3 65 96 257040 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sdb4 97 60801 487612912+ 5 Extended /dev/sdb5 97 159 506016 83 Linux /dev/sdb6 160 60801 487106833+ 83 Linux
Hence the first partitions seem to have fixed sizes, regardless of the total drive size, and only the size of the extended partition and the last logical drive in it (which holds the shared folders) varies.
The partition use is as follows: 1: software image (boot flag set) 2: software image (redundant) 3: swap 4: extended 5: tmp 6: share
In the above examples partitions 1,2,3 are about 256 MBytes, with part 5 being about 512 and part 6 the rest.
Step 2: Format the partitions. The MSS2 uses the ext3 filesystem. Partitions 5 and 6 should be formatted, and swap should be made on partition 3. Partitions 1/2 will be dealt with below.
Step 3: Put software on the drive. The image used for this is the firmware upgrade image available from Maxtor (alternatively, you can use this patched firmware, which has SSH enabled). The download image is a compressed tarfile that contains a filesystem image.
amd64:$ tar -zxvf coyote-3.1.26.bin coyote-3.1.26.img coyote-3.1.26.img.md5sum amd64:$ file coyote-3.1.26.img coyote-3.1.26.img: Linux rev 1.0 ext3 filesystem data (large files) amd64:$
The coyote-3.1.26.img file is an ext3 filesystem image that we will put on the drive using dd. You must be VERY careful with these commands as they will happily overwrite any partition they are pointed at - make very sure that you are writing to the drive you want to.
amd64:$ dd if=coyote-3.1.26.img of=/dev/sdX1 bs=1024k amd64:$ dd if=coyote-3.1.26.img of=/dev/sdX2 bs=1024k
This puts the same image on both partitions, which will make the unit boot up the first time no matter which partition it tries first.
Step 5: Put drive back in MSS2 and boot it up. This should now boot, and come up like an out of the box unit. I don't think that any of the configuration is stored in flash, so it will have all gone with the previous hard drive.
This has also been successfully tested with a Samsung EcoGreen HD204UI 2TB hard drive, which lets the drive provide 1.8 TB of network storage.
Changing Auto Power On
If the power to an MSS-II is disconnected, and then returns, the power switch on the back will need to be pressed to turn the unit on. This mod enables auto power-on, which simply turns on the unit whenever the power is connected.
The first step, as always, is to download a telnet or ssh enabled image, e.g. "coyote-3.1.26-telnet.img". After connecting, you'll need to:
1) Disable the script section which always makes sure that auto power-on is NOT enabled.
2) Change the mode, using the flash parameter utility, /usr/sbin/mxoparam.
Here are the commands:
cd /etc/init.d vi rc.mxoinit
comment out these lines, using '#'
################################################################################
# Set wait for button press On
################################################################################
# if [ "`mxoparam -a | grep "Wait for button press" | awk {'print $6'}`" = "OFF"
# then
# echo -n "Setting wait for button press on.. "
# /usr/sbin/mxoparam -c 1 2> /dev/null
# if [ "$?" = 0 ]; then echo "done"; else echo "failed"; fi
# fi
save and exit vi.
Now, use one of these two commands.
mxoparam -c 0 -- don't wait for button press, so auto power on mxoparam -c 1 -- revert to factory setting
You can print all settings available from mxoparam using "mxoparam -a"
Alternative Method (for the "vi" challenged)
If using vi across a telnet connection is not your cup of tea, you can also simply copy the rc.mxoparam file across to a shared folder, edit it from the shared folder location, and then copy it back:
cp /etc/init.d/rc.mxoinit /share/Public
(do edits from any editor ... as long as it supports unix text file format)
cp /share/Public/rc.mxoinit /etc/init.d/rc.mxoinit
You may want to make a backup first...
Creating a custom Image
- Untaring
- Modification
- Taring it up again
How to compile
Cross-Compiling
This is the cross toolchain used to compile for the board:
http://downloads.linkstationwiki.net/uploads/LS_Pro_temporary/CrossToolchains/CodeSourcery/
The instructions for cross-compiling are here (USE AT YOUR OWN RISK and give feeback): http://nas-central.org/index.php/Setting_up_the_codesourcery_toolchain_for_X86_to_ARM9_cross_compiling http://nas-central.org/index.php/Talk:Setting_up_the_codesourcery_toolchain_for_X86_to_ARM9_cross_compiling
-- Added by laxyf@yahoo.fr
Cross-compiling with Scratchbox on Ubuntu: http://ackix.free.fr/blog/?id=129
Cross-Compiling the GPL-Kernel
Native Compiling
Native compiling means compiling directly on the box itself. Currently no one has created a specific native toolchain for the MSS-II.
