Author Topic: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP  (Read 5658 times)

ftz

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Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« on: February 02, 2019, 09:44:02 PM »
Hello,
I acquired a used, apparently bricked, LS210D0201. It gives code E07 Corrupted Firmware on bootup. I could hear clicking, so the hard-drive is probably on its way out also.

I disassembled the box, deleted the existing partitions as per https://www.aaronhastings.me/completely-recovering-from-a-bricked-buffalo-linkstation-ls200-series-nas-and-opening-the-firmware-too/, reassembled the box.
My PC is set to 192.168.11.1/24. Booted in safe mode with networking. Firewall off, antivirus off.

I've read every post I found in many hours over each of the last three days on how to get the box to go into EM mode and have TFTP see it, but nothing works. TFTP justs sits there "accepting requests", even for hours while the box just shows rapid white blinking.

A port canner finds the LS at 192.168.1.150 but reports only UDP port 3696 open. It is the only open port found, whether TCP or UDP.
LSUpdater can't find the box. Nas Navigator can't find the box. ACP Commander can't find the box.

Any more ideas?

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2019, 08:54:01 AM »
If you’ve already opened it I usually find the non TFTP approach easier, here are
end to end instructions to get you up and running.

Extract the boot files:
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Extract_Boot_Files_from_Stock_Firmware

Enable debug mode on lsupdater:
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Enable_Debug_mode

Install the firmware:
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Restoring_Stock_Firmware_without_TFTP
or
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Restoring_Stock_Firmware_via_TFTP

If you’d rather run Debian Linux than the stock firmware all you need is:
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Installing_Debian_on_Armada-370_Devices

ftz

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2019, 09:14:01 PM »
Hi,
Thank you very much for the tips on how to restore stock firmware by writing the .buffalo files to the hard drive! I did that a few times with the original hard drive and the box would just not go into EM mode. I then used the only spare drive I had lying around (160GB laptop drive), and was finally successful.

Formatted drive as all one ext3 partition. Copied the .buffalo files (I already had those from the TFTP files link in Aaron Hastings' blog). Attached the drice to the frame, booted up the laptop with fixed IP 192.168.11.1/24 and sure enough, after a minute I had a solid white light! LSUpdater found the NAS, though it reported a bogus 269.254... address, and would not do the update, even with the debug mode settings set to force 192.168.11.150. I opened NAS navigator, it asked me if I wanted the change the IP of the NAS, I said yes, it did, and saw the NAS in EM mode. I then went back to updater, clicked find, clicked update and tada! it has transferred firmware and is now writing firmware.

When an if this all works to create a functioning, though small NAS, I shall repeat it with a new 2TB or 4TB drive. One of those should be easy enough and cheap enough to acquire nowadays.

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2019, 09:49:22 PM »
sounds like progress.

make the first partition 1gb rather than the whole drive, that might be part of why you were having trouble with bigger drives.

I've put drives as big as 6tb in the ls210, it should be able to handle virtually anything on the market size wise. keep in mind it doesn't have a fan though, you'll want to stick to a drive that doesn't generate too much heat.

ftz

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2019, 09:42:04 PM »
Hello again,
At 7:00 am today, almost 11 hours after I started the update on the 160GB drive, the LS210 was still blinking E25 -- writing firmware. I'd read somewhere that sometimes they hang, so I just turned the switch to off. When I got back at 6:00 pm. it was still blinking E25, so I pulled the power and then turned it back on -- same E25.
I then took the old 2TB drive, created a 1GB ext3 partition and a second ext3 partition for the rest of the drive, copied the .buffalo files onto the 1GB partition, put the drive in the box and booted up. Back to where I was before yesterday it blinks E07 and neither LSUpdater nor NAS Navi can find the box, neither on 168.192.1.11/24 nor on 269.254.11.1/16.
Oh well.

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2019, 09:55:47 PM »
7 blinks means it’s not reading your boot partition. make sure you’re using a gpt partition table ( use gdisk or parted if on linux). just make 1 1gb partition, ensure it’s partition 1 and load the *.buffalo files on it.

I assume that if you’re able to partition/format the drive it means there’s nothing physically wrong with it though that would be an alternate explaination but I doubt that’s the problem.

If you still have trouble include more detail about your partition layout/ what commands tour using.


ftz

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2019, 11:52:54 AM »
Hello 1000001101000, thanks for your patience. Since gparted kept complaing that the last block on my old 2TB drive was wrong, I waited 'til a new 2TB drive arrived and I again had time to experiment.
The process I followed successfully with the small, 160 GB drive:
1) Connect Slacko USB stick and external USB HDD adaptor with 160GB drive to HP Elitebook.
2) Boot up Slacko
3) Use gparted to set partition type to gpt
4) Create one 1024MB partition, formatted ext3, leave the rest of the drive unallocated.
5) copy the two .buffalo files to that partition.
6) Shut down the laptop.
7) Put the drive in the NAS frame.
7) Reboot laptop in Windows 10 safe mode.
8) Make sure only ethernet is enabled and set to 192.168.11.1/24
9) Power up the NAS and wait for solid blue light.
10) Open NAS Navigator, allow it to change IP address to 192.168.11.150
11) Set lsupdater ini file to debug mode, no version check
12) run lsupdater. It finds NAS at 192.168.11.150
13) Call up debug mode window, check every box in the top half
14) Click update, wait for completion. lsupdater reports it cant find the NAS anymore. Close lsupdater.
15) refresh NAS navigator window. It reports NAS is now at 169.254..... and still in EM mode.
16) Change network adapter to 169.254.11.1/32
16) Open lsupdater.
17) set debug check boxes per the image in the guides you referenced earlier.
18) Click update. Firmware writes, updates, drive formats, NAS reboots and we now have a functioning (though small) NAS.

I tried the exact same process with new 2TB drive, an old 500GB drive borrowed from a friend,  and the old 2TB drive that came with the NAS and the old 160GB drive, in that order. In the first three cases, I got only as far as step 8 above. When I power up the NAS it claims corrupt firmware by flashing E07.

I powered down the NAS sucessfully by turning off the switch, and pulled the 160GB drive so I could inspect the resulting partitions. There are six:
977MB ext3,
4.77GB ext 3,
384.5 KB977MB, 134.88 unknown type -- bios_grub
512B unknwon type
976 MB linux-swap
134.88GB xfs,
and 7.49 GB are unallocated.
I wonder what might happen if I clone this drive onto the 2TB drive, and then expand the xfs partition to the available space. What do you think?

Or, could it be that the NAS frame itself has something wrong with it and just won't recognize larger drives?

Thanks.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2019, 12:23:41 PM by ftz »

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2019, 01:39:57 PM »
1. If you're loading the files directly onto the hard drive you don't need to do anything special with the network, all the 192.168.11.1/24 is specific to TFTP. That might make your testing a little easier.

2.
Quote
9) Power up the NAS and wait for solid blue light.
This is an LS210, right? As far as I know they only have white, red and orange/amber leds.

It sounds like you're really close, I generally only have that problem when something isn't right about my partition table or file system. I would think gparted would work fine but I typically use gdisk. If you can try this:

1. Boot into your linux environment
2. wipe out the existing partitions completely (with gdisk this is options 'x' then 'z')
3. Create a 1GB partition again, try using gdisk or even fdisk (an mbr should be fine for this part)
4. format it as ext3 (mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdx1)
5. mount it and copy over both *.buffalo files
6. run 'sync' then unmount the filesystem
7. Put the drive in the nas and boot it up.
8. Run lsupdate as you described.

If you want you can run lsupdater from linux using wine, I imagine your testing would go faster if you don't have to keep switching OS's and network configurations. I've got some notes on running lsupdater under linux here:
https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Enable_Debug_mode

Quote
I wonder what might happen if I clone this drive onto the 2TB drive, and then expand the xfs partition to the available space. What do you think?
That will probably work as long as you re-write the partition table after you clone the drive.

 

ftz

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2019, 12:10:39 PM »
Hi,

Yes, it is a white light. Most other posts about reviving a NAS write about blue lights, so I used that term.

Cloning, then resizing, took a long time and ultimately just got me back to the E07 blink situation.

I then used gdisk method you presented. Back to E07 again.

I give up. At least I now have two 2TB drives I can use to replace a pair of mirrored 500GB drives in the house's main desktop.

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2019, 12:38:13 PM »
It did work on the 160GB drive, right?

Usually once you've got the process down (have the right files/etc) it's pretty easy. I have run into a few gotchas that resulted in the E07 but there usually fairly simple like not ensuring the files get written before disconnecting from usb or not ensuring the gpt partition table is clean after cloning a drive.

It might be worth giving an MBR partition table a try if you haven't already, they tend to be a little more forgiving.

ftz

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #10 on: February 12, 2019, 05:01:53 PM »
Hello, Gave it one more try, using a different laptop, just in case the ethernet port or USB ports on the first laptop are physically wearing out.
Same results.

Prepared all three drives identically:
     used gdisk to get rid of GPT, create a 1024MB  MBR partition, mount /dev/sdx1, makefs.ext3 /dev/sdx1.
     copied *.buffalo to /dev/sdx1
     executed sync
     verified that files were in destination.

Installed drive in NAS frame, powered up.
    160GB drive completed process successfully. Properly powered down the NAS, switched to next drive.
    500GB drive: NAS gives E07 shortly after powering up, lsupdater can't find NAS, portscanner can't find it.
    2TB drive: NAS gives E07 shortly after powering up, lsupdater can't find NAS, portscanner can't find it.

1000001101000

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #11 on: February 12, 2019, 05:22:30 PM »
That's disappointing. what model are the drives that are failing?

ftz

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #12 on: February 12, 2019, 08:12:52 PM »
The ones that are failing are
Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002
Hitachi HUA722020ALA330
Seagate ST2000DM001 -- this one was in the NAS when I got it.

I wonder if the problem could be that the power supply at hand just can't provide enough juice. The NAS says 12V 1.5A on its sticker. The power brick I have says 12V 500mA output -- only one third of what the NAS asks for. I got the NAS out of one person's garage-sale junk pile, it had no power supply. The only 12V power supply I found in my own junk pile, with the correct size plug, came from an old LinkSys 10 Mb 4-port hub. I have a universal laptop power supply, but that's 18V, so no way I was going to use that.

Now that I looked at the model numbers, the fine print on each of the drives I couldn't get to work mentions higher current ratings than 500 mA. The 160GB 2.5"drive only has a rating of 580 mA.

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #13 on: February 12, 2019, 09:14:12 PM »
Yes, very much that. I bet you have far better luck with a bigger power supply.

ftz

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Re: Can't get LS210D0201 into EM / TFTP
« Reply #14 on: February 14, 2019, 11:04:59 PM »
Ok, with a bit of patience and a brand new 12V 3A rated power supply, all my available drives became visible in EM mode!
I successfully have the NAS running on my network now with the newest 2TB drive in it and stock firmware.
I am now trying to decide whether it should merely serve as the repository for the media I view through a pair of EpenElec boxes, or if I want to move fristersoft.net to it, or both.
Today, the file server for media and the web server for my photo album are both VM's running on the main, multiuser desktop, but I'm sure I'd consume a few less Kwh per month if it weren't powered up 24/7.
Thanks for all your assistance.