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I have a LS-WVL NAS that came with 2x 3TB drives and I want to upgrade to two new 8TB drives in.  I took both 3TB drives out and I put in one of the new drives.  I had the error light flashing 6 red blinks at me, I then proceeded to follow the links on this thread (http://forums.buffalotech.com/index.php?topic=30419.0), which points to this site https://buffalonas.miraheze.org/wiki/Restoring_Stock_Firmware_without_TFTP#Obtain_the_boot_files_for_your_device.

Connecting one of the new HDD drives to my PC, using fdisk I created a 512MB partition on one of the drives and copied over the uImage.buffalo and initrd.buffalo.  I found the uImage-lsp.5.x.buffalo was the only one that allows the device to boot up.  Using the uImage-88f5182.buffalo just had a blue light on and seemed to do nothing.

One I put this drive into the NAS and started it up, the LSUpdater found it.  I got LSUpdater into Debug mode as per the instructions from this site: https://herzig-net.de/?page=unbrick_ls-wxl.  After selecting the Rebuild partition, Do not check version and Force Update I clicked on OK and then Update.

It seemed to successfully create new partitions and format the drive, LSUpdater then rebooted the device but when it rebooted the the red error light was flashing 6 times and the LSUpdater timed out.  I left it a few hours to see if it would come back but it just kept flashing red.  When I looked at the drive using fdisk it had built 6 partitions.  I tried rebooting several times but it just went to the 6 red blinks and LSUpdater was no longer connecting to it.

I tried this several times to no avail, wiping the partitions and following the instructions again just in case I had missed something. 

Looking for new inspiration I then wiped the partitions and tried the instructions for Quick Start Setup guide from http://buffalo.jp/support_ap/support/products/ls_wvl.html.  Using this method the blue light flashes and rather than going to a solid blue for the power and function.  It again just flashes 6 red on the error.  I have found differing comments saying whether the LS-WVL chassis can install firmware directly so am not quite sure if this method is valid or not for my device.  Anyway, it didn't work.

Has anyone had this issue with it failing after the rebuilding the partition before?  It seems weird that after seeing the drives and installing the partitions it then no longer recognises the drives again.  The NAS itself has worked fine with the original drives for the years I have a had it and I have never had any problems with it when I have updated the firmware before.

If anyone has any advice I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks

This sounds like what happens when you try to install the firmware on a multi-bay using only one drive.

If so, try again with the boot files on Drive 1 and with Drive 2 blank.

Thanks for your reply.  I have just tried your suggestion and the same thing happens.  Interestingly it did create the partitions on the second drive  as well.  Below is the output of fdisk and attempts to mount each of the partitions. 

Disk 1:


$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda       
[sudo] password for tom:
Disk /dev/sda: 7.3 TiB, 8001563222016 bytes, 15628053168 sectors
Disk model: ST8000DM004-2CX1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 44D75F44-64AD-4C09-8B92-4788BAEDF126

Device        Start         End     Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1      2048     2002943     2000896  977M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda2   2002944    12003327    10000384  4.8G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda3  12003328    12005375        2048    1M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda4  12005376    12007423        2048    1M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5  12007424    14008319     2000896  977M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda6  14008320 15609383319 15595375000  7.3T Microsoft basic data
$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 buffalo
mount: /mnt/buffalo: unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member'.
$ sudo mount /dev/sda2 buffalo
mount: /mnt/buffalo: unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member'.
$ sudo mount /dev/sda3 buffalo
mount: /mnt/buffalo: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda3, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.
$ sudo mount /dev/sda4 buffalo
mount: /mnt/buffalo: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda4, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.
$ sudo mount /dev/sda5 buffalo
mount: /mnt/buffalo: unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member'.
$ sudo mount /dev/sda6 buffalo
mount: /mnt/buffalo: unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member'.


Disk 2:


Disk /dev/sda: 7.3 TiB, 8001563222016 bytes, 15628053168 sectors
Disk model: ST8000DM004-2CX1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: E6680528-FEA2-416A-AF03-2EC9D66DE88D

Device        Start         End     Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1      2048     2002943     2000896  977M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda2   2002944    12003327    10000384  4.8G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda3  12003328    12005375        2048    1M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda4  12005376    12007423        2048    1M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5  12007424    14008319     2000896  977M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda6  14008320 15609383319 15595375000  7.3T Microsoft basic data


$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 buffalo/
mount: /mnt/buffalo: unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member'.
$ sudo mount /dev/sda2 buffalo
mount: /mnt/buffalo: unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member'.
$ sudo mount /dev/sda3 buffalo
mount: /mnt/buffalo: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda3, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.
$ sudo mount /dev/sda4 buffalo
mount: /mnt/buffalo: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda4, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.
$ sudo mount /dev/sda5 buffalo
mount: /mnt/buffalo: unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member'.
$ sudo mount /dev/sda6 buffalo
mount: /mnt/buffalo: unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member'.

Which debug options did you select? (I would select all except UPDATE BOOT)

Below are the options I picked.  The instructions said to pick these ones first and then afterwards select the Update options on the left hand side, so that is what I have been doing.

[unchecked] Update BOOT
[unchecked] Update KERNEL
[unchecked] Update initrd
[unchecked] Update rootfs

[checked] Do not check version
[checked] Rebuild partition table
[unchecked] Delete user data partition
[checked] Force update

Destination of firmware: /boot
Use DHCP client: checked

I have also just gone through the process where I checked everything to see what would happen.  The same thing happened, once the firmware was installed it rebooted and the device error light flashing 6 red blinks.

[checked] Update BOOT
[checked] Update KERNEL
[checked] Update initrd
[checked] Update rootfs

[checked] Do not check version
[checked] Rebuild partition table
[checked] Delete user data partition
[checked] Force update

Destination of firmware: /boot
Use DHCP client: checked

One more thing I forgot. The install typically only succeeds if you have all the drive bays full. For some reason the installer mis-identifies 2-bay devices as 4-bay devices and refuses to finish building the raid arrays.

This can be corrected changing that setting once the device reaches EM mode, before you start the install. This can be accomplished with the following command:

java -jar acp_commander.jar -t <device ip address> -c "echo MAX_DISK_NUM=2 >> /etc/nas_feature"

This requires ACP Commander which can be found here:
https://github.com/1000001101000/acp-commander

I think you posted that last reply on the wrong thread:

Quote

View Profile  Personal Message (Online)

Re: Reinstalling to an out-of warranty NAS with blank drives
« Reply #46 on: Today at 05:00:13 pm »
Quote
I tried your suggestion.  Unfortunately it did not work.  It went through the usual steps and then the blinking red light on reboot.

$ java -jar acp_commander.jar -t <IP> -c "echo MAX_DISK_NUM=2 >> /etc/nas_feature"
OK (ACP_STATE_OK)

I would expect the combination of all the things we've talked about would work. I'd suggest starting over with blank drives and trying again with all the debug options and setting the max_drives value.

If it still gives you trouble you can watch the syslog during the install and hopefully catch the error when it happens. To do that, enable telnet once it reaches EM Mode:

java -jar acp_commander.jar -t <ip> -o

Then connect to the device via telnet and follow the syslog:
tail -f /var/log/syslog

Then run through the install with that session open and watch the output.

Thanks for catching that. I have removed the stray message.

Poking around in the nas_feature file I did notice the PRODUCT_CAPACITY was set to "6.0T".  Is it worth setting this to "16.0T"?  I tried and it did not seem to make a difference.  Here is my nas_feature.  You can see it does have the max drives as 2 already.  Are there any other settings here that are worth playing with?  I will try your syslog suggestion tomorrow and see if that yields anything.

PID=0x00003008
SERIES_NAME="LinkStation"
PRODUCT_NAME="LS-WVL(KOUGYOKU)"
DEFAULT_LANG=english
DEFAULT_CODEPAGE=CP437
STORAGE_TYPE=
BODY_COLOR=
DEVICE_NETWORK_PRIMARY=eth0
DEVICE_NETWORK_SECONDARY=
DEVICE_NETWORK_NUM=1
PRODUCT_CAPACITY="6.0T"
REGION_CODE=EU
SUPPORT_NTFS_WRITE=off
SUPPORT_DIRECT_COPY=on
SUPPORT_RAID=on
SUPPORT_RAID_DEGRADE=off
SUPPORT_FAN=on
SUPPORT_AUTOIP=on
SUPPORT_NEW_DISK_AUTO_REBUILD=off
SUPPORT_2STEP_INSPECTION=off
SUPPORT_RESYNC_DELAY=off
SUPPORT_PRINTER_SERVER=on
SUPPORT_ITUNES_SERVER=on
SUPPORT_DLNA_SERVER=on
SUPPORT_NAS_FIREWALL=off
SUPPORT_IPV6=off
SUPPORT_DHCPS=off
SUPPORT_UPNP=off
SUPPORT_SLIDE_POWER_SWITCH=on
SUPPORT_BITTORRENT=on
SUPPORT_USER_QUOTA=on
SUPPORT_GROUP_QUOTA=on
SUPPORT_ACL=on
SUPPORT_TIME_MACHINE=on
SUPPORT_SLEEP_TIMER=on
SUPPORT_AD_NT_DOMAIN=on
SUPPORT_RAID0=1
SUPPORT_RAID1=1
SUPPORT_RAID5=0
SUPPORT_RAID10=0
SUPPORT_NORAID=0
SUPPORT_RAID_REBUILD=1
SUPPORT_AUTH_EXTERNAL=1
SUPPORT_SAMBA_DFS=0
SUPPORT_LINKDEREC_ANALOG=0
SUPPORT_LINKDEREC_DIGITAL=0
SUPPORT_WEBAXS=1
SUPPORT_UPS_SERIAL=0
SUPPORT_UPS_USB=1
SUPPORT_UPS_RECOVER=0
SUPPORT_SYSLOG_FORWARD=0
SUPPORT_SYSLOG_DOWNLOAD=0
SUPPORT_SHUTDOWN_FROMWEB=0
SUPPORT_REBOOT_FROMWEB=1
SUPPORT_IMHERE=0
SUPPORT_POWER_INTERLOCK=1
SUPPORT_SMTP_AUTH=1
NEED_MICONMON=off
ROOTFS_FS=ext3
USERLAND_FS=xfs
NASFEAT_VM_WRITEBACK=default
NASFEAT_VM_EXPIRE=default
MAX_DISK_NUM=2
MAX_USBDISK_NUM=1
MAX_ARRAY_NUM=1
DEV_BOOT=md0
DEV_ROOTFS1=md

I've never run into PRODUCT_CAPACITY before. I suspect it's just indicating that it originally came with 6T, others have upgraded storage before without issue so I would suspect it's not checked but I don't know for sure. Changing it was a good thing to try though.

Oddly enough I've seen it stop at this point for the opposite reason, trying to install on drives too small (<32GB for most). 

I'm hoping the syslog will give a hint since we've used most of the tricks I'm familiar with.

Right, I have made some progress I think.

I had to do this command as telnetd is not installed on my device (or as far as I could tell searching /bin, /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin).
java -jar acp_commander.jar -t <IP> -s

When I started the format this command lost connection so did not manage to get syslog (/var/log/messages).

However, I had another go at mounting the created drive.

mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /mnt/buffalo

this worked and I noticed it had copied over the files but had not created a uImage.buffalo.  So I copied the uImage-lsp.5.x.buffalo to uImage.buffalo on the drive and unmounted it.

cp uImage-lsp.5.x.buffalo uImage.buffalo
cd ..
sudo umount /mnt/buffalo

I then placed the drive back in and I get a yellow light, not a red one!!  Its been doing something so will see what happens next.

I will update this post with progress.

I'm back in!!

So after the yellow lights flashed for a bit, the blue light flashed for about 3 minutes and then I went to the webpage and the login showed!  I have been able to configure the drives now.

Thank you for taking the time to help me get this resolved. I hope this post will help someone in the future.

Nice!

That reminds me, I need to add some documentation to the ACP Commander page. I recently added a new mode to allow interactive sessions that let things like "top" and "tail" work even if there is no telnet available. There's also a fairly easy way to just add a telnet binary what I need to write up while I'm at it.