Lenovo-IX2-Debian

Installing Debian on Lenovo IX2 NAS to replace the stock firmware

Since I have a Lenovo IX2 device , but the device is EOL with no security fixed , so I decided to find replacement of the stock firmware.

I found information from https://kiljan.org/2021/04/22/installing-arch-linux-arm-on-an-iomega-ix2-200/ and try the instructions listed , but the device could not boot as expected.

After more research , I found the following URL which listed another installation process. https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096 and getting same result which stucks "Starting kernel......"

A few hours later , I booted the device successfully as expected , and I found my problem is related to DTS. https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,127264

So if anyone try to hack a IX2 device , from my own experience , PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT DTS FILE . AND IOMEGA IX2 IS NOT SAME AS LENOVO IX2 .

Here is some experience of installation .

1. Please make sure you have a TTL device which could connect to the device if you lost the network connectivity ( ie: boot failure )
2. Always backup your files before your process , especially the ENV values of the device ( if you do not backup the ENV values , you may not able to restore the stock firmware )
3. If you stuck after loading the images , please make sure you have got the right DTS file with your device.

My installation process

1. Backup the ENV value ( use fw_printenv for SSH connections with existing firmware or use printenv via TTL at interrupted uboot process )

2. Download the updated Debian rootfs file from https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096 ( Which I use is Debian-5.13.6-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2 ) , many thanks for Bodhi's great work of this.

3. Prepare a USB drive with at-least 8G and format it as MBR with 2 partitions (should be done with another linux box)
   dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=16 (Erase whole USB drive)
   fdisk /dev/sdX ( or other tools which you know how to use )
   o ( make MBR )
   n ( new first partition for /boot )
   p ( Primary )
   ( press enter to accept the first sector as the partition start )
   +256M ( for the BOOT partition )
   n ( the second partition - for the rootfs / )
   p ( Primary type )
   ( press enter to accept the first sector as the partition start )
   ( press enter to accept the end sector as the partition ends with all space )
   w ( write changes to the partition table )
   

4. Prepare the Debian USB boot media
   
   mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdX1
   mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX2
   e2label /dev/sdX1 BOOT
   e2label /dev/sdX2 rootfs
   mount /dev/sdX2 /mnt
   mkdir /mnt/boot
   mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt/boot
   cd /mnt
   bsdtar -xpf ~/Debian-5.13.6-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2 #( The file location which you have downloaded )
   cd /mnt/boot
   cp -a zImage-5.13.6-kirkwood-tld-1 zImage.fdt
   cat dts/kirkwood-lenovo-ix2-ng.dtb >> zImage.fdt #( If you stucks at "Starting kernel......" when booting , beware of this file )
   mv uImage uImage.orig
   mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel -C none -a 0x00008000 -e 0x00008000 -n Linux-5.13.6-kirkwood-tld-1 -d zImage.fdt uImage
   mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C gzip -a 0x00000000 -e 0x00000000 -n initramfs-5.13.6-kirkwood-tld-1 -d initrd.img-5.13.6-kirkwood-tld-1 uInitrd
   cat << 'EOF' >> /mnt/etc/fstab
   LABEL=BOOT /boot ext2 defaults,noatime 0 0
   LABEL=rootfs / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 0
   EOF
   
   cd ~
   
   sync #( Make sure the USB drive have written all files instead of memory cache )
   sync
   sync
   
   umount -R /mnt
   
   # Lenovo IX2 is different with IOMEGA IX2 , you need not to change ETH0 to ETH1
   # and you may config the /mnt/etc/network/interfaces to have a static IP address as you wish
   

5. Prepare the UBOOT ENV of the device , the process is assume you connect it via TTL serial ,
   if you connect via SSH , may have a little difference ( fw_setenv vs setenv )
   Connect the TTL : https://kiljan.org/2021/04/22/installing-arch-linux-arm-on-an-iomega-ix2-200/
   ( Thanks for great information by Sven Kiljan )
   boot the device
   ( I suggest to boot the device with no hard drive and no usb , it will boot failure and left you to the uboot console , or you may hit "Enter" during the boot process to interrupt the boot )
   Here are the process of UBOOT:
   printenv ( Copy to a txt file which backup the existing ENV )
   setenv usb_set_bootargs 'setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 root=LABEL=rootfs rootdelay=10 earlyprintk=serial'
   setenv load_uimage 'ext2load usb 0:1 0x800000 /uImage'
   setenv load_uinitrd 'ext2load usb 0:1 0x2100000 /uInitrd'
   setenv usb_boot 'mw 0x800000 0 1; run load_uimage; run load_uinitrd; bootm 0x800000 0x2100000'
   setenv usb_bootcmd 'run usb_set_bootargs; run usb_boot'
   setenv bootcmd 'usb reset; run usb_bootcmd; usb stop; reset'
   saveenv
   

6. Power off the device , plug the USB and do not insert any hard drive ,
   and start the device again , if there has no errors , it should boot to the Debian which you installed with the USB drive ,
   you may login the device via ssh with root/root. ( I think you should know to find the IP address with your DHCP or you have already set the static IP address :) , or using the TTL to login to the system )

7. Enjoy ~ ( You may copy the files to hard drive and boot from hard drive , but you should modify your own ENV values. If a hard drive >2TB you should use GPT for it . My drives are 4TB and I want to keep the NAS drive as most simple raid 1 so I just leave the USB as the boot media always. ie: if you installed the boot files to hard drive , raid 1 could only apply with partitions instead of hard drive level which I don't want it to be )