Marvell mv5281 soon supported by the vanilla kernel

[mindbender]

i have something for you guys:

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/g ... /orion.git

the Marvell SoC will be supported soon by the vanilla-kernel....they directly code the support for the kurobox pro....but hey, that means that you can base your work in getting the port done for the arm9-based synology boxes as well!

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kern ... /orion.git

[ldesnogu]

That's no news See here.

And alas it's not because Marvell decided to support Kurobox that they will also support Synology.

I am ready to bet that the kernel Synology is using was already based on a port done by Marvell.

Anyway I don't see what this will change as long as we are not able to flash our own kernel

[mindbender]

well, this post was more targeted at encouraging some of you to look at what is needed to get this kernel running.....what needs to be patched, what needs to be modified on the box itself.....

do not expect anyone from synology to do that for you. they surely already designing the next box to sell.

All NAS-manufacturer are not interested in new features for old boxes...hey, they want to have a reason to sell newer boxes.

for your info: as soon as someone manages to run a custom kernel (best try with the patches from the git-repository) then it is quite straight forward to get debian/gentoo running......or foonas from foonas.org

so anyone start looking at the kernel issue.

[ldesnogu]

I just hinted at the first step: being able to flash the kernel.
If you are not able to do that why spend time on playing with the kernel?

And BTW Synology has been very helpful regarding new stuff for their newest boxes, providing SSH, NFS support and cross-compilers.

[mindbender]

i cannot believe that. there always is a way. and if not then it just has to be discovered.

1) where is the kernel stored at all? is it really in flash? maybe encrypted?
or is it on the hdd?

the buffalo arm9 devices have it on the hdd, the QNAP turbostations have it in flash.

if in flash anyone already has a flash map?

how does synology itself update the kernel?

2) do the synology boxes also use uboot as a bootloader? if yes then you most likely can start by testing loading kernels via tftp. only thing to do is to get serial access.

i would have checked myself by looking at the GPL uboot sources but it seems that synology wants money for delivering them. although this complies to the GPL i don`t like this as buffalo is doing it the same way. thats why we bought them once and made them available directly.

or can you point me to a link where i can download it directly maybe?

and yes, synology is very helpful regarding many things. ssh + nfs are nice. cross toochains are also nice.

but they won`t ever think about upgrading the kernel to the latest one or porting the board to the vanilla kernel. they would see no sense in doing that.

EDIT: well, the cross toolchain is from marvell, thats no surprise. about 10 other boxes based on this SoC are using the codesourcery toolchain from
http://www.codesourcery.com/gnu_toolcha ... nload.html

guys think about trying to boostrap to the optware feed which was originally made for the MSS-II...it works on 6 other 88f5281 based devices already.....thats why it was renamed after the toolchain(codesourcery arm toolchain 2005q3):
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/MSSII/HomePage

here is the feed:
http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optwa ... ss/stable/

[ldesnogu]

Did I ever say it is impossible?

Right now the problem is that the Syno updater has some checksums. I already know how some of them are computed (in fact I rediscovered what FlipFlip already had discovered; see here). We need to decypher one last checksum; I have started working on that, but currently have no time.

Then it's up to you, if you want to take the risk of bricking your Syno or of frying it by adding a serial port... I would personally not do it as I need my Syno

[Sylver]

These devices are for sure running u-boot. Using a serial access console, you can stop u-boot during the boot process and tell him to boot via tftp a kernel that you have compiled !
Once you have a kernel that is booting correctly, you can, for sure flash the kernel in memory from u-boot ! It is less easy than using the updater, but it's possible

[mindbender]

support for the marvell orion SoC was added to 2.6.25-rc1

just search for "orion" on the following 2 pages:
http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6 ... 2.6.25-rc1
http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6 ... 2.6.25-rc3

[ldesnogu]

So who will be the first one to try?

[mindbender]

the marvell orion based synology boxes use uboot like all other NAS devices based on that.

uboot features tftp booting a kernel + initrd. but the question is if it is possible to trigger the tftp requests from the uboot bootloader without getting serial access.

in case tftp booting is possible (like the buffalo boxes are featuring described in our revival article)
then tftp boot this file here:
http://downloads.foonas.org/foonas-em/0 ... age_2.6.24
its a kernel with built in initramfs...which means you only need to boot this kernel and you will directly get to a shell...
some guys from the openwrt-forums already tftp booted this file on their routers with marvell board

in case your uboot bootloader requests an initrd and does not want to proceed booting without one just serve the original initrd bundled with your firmware. it will be ignored and the initramfs will be booted. this is the best way to test these kernels as all box specific problems are circumvented that way.

the advantage also is that you do not touch the normal filesystem....rebooting the box is all you need to get it back to its normals state.

so 2 ways to go from here

1) find a way to get the box booting from tftp and boot the mentioned uImage
2) hardware mod to get serial, then trigger the tftp via uboot commandline

[gregoire]

Latest news: Linux gains new architecture support

[dguido]

No one answered mindbenders question, where is the kernel actually stored on the Synology boxes? I have the feeling its on flash somewhere because I don't see it mounted in /

[Trolli]

Yes, it's on the EEPROM: viewtopic.php?p=31345#p31345

Trolli

[ldesnogu]

And it was answered in that thread

[dguido]

I figured it out independently last night
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=7785&p=32997#p32997