cafsenra/ix2-200

Iomega ix2-200 Debian install instruction

Follow at your own risk!

but those should be general instructions for getting normal Debian installed onto iomega ix2-200 NAS

Files on usb stick

0. install packages

sudo apt install u-boot-tools

1. Create ext2 usb stick

First figure out your usb stick name

lsblk

Make sure that your usb stick uses DOS/MBR partition table!!

Then format it with ext2. Replace /dev/sdX1 with your stick name

sudo mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdX1

And mount the usb stick to /mnt folder

sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt

To make things easier, lets change the usb stick permisions to be more open

sudo chmod 777 /mnt

2. Download kernel, initramfs and device tree

First lets cd to the mounted usb device

cd /mnt

And download files there

wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/installer-armel/current/images/kirkwood/device-tree/kirkwood-iomega_ix2_200.dtb
wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/installer-armel/current/images/kirkwood/netboot/vmlinuz-4.19.0-6-marvell
wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/installer-armel/current/images/kirkwood/netboot/initrd.gz

3. Build U-boot files

iomega has a realy old u-boot that does not support seperate device tree files. We will append device tree dtb file end of the kernel images

cat vmlinuz-4.19.0-6-marvell kirkwood-iomega_ix2_200.dtb > vmlinuz_with_dtb

then we have to wrap the kernel and initrd into u-boot image files

mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C none -a 0x00000000 -e 0x00000000 -n initramfs -d initrd.gz uInitrd
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel  -C none -a 0x00008000 -e 0x00008000 -n kernel -d vmlinuz_with_dtb uImage

4. Unmount usb stick

Do not simply unplug the usb drive from your computer!

First lets make sure that all of the files are written to our usb stick by running sync This command my take some time if you have a slow usb stick

sync

Then unmount the usb stick

sudo umount /mnt

5. Boot debian installer on iomega

Note: Installation is done over UART serial connection at speed of 115200

1. Plug the usb drive into iomega
2. power on the device
3. in u-boot promt start usb support

usb start

4. make sure that your usb drive is detected

usb storage

If its not detected, you can try again by running reset

5. Make sure that you can list files on the usb drive

ext2ls usb 0:1 /

6. Load files and boot

ext2load usb 0:1 0x00800000 /uImage
ext2load usb 0:1 0x01A00000 /uInitrd
setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200
bootm 0x00800000 0x01A00000

Note:

Those memory addresses are pretty random, you can use memlayout.py script to calculate those values. Memory base should be at 0x0. At least thats what is written into the Device Tree

6. Install debian like normal

U-Boot on the ix2-200 only understands DOS/MBR partiton tables, GPT will not work. Some hacish protected MBR GPT hybrid might also work but thats untested!

Create a seperate /boot partiton type of about 200MB size with ext2 file system!

Installer might tell you that it cant find any kernels to install, simply say continue without a kernel

Mark down the kernel args the installer gives you. Probably you need the root=<device> kernel argument line.

7. Install kernel

Before rebooting in the installer you have to change into shell window by pressing ctrl+a and then n

chroot /target

and then install kernel

apt install linux-image-marvell

After that we need to create uboot image files

cd /boot
cp /usr/lib/linux-image-4.19.0-6-marvell/kirkwood-iomega_ix2_200.dtb /boot
cat vmlinuz-4.19.0-6-marvell kirkwood-iomega_ix2_200.dtb > vmlinuz_with_dtb
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel  -C none -a 0x00008000 -e 0x00008000 -n kernel -d vmlinuz_with_dtb uImage
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C none -a 0x00000000 -e 0x00000000 -n initramfs -d initrd.gz uInitrd

8. Finish install

9. Test bootup

In u-boot prompt

Start hdd support

ide reset

List files in boot partition

ext2ls ide 0:1 /

If you can see uImage and uInitrd then you can try to boot them

ext2load ide 0:1 0x00800000 /uImage
ext2load ide 0:1 0x01A00000 /uInitrd
setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/<device>
bootm 0x00800000 0x01A00000

If it booted then you can follow with next step

10. configure autoboot

in u-boot prompt

setenv loadfiles 'ide reset; ext2load ide 0:1 0x00800000 /uImage; ext2load ide 0:1 0x01A00000 /uInitrd'
setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/<device>
setenv bootcmd 'run loadfiles; bootm 0x00800000 0x01A00000'

And thest if those commands work

boot

If it boothed then you can reboot to u-boot prompt, run those setenv command again and this time instead of boot you save the variables with

saveenv

Kernel updates

After apt has updated your kernel you have to re generate the U-Boot images

Replace VERSION with your new kernel version. Version number should be visible if you ls /boot.

cd /boot
cp /usr/lib/linux-image-VERSION-marvell/kirkwood-iomega_ix2_200.dtb /boot
cat vmlinuz-VERSION-marvell kirkwood-iomega_ix2_200.dtb > vmlinuz_with_dtb
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel  -C none -a 0x00008000 -e 0x00008000 -n kernel -d vmlinuz_with_dtb uImage
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C none -a 0x00000000 -e 0x00000000 -n initramfs -d initrd.img-VERSION-marvell uInitrd

Links

• https://github.com/lentinj/u-boot/blob/master/doc/README.sata
• https://blog.nobiscuit.com/2011/08/06/installing-debian-to-disk-on-an-ix2-200/
• https://github.com/arvati/debian-ix2-200#make-changes-in-uboot