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MvixBox Initialisation Process

AQUAR

Trainee

Posts: 116

Location: Australia

1

Saturday, March 20th 2010, 10:10am

MvixBox Initialisation Process

Anyone have a clear understanding of the MvixBox Initialisation process?

Can someone point out a generic NAS wiki for fundamental "Noob" questions like this?

The aim of this thread is to develop a sticky with flow chart on this process specific to the Mvixbox.

l presume it to be similar to a PC (but don't attack me if I am way off).

With this presumption in mind, I'll describe the process by way of an educated guess.
And hope others will then pick it apart thereby refine it.

a: a bios program is stored in an EEPROM.

b: bios is executed on powerup.

c: bios checks hardware functions and looks for an OS bootloader on a HDD.

d: if no bootloader is found it loads a mini OS in RAM.

e: mini OS runs ethernet connection, provides a status page and provides an option to upgrade

itself, it also allows the installation of a firmware image.

f: mini OS is called RAM booting by Mvix.

g: if an appropriate bootloader is found on the HDD then the NAS firmware takes over.

h: the NAS firmware provides the NAS GUI and hardware operability.

HWguru

NAS2000-Team

Posts: 1,039

Location: Wien

2

Sunday, March 21st 2010, 12:30pm

RE: MvixBox Initialisation Process

Hi,
the firmware of this nas seems to have the same source as many SL3316 and SL3516 based devices.
There is a development kit including hard and software sources for customers developing such hardware.

From the screen shots I see a bootloader looking very similar to the Raidsonic NAS4220 or MRT DUAL-NAS-E (Giganas)
On these devices all the firmware is stored in the flash. It boots up without disks installed an can be accessed through the web gui. Only user settings are stored on disk.

There must be a TTL (3.3V) level serial console port on the board. The connector can be seen on thisWiki article

With an adapter cable USB/TTL or RS232/TTL the bootloader could be accessed.

Maybe cstamas82 can tell us the pinouts for the serial an JTAG connections.

If you look at my Post Looking inside the upgrade file MvixBOX_v1.0.0.6.bin we see well known files.

zImage = Linux kernel
rd.gz = Ramdisk

I guess these files are directly stored in flash.

rd.gz is loaded to the RAM and mounted during boot
This could also be done on a linux PC.

Source code

 
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gunzip rd.gz
mkdir /mnt/tmp
mount -t ext2 -o loop rd /mnt/tmp
and maybe could look like this

Source code

 
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ll /mnt/tmp
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         1024 Aug  9 10:23 volume2
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         1024 Aug  9 10:23 volume1
drwxr-xr-x    8 root     root         1024 Aug  9 10:23 var
drwxr-xr-x    9 root     root         1024 Aug  9 10:24 usr
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     root         1024 Aug  9 10:23 tmp
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         1024 Sep 10 15:13 sbin
...
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         1024 Aug  9 10:23 bin
drwx------    2 root     root        12288 Aug  9 10:24 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x    4 root     root         1024 Jan  1 17:21 ..
drwxr-xr-x   18 root     root         1024 Oct 26 11:27 .


You could make changes to the scripts and pack it again. But be careful that it fits into the reserved flash area.

Source code

 
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umount /mnt/tmp
gzip rd

If you have access to a linux console (telnet, ssh,...) you could try dumping the flash - look here or here.

Happy hacking,
HWguru
Leute ohne Laster haben oft wenige Tugenden...
NAS2000 2.3.2.IB.2.RS.1+Lüfterabschaltung+SSH+do_it+zusätzliche commandline tools+changed root password
1. suchen - lesen - Google - lesen - 1. Fragen gehören ins Forum, dann profitieren alle davon!

AQUAR

Trainee

Posts: 116

Location: Australia

3

Monday, March 22nd 2010, 11:48am

RE: MvixBox Initialisation Process

HWGuru,

I think I see some daylight in your post.

The MVixbox has two firmware files.

So one must be the "bootloader" that has the linux kernel and the basic NAS functionality support including a basic GUI (nothing more than a stats page). The bootloader is held in large block EEPROM (flash memory).

The other one provides all the" brand character" with user programs (like bit torrent etc) as well as providing a proper GUI to setup/control the NAS. This part of the firmware seems to be installed on the HDD (for one thing, without a HDD we default back to the basic GUI).

This would explain why these 2 pieces of firmware must be "matched".

Is there still a BIOS for rudimentary hardware verification?

By deleting the header of the booloader .bin file we can unpack it and "hack it"

Hopefully this also applies to the second firmware file.

I'll rewrite the initialisation process if I am understanding correctly.

There is a serial port on the MOBO and I think a LPT port as well.

HWguru

NAS2000-Team

Posts: 1,039

Location: Wien

4

Monday, March 22nd 2010, 12:04pm

Hi,

Quoted from "AQUAR"

...So one must be the "bootloader" that has the linux kernel and the basic NAS functionality support including a basic GUI...
I don't think that the bootloader is in the update file.
It is stored in flash and will not be updated during a normal firmware upgrade.

On a working NAS we could list and extract all parts of the firmware.

I think there is no LPT on the board. There is a 20 pin connector which is the JTAG interface. I have got some information from cstamas which I will post soon.

Update:
Bootloader, Serial Port and JTAG Port description can be found here

HWguru
Leute ohne Laster haben oft wenige Tugenden...
NAS2000 2.3.2.IB.2.RS.1+Lüfterabschaltung+SSH+do_it+zusätzliche commandline tools+changed root password
1. suchen - lesen - Google - lesen - 1. Fragen gehören ins Forum, dann profitieren alle davon!

AQUAR

Trainee

Posts: 116

Location: Australia

5

Monday, March 22nd 2010, 1:18pm

Mvix makes things very difficult to understand.

Originally both of these "firmware files" were .bin files and loaded the same way. Many people updated incorrectly, mixing older "type 1" .bin files with newer "type 2" .bin ones and bricked their NAS box in the process. Their last firmware update V1.1 separated these two files, one still a .bin and the other now an .iso. The .iso file is of course just a CD image that can be unpacked and contains amongs other things a setup program to install V1.1 firmware, but only with the correct (other) .bin having been installed first. Ah even I get confused with this in trying to explain.

With the MvixBOX_v1.0.0.6.bin file installed you are allowed to install the V1.1 iso file (or use the setup program to re-install V1.1 from scratch).

If neither of these files include the bootloader then I am not much wiser yet. I'll have a good look at the .iso file and see what clues it holds. It only makes sense if the .iso file contains and instals the .bin file either via the GUI or from scratch with the setup program. But that wouldn't explain this pre-order interdependency. :comp01:

The opengemini booloader + planex single file firmware makes sense and fits in exactly with what you are saying. Cstamas82 has these two on his Mvixbox so this thing its nothing unique hardware wise.

I also obtained info from Cstamas82 with pinouts etc but the info is better coming via yourself with some expert interpretation.

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "AQUAR" (Mar 22nd 2010, 1:27pm)

AQUAR

Trainee

Posts: 116

Location: Australia

6

Thursday, March 25th 2010, 10:07am

The post's on this by HWguru have been quite enlightning. With this new understanding the other information on various NAS sites is making more sense.

I will try and make a second guess on how the MVixbox initialises (soon!).

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