Firmware upload failure - Recovery possibilites?!

[Χωρίς Όνομα]

Hello all and thanks for the opportunity to post here!

Unfortunately my DNS-323 has been bricked (that's what it looks like) due to a failure during firmware upload.

Basically, on power-ON it sits there with the power led blinking constantly, the network led flickering once every 10-15 seconds, and the two HDs leds staying always completely OFF, plus there is no sign or sound whatsoever that the disks are starting.

I originally had f/w 1.07, successfully did the upgrade to 1.10 but for some reason with this f/w I lost the functionality of the two HDs leds (disks worked fine, just no led activity) even though the NAS box was working fine in every other aspect. While troubleshooting, I read that the previous version is the most stable one so I was in the middle of uploading f/w 1.09 (according to the DLink DNS-323 forum it is OK to go from 1.10 to 1.09). However, the uploading never finished, it got progressively slower and finally got stuck at ~75%. Keeping the power button pressed was unresponsive, so -reluctantly- I pulled the power cable. Tried to restart but no luck, like I described above.

So ...

I was wondering if there is a way to use the Alt-F f/w to salvage my DNS-323?

If yes, where can I find a step by step tutorial on how to do this? I'd prefer to do this from a Windows environment but if you feel I am better off trying this from a Linux box (is Ubuntu OK?), I could do that also.

They say "if it ain't broken don't fix it!" and I guess the unit was working fine with the older f/w albeit I could benefit from the larger capacity HDs supported by the newer version. However now the NAS box IS indeed broken so PLEASE can you help me fix it?

Thank you, very much, in advance for your time and help with this!

--

Χwpis 'ΟΝΟΜΑ

[João Cardoso]

I'm afraid that you have to buy (it's cheap, some 5-10€) and solder a serial adapter to the box and flash firmware using the u-boot command line.

If you do that, use a small enough fw, such as 1.0, or 1.09, as there seems to exists some issues when flashing big files from the u-boot command line.

Look at http://dns323.kood.org/hardware:serial for the serial adapter and http://dns323.kood.org/howto:uboot on how to flash from the serial command-line.

There are some Topics about this, either here or at http://forum.dsmg600.info/viewforum.php?id=6 or at http://forum.dsmg600.info/viewforum.php?id=3

Let the Force be with you :-)

[Xwpis ONOMA]

Hey, I followed the instructions in the 1st link João Cardoso provided above and it all worked fine, I recovered from the bad firmware flashing and then I flashed Alt-F (stand alone, not on the top).

I can definitely say I am very happy with the results, and while I am still learning it of course, I can say this Alt-F f/w is worth giving a try, actually it looks like it is going to be a keeper for me.

One thing I'd like to stress out for those who want to recover (using Windows) from a bad DLink firmware flashing is to first contact Ben Kamen who makes this logic converter, and get one!

Then follow this tutorial and also (must) read this thread from another forum to get the whole picture.

It's really easy to do it and then you can install Alt-F and see the big difference!

Thanks!

[Luca Avalle]

Hello!

I am the one with the famous BRICKED DNS 320 Rev B1

I managed to solder a Serial Port, it works, I started the procedure to re-upload the firmware....

I followed the guide for the DNS 323 Recevoery from windiws

BUT THERE IS NO LOADB command....how can I execute it?

I only have the fsload command...

Thanks for help!

[João Cardoso]

On Thursday, March 12, 2015 at 9:24:16 PM UTC, Luca Avalle wrote:

Hello!

I am the one with the famous BRICKED DNS 320 Rev B1

I managed to solder a Serial Port, it works, I started the procedure to re-upload the firmware....

I followed the guide for the DNS 323

If you have a 320 DON'T follow instructions for a 323! They don't apply and if executed can finished ruining you box!

 

Recevoery from windiws

BUT THERE IS NO LOADB command....how can I execute it?

I only have the fsload command...

Post the output of the 'setenv'  and '?' or 'help' command.

A screenshot of all the boot messages might also be enlightening

[Luca Avalle]

Thank GOD you're still here :)

Help Message output

http://pastebin.com/JjDhMADg

"setenv" command is not working under the MARVELL prompt.

This is the full boot output if I do not interrupt the u-boot process

http://pastebin.com/bL9wQ7br

I cannot get an IP for eth 0 (sadly)

This is the Linux Version

3.10.32 GNU/Linux

Linux DNS-325 3.10.32 #5 Sat Apr 12 19:07:52 WEST 2014 armv5tel GNU/Linux

Il giorno giovedì 16 gennaio 2014 17:27:51 UTC+1, Χωρίς Όνομα ha scritto:

[João Cardoso]

On Friday, March 13, 2015 at 7:41:04 PM UTC, Luca Avalle wrote:

Thank GOD you're still here :)

Help Message output

http://pastebin.com/JjDhMADg

"setenv" command is not working under the MARVELL prompt.

This is the full boot output if I do not interrupt the u-boot process

http://pastebin.com/bL9wQ7br

If I remember correctly you insisted on flashing an Alt-F version which was not appropriate for your box.

Alt-F is booting fine but thinks it is running on a DNS-325. So it can't find the network device. Disks might be detected (was any attached?) but surely USB will work.

So, copy the firmware appropriate for your device to a USB pen and attach it to the box -- it should automount under Alt-F. Then from the Alt-F command line follow this thread from point "B-download and split Alt-F fw into its components" and next,  with the necessary adaptations: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt-f/8i2JoItwuFs/sqfrGwtlUswJ

[Luca Avalle]

Hi!

Yes indeed, I am the one that did the shot in the dark.

I got this error when executing the command

/tmp # dns323-fw -s DLINK_DNS320B.1.02b01\(3.11.0423.2014\)

product_id=0;

custom_id=8;

model_id=c;

sub_id=1;

NewVersion=1;

signature="DNS320B";

sig_num=5 header=128 Next_offset=0

ko=128          kl=2630616      kr=0    kc=954254232    next=2630744

io=2630744      il=1707908      ir=0    ic=1239856972   next=4338652

so=4338652      sl=31102976     sr=0    sc=31100928     next=35441628

do=35441628     dl=9836         dr=0    dc=202958381    next=35451464

filesz=35451464 compsz=35451464

signature is "DNS320B"

kernel saved, checksum is OK.

initramfs saved, checksum is OK.

Error on sqimage, exiting.

What do you suggest?

[Luca Avalle]

My bad!

I was applying the process to the WRONG firmware,  the original D-LINK

I have now downloaded the correct ALT-F firmware DNS320 Rev B1

The first step mentioned works, but then I get this error on the next step:

/dev # flash_erase /dev/$fdev 0 0; echo status1=$?

flash_erase: error!: /dev/

             error 21 (Is a directory)

status1=255

/dev #

Ideas?

Il giorno giovedì 16 gennaio 2014 17:27:51 UTC+1, Χωρίς Όνομα ha scritto:

[João Cardoso]

On Friday, March 13, 2015 at 9:53:46 PM UTC, Luca Avalle wrote:

My bad!

I was applying the process to the WRONG firmware,  the original D-LINK

You found a bug... the process should work also on the D-Link fw.

The issue is that the D-Link fw is huge, the 'sqimage' file has some 40MB and that, together with the fw file itself exceeds the size of the /tmp tmpfs filesystem.

I have filled a bug report for this.

I have now downloaded the correct ALT-F firmware DNS320 Rev B1

The first step mentioned works, but then I get this error on the next step:

/dev # flash_erase /dev/$fdev 0 0; echo status1=$?

flash_erase: error!: /dev/

             error 21 (Is a directory)

status1=255

/dev #

Ideas?

You forgot to define "fdev"

This topic is concluded at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt-f/8i2JoItwuFs/xU2EpJ5MHf0J