Documentation is down

[Camilo QS]

Hi group, I have been trying to find documentations for install and start using
my GnuBee but all the documentation from the main webpage point to dead
links, such as https://github.com/gnubee-git/GnuBee_Docs/wiki/First-use.

I noticed that the project was renamed and I have been trying find docs
in other places with the new name without success, all the
firmware/download points to the dead github, what alternative do I have?

Thank you.

[damon.an...@gmail.com]

Welcome! I wish you good luck, this is going to be tough but it could be worth it. My GnuBee recently had a hardware failure and I was dismayed to find that this type of device, an open source multi-drive NAS is no longer a thing. The other similar projects have also closed down. So getting yours working could give you something that's not really available on the market!

I'm just a user, not a developer. The GnuBee was my first non-x86 processor device. In case you didn't know, this device, with its MIPS processor, boots differently and needs differently compiled software than typical computers, known as x86, x84-64, amd64. 

This device will read a .bin file from the usb drive at boot. That installs the kernel and apparently the bootloader, like where grub would be. So it's a one-time thing when you start of want to upgrade the kernel. After rebooting, you install the OS of choice on a drive. My backup folder contains two .bin filenames that I added notes to:

• 'librecmc-ramips-mt7621-gb-pc1-squashfs-sysupgrade_2017-11-28 - good to start from scratch.bin'
• 'gnubee-pc1-900-4.4.131 - Neil Browns updated kernel - needs running Debian.bin'

So originally, you had to name the first one gnubee.bin and put it on a usb. Boot that....any maybe install software, or maybe directly boot the second one, also renamed to gnubee.bin. I have these files, but my guess is you don't need them.

Now that the newer Neil Brown kernels are mainline, the first step may not be needed.

I would try to follow this 2024 guide that another user wrote up as they worked their way though. Although they had access to the original documentation, they couldn't get it working following that, so this is probably the best trail available now: https://groups.google.com/g/gnubee/c/TtlG_GpK_lQ/m/EUs3nrWFAAAJ

[Camilo QS]

Thank you for your response, but what about the firmware/images links?
how can get those if the github page is 404?

thank you

[Vincent Legoll]

Hello, 

Maybe you can find something on achive.org

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Vincent Legoll

[damon.an...@gmail.com]

I would use the guide I linked to before, which has two links for the initial firmware: the broken one and another one that person included in case the first one got moved. It looks like a different version from the one I used, but that shouldn't matter since it's temporary. That guide goes from the beginning to a working operating system, but it doesn't talk about flashing a newer kernel. 

There are two recent threads in this group about newer kernels. One, https://groups.google.com/g/gnubee/c/HhDnU3LJMAY/m/fFQ0zjewAQAJ has information about how to flash it. I'd do it early, in your install process, once you have a basic OS running, so there's little risk of having to redo stuff if there's a problem, but over my time with the GnuBee, I flashed new kernels several times without issue.This link talks about Neil Brown's kernels which have been in this group for a long time. The other recent kernel thread has a more recent kernel from someone else. I think I was using that one when my GnuBee died.

So I think everything you need is already online and it's better to point you to those links, nestled within their instructions and discussion than to upload new files. But if you find you need the particular version I mentioned, I can look for a place to upload them. I do think you'd be better off following the 2024 guide and other newer content since my reply and files are only from memory and notes from having done this six years ago.

On Monday, November 4, 2024 at 4:35:40 PM UTC-5 Vincent Legoll wrote:

Hello, 

Maybe you can find something on achive.org

On Monday, November 4, 2024, 'Camilo QS' via GnuBee <gnu...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Thank you for your response, but what about the firmware/images links?
how can get those if the github page is 404?

thank you

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Vincent Legoll

[Miles Raymond]

That's sad. I put quite a bit of effort to clean up the guides in the github wiki to make it easy.

https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://github.com/gnubee-git/GnuBee_Docs/wiki/* seems to be all the old documentation before any of my edits.

I still have some notes and downloads in http://reukiodo.duckdns.org/software/linux/gnubee/ but flashing.txt is not nearly as verbose as I had written up in the wiki. Hopefully it should be enough to get you going with debian.

[Christian COMMARMOND]

Hi,
I don't have a gnubee, but I follow it...

About the Doc, the internet archive took a copy of it on december 2023. It might help:
https://web.archive.org/web/20231218054404/https://github.com/gnubee-git

Regards,

Christian COMMARMOND

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gnubee/d490416d-60c7-4029-ab6c-db3f167982d6n%40googlegroups.com.

[cosmic...@gmail.com]

Whose github repositiry is it? Can't they be contacted? The internet archive has email address ldpi...@gmail.com. Who is that?

And what about contacting github to make a copy of the archive?

[Christian COMMARMOND]

I don't know. The best is for you to have a look. 

The internet archive goal is to backup the internet regularly so that of a website is lost, we can find a backup.

It's up to you to use it or not. I am not related to them.

Regards,

Christian COMMARMOND

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gnubee/7c7f15d0-8081-45c4-9a22-0595059da668n%40googlegroups.com.

[Miles Raymond]

I stumbled across https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory/?origin_url=https://github.com/gnubee-git/GnuBee_Docs which specifically backs up source code, but it doesn't seem to have any of the wiki.

[Miles Raymond]

That is/was ldpi...@gmail.com the founder/creator of Gnubee PC1 and PC2, straight from the source: http://gnubee.org/

He hasn't been responsive to any of my emails. I got one reply from https://www.gazineu.com/2017/02/gnubee-personal-cloud-one.html which states that the Pinneys have been unresponsive for a long time already.

[Christian COMMARMOND]

Hi,

The internet archive shows some wiki here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20201126001819/https://github.com/gnubee-git/GnuBee_Docs/wiki/Install-firmware

Isn't it what you are looking for?

Regards,

Christian COMMARMOND
+33 6 82 33 52 32

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gnubee/56a7d0a4-cd74-46c2-9025-95b509c9e650n%40googlegroups.com.