Crazy idea while reading the firmware recovery part of the QNAP wiki: install a custom OS on my QNAP TS-451

 

Turns out it's not that hard! (if you are willing to lose your warranty..)

 

All I did was open the NAS, remove the drive cage and disconnect the QNAP DOM (512MB USB storage connected to an internal 8pin USB connector) and then it booted from any USB, like the unRAID usb key

 

After the successful boot I had to organize my backups and then booted it again with couple of drives installed to start and copy data over, all good so far and happy about the performance

 

Who knew lol  .

You can boot Asustor NAS units in to UNRAID, and you don't even need to open them up to do it.  They boot off USB by default.

You can boot Asustor NAS units in to UNRAID, and you don't even need to open them up to do it.  They boot off USB by default.

 

Asustor is in general much better hardware than QNAP imo, but that's what I had

How did you manage to get the FAN working correctly?

I also got UnRaid up and running on my Box, but the FAN is always spinning at full speed. I tried installing the Dynamix FAN Controller Plugin, but when enabled, it turns my FAN down to 9% and stays there. Meanwhile the CPU Temps are rising up to 68°C in idle. I guess the Plugin is monitoring the array temperature? Did you  experience such a thing?

Btw.: My model is the QNAP TS-469L

How did you manage to get the FAN working correctly?

I also got UnRaid up and running on my Box, but the FAN is always spinning at full speed. I tried installing the Dynamix FAN Controller Plugin, but when enabled, it turns my FAN down to 9% and stays there. Meanwhile the CPU Temps are rising up to 68°C in idle. I guess the Plugin is monitoring the array temperature? Did you  experience such a thing?

Btw.: My model is the QNAP TS-469L

 

Sorry, just saw this post, I did not do anything particular, the fan has worked fine since the start. I now running 6.3.0-rc4 and all is well, but moving away from QNAP next week as I am finishing my PC build with unRAID as my main OS.

Playing Around

The idea looked like fun so I tried this on my QNAP TS-251 and the results are seen below.

I am not sure if I will do anything with it but it was fun and very easy.

Thinking of doing the same on my QNAP TS-509 Pro. Seeing as QNAP is discontinuing their firmware support for this and other old models.

Already upgraded the CPU (Core 2 Duo E7200) and RAM a while back. Might just try upgrading to the Xeon L5408 first.

Just tried unRAID on my TS453Bmini.  Doesn't work - the 453B has two SATA ports controlled by the Intel SOC, and the other two by a Marvell controller.  So, the inner two bays work, the outer two don't work - they throw a load of timeout errors on boot and the drives aren't detected.

I quite like the look of the qnap 451+. The plan is to change from my Silverstone ds380 to this once 16tb hdd are released and therefore I would get 48tb of data.

Is there a smaller 4/5 bay nas and one with a built in power supply?


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I have a qnap 451+ and am sick and tired of QTS so I pulled the DOM and plugged in unraid. Booted up fine and now going to go through setup.  Hope it all works out. 
 

This thread made me try out unRAID on a newly purchased QNAP TS-453D. I hooked up a monitor and keyboard, held down F2 during startup to enter BIOS, changed boot order to make 'UEFI: my usb drive" first and it worked beautifully. As far as I can tell unRAID recognizes all hardware correctly, except for the fan, but that is set to "auto" in BIOS (and it's spinning), so I think it doesn't matter. I'm very pleasantly surprised!

On 31/12/2020 at 14:45, dahlenu said:

Este hilo me hizo probar unRAID en un QNAP TS-453D recién comprado. Conecté un monitor y un teclado, mantuve presionada la tecla F2 durante el inicio para ingresar al BIOS, cambié el orden de inicio para hacer 'UEFI: mi unidad USB' primero y funcionó a la perfección. Hasta donde puedo decir, unRAID reconoce todo el hardware correctamente, excepto el ventilador, pero está configurado en "auto" en BIOS (y está girando), así que creo que no importa. ¡Estoy muy gratamente sorprendido!

Hola estoy intentando instalar Unraid en un Qnap TVS463. quería preguntarte¿ como conectas el Qnap al Monitor? ¿por HDMI? y ¿el Teclado? ¿por USB?

16 hours ago, David21 said:

Hola

Please post only in English here, there's a Spanish section of the forum if you prefer. 

Hi,

i tried today boot unraid with my old TS-459 PRO. Good news - it can boot from USB so no need to open and remove DOM.

Bad news - it goes into kernel panic. And I got no idea at all how I can move forward.

Really would love to see this working as this QNAP works perfectly with my esata case and I can get there up to 14 drives together...

 

Any idea if I still should try with removed DOM?

 

Does it successfully boot and later this problem? 

On 3/12/2021 at 5:53 PM, trurl said:

Does it successfully boot and later this problem? 

Yes, boots without issues then whatever option I choose - standard, GUI, safe GUI, safe non-GUI - always come to kernel panic.

USB drive reformatted, checked with another hardware (Optiplex 780) - works like a charm. Did again clear installation - all same here.

Kernel Panic. 

I am soooo disappointed as I wanted to use Unraid with this old qnap. Its no longer supported by QNAP but has nice hardware design - including 2x esata with multipliers that work like charm with my tower bays. 

I tried with this optiflex 780 and with NUC via sata/e-sata cable but then my other hardware sees only first drive in esata towers. So this qnap is my last resort.

 

Guys, any idea how I can try to proceed? Any troubleshooting for boot process?

Boot from USB2 port 

Nope, even removed DOM (what was not easy thing to do as I tried without dismounting everything).

And then boom - just got small enlightenment - perhaps this kernel panic is caused by 1GB of ram on my qnap... Checked min requiremenst of unraid - needed 2GB.

I just ordered 2GB module and will fight back in few days. Never give up

  

Even 2GB may not be enough for the latest version. Certainly won't be enough for anything except basic NAS functionality.

This is very old model of QNAP. It does not allow to upgrade anything else - max 2GB, no CPU replacement.

And what I need is for this one is only to act NAS as backup one with esata enclosure so it can see 4 internal drives + 5 esata.

Set them with parity drive as one array and set up rsync server. All needed. Nothing more nothing less.

Will be very happy if this will work out. 

 

 

So for TS-459 PRO this is SOLVED with upgrade to 2GB ram. No more kernel panic.

Right now I just struggle with fact that it does not see all of my drives. Some from esata are not visible. 

I should see 4 internal + 5 esata drives in esata bay. And system sees total of 7 drives.

Trying to change this

On 3/25/2021 at 5:49 AM, Nicodem said:

So for TS-459 PRO this is SOLVED with upgrade to 2GB ram. No more kernel panic.

Right now I just struggle with fact that it does not see all of my drives. Some from esata are not visible. 

I should see 4 internal + 5 esata drives in esata bay. And system sees total of 7 drives.

Trying to change this

I am going to do this with my ts-659 PRO and was wondering if you ever resolved this issue?

4 hours ago, Preed88 said:

I am going to do this with my ts-659 PRO and was wondering if you ever resolved this issue?

All works good. It was cable connection issue.

Beside the fact that front screen is always on with Booting... info - works way better then any QNAP firmware.

I am now moving also to Unraid with my 453D model. Qnap just sucks with firmware part - overbloated.