Automatic power on QNAP Turbo Station devices

All ARM based QNAP machines can turn on automatically when power is applied if the device was not powered down correctly. This is helpful when your power goes down. Follow the instructions below if you want to turn automatic power on using Debian on a QNAP TS-109, TS-119, TS-209, TS-219, TS-409 or TS-409U.

Edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list and add the following line:

deb http://people.debian.org/~tbm/orion lenny main

Now install a new version of qcontrol:

apt-get update
apt-get install qcontrol

Finally, turn the automatic power feature on:

qcontrol -d &
qcontrol autopower on
kill %1
rm /var/run/qcontrol.sock

SmallNetBuilder article about Debian on QNAP TS-209

Jim Buzbee published an article in SmallNetBuilder a few days before Christmas about installing Debian on the QNAP TS-209. I find the article very well written and balanced, and it makes a good introduction for folks who are interested in installing Debian on NAS devices.

Pictures of QNAP TS-409U and Conceptronic CH3SNAS

I took some pictures the other day of NAS devices I'm currently working on. They are now available in the QNAP TS-409U and Conceptronic CH3SNAS (aka D-Link DNS-323) image galleries.

Recovery mode for QNAP devices available now

QNAP recently released an upgrade for u-boot, the boot loader used on most QNAP devices, that adds a recovery mode. With this recovery mode, a backup image is requested via TFTP and then written to flash. This is useful in case there are problems during the installation or an upgrade of Debian.

While Debian itself works well on QNAP and another NAS devices, we get reports from users every once in a while that their machine stopped booting (either after an upgrade or for no good reason) and it's usually impossible to say why since these devices are headless. The recovery mode allows them to put an image into flash that is known to work or an image of the installer that can be used as a rescue option. Essentially, the recovery mode removes the need for a serial console in many cases.

I've added information about the recovery mode for the QNAP TS-109, TS-209 and TS-409/TS-409U, including installation instructions of users already running Debian.

Debian on the QNAP TS-409U

Christmas came early for me this year: after receiving a Conceptronic CH3SNAS yesterday, a QNAP TS-409U showed up today. QNAP sent it to me a week ago to ensure that Debian works on it but it was stuck in customs for a few days. The QNAP TS-409U is similar to the TS-409 but comes in a rack case (and with more RAM). It seems that QNAP have also changed the layout of the mainboard but essentially it's still a TS-409. This means that the installer works just fine. Another difference to the TS-409 is that the TS-409U has two fans but qcontrol works without any problems on both machines.

Daily installer image available for QNAP TS-109, TS-209 and TS-409

Daily installer images are now available for the QNAP TS-109, TS-209 and TS-409. This means that complete installations of Debian testing are possible now.

You can consider the daily image as a beta release of RC1 of the debian-installer for Debian lenny. It should only be used by experienced users and only if you can make a serial console in case something goes wrong. As the name suggests, the daily images change on a daily basis and they install Debian testing which also changes on a daily basis (although testing should be fairly stable since we're close to the freeze of testing in preparation for the release of Debian lenny).

If you install Debian with these installer images, please send an installation report to debian-boot send an email to me so I can let you know in case there are any important news you should be aware of.

There is a web site now with complete installation instructions and other information about Debian on QNAP Turbo Station. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know.

QNAP TS-109/TS-209 and TS-409 experimental developer release

Yesterday I completed the first successful installation of Debian on a QNAP TS-209 using a custom debian-installer image with 2.6.25 from unstable. I made the installer image for QNAP TS-109 and TS-209 available as an experimental developer release and today I also uploaded images for the TS-409. More on my plans to support the QNAP TS-109/TS-209 and TS-409 in the upcoming release of Debian (starting with beta3 of debian-installer) soon.