Intro
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-----
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The Buffalo Linkstation Pro/Live, codename LS-XHL and LS-CHLv2, is a single
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disk NAS server. The PCBs of the LS-XHL and LS-CHLv2 are almost the same.
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The LS-XHL has a faster CPU and more RAM with a wider data bus, therefore
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the LS-XHL PCB has two SDRAM chips. Both have a Kirkwood CPU (Marvell
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88F6281). The only on-board storage is a 4 Mbit SPI flash which stores the
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bootloader and its environment. The linux kernel and the initial ramdisk
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are loaded from the hard disk.
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Rescue Mode
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-----------
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These linkstations don't have a populated serial port. There is no way to
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access an (unmodified) board other than using the netconsole. If you want
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to recover from a bad environment setting or an empty environment, you can
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do this only with a working network connection.
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Therefore, on entering the resuce mode, a random ethernet address is
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generated if no valid address could be loaded from the environment variable
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'ethaddr' and a DHCP request is sent. After a successful DHCP response is
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received, the network settings are configured and the ncip is unset. Thus
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all netconsole packets are broadcasted and you can use the netconsole to
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access board from any host within the network segment. To determine the IP
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address assigned to the board, you either have to sniff the traffic or
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check the logs/leases of your DHCP server.
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The resuce mode is selected by holding the push button for at least one
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second, while powering-on the device. The status LED turns solid amber if
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the resuce mode is enabled, thus providing a visual feedback.
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Pressing the same button for at least 10 seconds on power-up will erase the
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environment and reset the board. In this case the visual indication will
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be:
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- blinking blue, for about one second
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- solid amber, for about nine seconds
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- blinking amber, until you release the button
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This ensures, that you still can recover a device with a broken
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environment by first erasing the environment and then entering the rescue
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mode.
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Once the rescue mode is started, use the ncb binary from the tools/
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directory to access your board. There is a helper script named
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'restore_env' to save your changes. It unsets all the network variables
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which were set by the rescue mode, saves your changes and then resets the
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board.
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The common use case for this is setting a MAC address. Let us assume you
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have an empty environment, the board comes up with the amber LED blinking.
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Then you enter the rescue mode, connect to the board with the ncb tool and
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use the following commands to set your MAC address:
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setenv ethaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00
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run restore_env
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Of course you need to replace the 00:00:00:00:00:00 with your valid MAC
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address, which can be found on a sticker on the bottom of your box.
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Status LED
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----------
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blinking blue
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Bootloader is running normally.
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blinking amber
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No ethaddr set. Use the `Rescue Mode` to set one.
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blinking red
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Something bad happend during loading the operating system.
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The default behavior of the linux kernel is to turn on the blue LED. So if
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the blinking blue LED changes to solid blue the kernel was loaded
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successfully.
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Power-on Switch
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---------------
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The power-on switch is a software switch. If it is not in ON position when
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the bootloader starts, the bootloader will disable the HDD and USB power
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and stop the fan. Then it loops until the switch is in ON position again,
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enables the power and fan again and continue booting.
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Boot sources
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------------
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The environment defines several different boot sources:
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legacy
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This is the default boot source. It loads the kernel and ramdisk from the
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attached HDD using the original filenames. The load addresses were
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modified to support loading larger kernels. But it should behave the same
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as the original bootloader.
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hdd
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Use this for new-style booting. Loads three files /vmlinuz, /initrd.img
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and /dtb from the boot partition. This should work out of the box if you
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have debian and the flash-kernel package installed.
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usb
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Same as hdd expect, that the files are loaded from an attached USB mass
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storage device and the filename for the device tree is kirkwood-lsxhl.dtb
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(or kirkwood-lschlv2.dtb).
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net
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Same as usb expect, that the file are loaded from the network.
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rescue
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Automatically activated if the push button is pressed for at least one
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second on power-up. Does a DHCP request and enables the network console.
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See `Rescue Mode` for more information.
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You can change the boot source by setting the 'bootsource' variable to the
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corresponding value. Please note, that the restore_env script will the the
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bootsource back to 'legacy'.
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Flash map
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---------
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00000 - 5ffff u-boot
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60000 - 6ffff reserved, may be used to store dtb
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70000 - 7ffff u-boot environment
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Compiling
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---------
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make lsxhl_config (or lschlv2_config)
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make u-boot.kwb
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Update your board
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-----------------
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Just flash the resulting u-boot.kwb to the beginning of the SPI flash. If
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you already have a bootloader CLI, you can use the following commands:
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sf probe 0
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bootp ${loadaddr} u-boot.kwb
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sf erase 0 +${filelen}
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sf write 0 ${fileaddr} ${filesize}
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