Steps to “Unsling” the NSLU2

2718.us — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:39:33 +0000

Since I’m on my second of what will probably be 4 or 5 unslung NSLU2 “slug” units (with identical 1GB flash drives from eBay), I figured it was time to write down specific step-by-step directions, if perhaps only for my own use later. (As an aside, having the two ethernet ports on my Mac Pro is really helpful at times like this when I’m monkeying around with some piece of hardware that doesn’t do DHCP out of the box, forcing me onto some specific subnet.) CAUTION: I take absolutely no responsibility for what you may do to your hardware/software/life/etc. if you follow these directions. You should read lots of other, more thorough instructions like the how-to’s at the Unslung HomePage.

Verify that the slug can do Reset Button Upgrade Mode.
Get the Unslug firmware.
On the admin web page for the slug (default IP is 192.168.1.77), go to Administration > Advanced > Upgrade (default username/password is admin/admin), browse to the unslung firmware, and do the upgrade. (This step takes a few minutes.) Wait for the reboot.
Verify that the admin web page now shows the unslung firmware version.
Do any network config you need (set IP address, etc.)—avoid DHCP as it doesn’t seem to work (the slug does a DHCPDISCOVER, my server(s) do DHCPOFFER, but the exchange goes no further).
Enable telnet access (Home > Manage Telnet). Note that this must be done before any disks are connected.
Telnet into the slug (username/password is root/uNSLUng). Keep this session open through the next steps, so there’s guaranteed root access.
Plug the 1GB flash drive into the upper USB port (closer to the ethernet jack).
Once the slug recognizes the disk, go to Administration > Advanced > Disk and format the flash drive (Disk 2). This again takes several minutes (especially with the cheapo slow 1GB flash drives I’m using). When the page shows “Formatted (EXT3)” for Disk 2, it’s ready for the next step.
In the telnet session from step 7, type “unsling disk2″. Enter a new root password here.
Reboot by typing “DO_Reboot” in the telnet session. The device will beep when it’s fully booted.
Go to the admin web page and verify that it says “uNSLUng status: Unslung to disk2, /dev/sda1″ in the bottom blue bar.
Enable telnet again and connect to the device again, verifying that the “NOTE: THIS SYSTEM IS CURRENTLY UNSLUNG” banner shows upon login.
Run “touch /.ext3flash” so that (after the next boot) the OS will try not to thrash the flash drive.
Verify internet connectivity (e.g. ping google.com).
Run “ipkg update” to update the package system.
Run “ipkg install openssh” so we can get to the slug without having to enable telnet.
Verify that SSH works by logging into the slug over SSH. Disable telnet.
Run “ipkg install openssh-sftp-server” so we can use SFTP to edit files on the slug.
Set the admin web page password (it is independent of the root password).

Other notes:

The MAC address label on the bottom of the device is the default device name and seems to be “LKG” + the latter half of the MAC address; it seems that the correct MAC address is found by replacing “LKG” with “00:18:39″.

Small *nix Devices

2718.us — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:35:22 +0000

Today, not only did the NSLU2 that I bought on eBay arrive, but the red anodized aluminum case for my Alix arrived, too. Getting the NSLU2 to run “unslung” from a 1GB flash drive was a royal pain. If I do a second one, I’ll have to verify my technique, but it seems that the direction to format the drive before reflashing is just a mess (since it’s nearly impossible to get the Linksys firmware to format a flash drive), but once the firmware is reflashed to non-stock, it’s easy to format the flash drive, then run the script to move the boot stuffs off to the flash drive, where there’s room to install stuff. The problem is that the device seems to be spending about 90% of its time completely hung and non-responsive (telnet and ssh freeze ior maybe just hang, web interface unresponsive, intermittent “thrashing,” if you can call it that, of the flash drive) for reasons I can’t quite figure out. It may not turn out to be as useful as I’d hoped, but even if it doesn’t do what I want, it will have been an interesting experiment. Plus, I realized it’s the only linux box i’ve got on hand (my other machines are various Macs and OpenBSD boxes and a few PCs).

Speaking of OpenBSD boxes, the Alix seems to be much closer to usable than I’d expected now, having restarted from a newer pre-built flashdist image. The hokey thing I’d forgotten about is how few of the standard basic *nix command programs are in the base flashdist, so I end up copying over program after program from another running OpenBSD box. I’m hoping to get BIND and dhcpd up and running soon, get pf all set up for router/NAT/firewall use, and try it out with a DSL modem before the weekend is up.

And, with a little luck, by the end of the weekend, all these various devices will be self-updating the various common config files (BIND zones, dhcpd.conf, etc.) from a common server. I’ve already got a shell script that can check for an update to itself and replace itself with the newer version; I just have to make it check for and retrieve updates for the actual config files.

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Steps to “Unsling” the NSLU2

Small *nix Devices