Note that this will not give you the sparkling web-interface and out-of-the-box experience of the ix2-200, which you will lose. Following these instructions could result in a fresh Arch Linux ARM installation on a set of two disks in RAID1.
This post contains instructions to install Arch Linux ARM on an ix2-200. This was quite easy, since the implementation of the Kirkwood SoC in the ix2-200 is almost the same as that of Globalscale Technologies' OpenRD reference design platform, which is fully supported by Arch Linux ARM.
Since the official software of the ix2-200 will only grow more out of date in the future while its hardware is still well supported by the open-source community, I decided to replace its original operating system with Arch Linux ARM. Due to its legacy, the Kirkwood SoC is well supported by many Linux distributions today.
These were quite popular as a hobbyist platform before the cheaper and generally more powerful Raspberry Pi was introduced in 2012. The SheevaPlug and several other ‘pluggable computers’ based on the same SoC were made by Globalscale Technologies. The SoC is also used in the famous SheevaPlug platform of plug computers. The ix2-200 uses the Marvell Kirkwood 88F6281 System on Chip (SoC), which houses an ARM9E CPU (ARMv5TE architecture). Furthermore, the Linux kernel is version 2.6.31.8, which is older than dirt and has quite a number of security vulnerabilities that will never be fixed. Since it is such an old branch, recent TLS developments (such as TLS 1.2 and new cipher suites) are not supported. It contained a relatively new version of a very old OpenSSL branch ( 0.9.8zf, released in March 2015) which fixed some vulnerabilities. The last firmware version is 3.7, released on Augand available here. They will no longer be supported or maintained by LenovoEMC.
Officially it was not supported, but users were able to upgrade the original ix2-200 to the Cloud Edition.Īs of Octoall revisions of the ix2-200 have reached their End-of-Service-Life. The only difference was a newer firmware which supported additional online services to cater to the ‘cloud’ hype.
The revised version has the exact same hardware as the original. In 2011 a revised version of the ix2-200 was released, known as the ix2-200 Network Storage Cloud Edition. The Iomega ix2-200 Network Storage (hereafter, “ix2-200”) is a two disk NAS that was introduced in October 2009 by Iomega, a subsidiary of EMC that later became a joint venture known as LenovoEMC.
In this post I explain how to modify an aging network attached storage device with a Linux distribution that will keep its software and functionality up-to-date for the foreseeable future. This might not be strictly needed, but it is a best practice for maximum compatibility.
Existing systems can run these commands to update the boot loader (make sure package uboot-tools is installed)`: fw_setenv memoffset_kernel '0x02000000'Īn already updated and broken system can be fixed through a serial connection by running in U-Boot: setenv memoffset_kernel '0x02000000'ĭo not forget to update /usr/local/sbin/generate-ubootfiles to the newer version in this guide, so the U-Boot headers of future kernel and initramfs images have the correct information.
These changes have been incorporated in this guide. The remediation requires changes to the load addresses and entry points of the kernel and initramfs images. Systems might not be bootable when updated due to this issue. Jens Rommel contacted me and notified me of an issue with recent larger Linux boot files, also referred to in this post on the Arch Linux ARM forum. Look here for the 2021 version, which contains some necessary fixes since this was published.
Built-in Media ServerWith built-in media server, the Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 (Model 34481) streams media files to UPnP or DLNA compatible network media players without the need for a dedicated computer.This version of the guide is obsolete.With the built-in print server, easily share up to 3 USB printers over the network! USB 2.0 SupportThe Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 (Model 34481) features three USB 2.0 ports for convenient storage expansion with external storage devices.Data ProtectionThe Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 (Model 34481) supports RAID 1 with automatic RAID rebuild for extra data security, and JBOD for enhanced capacity to store more videos, movies and photos.Huge 2TB Storage CapacityThe Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 (Model 34481) combines two 1TB hard drives to provide an amazing storage capacity of 2TB for high-performance data storage and backup.Gigabit Network ConnectionThe Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 (Model 34481) features a Gigabit Ethernet port for up to 10X the speed of most 100M network connections and excellent usability for office and home networks.