Let me start out by saying I’m a fan of Synology. I have owned a DS216Play in the past and have upgraded to a DS918+ in recent years. In my view Synology DSM is one of the more user friendly interfaces for NAS type devices and so I decided to revisit the XPEnology project when I came across my old HP N54L.
While I found several other posts of people already running XPEnology on their N54Ls I did not find a detailed installation post specific to my needs. I decided to visit the installation FAQ and from there the DSM7x loaders and platforms page. I remember feeling a little overwhelmed at first but after a while figured that I needed the DS3622xs+ loader (broadwellnk) as the DS918+ loader requires a newer CPU and all the other DS36XXxs+ are marked obsolete.
The installation proces is well documented and not worth repeating here. Instead I will share the options I used during installation that resulted in a working XPEnology system. After booting into TinyCore some configuration is needed before building the image. Important to note here is that the USB you use to boot TinyCore from will need to stay connected to the system even after installation so keep that in mind when selecting your USB device. I used the following commands and settings for my install:
./rploader.sh update
./rploader.sh fullupgrade
./rploader.sh identifyusb
./rploader.sh serialgen DS3622xs+ realmac
./rploader.sh satamap
./rploader.sh build ds3622xsp-7.1.1-42962
./rploader.sh backup
./rploader.sh backuploaderAfter running these commands and rebooting the system you should be able to find you XPEnology system with the Synology Assistant. However I found that my system never came back online even though the it seemed to be running fine. A quick google search showed me that I had to disable the C1E option, under the Advanced CPU settings, in the BIOS for the internal NICs to start working. After the change I was able to find my new system and continue with the DSM installation.
Now that the installation is finished I will do some more testing before deciding if I will place this system into “production” at one of my relatives. I think they can benefit from a system like this but I need to be sure it will run without issues.
References:
- https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/9394-installation-faq/
- https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/62221-tutorial-installmigrate-to-dsm-7x-with-tinycore-redpill-tcrp-loader/
- https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/61634-dsm-7x-loaders-and-platforms/
- https://xpenology.com/forum/forum/78-dsm-updates-reporting/
- https://xpenology.com/forum/forum/78-dsm-updates-reporting/
Hi Tom,
Did you apply any bios mods? Or are you running a vanilla n54l?
As a matter of fact I did apply a bios mod! It allowed full sata speed for all sata ports including the dvd/cd rom and hotswapping of drives. I will add the link if I can find it again.
EDIT: I’m pretty sure its this one from user kamzata: https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/showthread.php?pid=75965#pid75965
Awesome! Thank you!
One last question: did you use the bios or the uefi usb image?
Iām pretty sure I used the bios one!
Thank you so much! I tried setting it up but the device never appeared in the assistant. After flashing the custom bios and disabling C1E it works like a charm!
the backup command in tcrp does not work somehow, seems like the sde3 partition is filled up to the brim
Thanks for letting me know and enjoy your hacknology!
Hello losing my esata drive. Can u help? Only have 5 from 6 HDDs
Hi Stefan,
It depends. Could you share some more details on your setup?
Regards
Tom
I migrated from DS3615xs 42218 to DS3622+.
I have a SHR Raid with 5 HDDs – one of them on the esata port. One Standalone HDD.
After migration i lost the esata HDD in Raid. Under tcrpl all 6 HDDs are displayed so in Bios too. C1E is disabled and AHCI is enabled.
All fine migration but under new DS3622+ only 4 HDDs from RAID and Standalone are online.RAID now critical.
Maybe some configuration to bring back the esata HDD on this OS?
And this is with the N54L? If so I assume four disks in normal spot, one in the dvd drives place and one 1 esata?
yes something like that. DVD drive offers space for 2 drives. A normal RAID disk and a small SSD. One of the RAID disks is connected to the esata. The SSD is standalone.
I see. As the older version did recognize your 6 drives wouldnāt it be a better idea to downgrade to the known working version?
Worked now š
had to modify DiskIdxMap=0001 and SataPortMap=9 to get all my 6 HDDs to work.
Your Guide was a perfect help.
You can change your Topic to 2023 now. š
That sounds like a success to me! I will think about changing the year to 2023 hahaha.
following this, i got an Error on the backup steps (filled up the 1gb image)
to get around this, i had to do:
./rploader.sh clean now; rm -rf /mnt/sdb3/auxfiles; rm -rf /home/tc/custom-module; ./rploader.sh
backup now;
I see! How much storage does your usb have and could that be the reason for this error?
Hi, i’ve just inherited a N54L microserver with 2x 3tb (WD Red) hdd’s, i’m trying to get DSM installed, i’ve flashed the modded bios to it you linked above and using a 32gb sandisk usb 3 key to boot redpill. I went with the automated redpill loader and set it up as the ds3266xs+ same as yourself, it builds the bootloader and i get an ip address followed by “Loading DSM Kernel” then “Booting” but i cannot find the device in synology assistant nor does navigating to the ip address itself do anything. I have tried disabling the C1E option in the bios as you said but no change. I’m stuck here, any tips would be appreciated š
Got it working using Tinycore Redpill instead of the automated redpill script which i figured out was freezing on boot. Applied the modified bios and got added another 2 WD Reds in there. Also figured out how to enable SHR raid modes, not sure if shr is needed but thats what i use on my real synology DS418 and DS920 boxes so figured i’d stick to what i knew.
Congrats on getting it working! Enabling SHR was a setting you need to enable after installing DSM if I recall correctly. I believe I have done the same on mine but I would have to turn it on to check.
Hi Mike, I have a HP 54L since 2013 but I never upgraded and since few years I was not using it. I would like to upgrade the system but I am newbee since I am lost if I want to redo it now ! Could you tell me first how to upgrade the bios step by step ? Then apparently if we wnat to continue to upgrade to DSM 7.2 or upper we need to use something different than AFAIK ? How could help me step by step ? I was also with Esxi and I do not know if I can still have it as I would like to have VM in Linux and W11. Do you know if it is possibvle to add to the 54L a graphic card for the VM in Windows ?
Not Mike but I can add the instructions to updating the bios to the post if you want.
I am trying to install on a N54L with the custom Bios installed and the default settings. I have downloaded TCRP loader v0.9.4.0 and I can successfully do all the steps and reboot. However, synology finds no drives. Not on the 5th sata or any of the bays. Individually or all installed. I can see them in the BIOS and the boot, but not in TCRP. Even if I boot in the setup to make changes, in the screen that shows the hardware information, the disks do not appear.
The setting in BIOS is AHCI, so that is not the issue.
Any ideas?
Trying to install to N54l with mobbed BIOS and all the steps successfully followed as indicated above. Using v0.9.4.5 TCRP loader but when i load find synology, once I click to accept and start installing, it either gives me a not found network error or when I do succeed, it finds no disks at all to install. I have a single 250GB WD empty disk, that I am trying with. Any ideas?
I would recommend starting fresh and follow the steps detailed on my blogpost. You mentioned you are using a different loader or newer version, maybe that is part of the issue? From the installation page I get this:
“NOT ALL HARDWARE IS SUITABLE:
DSM 7 has a new requirement for the initial installation. If drive hotplug is supported by the motherboard or controller, all AHCI SATA ports visible to DSM must either be configured for hotplug or have an attached drive during initial install. Additionally, if the motherboard or controller chipset supports more ports than are physically implemented, DSM installation will fail unless they are mapped out of visibility. On some hardware, it may be impossible to install (particularly on baremetal) while retaining access to the physical ports. The installation tutorial has more detail on the causes of this problem, and possible workarounds.”
Regards,
Tom
The loader is the only one available. There is no way to find the 0.8.0 anywhere anymore.
I think version 0.9.3.0 of TinyCore is what I used for my N54L. It can be downloaded here: https://github.com/pocopico/tinycore-redpill/releases/tag/v0.9.3.0
That did the trick, thank you my friend.
Happy to hear that helped.
Any idea what is the maximum 7.1.1-42962 version we can install? Can we go up to update 5 for example?
That I do not know. Maybe the xpenology forum https://xpenology.com/forum/ has the answer you seek.
Someone tried the new 7.2 Version?
Hi There !
Thanks for this post , I’ve decided to switch from proxmox to bare metal on my N54L , I face an issue which I can’t solve
using TC 0.9.4.8 with model DS3622xs , I can see the 6 disks BUT one DSM has booted I don’t have any network
using other loaders (ARC & ARPL) , I have network once DSM has booted BUT it does not see the 5th & 6th disks those not on the 4 bays š
Any idea guyz ?
Thanks !
Have you disabled the C1E option in the bios?
Yes , it’s disabled
I don’t mind purchase a NIC if need be
(BTW , any recommendation for a good CG which can transcode popular format ?)
Thanks
XT
to get all hdds working for me i had to modify
DiskIdxMap=0001 and SataPortMap=9 to get all my 6 HDDs to work.
All good ! after tweaking BIOS , the missing disks are seen under AHCI and now DSM see all of them
forgot to say that I got no luck with TCRP but with this one
https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/60130-redpill-tinycore-loader-installation-guide-for-dsm-71-baremetal/page/34/#comment-445094
so I don’t understand how you guyz can run Xpen with TCRP unlike me š
I’ve used this version of TCRP and others have reported success with this version as well: https://github.com/pocopico/tinycore-redpill/releases/tag/v0.9.3.0
I tried “arpl i18n”, “ARC redpill loader” and TCRP… all failed…until this one (Peter Suh’s loader)…
But other than the 4 regular harddrives, my other drive won’t be recognized even I added below statement…. any help?? thx.
“DiskIdxMap=0001 and SataPortMap=9 to get all my 6 HDDs to work. “
Could you tell a bit more about the versions of loaders you used? Other information that could help with debugging is welcome.
I guess you are in DSM 7.1 right ?
AFAIK 0.9.3.0 is not compatible with DSM 7.2 so you’ll get same issue as me the day you’ll want to upgrade to DSM 7.2
I can share my experience if need be
I think so. Its not my main NAS so I havent looked into upgrading to 7.2.
For me it works with Red-Pill from https://github.com/fbelavenuto/arpl Version: v1.1-beta2a. Steps to do: Upgrade your Bios with mod bios file. Disable C1E in bios CPU settings. Get fast USB Stick and flash it with ARPL Bootloader. Put Usb Stick inside HP N54L. Follow install instructions from github ARP Loader. Choose DS3622xs+ broadwellnk and machine type: 46962. Important: After create bootloader go to Advanced Menu and before boot select the “Switch direct boot” option to activate it and boot. The last setting did the trick to get running DSM on N54L HP Microserver.
Sadly I’m having no luck with this. Tried many times. Using finds.synology.com finds it and takes me through two pages of terms and then won’t progress any further. I’ve done the C1E and direct boot things too. I’m at a loss! It’s so frustrating as you are not the only one who has success. I would love to have a eurika moment!
Hi,
Thanks for commenting. Could you maybe walk us through what steps you have taken so that we may be able to help you?
Regards,
Tom
Have installed as per above guide using Tiny core v0.9.3.0, installed 7.1.1-42962 (with Update 1), and then used the update function to update to 7.1.1-42962 Update 6. Can the N36L support 7.2?
Thanks.
I’m not sure the N36L can support 7.2 but if it supports 7.1 I would suspect it can support 7.2. I see the new version of the tinycore-redpill:https://github.com/pocopico/tinycore-redpill/releases/tag/v0.9.4.9c loader has support for 7.2.
well my issue is when i manually updated to 7.1.1 update 6 through the web UI, i ma now stuck in recovery and when i recover it just starts again like a loop. Do you know how to fix this i am trying as im new Xpenology i usually use OMV but i do like the simplicity of this, i am trying to build for a friend as it would be easy to swap disks then doing it the SNAPRAID way.
thanks.
I did a search on the update and xpenology and found the folowing: https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/64619-dsm-711-42962/. It seems the update does not work with this version of the Tinycore loader. Have you tried using a newer version? Before updating DSM it is advised to check the updates forum to ensure compatability with the the current setup: https://xpenology.com/forum/forum/78-dsm-updates-reporting/. As installing a non compatible update results in a broken system.
Yeah i figured. It looks like that max supported version is 7.1.1-42962. as i tried to load 7.2 and it does the same. Update 6 of 7.1.1-42962 didnt work did not matter what i tried would not come back online. Is there any downside staying on 71.1-4262. Will all apps and docker work as normal.
Thanks
The only downside I can imagine is missing out on security updates and/or features. Just don’t expose it directly to the outside (the internet) and you should be fine. All apps should function without issues including docker. Also I see new releases of the loader that should support 7.2 you could try that and let me (and others) know the results?
Regards,
Tom