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Snap Server / NAS / Storage Technical Goodies The Home for Snap Server Hacking, Storage and NAS info. And NAS / Snap Classifides |
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03-21-2006, 11:34 AM | #1 |
Cooling Neophyte
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Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
Just an idea:
has anyone tried to dump bios od Snap 4100 and try to edit it in one of those BIOS editors to patch the LBA 48 bit? I can provide the dump if someone is interested to do some hacking. I can also offer to be test rabbit since I can backup and restore the bios anytime (with universal off-board programmer). Is here in forum anyone with a bit of assembler know-how who's interested to lift the 137 Giga limit of our 4100's? Let me know, I'll try to be of any assistace as possible. Regards, blue72gem P.S. I'm one of fresh 4100 owner with a 4x 200 Gigz WesternDigitals |
03-21-2006, 01:00 PM | #2 |
Thermophile
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Plano, TX
Posts: 3,135
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
If the 4100 is like the 2000, it has 2 flashram chips. 1 is removable, the other is soldered in. I currently have read the removable one, with my programmer. But have not unsoldered the second. The OS is stored in these chips, alone with the BIOS. The chips in the 2000 are 29F800BT TSOP. I found reference to pkzip, in the flashram. Indicating that it uncompress the OS, as it installs it to the drive.
If you look at the sup file that Snap uses to update the OS. You will find it is a Intel HEX format. I was looking at what would be needed to backup a OS. The older 2000 v1 do not like 4.0.860. The installer will not allow you to install a older version.
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1 Snap 4500 - 1.0T (4 x 250gig WD2500SB RE), Raid5, 1 Snap 4500 - 1.6T (4 x 400gig Seagates), Raid5, 1 Snap 4200 - 4.0T (4 x 2gig Seagates), Raid5, Using SATA converts from Andy Link to SnapOS FAQ's http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=13820 |
03-21-2006, 04:47 PM | #3 |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Roswell, GA
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
I have been wanting to buy a universal programmer for this reason. (and other reasons of course)
I'd be very interested in hacking up the 4100 to accept 48bit LBA. Also I'm surprised a linux or bsd replacement OS hasn't emerged yet for the snap servers... I'm sick of this pansy web interface. So you have already taken the dump? |
03-21-2006, 05:12 PM | #4 |
Thermophile
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Plano, TX
Posts: 3,135
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
The hack you need, is one to make the 4100 boot like a standard boot loader. That would allow any OS to be loaded. The std boot loader is on these models: 1100, 2200, and 4200.
I have a Willem Programmer, the new design. Plus the TSOP socket to fit the flashram used in the 2000. I still wan't to un-solder the 2nd flashram and read it. Just havn't got around to it yet.
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1 Snap 4500 - 1.0T (4 x 250gig WD2500SB RE), Raid5, 1 Snap 4500 - 1.6T (4 x 400gig Seagates), Raid5, 1 Snap 4200 - 4.0T (4 x 2gig Seagates), Raid5, Using SATA converts from Andy Link to SnapOS FAQ's http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=13820 |
03-22-2006, 01:23 AM | #5 |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Ljubljana
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
Here's the dump of the PIC 16c505 that I've taken.
Unfortunately I tought that this was the eeprom with BIOS, but it looks like that it's keeping the BIOS along with the OS in Intel's flash chip. I'm going to dump that aswell, but since it's TSOP it requires a little more handy workaround and precision. Especialy to solder it back. Look forward to see the 4100 flash dump soon, meanwhile here's the PIC dump if anyone might know what snap is keeping inside here. |
03-22-2006, 01:26 AM | #6 |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
Here's the PIC dump...
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03-22-2006, 10:42 AM | #7 |
Thermophile
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Plano, TX
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
This is a Intel Hex format file. That is un-usually small. in size. The 29F800 are 4 meg chips. Did you read the whole chip. If you want to look at these use Hex Workshop. You will see : followed with a address type and key related to the data. I have utilities for stripping the Address header and checksum at the end. But I have NO clue what the hex code means.
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1 Snap 4500 - 1.0T (4 x 250gig WD2500SB RE), Raid5, 1 Snap 4500 - 1.6T (4 x 400gig Seagates), Raid5, 1 Snap 4200 - 4.0T (4 x 2gig Seagates), Raid5, Using SATA converts from Andy Link to SnapOS FAQ's http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=13820 |
03-22-2006, 11:40 AM | #8 |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Ljubljana
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
This is PIC code and not flash code!
I haven't dump the flash yet. PIC dump is ASM code that can be disassembled with dev tools for microcontrolers (www.microchip.com). But I haven't got a clue what's used for in 4100, maybe some coder here would tell us from its disassembly. As I told I haven't dump the flash yet... I don't have the knowledge nor the tools to decompile it or make a proper patch. I can only provide assistence for testing if someone [with a bit of free brain capacity] would try to make the LBA48 patch. |
04-03-2006, 05:57 AM | #9 |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Seattle, Wa
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
This issue has been discussed ad nauseum and it has nothing to do with the bios but rather the fact that SnapOS in all forms does not have the bsd driver necessary to allow lba48 on the promise chip. The reason it DOES work on the 4000 is because that platform uses the native intel ide controllers and those drivers do support lba48 although they are much slower controllers. The reason this has never been fixed is simply lack of resources while trying to update other aspects of SnapOS, mainly support for newer Windows versions took priority over trying to reach terabyte capability. I'm not sure if you can get a post 1999 promise driver to compile on that version of bsd they used here. Nothing is impossible though. If only we could put a more modern nas os in place of it.
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04-03-2006, 06:13 AM | #10 |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
Thank you for enlightment.
I guess we should look more into FreeNAS OS port to 4100 hardware. |
04-03-2006, 08:29 AM | #11 |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Roswell, GA
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
OpenFiler would be good :-D
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04-03-2006, 09:44 AM | #12 | |
Cooling Savant
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 909
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
http://www.openfiler.com/
Quote:
Nah, im joking Hmm, Cent OS based..... Its gonna really have to be a unit we can have a screen on, i suppose, but then again, it doesnt..... But it would be easier
__________________
Snap Server Help Wiki - http://wiki.procooling.com/index.php/Snap_Server Snap Server 2200 v3.4.807 2x 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 w/ UNIDFC601512M Replacement Fan "Did you really think it would be that easy??" Other NAS's 1x NSLU2 w/ 512mb Corsair Flash Voyager Running Unslung 6.8b 1x NSLU2 w/ 8Gb LaCie Carte Orange Running Debian/NSLU2 Stable 4.0r0 250GB LaCie Ethernet Disk Running Windows XP Embedded |
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04-03-2006, 10:03 AM | #13 | |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Roswell, GA
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
Quote:
I'd even loan my 4100 out if you wanted to screw with it.... Eventually I'll be building an openfiler box, would just be nice if the snap server could run it... but that may be asking too much from this little box. |
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04-03-2006, 06:32 PM | #14 |
Cooling Neophyte
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
Anyone figured out what that ide style header is for next to the flash drive on a Snap4100?
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04-03-2006, 08:28 PM | #15 |
Thermophile
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Plano, TX
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
You got the same header on a 1000v1 & 1100. I know it you connect a IDE drive to it the 1100 will not boot. But it could be a SCSI port and not a IDE like I tried. But it may be like a snap tech told me on the 2000. They took some single board computer and customized them for there need. Killing off un necessary parts. Look for a SCSI controller???? Or send me a componet list and will will google them.
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1 Snap 4500 - 1.0T (4 x 250gig WD2500SB RE), Raid5, 1 Snap 4500 - 1.6T (4 x 400gig Seagates), Raid5, 1 Snap 4200 - 4.0T (4 x 2gig Seagates), Raid5, Using SATA converts from Andy Link to SnapOS FAQ's http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=13820 |
04-03-2006, 10:06 PM | #16 |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Roswell, GA
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
my guess is it is for some sort of daughter-board... which snap never had a need for.
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04-08-2006, 06:00 PM | #17 |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Seattle, Wa
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
If an IDE drive keeps it from booting, I would guess that it overrides the bootable flash image. If this is true, one could install FreeNAS on a drive and see if it will allow the snap to boot up off of it. Too bad there isn't at least a serial port on these. It definitely is NOT scsi since that would be a 50 pin or 68 pin connector and a scsi controller chip would would be obvious on the mobo as are the promise controllers. It's probably a direct connection to the piix controller which likely also runs the Intel flash chip where SnapOS resides. BTW, I dl'ed the FreeNAS VMWare player image and set it up. The update notification page is sweet. I've already updated it twice from the gui after I installed it from the slightly older VMWare image. At version 0.65, it's already way ahead of SnapOS. The development cycle seems to be moving fast and there is no hardware on a snapserver that FreeNAS won't drive. It only uses about 16MB once installed so it will definitely fit on the flash image. Now, if only there was an easy way to get it to replace SnapOS. Sure, it's easier just to get a newer platform but why not get some new life out of these devices? They are plenty powerful enough to run large capacity raid volumes for just a small network. Newer drives may actually have less load on the cpu since IDE devices have become more cpu friendly with time, not less.
Last edited by Davesworld; 04-08-2006 at 06:14 PM. |
04-08-2006, 09:27 PM | #18 | |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Roswell, GA
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
Quote:
Sure you can build your own platform for it, but I already have one of these... they are a nice form-factor and they are relatively cheap to come by (compared to building a new 1U box). I think there would be even more potential with something like freenas. |
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04-09-2006, 01:58 AM | #19 |
Cooling Savant
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
We really need like one of the original design team so that we can find out how it was done
Or at least be able to read the drive in something to find out how its setup, becuse altering the bootloader could work... As it could quite easily be a special one
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Snap Server Help Wiki - http://wiki.procooling.com/index.php/Snap_Server Snap Server 2200 v3.4.807 2x 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 w/ UNIDFC601512M Replacement Fan "Did you really think it would be that easy??" Other NAS's 1x NSLU2 w/ 512mb Corsair Flash Voyager Running Unslung 6.8b 1x NSLU2 w/ 8Gb LaCie Carte Orange Running Debian/NSLU2 Stable 4.0r0 250GB LaCie Ethernet Disk Running Windows XP Embedded |
04-09-2006, 05:30 PM | #20 |
Cooling Savant
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
I just "offer" to take peoples old computers from them so they don't have to recycle them. It is amazing what people think is an old computer these days. Someone gave me an Athlon XP 1700+ the other day. Too "old" for them Sure makes for some nice computers laying around to put FreeNAS on though...
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04-10-2006, 06:59 PM | #21 | |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Seattle, Wa
Posts: 45
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
Quote:
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04-10-2006, 07:02 PM | #22 | |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Seattle, Wa
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
Quote:
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04-10-2006, 08:39 PM | #23 | |
Cooling Savant
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: South Bend, IN
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
Quote:
I've been wondering about the mysterious header myself. Perhaps it is a combination of your two suggestions. Maybe they had a drive that had a seperate OS on it, from which they could flash the OS onto the board. They plug the drive in, the machine boots from it, installs the OS, and bam...all done. I don't really want to torch my current 4100 either, but I am on the lookout for a secondary "experiment" 4100 as well. I would LOVE to get gigabit ethernet out of this machine...If I come up with anything I'll keep you all posted. |
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04-11-2006, 02:47 PM | #24 | |
Cooling Savant
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
Quote:
Hence why having it in my signature!
__________________
Snap Server Help Wiki - http://wiki.procooling.com/index.php/Snap_Server Snap Server 2200 v3.4.807 2x 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 w/ UNIDFC601512M Replacement Fan "Did you really think it would be that easy??" Other NAS's 1x NSLU2 w/ 512mb Corsair Flash Voyager Running Unslung 6.8b 1x NSLU2 w/ 8Gb LaCie Carte Orange Running Debian/NSLU2 Stable 4.0r0 250GB LaCie Ethernet Disk Running Windows XP Embedded |
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04-22-2006, 05:10 PM | #25 |
Cooling Neophyte
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Tennessee
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Re: Snap 4100 BIOS dump, unlocking 137 limit
so i have a Dell 705 which is really a snap 4100, i am trying to flash it with the new snap os 4.0.860 and i down load the software package but the Assist says that all 3 files in that package are not the corrcect files to patch this server, but i can use the release from dell and that will patch it. and i thought that this new patch allowoed 48 bit drives
o well i just found this thing in the rack last week and got it up and running. but i am trying to get it to do XP and 2k3 user/pass procteting and that is why i am trying to flash the thing |
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