I recently acquired a TerraMaster F5-221 to replace two older NAS (a ReadyNAS and a Synology) that were running in parallel. Nothing really wrong with that except maybe for power consumption. However, when the OpenVPN started to act weird on both NAS, I decided an upgrade would be nice. According to reviews, the TerraMaster F5-221 has nice hardware (Intel Apollo J3355) but poor software, which is a quite common story when it comes to NAS, it seems. It was clear I would replace the OS with something like TrueNAS or openmediavault which have open source roots, but in my research I found Unraid was mentioned quite a lot. Unraid is closed source, it's not free, but it's not very expensive either and it's based on Linux. Also, the app ecosystem is actually based on Docker, which is neat!
Hardware
EEPROM (and others) chip IDs
As I bought a very handy TL866 II Plus USB flash programmer to replace my old and trusted Willem parallel programmer, I noticed this newer device could check and enforce chip IDs. As I already knew, many (if not all) of my EEProm chips are fake or at least remarked. Well, as long as they do work […]
ZOTAC 9300-ITX DDR3 compatiblity list
Source : http://forum.hardware.fr/hfr/Hardware/carte-mere/topic-unique-zotac-sujet_841219_77.htm ZOTAC 9300-ITX DDR3 Tested CPU list CPU type Speed CMOS CPU power Celeron 420 1.60GHz 65nm 35W Celeron 440 2.00GHz 65nm 35W Celeron Dual-Core E1200 1.60GHz 65nm 65W Celeron Dual-Core E1500 2.20GHz 65nm […]
Hacking the Marantz M-CR603
To adapt when looked more closely: shamelessly stolen from Source: Hacking the Marantz MCR-610 for the time being. Information gathered through the Owner's Manual There is some open source software in use, namely: Boost: Set of C++ libraries Expat: XML Parser Toolkit FastDelegate: "Member […]
Hacking Firmware Tips
More a shameless copy/paste compilation of some articles (in case they vanish from the internet) Low Rent Firmware Hacking Quick'n Dirty Firmware Reversing Some tips Tip 00x01 - I normally like to look for bootcode if I have the choice. If not, I just deal with what I have. Tip 00x02 - Firmware […]
Trying to hack Logitec LAN W300N/RSS
Also known as ZuniDigital ZR301, and maybe others too. Based on Realtek 8196C (SoC) + RTL8192CE (WLAN) + MXIC 25L3206E (4MB of flash) + Winbond W9825G6 JB-6 (32MB of RAM) But no success, it appears that 8196C is based on "broken" Lexra MIPS Microarchitecture. Not sure if it will ever get […]
Noisy SSD (or so it seems)
Already got the issue in the past on my Asus P6T Deluxe V2, solved it and forgot about it. But a recent Clear CMOS operation (to retrieve full USB 2.0 ports that were somewhat downgraded to 1.1, weird issue) brought it to light again. After checking this post High Pitched Noise Coming From Vertex 2 […]
How to open La Cie Porsche External HDD
I wanted to check the hard drives within La Cie Porsche HDD. No screws, nothing visible. The trick is to use a compact disc to slide into, without cutting yourself :-) […]
Refill Toner Hack for Samsung ML-1640
I got myself a very unexpensive laser printer bundled with a third party toner. The printing industry being quite conservative when it comes to refilling, the printer didn't accept the toner in question. I had to flash a modified firmware so that the printer wouldn't complain anymore. Note that the […]