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DNS-323: How to overcome the software / hardware limitations

Nowadays, the D-Link DNS-323 NAS is not supported anymore and the SMB protocol supports only the version 1. This is how I started the project: trying, at least, to obtain SMBv2.0. The saga is about failure and success: this method that the first part is not enough glorified.

How to read

The repository is organized with branches and the latest was merged into master. So, if you only want the instructions, just read next, otherwise, navigate through the branches and commits. Have fun!

Another point of view of this story: Failure & Success principle

What you will obtain

  • Debian Jessie as operating system
  • SMBv3
  • SSH connection to the hardware
  • Overcome the 2TB limitation
  • Possibility to add a USB 2.0 hub
  • Automount / sharing of disk devices connected
  • RAID-1 with failure detection that will warn you via email
  • Fan control with failure detection that will warn you via email
  • Printing server

What you will lose

  • The web interface to manage the hardware, but one could install something but may have to build it by him/herself.

Let's start!

Warning Read those notes before going any further

⚠ This guide is written with basic to advanced Linux knowledge in mind. So be aware it is not recommended for new Linux users! If even then you wish to proceed, keep in mind it could be really difficult to help you out an issue, maybe even impossible.
⚠ Make sure to have a backup because this procedure will wipe all your data.
⚠ If somehow, you are stuck somewhere, you might find a solution, you might get help, BUT always remember that it could be possible you will have to use the serial method to recover to the original firmware.
⚠ The D-Link DNS-323 is no longer supported by Debian, but I added a new section below to use Freexian ELTS repository to continue to obtain security updates till 2025.

Debian

Replacing original firmware

Finding the new IP address and connecting

  • Get your computer IP address:
    • Via command line:
      • Open cmd.
      • ipconfig
      • Look for the network adapter currently in use (the IP address shall start with 192.168..
    • Via GUI:
      • Open Windows parameters / control panel.
      • Reach the network settings.
      • View the details of the currently in use adapter.
  • Open NMap (You can use the software of your choice that would achieve the same goal).
  • In target box, you can enter 192.168.1.0/24 (the IP address of your computer except the last number is replaced with 0).
  • In command box, add -p 22 after nmap.
  • Click on the scan button.
Scanning 26 hosts [1 port/host]
Discovered open port 22/tcp on 192.168.1.HIDDEN
Discovered open port 22/tcp on 192.168.1.HIDDEN
Discovered open port 22/tcp on 192.168.1.123
Discovered open port 22/tcp on 192.168.1.HIDDEN

All the HIDDEN keywords were in fact numbers, but for privacy, I obfuscate them. I left them here so you can see that you could have multiple devices having the port 22 opened. So, from there, you can discard all known IP addresses. If there is more then one left, you can try to connect vis SSH and if it connects, you found it. Here the IP address 192.168.1.123 would be my device (this is not the real one).

Username: installer
Password: install

Installing the operating system

  • Go to shell directly with this first SSH connection. I will name it SSH-behind-the-scene (shorten SSH-b SSH-b).

  • date -s '2020-01-01 11:00:00'

  • tail -f /var/log/syslog

  • Open another SSH connection. I will name it SSH-installation (shorten SSH-i SSH-i).

OK! Now, to discern in what connection I am doing things, I'll prefix the step with its shortname when I change of context.

  • SSH-i Choose Expert mode.

  • In choosing server step, select Enter manually.

    • Type archive.debian.org.
    • Accept default choices.

  • In modules step, select: fdisk, lvm-cfg, md+lvm, partman ext3, partman raid.

  • SSH-b If it is your first boot, then, using fdisk, delete all partitions and ensure GPT on both disks.

  • SSH-i In language step, select your region, BUT do NOT add keyboard layout/locales.

  • Follow steps up to partionning and enter it.

  • If it is your first boot:

    • Select Manual.
    • Follow the Configure RAID menu. I recommend using RAID-1 as it is more safe for your data, but you are free, it shouldn't change the following steps.
    • Reboot NAS and start this section over.

  • SSH-b cat /proc/mdstat

If you get:

The RAID is currently syncing. (This is a paraphrase)

Use while true; do printf "\033\143"; cat /proc/mdstat; echo "CTRL-C to quit"; sleep 10; done until you get the result below then reboot.

If you get following result right away, then continue:

The RAID is active. (This is a paraphrase)

  • SSH-i In partionning step, select Guided LVM.

    • Give the names you want.
    • Select both disks.

  • Continue up to install base system.

    • Choose linux-image-orion5x.
    • STOP on next question.

  • SSH-b nano /target/usr/sbin/mkinitramfs:

    • Search for MODULES=most.
    • Comment all the "case" lines except auto_add_modules.

  • SSH-i Continue up to Configure package manager.

    • I chose No to first two choices, security updates only.

  • Continue up to Make the system bootable and WAIT.

  • SSH-b . /lib/chroot-setup.sh

    • Don't forget the space after the first dot. It sources the file. It does not execute it.

  • chroot_setup

  • Change to MODULES=loaded in /target/etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/driver-policy and /target/etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf.

  • chroot /target lsmod | cut -f 1 -d\ > /target/etc/initramfs-tools/modules

  • Ensure /target/etc/initramfs-tools/modules first line is not "Module", if so delete it.

  • nano /target/usr/sbin/mkinitramfs:

    • Search for MODULES=most.
    • Comment all the "case" lines including auto_add_modules

  • chroot_cleanup

I am confident that the above modification could replace previous modification made when it was the install base system step. If you want to try/test it.

  • SSH-i Proceed with the other installation steps.

  • SSH-b shutdown -r now. (If needed)

After reboot...

Making a complete NAS

Note: I am not 100% ensure if there is no useless sudo.

I decided to create a main folder where all my shares would be and to begin with I have:

  • mkdir -p /share/data
  • chmod 777 /share/data
  • mkdir -p /share/scripts
  • chmod 777 /share/scripts

Here I opened file permissions for those to full, but you can lower it or do what ever you want.

Sudo

  • su
  • apt install sudo
  • usermod -aG sudo USERNAME. Where USERNAME is the username you used during Debian installation section.
  • Restart SSH session.

Postfix

  • sudo apt install postfix
    • Choose Internet with smarthost.

Fan

  • sudo apt-get install lm-sensors
  • sudo sensors-detect
    • YES to all
  • sudo /etc/init.d/kmod start
  • sudo apt-get install fancontrol
  • sudo pwmconfig
  • sudo /etc/init.d/fancontrol start

monitor-fans.sh execution modes:

  • No param: Tells you if the fan works.
  • --install: Install monitoring each 5 minutes.
  • --uninstall: Uninstall monitoring.
  • wget -O /share/scripts/monitor-fans.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/djon2003/DNS-323/2.3-Add-ons/files/monitor-fans.sh
  • sudo /share/scripts/monitor-fans.sh --install

NTP

  • sudo apt install ntp

New locales (for UTF-8)

  • sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

RAID monitoring

  • sudo nano /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf :
  • To test email:
    • Kill any mdadm process.
    • sudo mdadm --monitor --scan --test
  • To test failure:
    • Ensure the following command is running or run it: mdadm --monitor --scan &.
    • mdadm --manage --set-faulty /dev/md0 /dev/sdb1
    • Wait to receive the email.
    • mdadm /dev/md0 -r /dev/sdb1
    • mdadm /dev/md0 -a /dev/sdb1

Samba

  • sudo apt-get install samba
  • sudo bash -c 'echo "include = /etc/samba/smb.share.conf" >> /etc/samba/smb.conf'
  • sudo wget -O /etc/samba/smb.share.conf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/djon2003/DNS-323/2.3-Add-ons/files/smb.share.conf
  • sudo systemctl restart smbd

USB port

  • Install exFAT support: sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils.
  • Install NTFS support: sudo apt install ntfs-3g.
  • Printer: I will let this exercise to the reader. As this one I've been able to do it, but that's true for my model. Maybe in the future.

Automount / Autoshare USB disks

Compile & Install USBMount

  • sudo apt-get install debhelper build-essential
  • mkdir /share/temp-install
  • cd /share/temp-install
  • wget https://github.com/rbrito/usbmount/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
  • unzip master.zip
  • cd usbmount-master
  • sudo dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -b
  • dpkg -i ../usbmount_0.0.24_all.deb
  • cd /
  • rm -rf /share/temp-install

Configuration & script to ensure share alive

  • sudo nano /etc/usbmount/usbmount.conf:
    • Add to FILESYSTEMS exfat ntfs fuseblk ntfs-3g.
    • Replace MOUNTOPTIONS value by uid=1000,gid=1000,nodev.
  • sudo wget -O /etc/usbmount/mount.d/01_create_samba_share https://github.com/djon2003/DNS-323/raw/2.3-Add-ons/files/01_create_samba_share
  • sudo wget -O /etc/usbmount/umount.d/01_remove_samba_share https://github.com/djon2003/DNS-323/raw/2.3-Add-ons/files/01_remove_samba_share
  • sudo mkdir /etc/samba/smb.d/
  • wget -O /share/scripts/clear-phantom-shares.sh https://github.com/djon2003/DNS-323/raw/2.3-Add-ons/files/clear-phantom-shares.sh
  • sudo /share/scripts/clear-phantom-shares.sh --install

Interesting packages

  • sudo apt-get install usbutils: Tools for the USB port.
  • sudo apt install lshw
    • lshw -C network : To show network adapter.
  • sudo apt-get install eject
    • eject /dev/sdc : To disconnect/umount USB drive
  • sudo apt-get install udisks2 : Utilitary for USB. i.e. power-off. In my case, using udisksctl power-off -b /dev/sdc, made my USB HDD to be completely off. USB reconnection didn't work. I had to unplug the power cable and replug all to have the disk detected again. But, could be useful.

Security updates till 2025

Credit: 0b1001101 from Issue #8

So, let download the Freexian key, backup the current sources.list, use the HTTP URLs to obtain apt-transport-https and finally change to HTTPS URLs.

  • wget https://deb.freexian.com/extended-lts/archive-key.gpg -O elts-archive-key.gpg && sudo mv elts-archive-key.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/freexian-archive-extended-lts.gpg
  • sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak
  • sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://deb.freexian.com/extended-lts jessie main" > /etc/apt/sources.list'
  • sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://deb.freexian.com/extended-lts jessie-lts main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list'
  • sudo apt update
  • sudo apt upgrade
  • sudo apt install apt-transport-https
  • sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://deb.freexian.com/extended-lts jessie main" > /etc/apt/sources.list'
  • sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://deb.freexian.com/extended-lts jessie-lts main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list'

References

Debian

Recovery

RAID

Samba

Add-ons

Freexian

Others

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