My first step to hacking the Linksys NSLU2 was installing debian/NSLU2. The starting point to the process was this webpage. The actual installation guide can be found here. I did the install first before any hardware tinkering, because I wanted to be sure this was something workable. It actually took multiple tries, and a lot of patience. The instructions below were all taken from the webpages mentioned, and possibly others that I found by googling.
Re-flashing the firmware
First off, the slug was running an older firmware. It took a fair amount of googling to find the latest Linksys V23R63. Upgrading the slug to the latest Linksys firmware might not be an essential step, but it was something I did while trying to track down one of the fail installs. I also downloaded the flash image of Debian installer.
I ran Ubuntu on most of my computers, so the firmware flashing was straightforward. Install upslug2 by:
sudo apt-get install upslug2
Connect the slug into your local network. Put the slug into upgrade mode, by press-hold the Reset button (poke a paper clip into the hole), press the Power button, wait until the power LED turns red, then release the Reset button immediately.
Next, run this command to check that upslug2 can find the NSLU2 in the network:
sudo upslug2
Flash the firmware by:
sudo upslug2 -i <image-file>
After flashing the V23R63 firmware, I reset the configuration, and confirmed the network were set to DHCP. There was one failed attempt when I set it to static IP. According to the instructions, you need to enter all network information when using static IP. Unfortunately, I was not sure what to enter in some of the fields, so DHCP was a better option.
Next, I replaced the Linksys firmware with the Debian installer image.
Installation
Since I have opted for DHCP, I have to find the slug IP address. One way was to look into the router DHCP server page. But I got tired of logging into the router, and looked for a different solution. My thought was to ping the whole range of the IP addresses in your subnet. A cursory look into the “ping” command man pages turned up nothing. Next, google came to the rescue. The command “fping” provided what I needed, and once again, Ubuntu made it very easy to install:
sudo apt-get install fping
To ping the subnet, I figured out these command:
fping -a -g 192.168.1.0/24 > devices_ip cat devices_ip
The installation took at least an hour, possibly two (I didn’t actually timed it). The slowness was mainly due to the installer having to fetch packages from the internet. Also, the install was not unattended, i.e. you have to check on it now and again, to see if it has stopped while waiting for you to select some options.
Finally, I was working on this in two locations, one of them requiring a proxy configuration. I have to make sure the entire install would be completed in one go, because I have no clue how to change the proxy configuration midway of the install. Though, once the installation was completed, I figured out the proxy configuration can be changed by editing /etc/apt/apt.conf.
Post-install
After the installer’s final step, the slug rebooted. It could take up to 15 minutes for the first boot to complete. Later on, I found out the long first boot was due to automatic fsck. This will occur if the real time clock (rtc) was not set to the current time. Wait for 3 beeps, then you are ready to connect to the slug via ssh.
That’s it for this post. Next, I will probably post about the hardware hacks I made.
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