NASLite Network Attached Storage

Hi there,

I finally decided to upgrade my faithfull v2.05 system to M2 (I want those DAAP features!), which normally boots from a USB stck. Booted my MacBook Pro with the Installation Utility, but found that the utility could not upgrade my v2.05 USB stick to M2.

So I installed M2 onto another stick I had lying around. Install went fine, but...

I have no monitor for the NASLite box. It's miles away at my brothers! Is there a way to edit the configuration to at least set the network address correctly (and then access it via telnet to go through the rest of the setup, ie Licence, etc)?

I explored the content of the installed system but could not find a config file. And the Macbook pro does not seem to be able to boot from it (as if it were a NASLite box).

Thanks a lot

Try it on another PC, say a friends or just bite the bullet and go to your brothers and get it done. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes.

Mike

So I take it there is no way around it then... Thanks a lot for the quick reply!

You might be able to just replace the config file on the new USB key with that of the old and see if it works.

Mike

Well that's just the thing, I could not find one. I vaguely remember upgrading from one version to another this way, by copying a couple files from the old to the new, but somehow I doubt that would work between v2.05 and M2.

The machine you made the usb stick on, boot it using the usb stick and set all network configuration options and save. That way, when you get to your brothers, you'll be able to finish the configuration using a client.

As said in my first post, the Macbook pro does not see the NASLite stick as a bootable partition, so no luck there.

And I realise I wasn't clear enough:

The NASLite box is here, an old PC, without a monitor. All other computers here are Apple laptops (Macbook Pros). The monitor is at my bro's studio. I installed NASLite M2 to a fresh USB stick using my MBPro, but cannot boot the MBPro from it. So I was wondering if there was anything at all that could be done to avoid having to bring the monitor here (or the NASLite box there).

Just reporting on what I've tried, as it might help others.

I managed to boot a VMWare Fusion virtual machine using the USB stick containing NASLite M2 (using the floppy disk image in walterav's post down that page). I was able to setup the network, enter licence number. I did not unlock NASLite obviously as unlock code is based on system ID and NASLite M2 would eventually run on a different machine.

I thought it would be accessible via telnet and http, but when I booted the NASLite box with the updated USB stick, although it did sound the familiar 3 bips for network discovered, I was not able to access it in any way. My local network monitor does not show it, and it can't be ping'd ("host is down").

So it looks like there is absolutely no way around having a monitor for initial setup!

Just thought this would save time for other monitor-less users...

Yah, thought NL will run just fine headless there seems to be little way around the need for a monitor for the initial setup. To bad that it doesn't work like an install of UNIX where if it doesn't find a video device it redirects to the first serial port.

Mike

Take a look at your old naslite config and make sure you check what you have set for ip, netmask and first/last nic. Use fusion to create the usb, save the configs and reboot the fusion vm from the USB to make sure you have everything like you want it in the config. Make sure you can hit the vm from the host so you know the network settings are good. Then boot naslite from the new usb stick on the server and you should be in business. What you did will work if your configuration is correct.

I've done it plenty of times, but I admit that my laptop is a dell and not a macbook. PC or mac should have no bearing on the outcome tho. You got the right idea with fusion.

This is exactly what I've done, but for some reason the config did not save properly. I got the monitor yesterday evening, and it turned out all settings on my new USB stick had returned to default (Network, Name, Password, Licence), and that would explain why I could not access it over the LAN.

It gets stranger: before getting the monitor I installed M2 to the old USB stick (that previously had Naslite 2 installed on it), tried to configure it but surprise: I didn't have to. The configuration I had done for the other USB stick had been applied automatically to the new stick, although I had JUST freshly installed M2 on it!?

I tried booting the NLBox with this one, and it didn't work. Today with the monitor I checked it out and IT TOO HAS REVERTED TO DEFAULT SETTINGS!! When booting the VMWare Fusion virtual machine with it, the admin utility showed all these settings as saved. I could boot it several times and the settings would still be here.

Stranger still: I configured the old stick after booting the NL box with it, saved, but the NL box is not accessible over the LAN. I checked everything, saved several more times. The config is absolutely identical to the new USB stick, NL beeps the 3 beeps anouncing network discovered, IP is correct, interface is correct, but I can't telnet or http to it.



PS. I should point out I did manage to get the config saved and working with the new stick, so I do have a working M2 server, even though the new stick is 1GB and I wished I could keep it and use the old 128MB stick to run M2.

Finally managed to access the server via http & telnet after half a dozen reboots, changing every setting I could think of and setting it back to what it should be. Unlock done and all is now well. Not sure what the problem was but it was too much of an effort for me to try and reproduce the bug!

my bet is that you installed to a virtual drive on the vm and that's where you were saving the settings. When you boot the vm you have to make sure the config drive is the usb stick. otherwise you are going through the process for nothing. If you did the install to the usb properly and booted off of it, with no other config devices available, then things would have worked. Like i said, i've done this too many times and am pretty sure it works dead on every time.

the details could kill you tho. got to watch for those little things that tend to slip by.

I was definitely installing to the USB sticks, as one was formatted blank beforehand, and the other had NASLite 2. There was no CD in the drive so to get to NASLite admin utility when booting the vm would have to be booting off the various USB sticks.

It is possible the configuration was saved elsewhere, actually that would be the only explanation for the second USB stick (freshly installed) to have the config straight away (that's IP address, name, Licence number, not sure about password though, I can't remember if I had to enter the default one or the new one I'd set up on the first install), and then no config when booting the NL box.

If I have an afternoon or an evening free later this week, I'll try to replicate the install procedure, if anything to get it to work as it could help others with a Macbook pro and no monitor (or who can't be arsed to get it out of the cupboard!).