Nslu2

The NSLU2 is a Linksys Network Attached Storage (NAS) unit designed to share USB 2 hard disks and flash drives on the network. Provided with a web-interface, its firmware can be upgraded with unslung or openslug, which are small linux distros built specifically for the NSLU2. Telnet, thttpd and even OpenSsh may be installed through its OptWare package manager, although a hard disk installation of the packages is recommended as its rom is limited in size. Hence the NSLU2 can be converted into a web-server or a media-streamer.

General guidelines for installing

Follow the instructions provided with the NSLU2 package.
Basically before you turn it on, it's recommended to have all the hard drives and the network previously connected and turned on.
Also, hard drives hot-swapping is not allowed!. Flash disks hot-swapping is allowed provided it's done with the Flash map tool (a utility provided with the NSLU2 from Linksys).

NSLU2 webinterface

login:admin
pass:admin

Installing uNSLUng firmware

NOTE: NO DISKS PLUGGED IN!

Get the Unslung rom and extract it to a location on your computer.
Go to the NSLU2 web-interface, enter as admin, and click on the upgrade button.
Then, select your firmware (i.e. the unslung rom) and flash it.
It should take a few minutes to install, after that the NSLU2 reboots and you're set!

The first thing to note is that the web-interface is slightly modified. In particular it has a telnet management. Enable telnet, then telnet to the NSLU2 on your network.

NSLU2 unslung syntax

telnet your slug

Enable telnet if it's not enabled.

> telnet nslu2
login> root
password> uNSLUng

NOTE: with a hard disk installed, the login/password are typically admin/admin.

WARNING: When using vi with putty don't press the end key! It'll freeze the telnet connection.

reboot your slug

> reboot

Finding where are my drives

> fdisk -l /dev/sda

or

> fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Mount a FAT32 drive

> mkdir /share/hddvfat
> mount -t vfat /dev/sdb5 /share/hddvfat

Permanent mount of a USB drive

1. Install Unslung firmware

2. Telnet into NSLU

3. Create mount point /share/hddvfat

4. Create /unslung directory (if does not exist)

5. Create rc.local file in /unslung directory and modify as follows

  #! /bin/sh
  /bin/mount -t vfat /dev/sdb5 /share/hddvfat > /dev/null
  df > /share/hddvfat/df.log
  return 1

6. Create rc.samba file in /unslung directory and modify as follows

  #!/bin/sh
  rm -f /etc/samba/smb.conf
  ln -s /opt/etc/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf
  rm -f /etc/samba/user_smb.conf
  ln -s /opt/etc/user_smb.conf /etc/samba/user_smb.conf
  rm -f /etc/samba/smbpasswd
  ln -s /opt/etc/smbpasswd /etc/samba/smbpasswd
  return 1

7. Create /opt/etc directory (if does not exist)

8. Use smbpasswd -a to create the Samba users you need (skip if you do not want to enable security on your share)

9. Edit /etc/samba/user_smb.conf file as neeeded (at the very least you will need to create a share)

  [USB-DRIVE]
  comment=FAT32? USB hard drive
  path=/share/hddvfat/
  public=yes
  read only=no

Please note the above share has no security, it is writeable by everyone, to enable security, see www.samba.org

10. Copy /etc/samba/smbpasswd, /etc/samba/smb.conf and /etc/samba/user_smb.conf files to /opt/etc

11. Reboot NSLU (type "reboot" without the quotes and hit enter)

External References

Personal tools

Nslu2 - MohidWiki

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