Problems to make an empty ix2-200 functional !

[NASnewbee]

Hello world !
All is in my name : NAS is a new world for me.
So, i just bought an ix2-200 model, without originals hard disks.
Start of problems...
First of this : witch model i have ? ix-200, that's sure, but a CE ( cloud edition ) or not ?
The Lenovo web site don't help, i presume they want to forget Iomega.

My serial number is 1CAM123CE1 , is CE for Cloud Edition ?

I've been trying to methods to make this NAS ok with two news disks ( 1 To, WD10EZEX ) :

- first method with usb stick, but nothing appends ( no transfer from stick ) ;
- second method ( more difficult ) to create the 2Go linux partition on one disk, in degraded RAID 1.

No good result, perhaps not the good sofware in the two ways, so my question about my model.

If someone with the same model in the same case can tell me witch software he used, it would be great apprecied !!!

Third method i'll apply ( in last resort ? ) is to use the serial port on the motherboard, but very hard it seems ( many linux commands ).

The only think OK is a ping to my NAS with the IP adress given by DHCP, but the web menu don't appears at this adress in my web browser ( I.E or mozilla ), the front white led is amways blinking on the nas.

Thanks for everyone who can help, and sorry for my bad english, never learn at school !
I can give more detailed infos about my trials if needed.

Greetings.

[Mijzelf]

An ix2-200 and a -CE are hardware identical. Only the firmware is different. You can use a -CE recovery usb stick to change a 'normal' ix2-200 in a -CE one, if you rename a directory twice.

- first method with usb stick, but nothing appends ( no transfer from stick ) ;

Does that stick have an activity led? The box should try to read it, to see if it contains a valid recovery image.

[NASnewbee]

Hello,
Thanks for response. I only use usb stick with external led, to have a minimum of informations...
Some of my sticks don't have any led activity, model not compatible ( report by many users ) ?
I have an 1Gb stick who seems ok, at startup his led is steady light, after long rest hold : never blinking.
Is really the 2Go min model mandatory ????
First, i use DriveFWupdater-1.8.exe to initiate my stick ( in fact, this program don't make a boot usb stick, but only copy files )
I remove the file preimage.sh initially present and put a file nammed ix2-boot.tgz ( 201 Mo )
On my stick they are 2 directory :
emctools\ix2-200d_images\ix2-boot.tgz and
emctools\ix2-200_images\ix2-boot.tgz
Some users report different names for the right directory.

But no success with this method...
Another try , replacing ix2-boot.tgz by files.tgz ( 181 Mo ) , found in an ix2-200-recovery-3.2.6.1659.zip for example.
Same result...

Don't forget : my hdds are empty with no partition on it, is it an authorized configuration to do all this ?

Thanks in advance for opinion about my process !
Greetings.

[Mijzelf]

Is really the 2Go min model mandatory ????

Don't know. The stick has to be able to contain the tgz, and it's extracted contents, as there is no diskvolume (yet) and the internal ram is not enough. So the stick is also used as 'work space'.

First, i use DriveFWupdater-1.8.exe to initiate my stick ( in fact, this program don't make a boot usb stick, but only copy files )

A 'bootable usb stick' is a BIOS-PC concept. The ix2-200 actually boots from internal flash. There is some script which checks the inserted usb stick for firmware updates.

On my stick they are 2 directory :
emctools\ix2-200d_images\ix2-boot.tgz and
emctools\ix2-200_images\ix2-boot.tgz

Ah. So this stick is fitted for both the ix2-200 and the -CE.

Some users report different names for the right directory.

The script in internal flash seeks for <usbstick>/emctools/<hardware-dependent-directoryname>/*.tgz. So yes, the filename can differ.

Don't forget : my hdds are empty with no partition on it, is it an authorized configuration to do all this ?

Yes. The trigger to look on the 'EMC-imager stick' is an empty disk OR a reset button which is pressed at the moment the script looks at it.

This doesn't sound good. Your usb led at least should have flickered for a short time. Maybe the USB port is dead. Have you tried the other one? Do the disks spin up?

[NASnewbee]

Hello,

This doesn't sound good. Your usb led at least should have flickered for a short time. Maybe the USB port is dead. Have you tried the other one? Do the disks spin up?[

[/quote]
I've tried all the 3 ports USB without success. Concerning the disks, they spin up a little, they seems make many reboots...every 3-4 sec.
Ihave just bought an USB-RS232 interface, so i hope in few days to connect to the Marvell uboot serial output and decode the messages. The only way at this step , i presume ? Are there some linux commands i can use in terminal mode to analyse my problem ?
Thanks a lot.
Greetings

[Mijzelf]

Are there some linux commands i can use in terminal mode to analyse my problem ?

Using serial you probably won't get a Linux prompt, but a bootloader prompt (u-boot).

The first step is always to look at the bootlog, to see if there are obvious errors. So plugin your image stick, and boot the box, while logging the serial output.