AARCH64 FreeBSD on QNAP TS 433-4G anybody ?

H

hpc

Hello, I plan to buy a NAS. Synology & QNAP seem very popular and best buy, but I would prefer a machine where I can install & upgrade SW by myself.
I've seen some success to install FreeBSD on QNAP x86 architectures, but is there some trial / success / failure to install FreeeBSD on an ARM based QNAP NAS ?
I'm looking to the QNAP TS 433-4D which is a 4 core AARCH64 machine
 
hpc said:
I'm looking to the QNAP TS 433-4D
Click to expand...
Where can I find it? They don't even have "D" on their website.
They write that there is support for Solaris 10. But where can I download 10 for 64-bit ARM?
I only saw SPARK and x86.
Where is 64-bit ARM?
Ethernet on what chipset? Not specified in specification.
 
USerID said:
Where can I find it? They don't even have "D" on their website.
Click to expand...
It's -G 'QNAP TS-433-4G' sorry for the typo
USerID said:
They write that there is support for Solaris 10. But where can I download 10 for 64-bit ARM?
I only saw SPARK and x86.
Where is 64-bit ARM?
Ethernet on what chipset? Not specified in specification.
Click to expand...

quad-core ARM Cortex A55 2,0 GHz, 4 Go embedded

www.qnap.com

TS-433 | Hardware Specs

Run your own personal cloud storage and enjoy easy file access, sharing, and syncing with the TS-433. Designed with a 2.5GbE port to enhance collaboration and increase remote work productivity, the TS-433 also features rich multimedia applications and provides a complete home entertainment portal.
www.qnap.com www.qnap.com

The only supported system is QTS 5.2.3 which is linux based, the other mentions are for client OS, which is weird, they should mention supported protocols instead...
 
I have not tried SATA yet on rk356x. Odroid has a SATA connector that I have not tested. Rock3 boards card use a m.2 card with sata port but it needs DTB overlay. Have not tested.

I have messed with various M.2 SATA cards with varying success. PCIe bus driver needs some work for rk3568 and patches from PR for good device recognition.

There is no way I would expect this device to work as intended on FreeBSD. If you want to try we can help.

I expect a gotcha like SATA controller. What are they using? Now the gut punch. Everything on Arm is slower. Disk speeds included. What about ECC? Does it use it?

So if you wanna be the first let us know. The QNAP Intel based solutions actually work.
 
I can't believe I suggested a QNAP box. For the money just get a 4 bay NAS chassis and ITX board.
SuperMicro makes a nice miniITX fileserver chassis. I have some cheap ones that work out fine.

If you insist on Arm64 put a Rock5 ITX board in it and use ASMedia SATA controller in M.2 slot.
That would be my aarch64 fileserver attempt.

Proprietary machines will cost you in more ways than one.

Just a note that the Rock5 ITX is not going to be suported any better than RK356x but they do have a very active UEFI EDK2 with Rock5 supported.

So that might overcome some difficulties. ACPI booting instead of FDT.
github.com

GitHub - edk2-porting/edk2-rk3588: EDK2 UEFI firmware for Rockchip RK3588 platforms

EDK2 UEFI firmware for Rockchip RK3588 platforms. Contribute to edk2-porting/edk2-rk3588 development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
 
Hello, thank you for your comments guys.
I'll go to with the QNAP box, I'm convinced by the low power consumption, should work out of the box without screwdriver & too much configuration.
I'll certainly give a try to boot a FreeBSD kernel but without too much effort, I've other computer project which also consumt my time ;-)
 
If you plan to plow ahead make sure you backup SPI flash and eMMC. I don't know how available recovery software is for these units from QNAP.

So you need to investigate what the boot loader is. Where it is loading from. I would suspect SPI flash for u-boot and OS on eMMC.
 
The sucess of this working on "Other OS" comes down to the manufacturer. They can make it hard or easy.

Points:
Does it have an exposed UART with pins.

Does it allow you to enter u-boot or is it locked down.
 
Hello, some news (episode 1) : I buy the machine, install a 8TB disk, boot it. It works.
There is no screen interface, the installation goes through a web interface. Then I can have a shell on the machine.
It's linux based :
uname -a
Linux NasName 5.10.60-qnap #1 SMP Wed Jan 8 04:14:49 CST 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux
A four core ARM A55

The web interface is un-understandable: I was believing that 30 year of computer science & experience should be sufficient to understand how to install & configure a NAS : no :oops:
I was thinking that simple things should be simple : no :oops:

My first NAS usage is to use it as backup, with rsync + ssh. It's not possible to ssh the NAS without being admin... webdav access works, but seem overcomplicated on the client side for automated backups. smb seem strange to backup FreeBSD machines..

I discover that a debian installation is possible : DEBIAN installation

I've not yet tried to boot from USB with an ARM image, but I'm not confident

The hardware seem well designed, the sofware ... The story will be long ;-)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top