How many of you are using STAR 9100 based NAS?

As listed on one of my previous posting, STAR 9100 (to be precise STAR 9104) is being used in these devices:

Coolmax CN-570 http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/29899/75/1/3/
NS-348S http://www.multicase.de/en/products/76/ns348s.html http://www.enclosureservice.com/
Emprex NSD-100 http://www.emprex.com/02_products_02.php?id=205
Agestar NCB3AHT http://www.agestar.com/english/products/ncb3aht.asp
http://shenztech.com/code/ui/product/product.aspx?prdid=NAS2&subcatid=9
revoltec rs049

We can see from the boot log that says the machine is STAR_STR9100. Lately I have worked less and less on this device, because it has been running smoothly enough for me (I have run it continuously for a week). The last few parts is not so important for me. These four parts are RTC (turns out to be a very limited RTC), LED (only one LED inside the box, which is not very useful), and button (I have never used the button anyway), and Watch dog (this one might be useful, but I don’t have any documentation about this).

I am planning to stop further development. I was planning to build a custom firmware, but I think a full Debian distro is much better for me. But, if there are quite many people that uses this devices and are expecting something like NSLU2 (easy installer, etc), then I might continue the development. So, If you are using Agestar or agestar like devices, please leave a comment, and let me know what you expect.

If I am going to continue the development, I will need to buy another box, because I am currently using this one extensively for my daily activities. Irina (that is the name I gave to my NAS box) is now serving MP3, serving web page, and act as a download station.

yohanes Jun 30th 2008 01:36 pm agestar, hacks 11 Comments Trackback URI Comments RSS

11 Responses to “How many of you are using STAR 9100 based NAS?”

  1. Chris Bairdon 30 Jun 2008 at 2:17 pm link comment

    The work you’ve done so far has allowed me to get my Agestar as functional as I was wanting to make it– a reliable flashable kernel (and 2.6.x at that!) with network support, able to use a Gentoo or Debian installation from a harddrive.

    I’m not someone who would find a custom distribution, or even a complete development community, all that useful..

  2. Simonon 30 Jun 2008 at 9:02 pm link comment

    I have been following your progress as I also have an Agestar NCB3AST. While I hardly know unix, I am watching to see if something fairly easy to configure comes out of your work that I can install on my device.

    I am curious if your custom firmware would run from a GUI or prompt only? Can the Agestar be reverted to factory if desired?

    Thank you for sharing your work and passion as it takes people willing to share to empower the internet!

  3. Konstantinon 02 Jul 2008 at 10:11 am link comment

    I have Agestar NCB3AST NAS and interests in new firmware wich can be provide more functionality especially in new kernel and ssh.

  4. yohaneson 02 Jul 2008 at 11:52 am link comment

    To Simon: Right now the firmware would run from prompt only. It can be reverted to factory if desired.

    To Konstantin: If there are enough people using the device and wants a new firmware, then I will consider creating a new firmware. Right now the kernel is quite difficult to install without serial port.

  5. Tim Loaderon 04 Jul 2008 at 6:24 pm link comment

    I would be quite interested in a new firmware with any new or improved functionality, since I have had some problems with the reliability of my Agestar NAS, particularly in regards to streaming off the box and Samba use.
    The serial port sounds like a tricky prospect, is there a way to install the firmware via the USB port, or over the network?

  6. yohaneson 06 Jul 2008 at 5:14 pm link comment

    @Tim Loader

    After thinking about it, I think I can make an installer that doesn’t require serial port, but I need some time to build it and write the documentation for it.

  7. Artemon 09 Jul 2008 at 3:33 pm link comment

    I have Agestar NCB3AST NAS. As far as I’m using Windows I have a lot of problems with this HW, at the moment something strange’s happend and my box left only FTP feature. So if there any custom firmaware available - it would be great!

  8. Jezon 11 Jul 2008 at 5:50 pm link comment

    I was looking at the device and purchasing it and checked around to see what people had done to it because I could see the potencial.

    I found your site and followed your posts until it arrive and played around with installing Debian and got it to work and its great.

    Thanks for providing the information and sharing it. I dont have Debian at home and didnt want to install it @ 2am so I used the bootstrap provided and a couple of tweaks and got it going.

    Keep up the good work!

  9. natnevaron 17 Jul 2008 at 12:34 pm link comment

    I had a OEM version of this box. My main point in using this device is actually for BT related purpose but the build in device is not optimally configured.

  10. hercemaniaon 28 Jul 2008 at 10:52 pm link comment

    I used the NCB3AST with the Star 9104 and i am very interested for a new firmware :-)

  11. dafreezeon 20 Aug 2008 at 4:20 pm link comment

    I have NS-348S an im am very interested for firmware too.

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