DNS-320L NAS

Table of Contents

1 Intro

The D-Link DNS-320L is a simple 2-bay SATA NAS device which can run multiple versions of Linux. This post provides information on how to run the newest (at the point of writing) mainline kernel on it without patching as well as how to build a simple initramfs using buildroot. This is a bit different than other projects building Linux which usually focus on using debian packages.

2 Hardware

There exist at least four versions of the hardware, I own two of them and the ones that I own can be distinguished by using the following features:

Version P/N on bottom label HW version on bottom label U-Boot banner Other distinguishing marks Notes
DNS-320L A1         Referenced here
DNS-320L A2         Referenced here
DNS-320L A3 ENS320LM…..A3E H/W Ver.: A3 U-Boot 1.1.4 (Aug 22 2012 - 17:06:54) Marvell version: 3.6.0.DNS-320L.01 Text "TWO BAY NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE" on top plastic cover Only 100 Mbit link working?
DNS-320L A4 ENS320LM…..A4E H/W Ver.: A4 U-Boot 1.1.4 (Apr 17 2014 - 17:31:34) Marvell version: 3.6.0.DNS-320L.01    

In the A3 version I have only the 100 Mbit Ethernet link is working contrary to the NAS being advertised as supporting 1000 Mbps Ethernet. This is broken both in the stock firmware and in the kernel that I have built so I suspect it's some hardware problem. Is this a bug on this board revision or is my particular NAS damaged I do not know.

There are differences between the A3 and A4 versions in the type of memory chips and used Ethernet transformer. Other than that I have not noticed any differences.

The system is based on a Marvell Kirkwood 1GHz SOC, other chips include an Ethernet controller, flash, RAM as well as an MCU which is a systems management controller similar to what you would have in a laptop or PC. The NAS has it's page on both deviwiki and new wikidevi where detailed information about the chips on the board can be found. The main board looks like this:

thumb-board1.jpg

Number Label Chip type on A3 board Chip type on A4 board Description
1 M1 Fan: AVC DS04010B12U   The fan connector
2 JP1     The serial console
3 U2 Hynix H27U1G8F2BTR   NAND flash
4 U3 Marvell 88E1318R   Ethernet chip
5       Testpads (likely JTAG)
6 U7 Marvell 88F6702   The CPU
7 U10,U11 Nanya NT5TU128M8GE-AC Hynix H5PS1G83KFR RAM chips
8 U14 Weltrend WT69P3   The system management MCU
9 JP2     WT69P3 programming bus?
10 T1 MNC G2436CG MNC G2497CG Ethernet transformer (datasheet)
         

In order to access the unpopulated pads on the board I soldered two pin connectors, because the JP2 pitch was smaller than the standard 2.54mm pinheads I had I used some wire to route it to where it can be accessed:

thumb-connectors.jpg

The board contains four LEDs with the following purpose:

Label Color Description
D6 Blue Power-on and booting indicator LED
D7 Red "USB" LED
D8 Red SATA1 port activity LED
D9 Red SATA2 port activity LED

2.0.1 Weltrend WT69P3

The WT69P3 is a systems management MCU which controls the power to the board, provides an RTC for time keeping and controls the fan. The MCU is connected via a RS232 link with the main CPU and in the original firmare a daemon in the system communicates with it. The communications protocol has been reverse-engineered and there exist at least two independent open-source implementations of the manamgement daemon - https://www.aboehler.at/hg/dns320l-daemon and https://github.com/martignlo/DNS-320L.

2.0.2 JP2 connector

This connector seems to terminate an I2C bus. Both lines have pullups to +3.3 V and the Weltrend chip's ISP protocol is I2C according...

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