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DNS-323 Chroot Debian Installation

So, now you got the new shiny DNS-323 with 1TB hard disk. Currently it cost about RM 360 per unit. And add another RM250 for the hard disk. All in all it is about RM600 needed for you to run your own NAS. And then you proceed to install the NAS.

Notes: The DNS-323 has a serious bug when adding new hard disk to current setup. It will misidentified the installed hard disk and format the existing hard disk instead of the new inserted one. I advise you to remove the old hard disk first if you plan to add new hard disk to your DNS-323. Once you format the new hard disk, reinsert the old hard disk.

Disclaimer: Proceed with your own risk. I will not be responsible for any bricking or damage or frustration arise when installing and configuring the DNS-323.


By this time you realize that the default BT client sucks big time. You need something better, with encryption, DHT support. In order to run this kind of BT client, you need a true linux. Thus come in the linux for NAS.

There are 2 methods to use linux. The first one is Fon’s fun plug which is quiet limited and not like a normal linux. The second one is running a linux on linux / chroot. When DNS-323 boot up, it looks up a file called fun plug on the first mounted volume. It then will run the code/scripts inside the fun plug.

This is when the fun begin. The scripts can be modified to run any linux scripts and code. In chroot case, we will tell the NAS to run SSH and shell.

If you’re interested in running chroot debian, please follows below’s instruction. Before that you’ll need this:

DNS-323, network connection to the NAS, PUTTY or any SSH client, linux command knowledge such as cd, ls, mkdir,tar,apt-get.

1. Upgrade your DNS-323 firmware to the latest firmware.

2.Download this file (Debian for NAS build)

3.Unrar or unzip the downloaded file. Copy the 2 extracted files to the DNS-323 Volume_1 share folder. If you follow / RTFM, you should know how to access DNS-323 share folder. If you don’t, I suggest you stop now and stick with whatever default DNS-323 provide you.

4. Once you copy the file, reboot the DNS-323 using the web interface. Wait until it finish reboot and load the installation file. This process will take about 5 minutes. Go grab a coffee.

5. After the installation complete, you’ll see a folder called linux is created on the NAS’s first volume.

6.Use PUTTY to connect to the NAS. You’ll see that the NAS will prompt for user and password. Enter root and the password is 12345678.

7.Now you got the linux shell.

Do keep in mind that the Debnas is a Etch build which is an old build. Currently, DNS-323 unable to install Squeeze armel build correctly so we have to settle on lenny instead.

In order to upgrade the build, you’ll need to perform a few modification and run some command.

1.Edit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/etch.list by typing nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/etch.list

2. Replace all etch with lenny. Delete the .de if you want to use US mirror.

3. Press Ctrl-X then press Y to save the changes when prompted.

Now we need to download and install debian distribution PGP keys. Run this command:

apt-get install debian-archive-keyring

This will install the distro keys.

Then run this command to update and upgrade. Run it after each other.

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

Once the update complete, reboot the NAS.

After the reboot, run this command again to make sure all files is updated and latest.

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Now you have a chroot linux running on your DNS-323. On my next post, I will explain on how to build and compile transmission bt client and how to use transmission remote to add torrent and check status.

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