I have been wanting to get the same level of access to my TeraStation as
has been achieved on the LinkStation with the OpenLink firmware available
from the LinkStation wiki site.
As an important step along this route I have now managed to work out how to modify
a standard version of the TeraStation firmware to enable telnet and root level
access. See README files below for more details. The links further down
this page all correspond to the relevant Buffalo firmware releases, but with the
modification to enable telnet + root access already applied. They can be used
as direct functional replacements for the Buffalo firmware releases.
All firmware updates are risky so make sure you have backed up your data
first if it is important to you. In particular be wary of trying a firmware
update without backing up your data if you already have a problem with your TeraStation.
Having said that, updating to the firmware versions below has worked without problems
for me and a large number of others that I know about.
Note that the changes I make to the official Buffalo issued firmware are
minimal, so if you encounter a bug using one of my firmware releases it is almost certain
that the same bug exists in the corresponding release of the official Buffalo firmware.
I run this script on my Buffalo LinkStation (LS1) or a TeraStation (with telnet and
root access enabled) to convert a standard Buffalo supplied firmware
for the TeraStation into one of the form available below.
It can also be used as a model for those who want to do their own hacks
of the firmware in a similar way
As well as the script itself the download also includes the telnet related
binaries that are not included in the standard firmware. You are expected
to unpack this archive relative to the directory that has the firmware
you are trying to amend using a command of the form
NOTE: I do not have enough space on my ISP provided web space to
host the full versions of the firmware, so am instead hosting it at alternative locations:
You need firmware that is for the specific type of TeraStation that you have.
The versions are not interchangeable. The variants currently available are:
TeraStation firmware + telnet + root access
Use this firmware at your own risk as I will not be able to
help you if the firmware update process fails.
I have made available all the different versions that I have added telnet access to
at some point in time. The reason for making them all available is for those who
want to stay with the release they already have, but simply add telnet access.
Others will probably want to move to the latest release available.
Firmware Amendment Script and extra files
This is the linux shell script that I run to produce the amended firmware
starting with the generic Buffalo supplied firmware.It is provided for those
who are interested in seeing how the firmware releases later on this page were
produced from the Buffalo firmware releases, but most users will not want this
script as they will simply use the already modified firmware I have made available.
tar -zxvf newfiles.tgx
Firmware README file
This README file is a generic file that applies to all the versions of
firmware shown below. Users should read it before using any version of
the firmware.
Firmware Update instructions
For those of you who have not done it before, here is a brief note on how
to run the firmware update process.
If you download the wrong variant of the firmware you will find that the TeraStation does not show in the drop-down list of the included firmware updater program. This is because of checks that Buffalo have included to stop you being able to install the wrong type of firmware for a particular model.
For some of the firmware releases I do not yet have an English firmware updater program that works with the release in question. Therefore the Japanese updater program has been included which means you probably cannot read the dialogs! Probably all you need to know is that the leftmost button on the main screen starts the firmware update and the next dialog is prompting for the administrator password. It should then continue to completion. However if anything should go wrong I will not be able to help with any error dialogs as I cannot read Japanese myself. I have indicated which firmware downloads fall into this category. Note that even though you may have used the Japanese fimware updater, all the firmware releases are actually dual Japanese/English versions and after the update your TeraStation will continue to display admin pages in the same language as before doing the update.
| Firmware Version |
Firmware Size (bytes) |
Download * Links |
Comments | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.08 | 46,510,566 |
| This is based on the 1.08 version obtained from the Buffalo US site. It has since been
superseded by the 1.12 release
| ||
| 1.12 | 45,851,367 |
| This is based on the 1.12 version obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site. The 1.12 firmware is also available from the Buffalo US site, but I have not bothered to update to that version as the difference appears minimal. | ||
| 1.13
2005-09-13 | 45,628,151 |
| This is based on the 1.13 version obtained from the Buffalo Japanese site. | ||
| It appears that once you have upgraded to the 2.xx series there can be problems if you subsequently try and revert to the 1.xx series, so you are advised not to try this unless you are confident about what you are doing. | |||||
| 2.00 | 45,096,823 |
| This is based on the 200_105 version obtained from the Buffalo European site. | ||
| 2.01
2005-11-09 | 45,095,187 |
| This is based on the 2.01 version obtained from the Buffalo Japanese site. | ||
| 2.02
2005-12-07 | 45,585,408 |
| This is based on the 2.02 version obtained from the Buffalo Japanese site. | ||
| 2.03
2005-12-16 | 48,657,894 |
| This is based on the 2.03 version obtained from the Buffalo Japanese site. | ||
| 2.04
2005-12-27 | 45,585,974 |
| This is based on the 2.04 beta 2 version obtained from the Buffalo Japanese site. It was labelled as a beta release so I guess that means use with caution. | ||
| 2.05
2006-02-08 | 48,644,527 |
| This is based on the 2.05 Beta 1 version obtained from the Buffalo Japanese site. It was labelled as a beta release so I guess that means use with caution. Despite the word of caution, I used this version on my own TeraStations and did not note any problems with it. | ||
| 2.07
2006-03-16 | 53,905,500 |
| This is based on the
2.07 version obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Uses Japanese firmware updater program. | ||
| 2.08
2006-04-10 | 53,922,355 |
| This is based on the
2.08 version obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Uses Japanese firmware updater program. | ||
| 2.10
2006-09-04 | 54,027,503 |
| This is based on the
2.10 version obtained from the Buffalo
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program.. | ||
| 2.11
2006-11-01 | 54,032,213 |
| This is based on the
2.11 version obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program.. | ||
| 2.12
2006-12-11 | 55,760,315 |
| This is based on the
2.12 version obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program.. | ||
| 2.13
2006-12-22 | 55,832,826 |
| This is based on the
2.13 version obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program.. A FailSafe variant of the firming.bin file is available for use with this firmware which allows creation of an Emergency Boot disk. | ||
| 2.14
2007-02-19 | 55,825,631 |
| This is based on the
2.14 version obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program.. A FailSafe variant of the firming.bin file is available for use with this firmware which allows creation of an Emergency Boot disk. | ||
2.16
2007-11-21 | 59,083,886 |
| This is based on the
2.16 version obtained from the Buffalo US site.
It appears to be the last version formally released outside Japan. Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program.
Last Updated: 10th February 2010 | ||
| 2.17
2007-10-10 | 55,792,857 |
| This is based on the
2.17ß version obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Uses English versions of the firmware updater program.. A FailSafe variant of the firming.bin file is available for use with this firmware which allows creation of an Emergency Boot disk. | ||
| 2.18
2008-06-02 | 59,335,421 |
| This is based on the
2.18ß version obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Uses English versions of the firmware updater program..
Last Updated: 23rd August 2010 | ||
Buffalo has included checks in the firmware update process so that the Home Server variant of the firmware cannot be installed on the older models and vice versa. It is possible to circumvent these checks and upgrade a standard TeraStation to the Home Server variant. I am not making this upgrade available as a standard feature as it would almost certainly infringe the Buffalo licensing conditions for the Mediabolic server software . Only an expert user should even attempt this as you could easily leave your TeraStation in an unbootable state. In addition this would be an unsupported upgrade route that would void any warranty,
| Firmware Version |
Firmware Size (bytes) |
Download * Links |
Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.03
2005-12-18 | 61,251,167 |
| This is based on the 2.03 version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
It seems to be the version that currently shipping TeraStation Home Server models have
already installed (albeit not telnet enabled).
Uses Japanese firmware updater program. |
| 2.05
2006-02-06 | 61,291,847 |
| This is based on the 2.05 Beta 1 version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
It was labelled as a beta release so I guess that means use with caution.
Uses Japanese firmware updater program. |
| 2.09
2006-08-07 | 57,182,586 |
| This is based on the 2.09 version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program. |
| 2.11
2006-12-26 | 57,327,294 |
| This is based on the 2.11 version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program. A FailSafe variant of the firming.bin file is available for use with this firmware which allows creation of an Emergency Boot disk. |
| 2.12b
2007-10-10 | 57,403,604 |
| This is based on the 2.12b version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program. A FailSafe variant of the firming.bin file is available for use with this firmware which allows creation of an Emergency Boot disk. |
| 2.13
2007-11-29 | 81,429,743 |
| This is based on the 2.13ß version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program. A FailSafe variant of the firming.bin file is available for use with this firmware which allows creation of an Emergency Boot disk. |
| 2.14
2008-06-02 | 85,210,325 |
| This is based on the 2.14ß version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program.
Last Updated: 23rd August 2010 |
These models use a Marvel ARM processor rather than the PowerPC processor of the previous model. Therefore none of the firmware or software that can be downloaded from this page is appropriate, and you will have to find ARM versions.
It turns out that these models actually have the binaries to support telnet access already included, but that telnet access is not activated. It can be activated using the acp_commander application that can be obained from the http://www.nas-central.org site.
There seems to be two sets of firmware releases - those that are Active Directory (AD) enabled, and those that are not AD enabled. The AD enabled releases internally use Samba 3 when running in AD mode and Samba 2 otherwise. The none-AD enabled releases use Samba 2 all the time. The confusing thing is that the version numbers of these two strands are currently independent of each other with overlapping version numbers. Which release you use depends on whether AD support is important to you or not. Hopefully at a later date these two strands will be merged by Buffalo. If not the OpenTera firmware upgrade that is under development should provide an alternative way of getting Samba 3 (and thus AD support) on all models of TeraStation independently of Buffalo developments.
| Firmware Version |
Firmware Size (bytes) |
Download * Links |
Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firmware releases with AD support |
|||
| Tests show that the AD
releases are the highest performing firmware currently available. This will be because it is the only firmware currently incorporating Samba 3. | |||
| 1.01-0.51 | 33,119,265 |
| This is based on the 1.01-0.51 version obtained from the Buffalo US site. |
| 1.01-0.51 with PDC Fix | 33,124,705 |
| This is based on the 1.01-0.51 version (with PDC fix)
obtained from the Buffalo
German site.
|
| 1.04
2007-01-18 | 43,353,091 |
| This is based on the TSPro-1.04-0.01-CharFix.zip"
version obtained from the Buffalo
US site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program.
Last Updated: 7th February 2010 |
| Firmware releases without AD support | |||
| 1.03 | 33,300,490 |
| This is based on the 1.03 version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Uses Japanese firmware updater program. |
| 33,308,443 |
| This is based on the 1.03 German/English version
obtained from the Buffalo
European site.
Does not include any AD support. | |
| 1.04
2006-07-24 | 33,144,868 |
| This is based on the 1.04 version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program. |
| 1.05
2006-11-01 | 33,249,627 |
| This is based on the 1.05 version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program. CAUTION: This version of firmware has a bug where certain changes that require you to type in a confirmation code do not work when set for English. If this matters to you stick with an earlier release
|
| 1.06
2006-12-21 | 35,743,962 |
| This is based on the 1.06 version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program. The Buffalo site indicates that there might be a problem with the backup function in this firmware release. If that is relevant to you stay with the 1.05 release. CAUTION: This version of firmware has a bug where certain changes that require you to type in a confirmation code do not work when set for English. If this matters to you stick with an earlier release |
| 1.07
2007-01-19 | 35,743,962 |
| This is based on the 1.07 version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program. CAUTION: I do not know if this release fixes the problems reported in the 1.05 and 1.06 versions mentioned above. Any feedback on this would be welcomed. |
| 1.09
2007-04-24 | 36,006,329 |
| This is based on the 1.09 version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program. |
| 1.12
2007-09-11 | 36,199,420 |
| This is based on the 1.12 version
obtained from the Buffalo
Japanese site.
Includes both English and Japanese versions of the firmware updater program.
Last Updated: 23rd August 2010 |
These models use a Marvel ARM processor rather than the PowerPC processor of the previous model. Therefore none of the firmware or software that can be downloaded from this page is appropriate, and you will have to find ARM versions.
It turns out that these models actually have the binaries to support telnet access already included, but that telnet access is not activated. It can be activated using the acp_commander application that can be obained from the http://www.nas-central.org site.
A number of people have asked me if they could make a donation in recognition of the value to them
of having telnet support added to their firmware and the OpenTera updates.
This is not necessary as I work on this for enjoyment, but if you really
would like to do so you can do so via PayPal by clicking on the PayPal Donate icon below
and any such donations will be gratefully received.
You never know - enough might arrive to fund me getting another TeraStation!
Donations
Useful Links
Other sources of information on these products are:
Main Menu |
CPOC |
C68 for QDOS |
History |
Feedback
Telnet support is now available in EM mode as well as normal running mode.
The 'myroot' user is also available in EM mode whether connected via telnet or a serial console..
This should help with sorting out any problem that occur where the system will not boot properly.
