Questions: Install possible on ReadyNAS RN31400?

[jmvp]

I've found dealing with the ReadyNAS 314 device a royal pain ("UnReadyNAS") so when I chanced upon the FreeNAS site I started to wonder if I could install it instead of using the Netgear "RAIDiator OS" (which I now hate). The Netgear device itself looks good and I've got it sitting here, after all...

Searching online for terms like "install FreeNAS on ReadyNAS 31400" (with the quotes) yields zero results(!). Searches without quotes found a blog where the guy said that (an older) ReadyNAS was a "bog standard PC" ... which lead me to hope that I could install FreeNAS. But any search results regarding installing FreeNAS on my device don't seem on point, or are not within the last couple of years (which is important, I think, because I understand ReadyNAS switched over to Intel Atom from some RISC-based processor a few years ago). So, I'm unclear about these hardware specifications matching with FreeNAS.

So, if you have a moment, please advise: Are the following device specs going to work with FreeNAS?

Unit: Netgear ReadyNAS RN31400
Model: RN31400
CPU: One 2.1 GHz Intel Atom - dual-core
RAM: Ships with 2 GB ("innodisk DDR3 1333" - but I put in a 4GB SODIMM made by "SK hynix" ... possible problem here?)
Current OS: "RAIDiator OS"

It's 4 bays but the drives I have won't exceed FreeNAS' storage maximum.

If you need a pic of the CPU or more particular details on that, please advise and I'll see if I can get further inside the unit (it's quite easy to access the RAM, but they seem to have made it harder to get inside to the rest of the board).

 

[m0nkey_]

Very unlikely. It'll be trying to fit a Rhinoceros into a shoe box.

The hardware isn't very capable, however you are welcome to try (Keep in mind there is a reason why we say 8GB RAM minimum). There is no way of knowing if it can even boot a BSD kernel. I'm afraid you're on your own.

 

[jmvp]

Thank you for the response, disappointing as it is...

I gather there's no slimmed-down version of FreeNAS...

RAM is pretty cheap - I'd be happy to add more. Let me see what the MAX RAM spec is.

 

[jmvp]

Thank you for the response, disappointing as it is...

I gather there's no slimmed-down version of FreeNAS...

RAM is pretty cheap - I'd be happy to add more. Let me see what the MAX RAM spec is.

Seems the Max is 4GB ... they say...

 

[Ericloewe]

You might have more luck getting something like a Linux distro going. Little hope of getting usable ZFS (or btrfs, for that matter), though.

 

[depasseg]

I think the biggest show stopper is the readynas bios. I'm pretty sure those are locked so you can't choose a different boot device. I tried and failed on a 516 and it worked on an older pro 6, but I had to finagle a new bios onto it by a Netgear tech.

 

[jmvp]

These are interesting ideas. My interactions with Netgear tech support were ... uhh ... ok. I'm trying to decide if I can put up with that.

Maybe I should just put a new board in the thing - strip the case and put in a new board, the works - and try and get use out of the box that way.

I'll see, first though, if there's a Linux distro I can put on it.

Any other suggestions are most welcome.