Buzbee hacks another Linksys box

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Aug. 18, 2004

Jim Buzbee, who led the efforts to create a mini-Linux distribution for the Linksys WRT54G router, has now published a series of articles at Tom's Hardware about hacking the Linksys NSLU2, a uCLinux-based network storage server that works with external hard drives.

Tom's first reviewed the NSLU2 early last month, breathlessly suggesting that the device would revolutionize NAS (network attached storage) because of advantages of external hard drives. Buzbee has since followed up with two articles detailing his experiences hacking the NSLU2 and building and running software for it.

"HowTo: Hacking the Linksys NSLU2 -- Part 1" explains how to gain a root shell on the device. This requires two steps. First, the user mounts the harddrive used with the NSLU2 on a computer running Linux or another OS (such as MacOS X) capable of reading its ext3 filesystem. The user then edits /etc/password, copying the password field from their user account into the password field for root.

Next, the user reattaches the drive to the NSLU2, and browses to http://[device-IP]/Management/telnet.cgi to start the telnet server. The user may now telnet to the device, logging in as root with their normal user password.

The follow-up article, "HowTo: Hacking the Linksys NSLU2 -- Part 2 -- Adding NFS," shows how to set up a cross-compiling environment by borrowing the toolchain from another Linksys Linux product that uses the same processor (an Intel IXP425, which is based on ARM). Another approach suggested in the article is to use Dan Kegel's automated scripts.

Buzbee then describes building and testing a "hello world" program, before building and installing NFS software. NFS, or network file system, is the normal Unix/Linux way of accessing remote filesystems over the network, and once set up, enables networked systems to mount filesystems on drives attached to the NSLU2 and use them almost as if they were local block devices.

Buzbee's next article for Tom's about the NSLU2 will discuss building and running iTunes streaming software for the device.

Read Buzbee's two Linksys NSLU2 HowTo's here:

Hacking the Linksys NSLU2 -- Part 1

Jim Buzbee led the efforts to create a mini-Linux distribution for the Linksys WRT54G wireless router. He maintains a blog about his experiences running Linux on the Linksys device.

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