Wyse S90 ramblings

From NURDspace

What is this?

Some notes on Wyse S90. The Wyse SX0 series thinclients are all very much alike and behave strangely.

Links

BIOS

  • Enter with "DEL"
  • Default pass is "Fireport"

OpenWRT

Installation

I used the debian squeeze installer in HARKboot for this (wheezy doesn't work). Steps:

  • Go trough the installer to the point where it detects (and can't find) disks
  • Unload en load modules

modprobe -r ata_generic
modprobe -r pata_amd
modprobe ata_generic all_generic_ide=1

Running OpenWRT

With downloaded image the kernel boots but I don't get a login screen. Network is disabled too.

NAS4Free installation

I managed to install NAS4Free 9.2.0.1 - Shigawire (revision 972) onto the IDE flash device. Steps taken.

  • Use the 32 bits liveUSB download, newer 9.3 version won't work
  • dd it onto a usb stick and put the stick in the Wyse
  • set the Wyse into usb booting from the BIOS
  • Choose safe mode (option 3) when you get the chance (very short window so be quick)
  • Choose option 9 and follow directions to install from usb onto 512MB IDE flash device
  • Open a shell
  • Mount the filesystem on the IDE flash device somewhere:
mkdir mytempdir
mount /dev/ada0 mytempdir
  • Edit loader.conf:
vi mytempdir/boot/loader.conf
  • Add following lines:
hint.acpi.0.disabled=1
hint.apic.0.disabled=1
hint.kbdmux.0.disabled=1
hw.ata.ata_dma=0
hw.ata.atapi_dma=0
hw.ata.wc=0
hw.eisa_slots=0
  • Exit vi
:wq
  • Exit shell
exit
  • Shutdown
  • Remove usb key

If all is well, the Wyse will boot into NAS4Free from the IDE flash device

Moar RAM

It came with 256MB DDR SO-DIMM, but 512MB also works (2 tried, 1 success story)