Recent Linux on the Raidsonic IB-4220-B NAS
(Last boot on 2026-01-25 using OpenWrt HEAD with kernel v6.12.67)

A gemini-based NAS from Raidsonic.

Installing OpenWrt Snapshot

Obviously to do this at your own risk but given how old this NAS is and how many security bugs and performance bottlenecks the old kernel has, what choice do you really have...

What you want for a NAS is not a default OpenWrt build. What differs from upstream OpenWrt is the following:

• LuCI is installed (OK this is usually default with OpenWrt images...)
• ksmbd is installed, as well as ksmbd-luci for file sharing
• hdparm is installed to set up spindown of the drive

Here are my tested images per 2026-01-25, built from a snapshot upstream OpenWrt base:

• openwrt-gemini-generic-raidsonic_ib-4220-b-squashfs-factory.bin - this can be used to update the factory firmware to OpenWrt, as is custom. In practice this is a tailored .tar.gz file which will be expanded and three different parts flashed to the "Kern", "Ramdisk" and "Application" partitions.
• openwrt-gemini-generic-raidsonic_ib-4220-b-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin - this works mostly, but BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE FOLLOWING:
  • Your flash must not be corrupted: if during boot you see something like this:

    	  [    7.271017] 0x000000320000-0x0000003dc987 : "Ramdisk"
    	  [    7.301435] mtd: partition "Ramdisk" doesn't end on an erase/write block -- force read-only
    	

    Then the "Ramdisk" partition of your flash is write protected and you cannot use sysupgrade. You need to use the UART method with the flashfiles (below) instead to fix up the flash.
  • for older OpenWrt versions you probably need to download and install a modified /lib/update/platform.sh for the sysupgrade to commence. This can be found here.
• openwrt-gemini-generic-raidsonic_ib-4220-b-squashfs-flashfiles.tar - this can be used to flash the device from the RedBoot menu if you have UART access (see below). This overwrites the OS firmware completely and fixes up the flash if it is corruped, as long as you have RedBoot and a working FIS. This always works if you do it the right way.
  From the RedBoot menu:
  • Do NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE try to use the "upgrade firmare" (Z) alternative! This will destroy your RedBoot if the first 128KB of that image does not contain a RedBoot image... This is not the same as using a factory firmware image or even the official firmware images! It's just a very dangerous option. (I learned this the hard way.)
  • Extract the three files zImage, rd.gz and hddapp.tgz from the archive.
  • Put these three files in the root directory of your TFTP server (usually /var/lib/tftpboot)
  • Hit 6 and set up the IP address for your device (e.g. 169.254.1.2 if you're using local link).
  • Hit Y to "Upgrade Kernel", enter TFTP and your hosts IP number and type zImage. The kernel should upload and flash.
  • Hit R to "Upgrade Ramdisk", enter TFTP and your hosts IP number and type rd.gz. The "ramdisk" (i.e. the second part of the kernel) should upload and flash.
  • Hit A to "Upgrade Application", enter TFTP and your hosts IP number and type hddapp.tgz. The "application" (i.e. the root filesystem) should upload and flash.
  • On subsequent upgrades just using sysupgrade should be fine.

Set up OpenWrt after install

OpenWrt is designed for routers, not NAS devices. This means it needs a bit of reconfiguration after installation. The following is just a suggestion, but this probably works for you too!

Plug it into some ethernet port on your LAN that will provide DHCP for devices, and it should happily connect to that network and come up. You need to figure out the IP address but usually you can check what devices have appeared on your network in your main DHCP server/router. It will take some time before the network comes up on the device, a minute or two.

You can ssh root@<IP_NUMBER> or surf to the LuCI interface using http://<IP_NUMBER>

The default user and password in LuCI is simply root and root. (You should change this.)

Disable unused services

Do the following from the command line as root to disable unnecessary services (an alternative is of course to build the image without these components by removing them during menuconfig):

• Disable dnsmasq (useless, we are not a router):

        service dnsmasq disable
        service dnsmasq stop
    

• Disable odhcpd (useless, we are not a router):

        service odhcpd disable
        service odhcpd stop
    

• Disable firewall (useless if you are behind a firewall such as your home router, and probably just causing problems):

        service firewall disable
        service firewall stop
      

• Edit /etc/config/system to reflect your timezone, or all timestamps will be in UTC. For example I set:

        option timezone 'CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3'
    

• Type poweroff to shut down the NAS.

UART Access