DSM 7.1 was recently released on April 6, 2022.
It brings quite a number of improvements and new features.
Naturally, during the beta I wanted to upgrade my existing XPenology VM’s to 7.1, and quite honestly I failed miserably at least 20 times. Now that it has been released, I tried again with no success.
I check the tinycore-redpill site regularly to see if any updates have been released, and look at the Issues log, as well as the XPenology Forums.
Well, I am happy to report that I have finally figured out how to successfully upgrade an existing redpill install to DSM 7.1-42661.
Candidly, it seems a little wonky to me, but I have tried it several different ways, and this is the only method that I have come up with so far that works for me.
I don’t want to be negative about it since in the past it was never possible to immediately upgrade XPenology to a current release, we seemed to be stuck on older versions due to incompatibilities with the loader, etc. This might be a few steps, but it definitely gets us there.
The other good news, is that my process for loading VMware Tools using Docker for XPenology also works after the upgrade.
I am working on a net-new install of 7.1, and I have ran into a couple issues and need more time for that.
Worst case scenario, you can do an install of 7.0.1 using my previously video here: https://youtu.be/3EI7nzlnbyk, and then perform this upgrade process afterwards.
Ok, lets get to it!
First thing, is to reboot your XPenology 7.0.1 redpill instance and boot into TinyCore.
Once it boots up, you will need to get the IP address assigned to it.
You can right click, go to “Applications”, and then select “Terminal”.
From the terminal prompt, type “ifconfig” and press Enter.
Once you get the IP Address, open your local SSH client and establish an SSH connection so that you can use copy/paste with the commands listed below.
SSH user: tc
SSH password: P@ssw0rd
Now, that you have established your SSH session, copy and paste the commands below.
sudo su
./rploader.sh update now
./rploader.sh fullupgrade now
(when prompted with “Should I update the sda with your current files”, answer Yes.
./rploader.sh serialgen DS3622xs+ (you will need the MAC address listed after you run this command if you are deploying on a virtual machine.)
(when prompted with “Should I update the user_config.json with these values”, answer Yes.
./rploader.sh identifyusb now (only if you are using baremetal. If your XPenology instance is running in a virtual machine, then skip this step)
./rploader.sh satamap now
./rploader.sh build broadwellnk-7.0.1-42218 auto (use “auto” for a virtual machine. I have read that a couple people experienced issues on baremetal using auto and used “manual” instead of “auto”)
./rploader.sh clean now
./rploader.sh build broadwellnk-7.1.0-42661 auto (use “auto” for a virtual machine. I have read that a couple people experienced issues on baremetal using auto and used “manual” instead of “auto”)
When prompted with “Want to use firmware files from /home/tc/custom-module/*.pat, answer Yes.
When prompted with “Do you want me to remove older cached pat files and cache current?, answer Yes.
poweroff
If you are doing this in a virtual machine, copy the MAC address that was generated earlier and edit the settings of the virtual machine network adapter and replace the existing mac address with one generated earlier. (It seems weird to have to do this for an upgrade, because theoretically you did this when you originally installed DSM 7.0.1 in a VM, but I had to do this otherwise it would not be found later using find.synology.com.)
Now you can power the XPenology instance back on, and go to find.synology.com in your browser. Give it at least 45 seconds after it has booted to be located.
As before, you can step through the process and upload the PAT file when prompted.
You can download the appropriate PAT for your model here: https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/download
(After you select your model number, be sure to select 7.1 in the drop down to make sure you get the correct PAT file)
It will install, and then reboot. The countdown will count down to about 8:05 remaining, and it should refresh automatically and step you through the welcome screen.
I hope this was helpful, and please post in the comments on YouTube if you have any issues, comments, or suggestions.
