Welcome to code.ximeta.com

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This is the place to develop the XIMETA device drivers for Linux and other non-MS OSes. NDAS Software for Linux is currently in beta status.

1. News

  • 25 Nov 2008: Patch created to build NDAS_1.1-24 on Linux 2.6.27 (see ticket #839) --Doug
  • NDAS for Mandriva 2008.1 is compatible Mandriva.
  • New NDAS software 1.1-24 (32 & 64bit) is available. Check the code drop v1.1 NDAS Software.
    • The NDAS software 1.1-24 is compilable with the Linux kernel 2.6.25.
  • If you have problem in building debian package with 1.1-22, please download 1.1-22 again.
  • New NDAS software 1.1-22 (32 & 64bit) is available. Check the code drop v1.1 NDAS Software.
    • The NDAS software 1.1-22 is compilable with the Linux kernel 2.6.24.
    • 1.1-22 fixed minor bugs in 64bit envionment.
  • NDAS software 1.1-21 (32 & 64bit) is available. Check the code drop v1.1 NDAS Software.
    • The NDAS software1.1-21 is compilable with the Linux kernel 2.6.24.
    • It is reported that 1.1-21 is not fully compatible with Linux kernel 2.6.24 x86-64. All reports about issues, suggestions and your patches are always welcomed.
  • The team did not discontinue the NDAS software for Linux. Sorry for temporary misunderstanding(http://code.ximeta.com/trac-ndas/ticket/749 ). All reports about issues, suggestions and your patches are always welcomed.

2. Getting/Installing NDAS Software for your system

2.1 Installing using package

  • Currently a pre-built package file is not provided. Please follow the instruction in 2.2
  • Look for a proper package file from http://code.ximeta.com/dev/1.1/1/ or from http://code.ximeta.com/dev/current/ for the latest version.
    • You need to download two file: ndas-admin_x.x-x-xxxx.rpm(or deb) and ndas-kernel_x.x-x-xxxxx.rpm(or deb).
    • For blackPanther OS direct available here in RPM packages: ndas-admin and dkms-ndas dynamic kernel module.
  • If you can find a proper package file, download the files and follow the instruction in Installing the NDAS Software.
  • NDAS driver's kernel version and your kernel version should be exactly same. If not, please follow instruction in next section.
  • If your kernel is updated, you need to update NDAS driver also.
  • If you cannot find proper packages or the installation does not work or the installed package does not work, please follow the next section.

2.2 Building a rpm/deb package file for your system

  • NDAS Software contains Linux kernel modules and Linux kernel requires modules to be built with same kernel and compiler. And there can be incompatibilities between our build system and your system's library. So in many case you may not find a proper NDAS Software for your system. In this case, you should build the NDAS Software packages from your system.
  • To build packages, follow the instruction in following links

2.3 Building/Installing drivers manually

  • If your system is not yet supported by NDAS Software's package build procedure such as gentoo, you should build and install the driver manually.
  • Please follow the instruction in following links

3. Using NDAS Software

4. Uninstalling NDAS Software

5. Developing the NDAS Software

5. Porting the NDAS Software

Do you have the embedded device that needs a storage?
Port the NDAS Software, you will have the better performance than CIFS/SMB and USB2.0(in gigabit network)

6. Bug report

If you find bugs, please report it by issuing a ticket. Please include the result of the following commands when you report a bug; 

rpm -qa ndas-kernel
rpm -qa ndas-kernel-smp
rpm -qa ndas-admin
rpm -qa kernel
rpm -qa kernel-smp
ls -l /lib/modules/*/kernel/drivers/block/ndas/*
cat /proc/version
uname -a
cat /etc/redhat-release /etc/fedora-release /etc/SuSE-release
gcc --version

For debian, ubuntu, use the following instead of above; 

dpkg -l ndas-\*
dpkg -l linux-image\*
dpkg -l kernel-image\*
ls -l /lib/modules/*/kernel/drivers/block/ndas/*
cat /proc/version
uname -a
cat /etc/debian_version
gcc --version

7. Please help us!!

The linux market is limited comparing that of MS Windows. it is very hard for us to support the various linux distros. we, Ximeta, are trying to support those requests as many as we can, though the resources are very limited. please modify/correct the documents in code.ximeta.com if you found, and report any bugs you confront to our ticket system. please be patient with us (sorry but we are trying). We really appreciate those who reported the bugs and modified/corrected the documents on code.ximeta.com. Thank you!!

8. NDAS Alternatives

With Ximeta apparently unable to sustain its product, the interesting question is "what else?".

Obvious solution is "use NAS", but this means far less fexibility. In particular, one application I am extremely interested in making rsync-based backups (follow this link for an example) , which requires either a device running rsync, or a device that one can mount remotly. Standard low-cost NAS solutions only offer smb and ftp protocols (please correct me if I am wrong).

However, standard-based alternatives to NDAS do exist. Some alternative approaches include:

Both ATA over ethernet and HyperSCSI are conceptually quite similar to NDAS and bypas all the network layers above ethernet (IP, TCP, UDP). So far so good, only I can't find any low cost hardware that natively "talks" any of these. SO we are back to "do it yoourself" mode. Take a some kind of a small computer, add enough storage to it, and configure it as a storage server. Just what I wanted to avoid by purchasing an NDAS disk. For those of you interested in this kind of joy, FreeNAS or OpenFiler could do the trick.