Debian on Seagate Personal Cloud and Seagate NAS

Martin Michlmayr

2016-07-21 19:50

The majority of NAS devices supported in Debian are based on Marvell's Kirkwood platform. This platform is quite dated now and can only run Debian's armel port.

Debian now supports the Seagate Personal Cloud and Seagate NAS devices. They are based on Marvell's Armada 370, a platform which can run Debian's armhf port. Unfortunately, even the Armada 370 is a bit dated now, so I would not recommend these devices for new purchases. If you have one already, however, you now have the option to run native Debian.

There are some features I like about the Seagate NAS devices:

Network console: you can connect to the boot loader via the network. This is useful to load Debian or to run recovery commands if needed.
Mainline support: the devices are supported in the mainline kernel.
Good contacts: Seagate engineer Simon Guinot is interested in Debian support and is a joy to work with. There's also a community for LaCie NAS devices (Seagate acquired LaCie).

If you have a Seagate Personal Cloud and Seagate NAS, you can follow the instructions on the Debian wiki.

If Seagate releases more NAS devices on Marvell's Armada platform, I intend to add Debian support.