Updating Busybox?

[ncnmra]

I have a TS-219P. I noticed that the installed Busybox version is outdated and doesn't support things like "grep -r".

I managed to download the latest version of Busybox (1.19 as of this writing), and threw it into my shared folder. I downloaded the arm5l version (http://www.busybox.net/downloads/binari ... box-armv5l)

I don't want to replace system files in case they are needed, but what is the best way to "update" the pre-installed busybox (that is: where should I move the binary, and which links should I create).

Thanks!

[schumaku]

Be aware the QNAP-supplied scripts are thightly adopted to the Busybox in place - many things can (and will) go wrong replacing it.

[ncnmra]

hmmm, good point.

I guess I will just leave it....Can I move the binary somewhere into a "bin" location or somewhere at least so it is globally accessible (by a different name ie: "busybox2" or something of my choosing?)

[schumaku]

What about just substituting some specific command binaries in a dedicated path - one the normal scripts dodn't use?

[ncnmra]

Sorry, admittedly I'm a linux noob (used to be much more fluent 10 years ago when I worked with it quite a bit, but I'm finding its not like riding a bike).

Busybox seems to be a single binary. Functions like "grep" seem to map to "./bin/busybox grep", like a shortcut. I don't necessarily need to add additional functions (ie: I'm content prefixing every "updated" busybox function with "busybox2", but I'm not sure what the best implementation would be.

ie:
rather than using "grep", I would do "busybox2 grep"

[tmt]

If you want a decent shell with utilities, my advice is skip busybox and go straight to the Optware qpkg, then install full ipkgs for bash and coreutils, then add whatever else you may need. They all land in /opt, stay out of the way of the builtin NAS admin, and you'll be much happier. Just be sure to set your $PATH to reference /opt when logging in:

Code: Select all

# export PATH=/opt/bin:/opt/sbin:$PATH
#

[schumaku]

Ensure this path is not used on the "normal" NAS processing

[MitsuItsu]

I installed version 1.26 of BusyBox on my very old Qnap TS-219, by downloading the BusyBox binary for ARM v6, and moving it to the /opt folder. I then set chmod u+x on it, and renamed it to busybox2. For me it works like a charm, and I can now execute commands such as for example "/opt/busybox2 find . -type f -exec chmod o-w {} \;", which was not possible with the built-in (older) version of BusyBox that comes with QTS 4.3.3 (which is the latest version for TS-219). That version did not support -exec as a parameter to "find".

Based on my limited experience (so far, so good), I would recommend this approach over installing Entware. With Entware, you may end up replacing commands such as find or grep with newer versions, which may impact Qnap in unexpected ways perhaps (?). But with a completely separate binary in /opt, you have not altered any original binaries. You just need to call this binary explicitly when you want to use a newer version of some standard bash commands.

[jaysona]

@MitsuItsu it is usually a good idea to read forum rules when you first sign-up.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=60

2.8 Necro-posting is also not allowed. This is the practice of posting in stale, inactive or dead topics. A topic is considered dead if it hasn't been updated for over 1 year.

Resurrecting a ten-year old thread - that's quite the necromancer you are. :p