Best alternative OS for TerraMaster Hardware

[Valnjes]

Every TerraMaster x86 NAS is just a PC, so DSM hast to run just fine.

You can build an ITX PC and run DSM, it will run great too.

[Jonni95]

Hello everyone, are there any good alternatives with a working app? I use the NAS for all kinds of devices, including mobile devices. Unfortunately, I find the tNAS app to be disastrous (as the numerous reviews in the Play Store and App Store confirm). It has numerous bugs, and it's also very impractical to use. It seems like nothing will change in this regard.
Thank you very much!

[Gremlin]

Not sure I understand - which App? Did you read this thread?

[Gremlin]

Wondering if anyone has considered/tried ZimaOS (upgrade of CasaOS) as an alternative for the TM harware?

[markshane]

Wondering if anyone has considered/tried ZimaOS (upgrade of CasaOS) as an alternative for the TM harware?

Hi, I'm also looking into ZimaOS and want to give it a try. But is there anyone who can put a proper guide on how to go about doing this? I have an old TerraMaster F4-225 with Intel J3355 Dual Core CPU and 2GB RAM. I'm not sure if this hardware will support ZimaOS or any other OS for that matter. I could only update to TOS 5.1 but having a hard time configuring JellyFin Remote Access so looking to try other OS's which might work as there are tutorials for setting up JellyFin remote access using CasaOS which I believe is an older version of ZimaOS.

If anybody can help, looking forward to your suggestions. Thanks!

[fpmpaolo666]

Hello, is it possibile to install CasaOS on my F4-210 NAS?
I would like to make a download station in order to use it with Torrent Client and eMule client
installation command should be wget -qO- https://get.casaos.io | sudo bash

[popuman]

It can be done. I did it on my F4-425 Plus NAS since TOS 6.0 was not helpful when attempting to create a RAID-5 array with the hard drives I had. Installed ZimaOS and problem
Solved.

One of several big caveats though (more below):

I’m posting this from memory, with no screenshots and it’s almost 3AM here. Since I’m posting from memory and I couldn’t replicate the steps since I’m using the device as a backup storage to my main NAS and I am not pausing that because it’s a rather huge amount of data that I need to backup.

I’m not a ZimaOS employee nor Terramaster’s so I’m certainly not getting paid for this. As far as I know, Terramaster allows users to install the OS of their choice on this device. As far as I understand it they won’t provide support for any software issues that happens since it’s not their software, so I’m good with that.

This is my first post here and to be brutally honest, I won’t be around much to provide support regarding this. I’m just sharing this particular experience. If that doesn’t change your mind and you feel rather brave, follow me and find out how deep this rabbit hole goes. You were warned.

ZimaOS is a very user friendly solution but it has a four drive limitation. Anything more than that and you have to pay a $29 one-time license. The four drive limitation includes the one you’re installing ZimaOS on. So the free option will be great if your setup is the install HD and the other three drives in a RAID 0,1, and 5. Given that in my case I had 6 drives plus the install drive, I gladly paid the license since it made sense for this device. Having said that, you decide if this is good for you.

You’ll need a keyboard, mouse, a monitor to connect to the NAS, a copy of the latest ZimaOS ISO and an USB stick Once the install is complete, ZimaOS will provide you the IP onscreen of your system so you can login from another computer to setup ZimaOS after installation.

From another computer, download the ZimaOS ISO file from their GitHub repository. Use Ventoy or Balena Etcher to burn the iso to.a USB

Turn off your NAS. Connect and keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Then turn your NAS on and boot into the BIOS. I pressed the Esc key on my keyboard repeaatedly until I was taken to the BIOS. Once there, make sure to disable the automatic boot to TOS on the boot options. Make sure you do that because your NAS will boot into TOS every time otherwise.

On the BIOS you can choose to reboot your NAS from the USB stick. Make sure to save your changes and exit before rebooting to insure the BIOS doesn’t reboot you into TOS.

Still with me so far? Good.

Once you boot into your USB you’ll get the ZimaOS welcome screen and you can install I installed it into an SSD drive in the NAS and it will ask you to reboot to complete the install. You can remove the USB stick. In my case I rebooted into the BIOS again and changed the boot sequence to make sure it boots from my SSD. Save changes and exit.

If everything works out, you’ll boot into a black screen with the ZimaOS logo and your NAS’s IP address. From another computer, use your browser and it will prompt you to create your ZimaOS account and then you set it up the way you want.

This was far too long and complicated and I couldn’t verify the steps since I’m using that NAS as a backup storage solution for my main NAS. So, again, I’m posting this from memory, with no screenshots and it’s almost 3AM here. Hope this helps. Now I’m off to bed. Later!

[Gremlin]

Coincidental that your post should appear this morning. I just downloaded the ZimaOS (free version). I get your point about "disabling TOS boot in bios". However that is a little misleading. Accepted that the 425 series of NAS don't utilise the traditional USB flash drive for the initboot. In most TM devices the initboot device can either be unplugged or disconnected/removed. This includes the 425 daughter board. In which, case the bare machine will not boot into TOS all the time. You can then choose from where to boot the device for installation.

I am just now considering which of my devices might be suitable as a test unit. The F2-221 is an obvious choice for now due to age and likely eol for TOS, but the F2-425 is also a potential long term device. I could obtain another initboot flash drive and use that to replace the "Tos" device for the o/s (or even overwrite it!). I do believe that the OS drive in ZimaOS can also be used as a data drive (through default partitioning similar to TOS) but I'm not sure yet whether this is as practical/safe as TOS in the event of an o/s re-install being needed.

Thanks for your ealier posts reminding me where I was headed, before health needs intervened.

[popuman]

“I’m just a man whose intentions are good.
Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood”.
- Nina Simone or the disco version I grew up up with. Your mileage will vary.

Hi Gremlin! I didn’t mean to be misleading. I was admittedly sharing my particular experience installing ZimaOS. I also didn’t know you could look for and remove their little drive that houses the OS. Now I know and definitely some to consider.

Here’s a thought: Having learned that personally I wouldn’t remove it only because I am still on my return window to the original seller and I want to have that option open in case things didn’t work out. Also my clumsy fingers are not to be trusted handling tools around boards

All in all, that’s good to know. Saves you some trouble.

My only other complaint about this unit besides TOS not working in my particular case it’s that lovely HDMI port could be put to better use, but it is a server and I was fully aware of that one.

Five hours of sleep, breakfast of champions, and then get to that lovely hamster wheel. The bills and the vices won’t pay for themselves. Have an awesome day!

[Gremlin]

Hmmm. I only remember The Animals cover version.