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How-to install FreeNAS on a shiny old Netvista N2800

We got this old and useless thinclient named Netvista N2800 one was used as a LTSP client, works good, nothing to say, the other was there with nothing to do so i tryed to run FreeNAS on that.


  • First step:
    grab a FreeNAS image for PC and dd it on a CF
    insert it in the CF slot in the Netvista motherboard
  • Second step:
    find out a large (i used a 200 GB maxtor disk) PATA disk, set it slave
    cut a molex from and old broken power supply and fix cords as in picture
    IMAGE NEXT TIME ....
  • Third step:
    move the password reset pin,
    IMAGE NEXT TIME ....
    power on and wait a few seconds while the front led blinks, reboot the machine find out the bios named "Work space on demand" and magically the Netvista will act as a normal PC, booting from the CF and starting up FreeNAS.
    For a good performance you should find to reach the MAX RAM allowed on the Netvista that is 256 MB (2x128 PC 100), this is the most difficult part.
  • Last step:
    Enjoy you new shiny web controlled file server, it's not so fail-proof as it's based on a single disk and not on a RAID array but it can be used for a lot of "not so critical" tasks.
freenas screenshot no netvista

So your old/new silent file server is up, for only 30 euros on ebay