Another suggestion for QNAP owners is to simply replace the firmware with a regular Linux distribution. This is what I’ve done and haven’t looked back.
Is this commonly possible? I know some of their devices can run a normal distribution, but when I looked into this recently I didn't see confirmation for current models.
I have a 4 bay TS-453 Pro (Celeron J1900). I swapped out one of the HHDs for an SSD with the distro install and created a ZFS array with other three drives.
In my experience, BIOS/EFI comes up if you mash F2 with a HDMI monitor and a USB keyboard and mouse attached. Your mileage may vary.
A few niggly bits: the LCD says “System Starting” until LCDd/lcdmon starts and there is no control over the HDD activity lights. Fan Control is sufficient to quiet the fans to a tolerable level once Smart Fan is disabled in the EFI.
