Scope
I've been testing the TS-112 (ARM based) and TS-459 (Intel Atom based) with the default 'firmware'. This is effectively a customized Linux server where all configurations can be done through the web interface.
Some of the features are not what I want (e.g. mode 777 permissions on the top level directories, excuse me?!), and one key feature is very much missing: I would like to use the TS-459 also as masquerading firewall. It has two network interfaces so this should be perfectly possible. However, with the QNAP default software (and kernel) this is not possible.
On this page I'll describe my experiences with turning the TS-459 into a Debian server.
Links
This is work in progress, on this page I will post some links (which I am using) and experiences.- http://www.cyrius.com/debian/orion/qnap/ts-109/install.html Describes how to install Debian on the QNAP T-109 ... this is one of the smaller QNAP models using a ARM processor.
Missing features
Some of the features from an out-of-the-box QNAP are quite convenient: RAID management through the web interface (although I can live with 'mdadm'), proper SMART monitoring tools, actual alarms (including an annoying beep) when a disk fails.I'll need to make a list of these features so I can recreate 'em once I have Debian running.