NSLU2 wouldn’t boot on new network

When I got a new router, the slug wouldn’t show up on the network. It seemed to boot OK occasionally, but would never appear as an attached device and I couldn’t reach it at all. A bit of investigation revealed that as it has a fixed IP address (192.168.0.9), and the new router DHCP address range was 192.168.1.XXX, it would never be able to register on the network! Apparently you can reset the slug’s IP address to the default (192.168.1.77) by holding in the reset button until the unit beeps once, but that didn’t work for me. Plugging the slug back into my old router proved that it was still able to boot, but although I could now access it, I couldn’t change the fixed IP address – I kept getting an “Error: fail to get disk information” message whenever I tried to change anything. I eventually solved this by booting the slug with no disks attached. I was then able to change from fixed IP to DHCP; then, connected the slug to my new router, and this time it booted and showed up on the new network! It now had the default IP of 192.168.1.77, and I was able to log in and revert it to fixed IP with this new address. Finally, rebooted with the drives connected and it was back up and running!

Tags: DHCP address range, NSLU2