Newbie here, but as all other newbies are thinking, better mine now or never  

I plan to use my Synology NAS to mine with ASIC erupters since it's running 24/7.  This guide is using Synology DSM 4.2 (3202) as a base, with a DS410j (Marvell MV6281) NAS (I cannot guarantee that this guide will work for DSM versions lower than 4.2!)
Even if it is slow and will void warranty, I will be doing native compiling which is mostly documented here.  You can also do cross-compiling but it gives me more headache since there are a lot of library dependencies, it's much easier to do it natively (albeit there are things to be fixed in the NAS though to get cgminer/bfgminer to be compiled properly).  Since I'm waiting for my USB erupters, might as well write a guide here while waiting.

DISCLAIMER : Since this will void your warranty, I am not responsible for any result leading to corruption of your NAS.

Step 1. Setting up the bootstrap/toolchain

Login as user "root", password is the same as for admin via SSH.
Change to a directory such as "/volume1/@tmp"
Download the script for installing bootstrap for your CPU. To find out which kind of CPU your NAS have check it here.


For Intel XScale FW IXP420 BB ARM Processor http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ds101/cross/unstable/ds101-bootstrap_1.0-4_armeb.xsh
For Intel Atom CPU's: D410, D425, D510, D525 and D2700 Processors http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/syno-i686/cross/unstable/syno-i686-bootstrap_1.2-7_i686.xsh
For 8241 PPC models http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/ds101g/cross/stable/ds101-bootstrap_1.0-4_powerpc.xsh
For Freescale PowerPC QorIQ P1022, 8533/8543 PPC models http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/syno-e500/cross/unstable/syno-e500-bootstrap_1.2-7_powerpc.xsh
For mv5281 ARM models http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/syno-x07/cross/unstable/syno-x07-bootstrap_1.2-7_arm.xsh
For Marvel Kirkwood mv6281 ARM models http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/cs08q1armel/cross/unstable/syno-mvkw-bootstrap_1.2-7_arm.xsh
For Marvel Kirkwood mv6282 ARM models http://wizjos.endofinternet.net/synology/archief/syno-mvkw-bootstrap_1.2-7_arm-ds111.xsh

In my case, it's

Set the .xsh script to be executable and run the script:

After the script has finished, do not reboot yet.  Do the following:

make symlink of opt:

check that /etc/profile contains:
if not, add it.

In /root/.profile comment the following lines by adding #:

Now you can reboot.  Reboot the NAS and login again as user "root", then


Now you can get the toolchain!  Run these series of commands:


Toolchain done!  You can now start compiling natively!  (Still a long way to compile cgminer/bfgminer though... )

Step 2. Setting up the environment and dependencies

Run the following commands:


check libcurl if properly installed by typing:

Fix ldconfig path


Fixing libpthread

the libpthread installed in optware is corrupted, so we copy the original libpthread installed.  Make a backup of libpthread:

Copy and link libpthread to /opt


Step 3. Compiling dependencies

download and install jansson:


download uthash header files (located in https://github.com/troydhanson/uthash/tree/master/src) and put it in /opt/include

download and install libusb:


Step 4. Compiling cgminer/bfgminer[TODO]

To be continued in a moment...

I'll take 3

Does it scale or returns remain the same (e.g., 1 usb ROI is 6 months, how about 2? 3?)

I'm very new to this, not doing for profit, but for the geeky aspect of it.  I'm planning to run my NAS with this usbs, but not quite sure the 'optimal' number of usbs you can run (without breaking the bank)