AIO Ep6. Tips and Pitfalls When Setting Up a Hackintoshed Synology on ESXi

As the title suggests. Mainly compiling some tutorials I followed.

Detailed guide for installing Hackintoshed Synology on ESXi (not limited to Gen10+):

https://www.opss.cn/5859.html / https://post.smzdm.com/p/agd8l34w/

Note: The software StarWind V2V Converter used in the guide has poor support for Chinese file paths. Avoid using Chinese paths if possible.

SATA Controller Passthrough Setup: https://www.opss.cn/5923.html

How to upgrade DSM from 6.2.3 to 6.2.3u3: https://blog.xsot.cn/archives/DSM6-2-3_update3.html

How to disable Synology updates: The bootloader used in Hackintoshed Synology doesn’t support DSM 6.2.4 or later. Accidentally clicking “Update” may render your Synology unbootable. (Disabling updates adds a layer of safety—just in case you click the wrong button.)

In the latest 6.2.3u3 version, I’ve only found one reliable method. Documented here:

1. Change the update server address in /etc/synoinfo.conf. (Tested, doesn’t work)
2. Add 127.0.0.1 update.synology.com to hosts file. (Tested, doesn’t work)
3. Add 127.0.0.1 cndl.synology.cn to hosts file. (Breaks package installation/updates)
4. Modify /etc/VERSION. (Risky—can cause Synology to go offline and trigger other bugs)
5. SSH into Synology and run: sudo cat /dev/null > /autoupd\@te.info && sudo chattr +i /autoupd\@te.info (This works)

Explanation: During update, Synology tries to write version info to /autoupd@te.info. By using chattr to make this file immutable, the write operation fails and the update process is blocked.

Result

Change Docker registry mirror on Synology: https://halo.sherlocky.com/archives/qun-hui-nas-docker-rong-qi-jing-xiang-jia-su

Note: The Docker config file location on Synology differs from standard Linux systems. General Linux tutorials may not apply here.

(By the way) Once, my properly configured OpenWRT instance unexpectedly powered off and then encountered this issue, becoming read-only and unable to write files. UBIFS documentation is scarce, and I don’t have much experience with it. Eventually, I resolved it by re-uploading and flashing the sysupgrade image—data and settings were preserved. (Not sure if this is a universal fix or just good luck.)

Update on 2021.8.23: The router encountered the read-only issue again. Flashing via sysupgrade didn’t help this time. I had to completely reflash using Breed. Problem solved, but long-term stability remains to be seen. (Xiaomi routers really do have bad block issues… so annoying.)

Recommended useful Synology packages:

• Photo Station + Moments: Use Photo Station to back up phone photos, and Moments for smart photo organization and display.
• Synology Drive: Enables continuous file backup from your computer.
• Cloud Sync: Allows encrypted backup of data to OneDrive. (Great for leveraging E5’s 5TB free storage.)

Recommended Docker containers:

• portainer/portainer-ce: For managing Docker environments
• p3terx/aria2-pro: Paired with aria2ng, much better than Synology’s built-in download manager
• netdata/netdata: Lightweight system monitoring and logging tool