Frequently Asked Questions

How do I add the SynoCommunity repository to my NAS?

Follow the instructions on https://synocommunity.com.

I'm getting Invalid location when trying to add the repository?

Try again at a later time. If the issue persists, here are some troubleshooting suggestions:

• Are you connected via a VPN? Use a direct/local connection instead.
• Is your NAS able to succesfully resolve packages.synocommunity.com to an IP address?
  • Log in to your NAS via SSH;
  • Run nslookup packages.synocommunity.com. You should get an IP address back (e.g. 104.31.95.179)
• What is the DNS server configured on your NAS? A possible workaround is to set set one or two public DNS servers in your Synology:
  • Open Control Panel>Network;
  • On the General tab, activate the checkbox called Manually configure DNS server;
  • Add in one or two of the DNS servers you want to use. (Google: 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4, OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222/208.67.220.220);
  • Click Apply.

I'm seeing a 400 Bad Request, The browser (or proxy) sent a request that this server could not understand

http://packages.synocommunity.com is the repository URL, and is meant for your NAS only.

Visit https://synocommunity.com for details about the repository and the available packages.

How can I check if a package is available for my model?

• Look up the architecture for your model with Architecture per Synology model;
• Look up the package on the package overview, and check if your architecture is mentioned in the package details.

My architecture is not listed in the package details. Can it be made available?

If an architecture is not listed, that is probably on purpose. Some packages cannot be compiled for certain architectures. PPC-based architectures (ppc* and qoriq) are known for this.

A second reason is new models. See I have a new nas model. What has to be done to provide packages for it?.

Search open and closed issues on the bugtracker to verify the question has not been asked before. If not, open an issue. Follow the instructions in CONTRIBUTING.

I have a new NAS model. What has to be done to provide packages for it?

A number of things need to happen before we can provide packages for a new model or a new architecture:

• A toolchain and kernel source must be available for that model;

Synology does not provide any public information on release dates of toolchains, kernel sources and other associated files. They generally state that it can take up to several months before those are made available.

Synology publishes the files on Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dsgpl/files. Use Architecture per Synology model to look up the relation between a model and an architecture.

• The toolchain and kernel source has to be included in spksrc;

At this point, anyone can build packages for that model.

• The packages have to be built and published on the repository.

Which DSM versions do you support?

• spksrc can build packages for DSM4.0 and newer. However, due to the age of the toolchains, not all software can be compiled anymore.
• By default we publish the latest supported major DSM version in the SynoCommunity package repository; our latest supported version is currently DSM 5.
• Upon request, and based on best effort, we can publish packages for the previous DSM major version (currently DSM 4.3) on the SynoCommunity repository.
• For DSM4.2 and older, we might not be able to provide packages. You can try to build the packages yourself.

At the moment, DSM 6.x packages are not available from the online repository at http://packages.synocommunity.com . To provide these packages, SynoCommunity need to:

1. Import the DSM 6.x toolchains #2666 #2727
2. Test (and potentially make changes to) the packages #2661
3. Rewrite the repository server https://github.com/Diaoul/spkrepo/pull/8

A package should be available for my model and DSM version, but I can't find it in Package Center. What do I do?

• If the package is listed as a beta package on https://synocommunity.com/packages, make sure you have turned on Yes, I want to see beta versions in the Package Center settings;
• If you're using the search bar in Package Center, then select the drop-down arrow next to the magnifying glass, and set the value to Community.

Do you provide direct/manual downloads for packages?

We don't provide direct/manual download links for packages published on the SynoCommunity package repository. However, all of the source code of our packages is published, allowing you to build the packages yourself. Set up a Development Environment first, and see the Developers HOW-TO for information on how to build packages.

I tried to install a package, and I get Failed to install {package}. What do I do?

Set the trust level in the Package Center settings to Synology Inc. and trusted publishers. See How do I add the SynoCommunity repository to my NAS.

A package does not start. What do I do?

Follow the instructions here: CONTRIBUTING.

A package does not show an icon in the DSM menu. How can I fix this?

The icon is shown to the user admin by default. To show it for other users, log in as a user with administrator privileges. Then choose one of the following methods:

• Open Control Panel > Privileges. Select the application and activate the checkbox for the users who should see the icon;
• Open Control Panel > User. Select the correct user, click Edit and open the tab Applications. Activate the checkbox for the application for which the icon should be shown.

Notes:

• The icon does not affect access permissions;
• Packages that are command-line only will not show an icon.

I'm trying to use a command-line only package, but I'm seeing -ash {command} : not found. Help?

Make sure you have set the path correctly, or use the full path to the binary. For some packages, we add a symlink to the most-used binary in /usr/local/bin, which is on $PATH by default. Examples:

• PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH git
• /usr/local/git/bin/git

How to query package status or start from command line?

Recommended option is synopkg status packagename or synopkg start packagename

If you find it too slow to answer, here is a more technical work-around:

SYNOPKG_PKGNAME="packagename"
SYNOPKG_PKGDEST=/var/packages/${SYNOPKG_PKGNAME}/target
SYNOPKG_DSM_VERSION_MAJOR=6
export SYNOPKG_PKGNAME SYNOPKG_PKGDEST SYNOPKG_DSM_VERSION_MAJOR
/var/packages/${SYNOPKG_PKGNAME}/scripts/start-stop-status status
/var/packages/${SYNOPKG_PKGNAME}/scripts/start-stop-status start