BusyBox - want to upgrade it

The BusyBox v1.1.1 installed on my Sharespace lacks some commands I like to use, primarily ‘ed’, and I would like to replace it with the latest stable version 1.18.3.

Can someone tell me how that can be accomplished, safely? I work solely with Linux, Ubuntu 10.10 if that helps and have downloaded and opened the busybox-1.18.3.tar.bz2 file to a folder on my Desktop, but have no idea how to proceed from there.

Thanks for any help.

Hi there!!!  Try to contact the user TonyPh12345, he may be able to bring some light into you.

Best of luck!

 Did You manage to make the update - and how did you make it?

I’m also ready to update BusyBox. Can anybody share experience?

Yesterday I tried to update busybox. However the result is quite negative.

The original busybox v1.1.1 (2009.09.11-06:18+0000) executable is located in /bin. Using ipkg (Optware) I downloaded and installed the latest available  busybox package v1.10.3 (2010-05-17 05:57:25 UTC) which consists of two packages:  busybox-base  (executable itself) and busybox-links  (for each command) to /opt/bin.

Then I replaced /bin/busybox with /opt/bin/busybox and immediately the ShareSpace began to show odd behaviour. Busybox version has changed to v1.10.3  as expected, but I couldn’t even reboot or shutdown either through power button or web interface. After I disconnected the unit from mains the ShareSpace turned into the bricked state. Fortunately I’d backed up my  /dev/md0 before experimenting.

For me it seems that the original  busybox  v1.1.1 (2009.09.11-06:18+0000) executable contains something (instructions) specific for ShareSpace hardware. So it acts like a part of the internal Linux OS. If one replaces it with different version, the device cannot even be rebooted and shut down.

Now I’m thinking of a way of using both versions: the original  busybox  v1.1.1 (2009.09.11-06:18+0000) for systems to operate correctly and  busybox  v1.10.3 (2010-05-17 05:57:25 UTC) for all or most of commands. Any ideas or input would be very much appreciated.