Home server: Unraid 7.10 learns WLAN

The developers of the Linux-based NAS operating system Unraid have released version 7.10. Some new features stand out: Home administrators can now also connect Unraid to the network via WLAN. The programmers have improved the import of drive pools from other systems. Many minor corrections round off the release.

The developers summarize the changes in the release notes for Unraid 7.10. "This release adds support for wireless networks, the ability to import from TrueNAS and other third-party pools, various improvements to the VMs and first steps towards a responsive webGUI", they explain there.

Unraid: Wireless networking

WLAN support is probably the most striking new feature in Unraid 7.10. Although a wired connection is typically preferred, if this is not possible, the operating system now enables connection via a wireless network. For the initial setup, admins need a local monitor and keyboard to boot into GUI mode, or a wired network connection. The developers are planning to add the function to the "USB Creator" in future to set up the wireless network before the initial boot process. Unraid currently only supports a WLAN interface. This is also not able to participate in a network.

External ZFS pools such as those from TrueNAS, Proxmox, Ubuntu or QNAP can now be imported. Instead of the first partition, Unraid now imports the largest partition. Bug fixes include the fact that deactivated drives are now displayed in the dashboard again. The VMs now also contain the Nouveau graphics card driver. However, the programmers deactivate this by default as they assume that most users want to use the Nvidia driver. CPU pinning is now also optional.

The developers have made initial changes to the user interface to enable a responsive design. In addition, some adblockers should no longer block the dashboard interface. The Linux kernel is now at version 6.12.24 and contains some patches that deviate from the standard kernel.

Unraid is a system with which commercially available hardware can be transformed into an easily maintainable NAS system. It offers greater flexibility than ready-made or manually assembled NAS systems such as those from QNAP or Synology, as any drives can be used. When using RAID, for example, Unraid makes it possible to use drives of different sizes without losing capacity. Unraid can also save power. Since not all drives have to be active at the same time, as is usually the case with RAID, inactive drives can be put into sleep mode.

(dmk)