GeakOS NAS AI Server OS On The ZimaBoard 2 Review

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Download GEAK OS -  https://www.geakos.com/ ZimaBoard 2: The Ultimate 2026 Home Lab Powerhouse Discount code: tvboxstop15 ($15 off) Purchase link: https://bit.ly/4cDwFaa  GEAK OS says it is continuing to improve Docker and virtualisation, with a more capable private AI knowledge base and the upcoming GEAK Claw also on its roadmap  Testing out GEAK OS, a new AI-powered NAS operating system, on the IceWhale ZimaBoard 2! We cover the full install, RAID setup, Docker deployment with Jellyfin, local AI features like face recognition and photo search, and remote file sharing over SMB/WebDAV/NFS. Is it a real contender against CasaOS and ZimaOS? Watch to find out! Links to GEAK OS and the ZimaBoard 2 are in the description below.  #GEAKOS #ZimaBoard2 #NAS #HomeLab #SelfHosted #Docker #Jellyfin #HomeServer #AINAS #techreview    Timestamps:  00:00 - Intro 00:00 - Introduction 01:19 - Hardware 03:06 - Step by Step Install 04:19 - firmware updates 09:58 - Launcher UI 11:10 - Launcher and interface 12:14 - App Center 12:34 - RAID Setup 15:03 - GEAK Link 16:10 - File Sharing 19:26 - Video Hub 22:58 - 4K HDR video playback 26:47 - AI GEAK 27:47 - Pros and Cons   Support the continued development of the TV Box Specs app and other free apps ❤️ Donate here: https://paypal.me/TVBoxStopNick   Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563980692792 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/tbsreviews/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/tvboxstop1 Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-john-9a5152125/ Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/tvboxstop/tv-box-stop/ TV Box Blog – https://tvboxstop.com Email – tvboxstop@gmail.com

Transcript

00:00What's up viewers. Today we are here again with the Ximaboard 2 with a new operating system

00:06specially designed for NAS servers and well suited for the Ximaboard hardware.

00:12This is GeekOS and its intelligent storage simplified by AI.

00:32For anybody who hasn't heard of it, GeekOS is a fairly new NAS operating system. It's built on Debian,

00:40and it works on x86 hardware only right now. So no ARM support, so don't try to flash this onto

00:48a

00:48raspberry pi or one of your android boxes, it won't happen. The whole pitch is, it's lightweight,

00:54it has private cloud with heavy docker integration and some local AI features baked in. It features

01:02photo face recognition, local document search, that kind of thing. All running on your own hardware

01:08instead of somebody's cloud. The desktop version is free forever, and there are paid plans if you

01:14want additional features starting around $5 a month. Now a quick run through of its hardware requirements.

01:23So its minimum system requirements are a 64-bit x86 processor, it needs at least 8GB of RAM,

01:3064GB of storage space, and a UEFI BIOS. For optimal performance it recommends an Intel Core i3 processor

01:39or equivalent, 16GB of RAM or over, 120GB of storage space, NAS enterprise hardware with dedicated HDD or

01:49SDD, 1GB or 2.5GB Ethernet LAN port, and a UEFI plus GPT partition table. So to meet its optimal

01:59hardware

02:00performance recommendation, I'm running this on the Ximaboard 2. For those who don't know, this is

02:06Ice Whale's little single board server. Featuring an Intel N150 quad-core twin-lake CPU that boosts up to 3

02:14.6GHz.

02:16It comes with LPDDR5 memory, dual 2.5 gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, two SATA 3.0 ports, a PCI

02:24express 3.0 X4 slot, and it's passively cooled with its aluminum chassis. It also comes with an optional

02:31cooling fan. It sips power idling around 3-4W. The important part for this review is that it's got

02:40an onboard eMMC storage, and it's got two SATA ports. So GeekOS recommends that you install the

02:48operating system on a separate dedicated drive. The installation process formats and wipes whatever

02:54drive you install it on. So in the case of the Ximaboard 2, you don't want to format and erase

03:00the

03:00ZimaOS default operating system on its internal storage. GeekOS provides two ways to install.

03:09There is a bootable USB installer with a graphical wizard. And there is a one line command installer

03:17if you already have Debian Linux or Ubuntu running. For this video I'm doing the bootable USB installation

03:24method, because I'll be running it on a fresh clean drive. And honestly that's how most people watching

03:30would prefer to do it. So to build the USB installation disk you first have to download the GeekOS image

03:38file from off of their official website, so you can flash it. They recommend a Rufus or Balena HS

03:45software for the installation process. So I'm using Rufus, and in Rufus you simply select your drive

03:52from the drop down list. You then click the select button and navigate to where you downloaded the image.

03:58And click the start button to begin flashing the image. Don't touch any of these settings unless your

04:04development board or Windows hardware such as a mini PC only reads a special type of image partition.

04:12Once completed the progress bar will switch to green and state that it is ready. Safely eject your

04:19drive from your computer and plug it into your x86 device. In this case the Zimaboard 2.

04:30To install this software onto your PC or this Zimaboard 2 you have to access its bioscreen. And to do

04:38this

04:39you have to connect a keyboard. As soon as you begin booting up you would want to tap the delete

04:44button,

04:44or on some PCs F1 or F2. This should take you to your bioscreen. Once the installation disk is plugged

04:53in via USB, you simply navigate with the direction keys to the top last menu called save and exit.

05:01Then scroll down to the boot overwrite section and there you will see the installation disk you created.

05:07It would usually start with UEFI OS followed by the name of your flash drive or external drive.

05:13You highlight it and hit the enter key on the keyboard to begin the installation process.

05:19At the first blue screen make sure install geek OS is highlighted and click enter.

05:25One thing to note is that after the blue screen you will get a black screen with a blinking cursor

05:31in the

05:32top left corner for at least one minute. At first I thought this was a malfunction, but after testing

05:38many times I came to realize it's part of the process. So give the black screen a minute or two

05:44and then you would see the geek OS installer wizard.

05:52So to start the wizard you click next, and you will be taken to a very important screen.

05:59On this screen is where you will select which drive to install geek OS. One thing I do appreciate is

06:06that geek OS unlike Ubuntu, Chrome OS, and FIDOS, they list all the drive connected to this device

06:13displaying their names, size, and type so that you cannot get confused or make an error. Because if you

06:20select the wrong drive you could end up erasing the operating system or any data on any of those drives.

06:26So on this screen, here you can see that I have a Western digital 500GB SATA SSD. The real tech

06:35external storage drive where I created the geek OS installation disk on. And you have eMMC, which

06:41is the internal storage of the Ximabod 2. So you don't want to select the eMMC internal storage nor the

06:49installation disk drive. You want to select a free spare drive that you designated for this installation

06:55process. So I would select my Western digital 500GB drive and click next.

07:03Next you have the partition mode selection. You get two options. System only or system plus data.

07:11System only just puts the OS on the drive. System plus data carves the same drive into a hidden system

07:19partition. And the rest will be your usable storage space. I'm going with system plus data for this

07:26demonstration. It allocates 64GB to the operating system and the remainder of the drive becomes your

07:33data partition. After install that 64GB system chunk hides itself and all of your files live on the data

07:40side. So if you ever factory reset or install it will offer to keep that data partition intact.

07:48You also have a swap option. If you have got 8GB of RAM or more skip this swap option. Under

07:558GB you can set

07:57some swap to keep things stable. My Ximabod 2 has enough RAM so I don't need to swap.

08:05Then you have the final confirmation screen. Once you have your correct drive selected and your partition

08:11settings are satisfied you select the I understand that this process will erase all data on the drive

08:17checkbox and click start install. Once completed the wizard will request that you reboot the system.

08:32I recommend that you select the shutdown option and remove the installation disk.

08:37If you are using the Ximabod 2 the BIOS will automatically set the new GeekOS installation as the first boot

08:45device. However, if you are installing it on another PC with other drives you will be required

08:51to set the GeekOS as the first boot up device. If you are running GeekOS on the Ximabod 2 or

09:00another Windows PC there is something you must first understand. You are not going to access and operate

09:06the operating system directly on that said Ximabod 2 or PC with a mouse and keyboard like you would on

09:13a Windows operating system. You have to access GeekOS like a server from an IP address on another PC.

09:20This is how NAS servers function. So the Ximabod 2 will sit comfortably in a corner or on your server

09:28rack connected via a LAN cable on the same home network. And using the IP address GeekOS gives you

09:35on this screen you enter that into a browser on your mobile phone, desktop or laptop to configure

09:41its first login where you have to set a new admin username and password.

09:58So here we are at the GeekOS desktop or launcher user interface. And before I go any further,

10:05there is something you should know when using the GeekOS on the Ximabod 2

10:10or any other PC hardware. The Ximabod 2 only has two setup ports, and the developers of GeekOS

10:17recommends that you use their software on a separate drive. However that is not going to work if you

10:25are looking to set up a NAS home server because you cannot connect multiple drives to configure in

10:31RAD because you only have one spare setup port. So this leaves you with three options.

10:36The first is to install a really large drive on the spare setup port. The second is to find an

10:44M.2

10:45PCI Express adapter that can host multiple M.2 NVMe cards and use bifurcation. However I've already

10:53tried this method and it doesn't work because the BIOS does not support bifurcation.

10:58The third solution would to be install GeekOS on the eMMC internal storage. Now I admire GeekOS

11:07respect for proprietary hardware by recommending to their users to install it on a separate drive

11:13and not interfere with the ZimaOS. However the only way you can get RAD to work properly is if you

11:21install GeekOS as a system OS only during the configuration and override ZimaOS. So this is

11:28what I did. And there is no need to panic because ZimaOS can be easily installed by simply downloading

11:35the image from off of their website and repeating the installation process to remove once again GeekOS

11:41and reinstall ZimaOS. So this is the user interface and it's very simple and easy to navigate.

11:50Starting from the top you have a user guide. Next you have a file browser.

11:57You have an album application where you can access your photo library.

12:03You have a built-in media player for those who love to play self-hosted videos.

12:09You have a settings area which I'll get to in just a moment.

12:13It comes with an app center. You have external share links. I believe this is to facilitate

12:20allowing others to access the server. And you have a backup app called time machine. However it only

12:28has instructions for Mac users. And finally you have your recycle bin. So to set up your NAS server

12:36you need to configure your connected drives into a storage pool. Unfortunately you can only configure

12:42drives connected via SATA ports and not via USB. To do this open the settings area. Click on storage

12:50on the left menu. And click the blue create storage button. Select the drives you would like to pull

12:56by checking their boxes. Then choose your storage type. GeekOS gives you a few options here.

13:03Basic just runs a single drive independently. So data loss if that drive fails. No redundancy.

13:10Linear combines multiple drives into one large pool for maximum capacity. But security is poor. So if one

13:17drive fails you lose everything in the pool. RAID 0 or Stripping needs at least two drives. And it spreads

13:25data across them for better read and write performance. But it's also poor on security.

13:31A single drive failure can cause data loss across the array. RAID 1 or mirror disk needs at least two

13:38drives and duplicates your data across them. And this is high security since your data survives even

13:44if all but one drive in the mirror fails. There are also RAID 5, 6, and 10 options if you

13:51have 3 or 4 drives

13:53and want false tolerance with more usable capacity. But basic, linear, and RAID 1 cover what most home

14:00users will need. If you have basic PC knowledge, you might be tempted to look at this setup as master

14:08and slave. But it isn't. GeekOS's redundancy comes purely from the RAD mode you select and not from which

14:16drive happens to be larger. Once you have picked the mode that fits your needs, click the confirm button to

14:21begin formatting. So for this demonstration I've selected the linear format just to show the combined file

14:30size capacity. So I'm using a 1TB and a 500GB in RAID format.

14:48So the format completed successfully. And now you have access to a combined 1.5TB RAID drive. Just

14:57remember this mode is not secure and you can lose data if one drive fails. For file sharing and remote

15:05access. This is where GeekOS is actually pretty strong. In the file manager there's a remote mount

15:13feature where you can pull in shares from other devices over three protocols. SMB, WebDAV, and NFS.

15:21So it plays nice with basically any network storage you already have on the network. So to test this I

15:28setup an Android TV box that features a Samba server and connected an external hard drive to its USB port.

15:36So in GeekOS, to gain easy access to storage on devices connected on the same network you simply

15:42perform a scan using the remote mount feature. And it will detect every device that's on the network

15:49that enabled sharing via one of the three protocols. In this case I'm using Samba server. So here it detects

15:56my Oracle external hard drive and it mounts and saves the folder. So I can now easily access the folder

16:03directly without having to browse and search for it every time.

16:10If you want to share the NAS with family or friends without anyone stepping on each other's files,

16:16user management feature handles that. Open settings, then user management, and create user.

16:24Give them a username and password. And there's an option to force a password reset on first login.

16:30Each user gets their own sandbox and your file and theirs never mix which is exactly what you want.

16:37From the admin side you can see each user's storage usage, assign them to groups, disable or delete

16:44accounts. So disabling cuts access but keeps the data so you can re-enable later. Deleting wipes

16:52everything permanently. So think before you hit delete. So if you would like to access your NAS server

16:59remotely while you are away from home, probably on vacation, at work, or just need remote access into

17:06your server to access something really important from another network or on your mobile phone using

17:12mobile data, then GeekOS provides Geeklink. To set this up, in the settings area, open the tab called

17:19network services, and scroll down to where it says Geeklink remote access. By default it will be disabled.

17:26And once you toggle the switch, it will ask you to enter an email address where it will send you

17:32a

17:32confirmation code, which you will then enter back into the text field, where it will confirm and create

17:38a Geek cloud account, and give you a Geek ID. Using this ID and your login credentials, you can now

17:45proceed to

17:46another device, let's say your laptop or mobile phone, and install the GeekOS client app to gain remote

17:52access to the server. So to test this properly, I went to a motel just to get away from the

18:00house,

18:01and to use a network that was not my own outside of the NAS server's network. So here you can

18:09see,

18:09I installed on my laptop with my extended monitor the GeekOS client app. So now I will just switch

18:17over to my screen recorder so you can see it properly. So as you can see, here I have my

18:23Geek ID,

18:25my account username, and my password. And once you enter you will gain full access to your NAS server.

18:32I'm using the motel's public Wi-Fi, which isn't the greatest, but I can still access my server

18:38and browse my files and documents. So with the Geek Link there is no port forwarding,

18:46DDNS, or complicated router configurations.

19:10Media, in my opinion, is the most critical undertaking of a home network NAS server system.

19:16Because the majority of what is going to be stored on those drives will be media,

19:21such as photos and videos. To handle this, GeekOS has its own media application called

19:26VideoHub. And to be clear, this is not a Plex or Jellyfin front end, it's its own thing.

19:32There is also a separate player client called CineNow. So you point VideoHub at a media folder,

19:40and it scrapes metadata and posters and builds you a library with movie and TV categories.

19:47The single most important technical point in this whole review is that GeekOS VideoHub playback

19:53is built around client side decoding. That means the heavy lifting happens on whatever device you are

20:00watching the content on, not necessarily the zimmer board. So your playback experience depends on your

20:06network and your device, such as your phone, your TV, and whichever browser you are using,

20:12as the files are being fed from the server. The support team at GeekOS informed that

20:19STRM playback is now supported, and custom poster uploads is now available in the latest release.

20:45The sound moves around you in a three dimensional space with breathtaking audio quality.

20:53It brings the on-screen action alive, and immerses you in every moment.

21:01It makes sense to do so.

22:31The fun part.

22:32If you are a TV box enthusiast and would like to access videos stored on this home server

22:38via GeekOS so that you can use its built-in Dolby Vision and its Dolby and DTS audio decoders.

22:46Once you have a media player that can access your home network, you simply scan for your

22:52local NAS server, select it, and enter your credentials to access GeekOS.

22:57Here I'm using my updated custom TV box player that now features local network access features.

23:33GeekOS

23:59During this test, I discovered that I cannot get Dolby Atmos

24:04and DTS audio over the network.

24:07I can get 4K HDR10, AV1, HLG and Dolby Vision with stereo audio only.

24:40Next up is the app center.

24:42But don't expect a typical app store like you have on your phone.

24:47Instead it's a launcher for built-in tools and a visual hub for docker.

24:52If you want basic utilities like an office editor or PDF tool, you just click open.

24:58But if you want to run proper home server apps like Jellyfin or Piehole, you use the built-in

25:03docker composer manager.

25:05You just paste your configuration code, hit deploy, and watch it install live.

25:10It takes a second to get used to the new layout, but having a visual way to handle docker without

25:16touching a command line is a big win.

25:19Now the app center, though different, provides a simple yet innovative way to deploy.

25:25The app center has a visual docker composer manager called Dockage, where you paste standard

25:31YAML straight into the GUI, and it automatically sets your host to container port mappings,

25:38bind mounts for persistent storage, and you can watch the deployment logs live.

25:43For anybody who normally lives in a terminal for this, having a clean GUI that doesn't

25:48hide what's happening is a real win.

25:50This is where GeekOS competes with CASA OS and the Zimmer OS crowd.

25:55To test this properly, I'm deploying one service you may already be familiar with which is

26:01Jellyfin, and I'm recording the whole path live.

26:04So using AI, you can ask it to give you the Jellyfin YAML code with port map configuration.

26:12You copy it, and in dockage you click compose.

26:15On the right, you select all and erase what's already there, and paste in your code.

26:22The only thing you need to do is give your stack a name.

26:25All other fields will be automatically populated.

26:28What's also a nice feature is once the deployment is completed, you don't have to search for

26:34the URL with the IP address to open your new Jellyfin page.

26:38You simply click on these port shortcuts right here, and it will open a new window with your

26:44Jellyfin page setup.

26:47For AI, GeekOS markets itself as an AI NAS OS.

26:53What that actually means in practice is that you get local AI photo categorization, face recognition,

26:59that auto-builds albums of people, and local document and text search, all running on the

27:05Zimbabwe 2, and not over a cloud API.

27:09There is also native support in the app catalog for deploying local models and AI agents.

27:15However, there are limitations.

27:18On an N150 with integrated graphics, don't expect this to be a large language model powerhouse

27:24out of the box.

27:26After numerous tests, each model I installed either gave me an inadequate memory error,

27:32or it fails to complete a simple task such as finding photos on the NAS drives.

27:38From experience, running models such as Gemma or QN requires some GPU computing power to run

27:44smoothly.

27:47In summary, what's good about this operating system?

27:50Well, the install is one of the cleaner NAS installers have used.

27:55The docker-composed GUI is well done.

27:59Features such as SMB, webdav, and NFS remote mounting covers, pretty much anything already

28:05on your network.

28:06Multi-user sandboxing is useful.

28:09You get native clients on every platform.

28:12The native video hub is generally easier and faster to set up than Plex or Jellyfin from

28:18scratch.

28:19The local AI on your own hardware angle is a real selling point once your hardware has

28:26adequate GPU processing power.

28:28And it runs silent and cool on the Ximabot too.

28:32And for a low power home server, the N150 and this OS are a good match.

28:38The drawbacks are, its x86 only and no ARM support sidelines a big chunk of the cheap SBC and TV

28:48box crowd.

28:49Video hub is new so you are not going to replace a mature Plex or Jellyfin stack for power users.

28:55It's a young platform overall so the global community and English documentation are thin

29:01compared to true NAS or RAID.

29:04A lot of the knowledge base is still centered on the Chinese home lab scene.

29:08With that said, GeekOS states that its roadmap includes continued improvements to docker and

29:15virtualization, a more capable private AI knowledge base with broader AI features, and a stronger

29:22English documentation and global community support is in the works.

29:27And the AI feature is cool, but you need a real GPU hardware behind them for anything heavy.

29:40So viewers, there you have it.

29:42This was my review of the GeekOS NAS server AI operating system.

29:48If you would like to check out their software I placed a link in the description below, along

29:52with a link to the Zimbabwe 2 as they go hand in hand.

29:57But remember you can also install this on a regular Windows desktop PC hardware, or you

30:03can use something more convenient, such as a powerful Windows mini PC, as the install process

30:09is the same.

30:11So be sure to check out the links in the description.

30:13Thanks for watching, don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel.

30:17Your support is always greatly appreciated, and it costs you nothing to click the subscribe

30:22button and to give the video a thumbs up.

30:24So stay connected, and see you in the next one.

30:30See you in the next one.

30:47I'll see you next time.

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