How I unbricked my MBL after the November 2012 firmware update

[QuadraGuy]

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QuadraGuy wrote:

greatbrit

Thanks for the idiots guide to fxing this!  It worked like a charm and it's been over ten years since my UNIX command line days.  It feels good to get back to it.

Myron

Thansk for all your guidance as well.  My RMA came through today and I now have a brand new MBL with updated firmware and a working Dashboard UI!  When is WD Service going to get wise and fix what's broke?

Hey Myron I've been checking out other RAID capable NAS options and was looking at Drobo's FS do you or your contacts have any opinions on them?

Well I guess I spoke too soon... the UI is bricked.  It happened after I set up a few users on the drive.  Not sure if that is related.  It looks like I will have to get back into the command line stuff again.

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Not sure if this has anything to do with it but my:

MyBookLive02:/var/www/Admin/webapp/config# ls -l
total 20
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Dec 29  2011 dynamicconfig.ini
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Dec 29  2011 dynamicconfig.ini_safe
-rwxrwsr-x 1 root www-data 5732 Nov  4  2011 globalconfig.ini
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data  981 Dec 29  2011 server.crt
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data  757 Dec 29  2011 server.csr
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data  887 Dec 29  2011 server.key

---

dynamicconfig.ini is null???

Help!

[Effbook]

Myron

 /var and /etc - all contents has been exported to my PC.Next time this is going to be handyfor sure thanks.

Totally agree to have a fool proof method to factory reset with just push of a button,they could utilise the current so called RESET button for this.

Also I guess their software works under lab conditions and fails to work under normal working conditions such as power failure,web firmware update failure,overheated compoenent failure etc etc.The house keeping software part must ensure atleast webUI files are in place so that user can get in to action after a currputed install or messing with files(worst case scenario).

These of course are small things but can make a huge impact on this products reliability,company reputation and not to mention the cost custing savings avoding all these unnecessery RMA's for silly reasons such as this.

Deleopers and designers of WDC it s wonderful product that you have created ,all we say are things to improve your product making your and our life easy.

-Eff

[Myron]

Try re-create the dynamicconfig.ini and dynamicconfig.ini_safe back to the default:

[config]
SUBDOMAIN=""
DEVICEID="<censored>"
DEVICEAUTH="XXXXXXXXXX <censored> XXXXXXXXXX"
EXTERNAL_IP=""
EXTERNAL_PORT=""
EXTERNAL_SSL_PORT="21498"
INTERNAL_IP="192.168.1.2"
INTERNAL_PORT="80"
DEVICE_SSL_PORT="443"
REMOTEACCESS="FALSE"
COMMUNICATION_STATUS="disabled"
DEFAULT_PORTS_ONLY="FALSE"
MANUAL_PORT_FORWARD="FALSE"
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_ROUTER_IP=""
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_HTTP_PORT=""
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_HTTPS_PORT=""
TOTAL_SETTINGS="17"

 I've censored two items from my configuration file as It suspect if I release my device ID and AUTH then it could compromise my device's security.

I guess what you can do it have them as a blank strings . . .

DEVICEID=""
DEVICEAUTH=""

My guess is these two are used when you sucessfully register your MyBook Live with WG2GO for remote access.

If I go along that reasoning then the DEFAULT configuration settings should be . . .

[config]
SUBDOMAIN=""
DEVICEID=""
DEVICEAUTH=""
EXTERNAL_IP=""
EXTERNAL_PORT=""
EXTERNAL_SSL_PORT="21498"
INTERNAL_IP="192.168.1.2"
INTERNAL_PORT="80"
DEVICE_SSL_PORT="443"
REMOTEACCESS="FALSE"
COMMUNICATION_STATUS="disabled"
DEFAULT_PORTS_ONLY="FALSE"
MANUAL_PORT_FORWARD="FALSE"
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_ROUTER_IP=""
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_HTTP_PORT=""
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_HTTPS_PORT=""
TOTAL_SETTINGS="17"

 . . . and the Internal IP address being the IP address of the NAS.

I wonder, if the IP address of the MBL changes because the DHCP server requests this then does the IP address in these two configuration files also change?

The deeper I start looking into these issues, loads more questions seems to jump out.

An answer WD has to provide is why dynamicconfig.ini and dynamicconfig.ini_safe are getting messed up and blanked and also this may be related to the blank files being created in the root of the file system as well as evidence of a file redirection (aka. write to STDOUT) going horribly wrong.

Got a feeling these are related BUT I've not yet had a corrupted dynamicconfig.ini and dynamicconfig.ini_safe and I am mildly curious why I've got away with it.  What am I doing differently that's cusing me to be (at present) exempt from these current Dashboard UI bricking issues?

[Myron]

Agreed...   Me being a system/network admin by trade, it's not rocket science to build in something into the MyBook Live that creates something similar to a Windows system sresotr check-point.  So when the the reset button is pressed the files that make up the Web UI are unziped from a gzip archive as well as other important files and under the assumptuion that all the configuration files are screwed, re-write every configuration file so they are all in a known state.

Maybe, through the Dashboard UI allow the user to click a button that takes a snap-shot of the NAS's FULL configuration. User configuration and internal configuration. With the reset button restoring the latest configuration back-up.

It's an idea.  A sort of...  "Click this button when you're absolutly happy everything is working fine".

Obviously if the Dashboard UI dies, networking dies or the drive gets bricked, then there is only the reset button that gets things working.

Also...  Right after a firmware upgrade (W.D. ARE YOU READING THIS?) a image of the replaced firmware is taken.  On the Dashboard UI there be a buton that needs to be clicked to approve the firmware upgrade. If, before the accept button is pressed, the user uses the reset button then instead of a fix-up reset the firmware and settings are reverted to the previous working firmware thus unbricking the NAS.

These are ideas.  There is a physical reset button on the back of the MyBook Live.  How about usilising this button properly!?

Apart from that, it's a good gadget while it works.

---

Effbook wrote:

Myron

 /var and /etc - all contents has been exported to my PC.Next time this is going to be handyfor sure thanks.

Totally agree to have a fool proof method to factory reset with just push of a button,they could utilise the current so called RESET button for this.

Also I guess their software works under lab conditions and fails to work under normal working conditions such as power failure,web firmware update failure,overheated compoenent failure etc etc.The house keeping software part must ensure atleast webUI files are in place so that user can get in to action after a currputed install or messing with files(worst case scenario).

These of course are small things but can make a huge impact on this products reliability,company reputation and not to mention the cost custing savings avoding all these unnecessery RMA's for silly reasons such as this.

Deleopers and designers of WDC it s wonderful product that you have created ,all we say are things to improve your product making your and our life easy.

-Eff

---

[QuadraGuy]

Myron: Bare with me on this, I have little UNIX/LINUX experience.  What should dynamicconfig.ini_safe contain and can I just use vi to recreate both these files?  I tried using vi to edit the existing file but could not save it as I got the following error: "dynamicconfig.ini" E514: write error (file system full?)
Press ENTER or type command to continue

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By the way config now contains the following:

MyBookLive02:/var/www/Admin/webapp/config# ls -l
total 20
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Jan  1 04:03 dynamicconfig.ini
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Jan  1 04:06 dynamicconfig.ini_safe
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Dec 29  2011 dynamicconfig.ini_safe~
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Jan  1 04:06 dynamicconfig.ini_safz~
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Dec 29  2011 dynamicconfig.ini~
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Jan  1 04:03 dynamicconfig.inr~
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Jan  1 04:00 dynamicconfig.ins~
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Jan  1 03:53 dynamicconfig.int~
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Jan  1 03:50 dynamicconfig.inu~
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Jan  1 03:50 dynamicconfig.inv~
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Jan  1 03:50 dynamicconfig.inw~
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Jan  1 03:49 dynamicconfig.inx~
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Jan  1 03:47 dynamicconfig.iny~
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data    0 Jan  1 03:46 dynamicconfig.inz~
-rwxrwsr-x 1 root www-data 5732 Nov  4  2011 globalconfig.ini
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data  981 Dec 29  2011 server.crt
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data  757 Dec 29  2011 server.csr
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root www-data  887 Dec 29  2011 server.key

---

So it looks like things are building...

[Myron]

A hunch.

In /var/log do you any files that are sized in the megabytes range?

Issue the command . . .

l -h /var/log

I think it's be either deamon.log and/or deamon.log.1 

If is then have a look at:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Live/Huge-MBL-Operating-System-File-Could-It-Be-Preventing-Sleep...

The thread from this point should also be interesting reading:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Live/New-Release-Firmware-Version-02-10-09-124-for-My-Book-Live-...

If this is the case then the system pertition is full and the Linux operating system can't create any files.

If you issue the command . . .

df -h

 . . . it should show how much free space you have on each partition.  Are any full-to-the-brim?

[QuadraGuy]

Yup:

---

MyBookLive02:/var/www/Admin/webapp/config# l -h /var/log | pg
total 945M
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Dec 29  2011 apache2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Aug 25  2011 apt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root adm  488M Jan  1 09:51 daemon.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root adm  455M Dec 29  2011 daemon.log.1

---

and yup:

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MyBookLive02:/var/www/Admin/webapp/config# df -h                               
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/md1              1.9G  1.9G     0 100% /
tmpfs                  50M     0   50M   0% /lib/init/rw
udev                   10M  6.7M  3.4M  67% /dev
tmpfs                  50M     0   50M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                  50M  3.0M   47M   6% /tmp
/dev/sda4             1.9T   42G  1.8T   3% /DataVolume

---

daemon.log is full of:

Dec 29 17:46:58 MyBookLive02 cnid_metad[2776]: error in accept: Socket operation on non-socket

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So I removed daemon.log.1 and then edited dynamicconfig.ini & dynamicconfig.ini_safe as per your instructions (Myron) and then I got the UI back and re-booted. daemon.log is now 96748855 bytes and growing.  Any ideas on how I get daemon.log under control?

[Myron]

I may as well just directly copy the solution from one of the other threads but for you just a minor modification . . .

The problem is what I thought it was and has been discussed elsewhere on this board.  Also Western Digital ARE aware about this issue.  (Are you using a MAC or a PC?)

(Ref: http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Live/Huge-MBL-Operating-System-File-Could-It-Be-Preventing-Sleep... )

Issue the following commands and post the results here . . .

tail -n 50 /var/log/daemon.log

tail -n 50 /var/log/daemon.log.1

Next, make sure there are no open files between your computers and the MyBook Live and issue the following commands exactly as shown which will also preserve the log for later scrutiny.

mkdir /DataVolume/shares/Public/SavedLogFiles
mv /var/log/daemon.log /DataVolume/shares/Public/SavedLogFiles
mv /var/log/daemon.log.1 /DataVolume/shares/Public/SavedLogFiles
rm /var/log.hdd/daemon.log
rm /var/log.hdd/daemon.log.1
reboot

The saved daemon.log files will be under your Public directory and accessible to any computer on your network.

The problem is that daemon.log and daemon.log.1 has become huge for some reason or other and it's possible that W.D. may be interested to see what is in there.  The last 50 lines should show what the problem is or if the problem has actually cleared.

If the reboot command does not work then reboot your MyBook Live using the MyBook Live's Dashboard UI or shut it down using WD's QuickView.  If you shutdown the MyBook Live you'll need to remove and re-apply  power.

At this point, you should have enough space on the system partition to perform a firmware upgrade.  Do it manually.  Don't do an automatic update.  Then again, from what you may have seen on this thread, there seems to be a fault with the upgrade process.

Luckily you have SSH enabled! 

I'm not sure if the rm command will erase it's file , but if it does not then it should not be a problem.  Because the ramlog's capacity has been exceeded it's all being written directly to the disc which will also explain why you MyBook Live is not sleeping and the green LED is always flashing. As long as daemon.log and daemon.log.1 are moved to the user partition to free up space in the user partition then that should do the trick.

If you do not use any Apple branded computers on your network and it's just Windows PCs then as soon as you can telnet back to the MyBook Live via. SSH then stop the Apple networking components within the MyBook Live as a temporary measure.  The command is . . .

/etc/init.d/netatalk stop

If memory serves me right what's been revealed is something to do with the Apple protocol networking components going gaga and then the deamon log file fills up at very rapid rate and Western Digital's firmware does not process/rotate log files until 06:25.

If you have to reboot your MyBook Live then netatalk will start as normal so on each restart or power-cycle you'll need to issue the command to stop the netatalk service.  Yes, it is possible to permanantly stop it from starting but for now it's best not to do that.

After you've done that, fix the /var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.ini and /var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.in_safe files.

Hopefully that sorts out two issues in one to.  Actually it'll sort out several issues.

So  far the latest Firmware upgrade breaks CNID which in turn fills up the log files in Linux system partition which in turn prevents configuration files from updating because the log file management is seriously sub-standard which in turn bricks the Dashboard UI and quick possibly could be even responsible for the MyBook Live getting absolutly and totally bricked!   Way to do Western Digital firmware development team.  WDTony, go over to those people and give them some fatherly love!  Maybe a some corpral punishment with a belt from your trousers and 10 of the best on their tender backsides.  LOL

Actually, it's not really a laughing matter, but ya gotta smirk. 

Boy, am I on a roll today!

[Myron]

The problem is what I thought it was and has been discussed elsewhere on this board.  Also Western Digital ARE aware about this issue.  (Are you using a MAC or a PC?)

(Ref: http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Live/Huge-MBL-Operating-System-File-Could-It-Be-Preventing-Sleep... )

Issue the following commands and post the results here . . .

tail -n 50 /var/log/daemon.log

tail -n 50 /var/log/daemon.log.1

Next, make sure there are no open files between your computers and the MyBook Live and issue the following commands exactly as shown which will also preserve the log for later scrutiny.

mkdir /DataVolume/shares/Public/SavedLogFiles
mv /var/log/daemon.log /DataVolume/shares/Public/SavedLogFiles
mv /var/log/daemon.log.1 /DataVolume/shares/Public/SavedLogFiles
rm /var/log.hdd/daemon.log
rm /var/log.hdd/daemon.log.1
reboot

The saved daemon.log files will be under your Public directory and accessible to any computer on your network.

The problem is that daemon.log and daemon.log.1 has become huge for some reason or other and it's possible that W.D. may be interested to see what is in there.  The last 50 lines should show what the problem is or if the problem has actually cleared.

If the reboot command does not work then reboot your MyBook Live using the MyBook Live's Dashboard UI or shut it down using WD's QuickView.  If you shutdown the MyBook Live you'll need to remove and re-apply  power.

At this point, you should have enough space on the system partition to perform a firmware upgrade.  Do it manually.  Don't do an automatic update.  Then again, from what you may have seen on this thread, there seems to be a fault with the upgrade process.

Luckily you have SSH enabled! 

I'm not sure if the rm command will erase it's file , but if it does not then it should not be a problem.  Because the ramlog's capacity has been exceeded it's all being written directly to the disc which will also explain why you MyBook Live is not sleeping and the green LED is always flashing. As long as daemon.log and daemon.log.1 are moved to the user partition to free up space in the user partition then that should do the trick.

If you do not use any Apple branded computers on your network and it's just Windows PCs then as soon as you can telnet back to the MyBook Live via. SSH then stop the Apple networking components within the MyBook Live as a temporary measure.  The command is . . .

/etc/init.d/netatalk stop

If memory serves me right what's been revealed is something to do with the Apple protocol networking components going gaga and then the deamon log file fills up at very rapid rate and Western Digital's firmware does not process/rotate log files until 06:25.

If you have to reboot your MyBook Live then netatalk will start as normal so on each restart or power-cycle you'll need to issue the command to stop the netatalk service.  Yes, it is possible to permanantly stop it from starting but for now it's best not to do that.

After you've done that, fix the /var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.ini and /var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.in_safe files.

Hopefully that sorts out two issues in one to.  Actually it'll sort out several issues.

So  far the latest Firmware upgrade breaks CNID which in turn fills up the log files in Linux system partition which in turn prevents configuration files from updating because the log file management is seriously sub-standard which in turn bricks the Dashboard UI and quick possibly could be even responsible for the MyBook Live getting absolutly and totally bricked!   Way to do Western Digital firmware development team.  WDTony, go over to those people and give them some fatherly love!  Maybe a some corpral punishment with a belt from your trousers and 10 of the best on their tender backsides.  LOL

Actually, it's not really a laughing matter, but ya gotta smirk. 

Boy, am I on a roll today!

[QuadraGuy]

I am on a Mac.

[Myron]

In that case do not stop the netatalk service but shift the huge log file(s) out of the way to create space on the system partition.

Unfortunatly I don't know much about the CNID issue but now that you (and me) know about the issue then you'll need to keep a close watch on the size of the ramlog-tmpfs partition and rotate the log files manually, or delete them.  The RAMLOG only has 20Mb allocated to it. Once that is exceeded then the logs are written directly to disc which then will require the MyBook Live to be rebooted once the total of all the log files is brought down to less than 20Mb.

If it's allows to use up the entire space of the system partition then you're at risk of services failing, the Dashboard UI bricking and even the MyBook Live getting totally bricked because the Linux OS can't maintain it's files.

This is actually quite an urgent and critical issue that Western Digital needs to deal with.

I don't have anything from the Apple stable on my network so I can disable netatalk.

At least a workaround exists.  The CNID issue has been discussed in another thread.