Backup MBL firware before update?

Is there a way to backup MBL firmware prior to doing a firmware upgrade? I’d be willing to enable and use SSH do do this if it is not supported on the web interface, but I’d have to be given very specific instructions since I’m not Linux-literate. Or is there a way to download back levels of MBL firmware? That would be just as effective as backing up the current firmware. And is there an easy way of determining the current running level of firmware? I found that I’m running 02.43.09-038 by pouring through the output produced by the “Create and Save System Report” utility, but there must be an easier way.

http://community.wd.com/t5/My-Book-Live/GUIDE-Build-a-Custom-Firmware/m-p/533729/highlight/true#M18066

Hmm.  The very first comment in the page you pointed to tells me go go away.  It says: “AS ALWAYS, STAY AWAY UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING”.  As I said, I don’t know Linux.  I don’t know any flavor of Unix.   So I’m going to ask some bonehead questions.

I see from a web earch that “dd” is essentially a copy.  I don’t understand specifically what I’ve read about md0 and md1.  Everything I’ve seen implies these are raid disks, but I assume from this thread’s topic that one or the other specifically contains the bootable image of the operating system.  Yes?  And that the dd will copy it to Public/rootfs.img.

I’m afraid I don’t understand what is going on in “Guide 2”.

The disk of a MBL contains the OS firmware in one of the partitions of the disk.  To back up the firmware, you must copy the image of the partition to another location - in this case PUBLIC.  Then if you want to make a furhter backup, you can transfer the file to your computer. 

That .img file is the format expected by the “Update from File” utility?  If so, I should be in pretty good shape … as long as the web GUI is working.  And if the web server is dead but the operating system is alive I see that I can issue

/usr/local/sbin/factoryRestore.sh noreformat

to get abck to a levle that does have a working web server.  I assume that I issue that command via SSH.

Am I the only person paranoid enough to worry about this?  Do most people just upgrade the firmware without having a backout plan.  I have a strong belief in Murphy; I expect a power failure in the middle of the update.

back up your firmware to PUBLIC. then reprogram the reset button so that it will load the firmware in PUBLIC when depressed.  The guide i posted tells how to do this.

You are being a bit parnoid.  In the worst case that a firmware upgrade bricks the MBL, you can always do a debrick using a guide on this forum - and you will not lose any data.    however, if you follow the link to the instructions i posted, you will effectively be able to do a debrick by pressing the reset button.  much easier and less headache.

I guess I should clearly state that my fear of incorrectly following the steps in the guide you posted is greater than my fear of something going wrong with the update.  I can easily picture my having a box with the reset button reprogramed into a no-op.  So please forgive another bonehead question.

If the reprogrammed reset button will unbrick the box, wouldn’t an un-reprogrammed reset button also unbriick the box?  I would then have back-level firmware, but I could manually “Update from File” … if I had a file containing my current firmware.

Or just download you current and new version from:

http://drivers.softpedia.com/dyn-search.php?search_term=my+book+live\

Or you can also get the fimware from:

http://download.wdc.com/nas/apnc-024310-048-20150507.deb

or

http://download.wdc.com/nas/

the reset button is factory set to only do a reset of the config file. it is not set to do a reinstall of firmware.

Shabuboy wrote:

Or just download you current and new version from:

http://drivers.softpedia.com/dyn-search.php?search_term=my+book+live\

 

Or you can also get the fimware from:

http://download.wdc.com/nas/apnc-024310-048-20150507.deb

or

http://download.wdc.com/nas/

So from this do I assume that the “Update from File” function takes a .deb file as input?  If so, this is the solution I was looking for.  It, of course, is of no use if the device is truly bricked, but I’m counting on that not being the case.  And I (probably naively) assume there is some way of doing this same function via SSH if the GUI is dead.

I think that WD is remiss in not providing an automatic backup and roll-back function in their update procedure.  Relying on customer hacks (such as changing the fucntion of the reset buton) is not reasonable customer support.  And anything that relies on SSH or WinSCP is definitely a hack. 

Even though WD could do some fancy roll back option, which would not be a bad idea, I would not refer to the options as hacks.

SSH/WINSCP are protocols widely use to manage Linux servers. Which BTW, most NAS devices, regardless of brand, are.

You heard correct, you have a Linux server!!! Debian Lenny flavor to be exact.

And yes, Linux can be intimidating for beginners. I am far from expert, but was scary at first.

And finally, regardless of what you do, ALWAYS ALWAYS have two copies on different media, for all those files you classify as important to you.

Shabuboy wrote:

Even though WD could do some fancy roll back option, which would not be a bad idea, I would not refer to the options as hacks.

 

SSH/WINSCP are protocols widely use to manage Linux servers. Which BTW, most NAS devices, regardless of brand, are.

You heard correct, you have a Linux server!!! Debian Lenny flavor to be exact.

 

And yes, Linux can be intimidating for beginners. I am far from expert, but was scary at first.

 

And finally, regardless of what you do, ALWAYS ALWAYS have two copies on different media, for all those files you classify as important to you.

I refered to the backup and recovery options as “hacks” because (I assume) they were created by customers - very knowledgable and talented customers - playing with the devices and creating tools not provided by the vendor.  To me, that is hacking.  The procedures are probably very good, but all it takes is one typo to mess them up.  And then it takes someone who knows what he/she is doing to fix things.

Yes, Linux is everywhere.   Within sight I have 2 routers and 2 modems running Linux (or some flavor of Unix) plus the WD device.  And those are only the ones I know about. 

Certainly SSH and SCP are widely used to manage Linux servers, but the average user of the WD drives is not a Linux server manager.   I suspect the typical Mac or Windows user knows nothing about Linux - probably has not even heard of Linux.  (Sort of ironic since the Mac users are using Unix every day.)

BTW, I upgraded the MBL firmware (almost) without problem so all this is moot … this time.  I got a failure messesge saying there was an error but the process may or may not have succeeded - try again.  I tried again.  It immediately said the update had been successful and it was rebooting.  It then just sat there with a white LED for about 15 minutes.  Finally it woke up and behaved normally.

I have 2 backup copies of the contents of the entire MBL disk and a 3rd (not quite current) copy of the really important stuff.