How I unbricked my MBL after the November 2012 firmware update

Legacy Products My Book Live
1

How I got my bricked Dashboard UI back!..

NOTE: As Myron has posted elsewhere and in response to this, this procedure is only valid if you had SSH enabled prior to the firmware update.  If you did have SSH then this post might help you if words like FTP and Putty sound like a foreign language…

Previously I had done the automatic firmware update, then could no longer get to the MBL dashboard web interface.  However, I was able to see the MBL in ‘Network’, and navigate to all of my files, and I could FTP to the MBL and see the files there too.

Thanks to this thread: http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/forum/t-307650 I discovered that I could manually do the update, so thought I’d give that a try.  To do that:

  1. I first went to http://support.wdc.com/product/release2info.asp?lang=en and downloaded the latest firmware, in my case: apnc-021009-124-20111113.deb

  2. I now uploaded that file to the MBL using FTP.  If you need FTP, the one I use is free and called WinSCP:

http://winscp.net/download/winscp435setup.exe  When you use it, you set up a new connection with:

File Protocol: SFTP  port should default to 22

Host Name: (in my case) 192.168.0.104

User Name: root

Password: welc0me  (where 0 is a zero)

  1. If you FTP successfully you can now click the up directory folder and you are in the mystical world of the real root () directory of the MBL!  So, now I navigated to:

\CacheVolume

  1. Now I dragged into that folder the .deb that I had downloaded

  2. Now I used ‘putty’ to access the MBL drive.  If you need putty.exe you can find it here: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

  3. I logged in to putty, using the username: root and password: welc0me (where the ‘0’ is a zero, not the letter O)

  4. I now changed directory to get to the correct folder (don’t type the ‘#’, that is just the prompt you’ll see in putty):

cd /usr/local/sbin   NOTE: The prompt should now show the correct folder.

  1. Now I told the MBL to do the update by typing (using the name of the file I had downloaded):

updateFirmwareFromFile.sh /CacheVolume/apnc-021009-124-20111113.deb  NOTE: Be very careful to use the exact upper and lower case letters, it matters!  Putty let me know it was updating my firmware from 021009 to 021009.

  1. The white light came on on the MBL (that’s a good thing, it means it’s doing the update).  I now waited what seemed like forever, but was probably 5 minutes.  Finally the putty prompt showed a message saying the update was successful and it was now rebooting. After a long while the MBL light finally went yellow, then flashing green.  Right away I tried using the UI but it seemed to be hung forever in Firefox (which I guess was better than the 192.168.0.104 not found message that I had been getting previously).  It turned out it wasn’t hung, the MBL was still busy with the update so everything was taking a loooooong time to display, so you might want to wait about 20 minutes before you give it a try.

  2. Miracle!  Everything was back to normal.  MBL unbricked.  Happy holidays.

1 Like
2

This is all under the assumption that SSH has been enabled before the Dashboard UI gets bricked.  If SSH has not been enabled then the SSH daemon is not running so Telnet-through-SSH and FTP-through-SSH (SFTP) can’t be established.

Before you perform an firmware update through login to the Dashboard UI and, assuming your NAS is named MyBookLive, change the URL to either http://mybooklive.local/UI/ssh or http://mybooklive/UI/ssh

Remember NOT to route port 22 out to the Internet/WAN. Especially if you do not change the deffault root user password.

3

Hello there,

   I tried as described as mentioned by greatbrit/myron and I got an email from mybook that firmware update was successfull. But still I cant get in to the UI.

My problem - I did last firmware upgrade thru net instead of downloading the file and then applying to mybook.

The http://myboklive/UI/login displays the login page but after correct putting password it directs to 

http://myboklive/UI with blank white page.I cant access config parameters and nither can access the w2go which I used to access before the firmware update.

Firmware updated :021009-124-20111113.deb.

I have copied my \Cachevolume Update.log file contents.

Experts out there can somebody help me to get my UI back?? I have ssh access

================>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>START >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>======

(Reading database …
dpkg: warning: files list file for package `ramlog’ missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.

dpkg: warning: files list file for package `libparted0’ missing, assuming package has no files currently installed.
19343 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace apnc 02.10.09-124 (using …/apnc-021009-124-20111113.deb) …
stopping duplicate md device /dev/md1
mdadm: stopped /dev/md1
Prepare for upgrade install…
Stopping periodic command scheduler: crond failed!
Stopping standby monitor: monitoriostart-stop-daemon: warning: failed to kill 2364: No such process
1 pids were not killed
No process in pidfile ‘/var/run/standby.pid’ found running; none killed.
 failed!
PID file /var/run/mediaserver.pid not found, stopping server anyway…
twonkymedia: no process killed

Stopping itunes server: forked-daapd.
Kill Miocrawler Process…
No miocrawler process is found
Wed Dec 28 19:16:50 IST 2011 - %W - Communication Manager - process is not running
Prepare for upgrade pkg install…
mdadm: /dev/sda1 appears to contain an ext2fs file system
    size=1999808K  mtime=Thu Jan  1 05:30:02 1970
mdadm: size set to 1999808K
mdadm: creation continuing despite oddities due to --run
mdadm: array /dev/md1 started.
mke2fs 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=1 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
125184 inodes, 499952 blocks
24997 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=515899392
16 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
7824 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
    32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912

Checking for bad blocks (read-only test):   0.00% done, 0:00 elapsed  4.72% done, 0:01 elapsed 10.06% done, 0:02 elapsed 15.49% done, 0:03 elapsed 20.85% done, 0:04 elapsed 26.05% done, 0:05 elapsed 28.35% done, 0:06 elapsed 32.41% done, 0:07 elapsed 36.33% done, 0:08 elapsed 41.16% done, 0:09 elapsed 46.31% done, 0:10 elapsed 51.05% done, 0:11 elapsed 56.53% done, 0:12 elapsed 61.88% done, 0:13 elapsed 67.39% done, 0:14 elapsed 72.75% done, 0:15 elapsed 77.86% done, 0:16 elapsed 83.21% done, 0:17 elapsed 88.56% done, 0:18 elapsed 92.48% done, 0:19 elapsed 96.64% done, 0:20 elapseddone                                
Writing inode tables:  0/16 1/16 2/16 3/16 4/16 5/16 6/16 7/16 8/16 9/1610/1611/1612/1613/1614/1615/16done                            
Creating journal (8192 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 36 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
preinst: current root device=/dev/md0
preinst: upgrade root device=/dev/md1
Unpacking…
Unpacking replacement apnc …
Setting up apnc (02.10.09-124) …
postinst: upgradeDevice= /dev/md1
postinst: currentRootDevice= /dev/md0
Copy image to upgrade device /dev/md1
Compare checksum
-: OK
ok 0
postinst: replaced old version 021009124
mount new root file system
Re-sourcing ‘disk-param.sh’ from (/mnt/rootfs/usr/local/sbin/disk-param.sh) to aquire any changed or new definitions…
postinst: new version is 02.10.09-124
Copy saved logs (except sshd.log)…
0_wd-nas_upgrade: begin script: /var/lib/dpkg/info/apnc.postinst /mnt/rootfs

PKG=wd-nas
CALLER=apnc.postinst
PKG_DIR=/mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/wd-nas
mountBasePath=/mnt/rootfs
restorePath=/
SETTINGS_DIR=/mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/wd-nas/saved_settings
OLD_SETTINGS_DIR=/etc/wdcomp.d/wd-nas/saved_settings
PATH=/mnt/rootfs/sbin:/mnt/rootfs/bin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/bin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/sbin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/local/bin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/local/sbin

run-parts–>0_wd-nas_upgrade, trigger = apnc.postinst
usermod: no changes
~ 0_wd-nas_upgrade, trigger = apnc.postinst, condition = /etc/.updateInProgress
///etc/standby.conf' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/standby.conf’
trustees new_orig=/mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/wd-nas/saved_settings///etc/trustees.conf
trustees old_orig=/etc/wdcomp.d/wd-nas/saved_settings///etc/trustees.conf
Trustees old version:003 ;  trustees new version:003
Trustees at version 003, copying existing file…
//etc/trustees.conf' -> /mnt/rootfs/etc/trustees.conf’
cp: cannot stat `/tmp/trustees_new.conf’: No such file or directory

Version:003

Note:

#  If the “:CU” rule is set on a location then adding “+group” access only
#  adds users who have that group set as their default in /etc/passwd.
#  Users which are added to groups in /etc/group are not included since this
#  behavior requires the U(nix) allow flags to be active - “www-data” user access
#  to /share is added explicitly.

[/dev/sda4]/shares:*:CRWBEXU
[/dev/sda4]/backup:*:CRWBEXU
[/dev/sda4]/shares:*:RBEXO
[/dev/sda4]/backup:*:RBEXO
[/dev/sda4]/backup/TimeMachine:*:RWBEX:*:CU
[/dev/sda4]/backup/SmartWare:*:RWBEX:*:CU
[/dev/sda4]/shares/Public:*:RWBEX:*:CU
[/dev/sda4]/shares:+share:RWBEX:www-data:RWBEX
[/dev/sda4]/shares/DigitalMedia:admin:RWBEX:*:CU
///etc/auto_update.conf' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/auto_update.conf’
///etc/passwd' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/passwd’
///etc/nas/UI_prefs.conf' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/nas/UI_prefs.conf’
///etc/nas/service_startup/twonky' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/nas/service_startup/twonky’
///etc/nas/service_startup/itunes' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/nas/service_startup/itunes’
///etc/nas/service_startup/vsftpd' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/nas/service_startup/vsftpd’
///etc/nas/service_startup/ssh' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/nas/service_startup/ssh’
///etc/alert_email.conf' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/alert_email.conf’
///etc/contentdir' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/contentdir’
///etc/shadow' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/shadow’
///etc/samba/overall_share' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/samba/overall_share’
///etc/samba/smbpasswd' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/samba/smbpasswd’
Samba conf Patch exists…
//etc/samba/smb.conf' -> /mnt/rootfs/etc/samba/smb.conf’
NSPT_upgrade: begin script: /var/lib/dpkg/info/apnc.postinst /mnt/rootfs

PKG=NSPT
CALLER=apnc.postinst
PKG_DIR=/mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/NSPT
mountBasePath=/mnt/rootfs
restorePath=/
SETTINGS_DIR=/mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/NSPT/saved_settings
OLD_SETTINGS_DIR=/etc/wdcomp.d/NSPT/saved_settings
PATH=/mnt/rootfs/sbin:/mnt/rootfs/bin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/bin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/sbin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/local/bin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/local/sbin

run-parts–>NSPT_upgrade, trigger = apnc.postinst
~ NSPT_upgrade, trigger = apnc.postinst, condition = /etc/.updateInProgress
~ Running script  /mnt/rootfs/usr/local/sbin/updateDefaults.sh upgrade NSPT /mnt/rootfs /
~ upgrade resources…
///etc/cron.d/WDSAFE' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/cron.d/WDSAFE’
admin_upgrade: begin script: /var/lib/dpkg/info/apnc.postinst /mnt/rootfs
root: PATH=/mnt/rootfs/sbin:/mnt/rootfs/bin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/bin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/sbin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/local/bin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/local/sbin
root: PKG=Admin
root: CALLER=apnc.postinst
root: PKG_DIR=/mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/Admin
root: mountBasePath=/mnt/rootfs
root: restorePath=/
root: SETTINGS_DIR=/mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/Admin/saved_settings
root: OLD_SETTINGS_DIR=/etc/wdcomp.d/Admin/saved_settings
root: ~ admin_upgrade, trigger = apnc.postinst, condition = /mnt/rootfs/etc/.updateInProgress
///CacheVolume/.orion/oriondb_version.txt' -> /mnt/rootfs//CacheVolume/.orion/oriondb_version.txt’
logger: dbUpgrade
logger: Keeping old DB file across FW update: “/CacheVolume/.orion/orion.db”.
logger: db new_version=2 current_version=2
/mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/Admin/saved_settings//CacheVolume/.orion//oriondb_version.txt' -> /CacheVolume/.orion/oriondb_version.txt’
///CacheVolume/.orion/orion_cm_enabled' -> /mnt/rootfs//CacheVolume/.orion/orion_cm_enabled’
///var/www/Admin/webapp/config/server.crt' -> /mnt/rootfs//var/www/Admin/webapp/config/server.crt’
///var/www/Admin/webapp/config/server.csr' -> /mnt/rootfs//var/www/Admin/webapp/config/server.csr’
///var/www/Admin/webapp/config/server.key' -> /mnt/rootfs//var/www/Admin/webapp/config/server.key’
///var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.ini_safe' -> /mnt/rootfs//var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.ini_safe’
logger: dynamicConfigUpgrade
logger: old_version=000
logger: new_version=003
logger: file_current=///var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.ini
logger: file_upgrade=/mnt/rootfs//var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.ini
logger: new_original=/mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/Admin/saved_settings//var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.ini
logger: UPGRADES=COPY_EXISTING
///var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.ini' -> /tmp/tmp.RqkxQnTZnJ’
admin_upgrade: COPY_EXISTING: applying upgrade rule
///var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.ini' -> /tmp/tmp.RqkxQnTZnJ’
logger: COPY_EXISTING: done.
removed /mnt/rootfs//var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.ini' /tmp/tmp.RqkxQnTZnJ’ → /mnt/rootfs//var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.ini' ~ Running script  /mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/apache-php-webdav\_upgrade /var/lib/dpkg/info/apnc.postinst /mnt/rootfs run-parts-->apache-php-webdav\_upgrade, trigger = apnc.postinst ~ apache-php-webdav\_upgrade, trigger = apnc.postinst, condition = /etc/.updateInProgress ~ Running script  /mnt/rootfs/usr/local/sbin/updateDefaults.sh upgrade apache-php-webdav /mnt/rootfs / ~ upgrade resources.. ///etc/nas/apache2/auth/require.inc’ → /mnt/rootfs//etc/nas/apache2/auth/require.inc' ///etc/nas/apache2/auth/htpasswd’ → /mnt/rootfs//etc/nas/apache2/auth/htpasswd' ///etc/nas/apache2/auth/alias.inc’ → /mnt/rootfs//etc/nas/apache2/auth/alias.inc' ///etc/nas/apache2/auth/apache_userlist’ → /mnt/rootfs//etc/nas/apache2/auth/apache\_userlist' ///etc/nas/apache2/auth/htgroup’ → /mnt/rootfs//etc/nas/apache2/auth/htgroup' ~ Running script  /mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/date-time\_upgrade /var/lib/dpkg/info/apnc.postinst /mnt/rootfs run-parts-->date-time\_upgrade, trigger = apnc.postinst ~ date-time\_upgrade, trigger = apnc.postinst, condition = /etc/.updateInProgress ~ Running script  /mnt/rootfs/usr/local/sbin/updateDefaults.sh upgrade date-time /mnt/rootfs / ~ upgrade resources.. ///etc/default/ntpdate’ → /mnt/rootfs//etc/default/ntpdate' ///etc/localtime’ → /mnt/rootfs//etc/localtime' ///etc/nas/service_startup/ntpdate’ → /mnt/rootfs//etc/nas/service\_startup/ntpdate' ///etc/timezone’ → `/mnt/rootfs//etc/timezone’
networking-general_upgrade: begin script: /var/lib/dpkg/info/apnc.postinst /mnt/rootfs

PKG=networking-general
CALLER=apnc.postinst
PKG_DIR=/mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/networking-general
mountBasePath=/mnt/rootfs
restorePath=/
SETTINGS_DIR=/mnt/rootfs/etc/wdcomp.d/networking-general/saved_settings
OLD_SETTINGS_DIR=/etc/wdcomp.d/networking-general/saved_settings
PATH=/mnt/rootfs/sbin:/mnt/rootfs/bin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/bin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/sbin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/local/bin:/mnt/rootfs/usr/local/sbin

~ networking-general_upgrade, trigger = apnc.postinst
~ condition = /etc/.updateInProgress
~ Running script  /mnt/rootfs/usr/local/sbin/updateDefaults.sh upgrade networking-general /mnt/rootfs /
~ upgrade resources…
///etc/hosts' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/hosts’
///etc/hostname' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/hostname’
///etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf’
///etc/network/interfaces' -> /mnt/rootfs//etc/network/interfaces’
cp: cannot stat /etc/wdcomp.d/sw-nas-inst\_default': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat /etc/wdcomp.d/sw-nas-inst_upgrade’: No such file or directory
No TwonkyMedia server is running
A reboot is required for the upgrade to take effect.
postinst complete.

===================================================>>>>>>END

regards

-Eff

4

I wonder if one of the Apache2 files that are copied over from the partition being upgraded has become corrupted. In which case the problem will get copied over to the upgraded partition.

What is the content of the following file:   /var/www/Admin/webapp/config/dynamicconfig.ini

1 Like
5

I see as below

[config]
SUBDOMAIN=“”
DEVICEID=“23713”
DEVICEAUTH=“fd29677ca74dc641bf59d78eff2a6ad4”
EXTERNAL_IP=“”
EXTERNAL_PORT=“”
EXTERNAL_SSL_PORT=“443”
INTERNAL_IP=“192.168.1.2”
INTERNAL_PORT=“80”
DEVICE_SSL_PORT=“443”
REMOTEACCESS=“TRUE”
COMMUNICATION_STATUS=“relayed”
DEFAULT_PORTS_ONLY=“FALSE”
MANUAL_PORT_FORWARD=“FALSE”
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_ROUTER_IP="MANUAL_EXTERNAL_HTTP_PORT=
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_HTTPS_PORT=
TOTAL_SETTINGS=17
"

Ay ideas ?

-Eff

6

Yes. I do see a problem and it’s indicated using yellow coloured text. I’m also wondering if anything else has has been corrupted.  Hope Western Digital Support are reading this.  What I see is clearly wrong and if it is only the upgrade procedure that is bricking the Dashboard UI then someone at W.D. development team is slacking and not checking their scripts properly before firmware updates are deployed.

That is the assumption. Can you please confirm that the contents of that configuration file is exactly as you have copied it to this discussion thread?

That configuration file should be . . .

[config]
SUBDOMAIN=""
DEVICEID="23713"
DEVICEAUTH="fd29677ca74dc641bf59d78eff2a6ad4"
EXTERNAL_IP=""
EXTERNAL_PORT=""
EXTERNAL_SSL_PORT="443"
INTERNAL_IP="192.168.1.2"
INTERNAL_PORT="80"
DEVICE_SSL_PORT="443"
REMOTEACCESS="TRUE"
COMMUNICATION_STATUS="relayed"
DEFAULT_PORTS_ONLY="FALSE"
MANUAL_PORT_FORWARD="FALSE"
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_ROUTER_IP=""
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_HTTP_PORT=""
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_HTTPS_PORT=""
TOTAL_SETTINGS="17"

Effbook wrote:

I see as below

 

[config]
SUBDOMAIN=“”
DEVICEID=“23713”
DEVICEAUTH=“fd29677ca74dc641bf59d78eff2a6ad4”
EXTERNAL_IP=“”
EXTERNAL_PORT=“”
EXTERNAL_SSL_PORT=“443”
INTERNAL_IP=“192.168.1.2”
INTERNAL_PORT=“80”
DEVICE_SSL_PORT=“443”
REMOTEACCESS=“TRUE”
COMMUNICATION_STATUS=“relayed”
DEFAULT_PORTS_ONLY=“FALSE”
MANUAL_PORT_FORWARD=“FALSE”
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_ROUTER_IP="MANUAL_EXTERNAL_HTTP_PORT=
MANUAL_EXTERNAL_HTTPS_PORT=
TOTAL_SETTINGS=17
"

Ay ideas ?

-Eff

2 Likes
7

Wonderful MYRON …YOU ARE THE MAN!!

I coorrected the lines as just like yours ,then saved the file and alhamdulilla ,there is my UI back after entering the pass!!

You have no idea how much this helped me !!. Kudos !

Apart from this can you tell us which all files are important like this that we need to keep as a backup for reference,so that next time we can fix it just like you Myron :stuck_out_tongue:

Appreciate if you can share THE BEST PRACTICES that you follow here.That will really help all of us including the WD experts out there.

-Eff

8

Well, the first thing is that SSH M-U-S-T be enabled.  If SSH is not enabled and something goes wrong then it really does become a big problem. Once you have access to the Linux command prompt I would advise you change the default password from welc0me to something else more secure using the passwd command.

The second thing is using someting like FileZilla create an SFTP connection to the NAS and take a copy of the entire /var/www directory and everything under it. After that look in the /etc directory and take a copy of every single configuration file that you can find.  (Maybe take a copy of the entire /etc directory and it’s structure?)

Be very careful NOT to alter or delete anything !!!

I’m still figuring all this out for myself.

From what I’ve seen from what people have posted it looks like the bricking of MyBook Live’s and bricking of the Dashboard UI is down to some coder at Western Digital getting it wrong.  So…  It seems the firmware update is faulty.

Also, what does not help, Western Digital (I know I’ve mentioned this) really messed up big time with the factory restore facility and also there should be a robust firmware status recovery option and also, somehow, this option should also be activated using the reset button in-case the MyBook Live refuses to communicate to anything connected to it.

At least for the reset button to enable SSH and there be a script that is designed to put things right.

I’m glad I’ve managed to help. Even I’ve learned something new.  :smiley:

1 Like
9

(Deleted by self)

10

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.

11

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.

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!

12

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

13

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?

14

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!? :wink:

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

15

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

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…

16

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/m-p/302320

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-11-17/m-p/321103#M7314

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?

17

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:

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

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?

18

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/td-p/302320 )

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/SavedLogFilesmv /var/log/daemon.log.1 /DataVolume/shares/Public/SavedLogFilesrm /var/log.hdd/daemon.logrm /var/log.hdd/daemon.log.1reboot

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!  :smiley:

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.  :laughing:

Boy, am I on a roll today!

1 Like
19

I am on a Mac.

20

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.

1 Like