Cannot access the dashboard on Mybook Live 1TB Nas drive [ Edited ]

[Myron]

Barry, you're welcome.

The MyBook Live in itself is actually quite a neat device and being able to have access the innards is useful. Saved me having to RMA the drive a few times and when On a previous firmware the Twonky media server kept crashing, where W.D. would have told me to factory restore the MBL, I discovered that all that was needed was to disable Twonky, erase two files and restart it.

Where the MBL falls over, and how the W.D. management allowed this to happen is beyond belief, is that the device recovery options are, in the simplest terms, absolutely c-r-a-p.  Especially if the Dashboard UI is bricked and SSH is not enabled.

I'll mention it yet again, a 500Gb LaCie Network Space I have you can easily do a factory restore to the factory shipped firmware WITHOUT losing any of the data stored on it.  If LaCie could build this into their design of their NAS then why can't W.D.

Depending on the design of the W.D. drive is may still be possible. Just depends if W.D. can build in this sort of recovery functionality if, say, the MBL detects the reset button depressed as it is being powered-up as opposed to a soft reset when the button is pressed with the drive powered-up.

Really, there is no need to lose anything held under /DataVolume/shares and /DataVolume/backup while having to perform a fectory restore. Now, if it's proven that the EXT4 file system is corrupted beyond repair then I can see why a format of the /dev/sda4 would have to be done. Personally I would be happy dealing wish a few corrupted files if it means the majority of the files on my MBL remain intact.

Should I have designed a network storage device with sub-standard disaster recovery options the I would sack myself. I would not wait for management to sack me.

I wrote commercial programs I spent quite a lot of time making sure that the fault/error trapping routines didn't just throw up an error message but actually tried to fix the problems that could occur.  Pity such error trapping has not been built into the MyBook Live from the ground up.

For example, If the MBL's dashboard has been detected as has been died then a error-trap routing or watchdog-routine could stop the Apache2 web server as well as networking services. Replace all the necessary files back to a known state and restart the stopped services. I bet that would work-round the dead Dashboard UI issues while a permanant solution is found.

This is all common sense programming to keep systems up and working.

Also, how come the MyBook Live has no anonymous performance and status monitoring built into it so W.D. could see how their products are operating?  Obviously the user could turn such an option on and off, see and see exactly what would be sent to W.D. and then either approve or deny sending such a report.

I actually like the MyBook Live. It is a pity there is no USB port. I am nervous that one day, because of no fault of my own, something may go wrong and I could end up with a bricked drive.

As a precaution I now keep a firmware update file in the MBL so as long as SSH remains functional I have a chance to restore my MBL from a crippled state.  Right now it's operating brilliantly. Better than it was when I purchased it. Even the Web dashboard UI is no longer sluggish. It's pretty fast so credit given to whoever fixed that issue at W.D.

In the meanwhile I'm going to crack open my SFTP client and take a backup copy of whatever configuration files I can AND the entire /var/www directory structure as well as the entire structure of /usr/local/sbin.

[Bayareaman]

I'm one of the many who think this is a lousy product.  I got this new this week, installed the recommended firmware and waved good-bye to the UI.  I've sent logs and reminders to WD support but with no response other than automated email suggesting it may take a day or so to get back to me, and hey, try our community!  I run an IT organization and if we treated our customers that way we'd rightly be out of business.  Well, I've tried everything short of opening the cover which I have no intention of doing.  This pile of XXXX is going back in the box for a refund.   I'm used to Apple products that I plug in and work.  Alas, Time Capsule does stream....

[anotherpaul]

Anyone know if MBL will "automatically" check for the *.deb update file on bootup?  The reason I'm asking is that I see in rc.local there is a removal of *.deb file if MBL was in upgrade mode.

If MBL does check for the upgrade file on bootup, then there may be a way of "unbricking" like that method found at "http://www.lancelhoff.com/how-to-fix-a-bricked-linksys-router/".   Read that it worked for a Netgear router also.

It looks like even if device is bricked, it will still respond to a ping (did a ping on my original MBL & got a response).  Basically, the method sneaks in while doing the responding to the pings to put the firmware upgrade into the appropriate directory & then reboot the device possibly by disconnecting/connecting the power.

1 command prompt to do the ping & another command prompt to do the "put" using either tftp or ftp.  Just enter the commands without pressing the enter key for both sessions; then hit enter for the ping & enter for the "put" within 5 secs to sneak in the firmware file between the pings.

Might work only if there is a check for a firmware upgrade file.

[Myron]

There is more to this than meets the eye.  Some people are seeing a corrupted /etc/hosts file and this is causing mayhem.

What really is necessary is for SSH to be enabled during boot-up.  If SSH is not permanently enabled then it disables itself about a minute after boot but remains permanently enabled if so desired.

The biggest gripe is that there is no easy way into the guts of the MBL when things go wrong without opening he case.

If the MBL works then it's a good piece of kit but when it goes wrong then the resulting fault is usually quite critical.  Not enough thought has been put into recovering from faults.  It seems like W.D.'s programmers have assumed then nothing will go wrong with it.

[zlutas]

Yes, Ireported today problem use WEB-dashboard UI access.  Backup SW work, sharing work too. But I cant change IP, andother setting. it is funny. no help from WD - I will wait.

I dont find any solution for it.

[sglane]

Got the 1 TB MyBook Live and updated to the latest firmware last night and ever since I'm having the same trouble as everyone else. Was really wanting the updated firmware so I could use wd2go instead of mionet.

I bought my MBL on newegg less than a month ago.

So frustrating.

Probably going to wait and see rather than go through the headache a lot has experienced.

[piotrs]

The very same story here,

  but  /usr/local/sbin/factoryRestore.sh with the hardware reset  solved it out 

[sglane]

The UI is working for me now. I just happened to try again last night after Time Machine on my MacBook wasn't able to do a backup so I went and power cycled my MBL and that took care of that problem so just for the heck of it I went to http://mybooklive.local and lo and behold the UI came right up.

Once logged in, there was an update from 3/15 that I went and ahead and downloaded and installed reluctantly and so far so good.

I was able to set up wd2go instead of mionet and it's great.

Best of luck to everyone else out there.