bionic and WD MyCloud Live headaches

[przxqgl]

i get the very distinct impression that this is going to be the latest in my "help, i haven't upgraded in 5 years and now everything is borked!" series, but... well... everything is borked.

this is what i'm running:

uname -a
Linux Humptulips 4.15.0-147-generic #151-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 18 19:21:19 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

AMD FM2 A 10-5800k quad-core processor (3.8GHz) on an ASUS A88XM-A motherboard, 16GB PC-12800 DDR3 RAM, Radeon HD 7660D integrated video, 1TB internal HD.

and i'm having trouble with a 2TB WD MyCloud Live that is about 8 years old (it's actually 6 years old)... old enough that WD no longer supports it, which they never did anyway, because i use kubuntu rather than those other operating systems (Win, Mac) which they do support, but not this particular device, because it is too old...

the MyCloud drive is less than half full, and contains ALL of my work for the past 8 (actually 6) years. it was working two days ago. i shut everything down, went to bed, and when i woke up, my desktop box says the server doesn't exist.

alledgedly, if i plug the disk directly into the computer, rather than into the router, i can access it like a "normal drive", but linux doesn't work that way.

if i can get access to the MyCloud drive, i have a 1TB samsung 860EVO SATA drive that is all set to dump everything onto, i just have to hook it up... which i don't remember how to do.

i originally bought the MyCloud device at Fry's, which isn't an option any longer.

i'm completely lost.

hopefully someone can help me straighten this out.

[claydoh]

So have you actually tried plugging it directly into the PC\ to see what happens?

It *is* 8 years old, it could just be dead or on its way. Or a bad connection to the router or PC


Also, I do believe that this device is actually running an embedded Linux OS, most NAS type devices do.

At wort you should be able to remove the HDD drive inside it and place it in a USB hard drive enclosure or adapter, or connect it directly inside the PC, and retrieve the data if the drive itself is fine, and the server part is what has died.

[przxqgl]

i plugged it into my mac laptop.

what came up was a MyCloud Live icon on the desktop that said i was logged in as "guest" and had four public folders (documents, pictures, music and one other which i don't remember), all of which were empty.

i actually had the device partitioned four ways: one partition for my son, one for my wife, one for me, and a "public" one, where i kept pictures, and appointments and miscellaneous stuff.

none of the logins were "guest", so my impression is that it logged me into another, blank, partition.

at that point, i turned it off and disconnected it.

i COULD plug it into my linux desktop, but i don't want to do that until i have a better idea of where i'm going to move the stuff that's on it, because i get the impression that i won't get another chance.

also, i don't know how to connect a new drive to my linux desktop. i've actually had this samsung 1TB SATA drive sitting on my desk since 2018, because i haven't taken the time to figure out how to connect it.

[jglen490]

A small non-profit that I do support work for had a similar situation.

A 1TB drive inside a Toshiba Canvio enclosure. And yes, the Canvio had a Linux based NAS controller inside the enclosure, and the drive had some horrible single drive RAID setup. I literally ripped the enclosure apart, retrieved the hard drive, and tried to connect the drive directly to my Linux desktop. Of course it could not actually read the filesystem, until I installed the applicable software RAID utilities (mdadm, and maybe some other stuff). A reboot later, and Linux found everything!

I copied the files out to a directory on my desktop I created just for those files. I kept the original drive until we could figure out what to do. We ended up getting a 4 disk Synology RAID array unit and 4 WD Red hard drives. I lucked out and got a slightly older set of drives that were NOT affected by the weirdness that WD did with their network hard drives. It's cruising along just fine. And I have a backup methodology in place even though we use a RAID 5 setup. Can't be too careful.

So, don't be too worried that you can't see the data on your drive right now. It's there, you just need the right software to bring it to light.

[przxqgl]

thanks for the reassurance. i'm about 90% convinced that, despite the fact that they don't do tech support for linux, WD uses linux to make its NAS work, and i am confident that someone here will help me figure out how to access it.

if and/or when i rip it apart, i'm going need to know what software i will have to use to get my computer to read it, preferably before i actually try anything like that. i could connect it to the back of my computer, like the WD tech support suggested, but, with linux, i'm not certain that it will actually do anything.

and, like i said, i don't remember how to physically install a hard disk... i know there's something that has to be added to the CMOS before anything else, but apart from that, i'm clueless.

it's just a matter of figuring out where the stuff is going to go.

[jglen490]

Nothing needs to be added to CMOS. The WD MyCloud uses a USB cable to connect to hardware. You can disconnect it from your router, and connect it directly to a PC or laptop.

[przxqgl]

Nothing needs to be added to CMOS. The WD MyCloud uses a USB cable to connect to hardware. You can disconnect it from your router, and connect it directly to a PC or laptop.

actually, it's a CAT5 cable, but what i need to mess around with the CMOS for, is the disk on which i intend to put all of the data, once i break it free from the current cage it's in.

i don't have enough disk space, as it currently stands. i need to add another hard disk to my computer, BEFORE i start messing with the MyCloud drive. for that, i believe, you actually DO need to mess around with the CMOS.

[claydoh]

I will almost guarantee that there is a USB port on the back.......

[przxqgl]

I will almost guarantee that there is a USB port on the back...

there is no USB port on the back. there's a CAT5 port, and a DC power input, and a little hole that you stick an unbent paper clip to reset the thing.

and then, there's this: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-18472 - Western Digital WD My Book Live and WD My Book Live Duo (all versions) have a root Remote Command Execution bug via shell metacharacters in the /api/1.0/rest/language_configuration language parameter. It can be triggered by anyone who knows the IP address of the affected device, as exploited in the wild in June 2021 for factory reset commands…

[claydoh]

Yup

In today's news

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021...stern-digital/

Sent from my LM-V600 using Tapatalk

[GreyGeek]

WOW, Claydoh!
2TB of data and the guy in that link didn't have backups?
That is a serious Noob mistake.

[przxqgl]

WOW, Claydoh!
2TB of data and the guy in that link didn't have backups?
That is a serious Noob mistake.

yup.

i'm not a noob, i just act like one. 8/

[claydoh]

It is far far more than one person, it seems....there are quite a few articles on this from the past 24 hours.

https://community.wd.com/t/action-re...ive-duo/268147

This is actually one reason I replace my router every so often, when the support cycle has passed. I usually get cheaper models that don't always work well with ddwrt and the like, depending on my finances.
You'd think a backup device might have a slightly longer support cycle, but the things have not seen firmware since 2015. But then again, these things are connected to the internet, not just the local network apparently.

It is kinda like running and old version of Wordpress for your website, or an old version of forum software.......


Aaaand......https://community.wd.com/t/wd-knew-m...ars-ago/268182

[przxqgl]

You'd think a backup device might have a slightly longer support cycle, but the things have not seen firmware since 2015.

that is the only hope i have at this point, because i'm reasonably sure (which means more than 50%, but less than 75%, because of my brain injury) that i have had firmware updates after 2015... i'm not sure, and i have no idea how to find out, but it's a little bit of hope...

and i STILL don't know what changes i have to make to my CMOS in order to install a second hard disk in my computer, before i even start messing with the MyBook, because, if it does have data on it, i want to be sure there's a place to put it before i, potentially, lose all access to it.

[GreyGeek]

yup.

i'm not a noob, i just act like one. 8/

We all do at one time or another! Trouble occurs just after we fool ourselves into taking a shortcut, for what ever reason, by saying to ourselves "it won't hurt just once not to do ...".

I'm with you Claydoh!
I've used DD-WRT in my routers for the last 10-15 years (forgotten exactly how long). At first I burned DD-WRT to my routers, being careful to buy only the ones the DD-WRT recommended. Then, I decided to just buy a router that already had DD-WRT installed. The following router is one I've been using since the summer of 2014, when they first came out. It has been working faultlessly for me. I disabled my fiber optic cable modem internal router and use this one in its place.

https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-AirSt...4650218&sr=8-5

Before that one I used this one for a couple years:
https://www.amazon.com/Linksys-Advan...4650218&sr=8-6
A Cisco E2500. About the time I got that router the CIA spying on Americans scandal was big news. It was leaked at the time that the CIA wanted router makers to put back doors into their routers. Cisco, which had recently purchased Linksys, sent out an update which required owners to purchase a Cisco cloud account before their update would install. Apparently Cisco wanted to earn a little revenue if the CIA was forcing them to update the router firmware. Regardless, I burned DDWRT to the E2500 router.

Before that, around 2005 or 2006, I was using the Linksys WRT54GL
https://www.amazon.com/Linksys-WRT54...s%2C200&sr=8-3
onto which I also burned DD-WRT just a few years before it burned out and I replaced it with the Linksys E2500 (Cisco's). So, with the DD-WRT firmware I used it for about 6 or so years. From 1998 until 2005 or 2006 I used the Linksys 54GL with stock firmware burned in.

I've determined that I will never use a wifi router without DD-WRT burned in.