Repairing the GoFlex Home NAS Drive

I was recently introduced to the GoFlex Home Network Drive over the holidays, and got to help set it up. Unfortunately, the device has a bug, which is not fixed in the latest updates, that makes it impossible to use static IP addresses.

Each time the device powers off and restarts, it sets itself to use DHCP.

The device runs Linux under the hood, and even exposes the SSH port, but the accounts it uses are not obvious. And root is disabled.

To fix the device yourself, you will first need root access. The easiest way is described in this wiki page. Basically:

	ssh USERNAME_hipserv2_seagateplug_XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX@DEVICE_IP_ADDRESS
	sudo -E -s

The USERNAME is the name of the account you have created on the device, when using the usual Windows interface. The XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX is the PK Product Key located on the bottom of the device.

First, make it easier to gain root access by enabling root SSH logins:

	Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and uncomment:
		PermitRootLogin yes
	Set your own root password:
		passwd root
	Restart SSH:
		service sshd restart

Next, there is a bug in the logic of the /etc/init.d/oe-bootinit script's ensure_firstbootnetwork() function. The entire function should probably only run if the /etc/firstboot file exists, but there is an if/else statement that only checks this for the first half of the if statement. The else is where the DHCP overwrite happens.

By this point, though, your device has passed the first boot, so you don't need this code anymore. I commented out the entire block of code, and replaced it with something innocuous, just to avoid any shell issues with empty functions:

        echo do nothing > /dev/null

You'll want to be careful editing these files, since if you make a typo that prevents network boot, you won't be able to login to fix it.

It seems that Seagate has known about this issue since September, but there were no software updates that fix this issue. Using the web interface to check for updates, it claimed that the device was up to date. You may want to take this into consideration when making future purchasing decisions.

Good luck, and enjoy!

Syndicated 2011-01-03 16:14:18 from A Pilgrim's Journal - Entries tagged advogato