Alt-f setup noob questions (smb & ftp)

[Ramza]

Hi,

I recently upgraded the harddisks in my CH3SNAS and wanted to give alt-
f a try, cause I'd like to install transmission without having to use
command line. I installed alt-f using method 1, as described in the
How to install Wiki. I was able to login to the admin webpages, but I
couldn't access my NAS via smb in explorer or by ftp. Do I have to
configure these steps first? If so, is there any detailed description
about how to set it up?

Also, how can I restart alt-f without enabling it permanently? Thanks
for your help!

[Joao Cardoso]

On Wednesday, January 26, 2011 11:13:54 Ramza wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I recently upgraded the harddisks in my CH3SNAS and wanted to give alt-
> f a try, cause I'd like to install transmission without having to use
> command line. I installed alt-f using method 1, as described in the
> How to install Wiki. I was able to login to the admin webpages, but I
> couldn't access my NAS via smb in explorer or by ftp. Do I have to
> configure these steps first?

You should have been guided in the initial setup, wasn't you?

Setup->Host,Time,Users, then Disk->Wizard, then System->Settings, save
settings.

To start or stop services Services->Network, System, User

In Services->Network you can start smb, set ip up to always start on boot,
configure it adding new shares (The Users and Public shares are always
available after you setup users)... ftp should be available from the very
beginning.

> If so, is there any detailed description about how to set it up?

Just browse the menus :-)

If you want to, write a small guided tour and, after editing, I can put it in
the wiki. Or make your own questions for the (yet empty) FAQ.

> Also, how can I restart alt-f without enabling it permanently? Thanks
> for your help!

By default it will only work once.
You have to change the Alt-F fun_plug permissions in order for it to work
again, or edit the script for it to always start on restart or poweron.
There are instructions on how to do this.

[Ramza]

Hi,

first of all, thanks a lot for your help! I will try to setup alt-f
again, but first I have to get it up running again.

> > Also, how can I restart alt-f without enabling it permanently? Thanks
> > for your help!
>
> By default it will only work once.
> You have to change the Alt-F fun_plug permissions in order for it to work
> again, or edit the script for it to always start on restart or poweron.
> There are instructions on how to do this.

I tried to change the permissions of the fun_plug to executable again,
but this didn't work using a ftp connection (no permissions). Then I
tried to unstall Alt-f by deleting it and copy it to my NAS again -
but that didn't work either, cause I don't have pemissions to delete
the Alt-f folder using ftp. How can I change the permissions of these
files and folders using windows?

[Joao Cardoso]

hmmm, I see, the fun_plug file must be owned by the root user...

To the group:

I think that this issue has already been posted, and the fun_plug script was
modified to change ownership of the file, but I remember seeing somewhere a
log saying something like "nobody: no such user" (or was it group?).

The fun_plug line

chown -R nobody:nobody alt-f

should be changed to use the "nobody" numeric user and group id used by the
dlink firmware. Also, a line

chown nobody:nobody fun_plug

should be added somehere with the same spirit.
I have no idea how fun_plug ownership migh have been changed.

At the moment I don't have the dlink firmware flashed.

Can someone in the list that is using "Alt-F reloaded" diagnose the problem,
and help Ramza (and me)?
A last resort fix would be to move the box disk to a linux computer and make
the necessary changes. Ramza, do you have access to a linux computer to
perform this?

[Ramza]

I fixed this by deleting the fun_plug file and copying the original
file back to my NAS again. Maybe this method would have worked to
delete it: http://nas-tweaks.net/59/removing-the-fonz-fun_plug/

Anyway, I managed to get samba working and installed Tansmission via
the administering webpages. Btw will the packages be updated (e.g. to
Transmission 2.13)? Only ftp access via FileZilla still doesn't work,
I'm getting a "530 Login incorrect" status message every time.

[Joao Cardoso]

On Jan 27, 4:30 pm, Ramza <florianstrasse...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>I fixed this by deleting the fun_plug file and copying the original
>file back to my NAS again.

But you said "no permissions"... never mind.

You should fix the fun_plug issue before rebooting... it only works
once.

Do you know that you can telnet or ssh the box?

> Anyway, I managed to get samba working and installed Tansmission via
> the administering webpages. Btw will the packages be updated (e.g. to
> Transmission 2.13)?

Look at the "Packages update" topic. 2.13 is already available in an
experimental feed.

>Only ftp access via FileZilla still doesn't work,
> I'm getting a "530 Login incorrect" status message every time.

Then ftp is working, if not to deny access to you :-)

You can configure ftp at Services->Network->inetd->configure->ftp-
>configure
But I guess that by now, after browsing through the menus, you have
already found it.

What user/pass are you giving?
The nick name/password of the user you created?
User "root" with the web administrative password?
ftp/anonymous needs no password.

[Ramza]

On 27 Jan., 18:01, Joao Cardoso <whoami.jc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >I fixed this by deleting the fun_plug file and copying the original
> >file back to my NAS again.
>
> But you said "no permissions"... never mind.

The orginal fun_plug file on my desktop still had write permissons,
the one on my NAS didn't (after rebooting).

> You should fix the fun_plug issue before rebooting... it only works
> once.
>
> Do you know that you can telnet or ssh the box?

Is that possible with just the fun_plug file on the NAS and no ffp
folder?

> > Anyway, I managed to get samba working and installed Tansmission via
> > the administering webpages. Btw will the packages be updated (e.g. to
> > Transmission 2.13)?
>
> Look at the "Packages update" topic. 2.13 is already available in an
> experimental feed.

Great! :)

> >Only ftp access via FileZilla still doesn't work,
> > I'm getting a "530 Login incorrect" status message every time.
>
> Then ftp is working, if not to deny access to you :-)
>
> You can configure ftp at Services->Network->inetd->configure->ftp->configure
>
> But I guess that by now, after browsing through the menus, you have
> already found it.
>
> What user/pass are you giving?
> The nick name/password of the user you created?
> User "root" with the web administrative password?
> ftp/anonymous needs no password.

Thanks, user "root" and admin pw did the trick! :)

[Joao Cardoso]

On Jan 27, 7:24 pm, Ramza <florianstrasse...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> On 27 Jan., 18:01, Joao Cardoso <whoami.jc...@gmail.com> wrote:

...

> > Do you know that you can telnet or ssh the box?
>
> Is that possible with just the fun_plug file on the NAS and no ffp
> folder?

After Alt-F starts, yes.
By default you have telnet, ssh, ftp, sftp, ftps, rsync.

[Ramza]

I commented on the "once" line so that alt-f will start automatically.
After rebooting my NAS, the blue lights for my drives keep blinking
and I have no access to the administrative webpages or via smb/ftp. I
can't even turn it off.

Before disabling the "once" option, I noticed that after rebooting I
had to change the permissions of the funplug file to "write" again. So
maybee the box tries to start funplug but can't, because of the
permissions. What can I do about this?

[Joao Cardoso]

On Jan 29, 2:00 pm, Ramza <florianstrasse...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> I commented on the "once" line so that alt-f will start automatically.

But you also changed the file permissions, right?

> After rebooting my NAS, the blue lights for my drives keep blinking
> and I have no access to the administrative webpages or via smb/ftp. I
> can't even turn it off.

You have to read the documentation and be more exact on your question:
what blue lights are blinking and how are they blinking? what is your
disk setup? ...

Start by reading the "About Buttons and Leds" wiki entry.

Is this the behavior?:

If the box was not cleanly shutdown, then filesystems are not clean
and a filesystem check (fsck) is performed, during which the
blue power led blinks with a slow earthbeat pace -- the boot
process
stops while the filesystems are being checked.

> Before disabling the "once" option, I noticed that after rebooting I
> had to change the permissions of the funplug file to "write" again. So
> maybee the box tries to start funplug but can't, because of the
> permissions. What can I do about this?

If "ONCE" is commented (the line has a leading #) , or has any value
other then "yes", the script will not change its own permissions.
Thus, if they are set to executable, the dlink firmware will execute
it on boot.

[Ramza]

Everything was working fine for the last 2 weeks, but now I'm having
trouble again. After shutting down my NAS via the administration
webpage one night, I'm not able to get access to it again. During the
boot up process I'm able to log into the original CH3SNAS web pages
(although alt-f is set to executable) and connect via ftp. But only
for a few seconds, after that I'm losing the connection. I'm not even
able to manually shut down the NAS by pressing the front button. Can
anybody here help me? :(

[Jeremy MountainJohnson]

I've had some strange problems were the connections have dropped too (usually me changing things too much). Try holding the button in front down for awhile (it does take awhile), it should still power cycle even without getting a connection to the web page or via ssh or telnet.

Jeremy MountainJohnson
jeremy.moun...@gmail.com

[Joao Cardoso]

On Feb 13, 3:17 pm, Ramza <florianstrasse...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Everything was working fine for the last 2 weeks, but now I'm having
> trouble again. After shutting down my NAS via the administration
> webpage one night, I'm not able to get access to it again. During the
> boot up process I'm able to log into the original CH3SNAS web pages
> (although alt-f is set to executable) and connect via ftp. But only
> for a few seconds, after that I'm losing the connection.

The reload process is a bit fragile, see http://forum.dsmg600.info/viewtopic.php?id=6241

The reboot done by the stock firmware takes some two minutes to
accomplish, and 30 seconds after that the sock firmware starts
executing the fun_plug script, loading Alt-F, which takes some 30-45
seconds.
During this time, don't try to access the box. And remember to disable
all services from the stock firmware, to increase the chances for the
reloading to succeed.

For 0.1B7 I intend to use puterboy ideas to work, making the reloading
process more robust.

> I'm not even
> able to manually shut down the NAS by pressing the front button. Can
> anybody here help me? :(

The front button only works if Alt-F is running. Only try to use it
after the reload process finish, i.e., 120+30+45 seconds after
starting the powerup or reboot

The front button itself takes 5 or 10 seconds to react; if the orange
leds don't start flashing after that it means that the reloading
process has failed, and you have to unplug the power-cord and start
all over again (the disks will not be unmounted in a clean way and in
the next boot Alt-F will perform a fsck, indicated by the blue power
led flashing with a slow earth-beat rhythm)

[Ramza]

> The front button itself takes 5 or 10 seconds to react; if the orange
> leds don't start flashing after that it means that the reloading
> process has failed, and you have to unplug the power-cord and start
> all over again (the disks will not be unmounted in a clean way and in
> the next boot Alt-F will perform a fsck, indicated by the blue power
> led flashing with a slow earth-beat rhythm)

OK, so the reloading process is failing. However, if I restart the NAS
by unplugging the power-cord, it's the same thing all over again. Can
alt-f be manually stopped during bootup?

[Joao Cardoso]

On Feb 15, 11:20 pm, Ramza <florianstrasse...@googlemail.com> wrote:

> OK, so the reloading process is failing. However, if I restart the NAS
> by unplugging the power-cord, it's the same thing all over again.

Not necessarily. It fails sometime for me, without changing any
settings in the stock firmware.

Anyway, that's the reason why the funplug script has the ONCE security
measure.
Haven't you tried several times, until you were certain that
reloading always succeeds, before commenting ONCE?

> Can alt-f be manually stopped during bootup?

The reloading process occurs before Alt-F start, and it cant be
stopped, as far as I know. You would have you stop the stock firmware
from executing the funplug script, which is done through its execution
permissions.

You can move the disk to a linux computer and either change the
funplug script execution permissions or remove the script itself.

Or, alternatively, before powering-up again, you could remove the disk
and use the dlink web page to disable all services from the stock
firmware, increasing the probabilities that reloading succeeds.

[Ramza]

> On Feb 15, 11:20 pm, Ramza <florianstrasse...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> > OK, so the reloading process is failing. However, if I restart the NAS
> > by unplugging the power-cord, it's the same thing all over again.
>
> Not necessarily. It fails sometime for me, without changing any
> settings in the stock firmware.
>
> Anyway, that's the reason why the funplug script has the ONCE security
> measure.
> Haven't  you tried several times, until you were certain that
> reloading always succeeds, before commenting ONCE?

Sure, never had any problems until last week :(

> > Can alt-f be manually stopped during bootup?
>
> The reloading process occurs before Alt-F start, and it cant be
> stopped, as far as I know. You would have you stop the stock firmware
> from executing the funplug script, which is done through its execution
> permissions.
>
> You can move the disk to a linux computer and either change the
> funplug script execution permissions or remove the script itself.
>
> Or, alternatively, before powering-up again, you could remove the disk
> and use the dlink web page to disable all services from the stock
> firmware, increasing the probabilities that reloading succeeds.

I couldn't disable UPNP from the stock firmware, disabling everything
else dindn't help either. Is there any way to access the harddrive
with Windows? I have extfs2 drivers installed, but the main partition
was stated as "linux" and could not be accessed. Btw it's a Raid1
setup, in case this matters.

[Joao Cardoso]

On Feb 17, 5:55 pm, Ramza <florianstrasse...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > On Feb 15, 11:20 pm, Ramza <florianstrasse...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> > > OK, so the reloading process is failing. However, if I restart the NAS
> > > by unplugging the power-cord, it's the same thing all over again.
>
> > Not necessarily. It fails sometime for me, without changing any
> > settings in the stock firmware.
>
> > Anyway, that's the reason why the funplug script has the ONCE security
> > measure.
> > Haven't  you tried several times, until you were certain that
> > reloading always succeeds, before commenting ONCE?
>
> Sure, never had any problems until last week :(
>
> > > Can alt-f be manually stopped during bootup?

OK, I will add another security measure, just add to my TODO2 list:

-add another security measure to funplug: at start it checks for an
alt-f.fail file, and if it exists remove the funplug execute
permissions and stops, ignoring the ONCE settings. When Alt-F itself
boots, it removes the alt-f.fail file, if it exists.

...

> I couldn't disable UPNP from the stock firmware, disabling everything
> else dindn't help either. Is there any way to access the harddrive
> with Windows? I have extfs2 drivers installed, but the main partition
> was stated as "linux" and could not be accessed. Btw it's a Raid1
> setup, in case this matters.

I'm afraid I can't help you here, as I seldom use MS-windows.

-I can only advise you to ask a friend with a linux computer

-or, instead, boot your computer from a linux liveCD/DVD. I use
opensuse. Try the Live KDE: http://software.opensuse.org/113/en

-yet another option: remove your disks from the box and use an old
disk to install Alt-F on it; then you can hot-plug the removed disk
and fix it(*). If you don't want to hot-plug the disk and you have an
USB enclosure, you can put the removed disk in the USB enclosure and
fix it(*).

(*) As you have RAID1, I'm not sure how you must proceed: fix the
disks one by one, removing the funplug script (or changing its
permissions) on both disks, *or* do it only on one disk and use only
that disk latter -- it will start in degraded mode, but you would
still have the untouched disk, in case anything runs bad.
I would go for the second option, putting the safeguard disk in a
drawer, to not get confused with which is which ;-)

Anybody else has a suggestion?

[Joao Cardoso]

On Feb 17, 6:47 pm, Joao Cardoso <whoami.jc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 17, 5:55 pm, Ramza <florianstrasse...@googlemail.com> wrote:

...

> > Sure, never had any problems until last week :(
>
> > > > Can alt-f be manually stopped during bootup?
>
> OK, I will add another security measure, just add to my TODO2 list:
>
> -add another security measure to funplug: at start it checks for an
> alt-f.fail file, and if it exists remove the funplug execute
> permissions and stops, ignoring the ONCE settings.  When Alt-F itself
> boots, it removes the alt-f.fail file, if it exists.

correction:

-add another security measure to funplug:
at start it checks for an alt-f.fail file, and if it exists remove the
funplug execute

permissions and stops.
If the alt-f.fail file does not exists, create it and proceed with the
boot.

[Ramza]

> (*) As you have RAID1, I'm not sure how you must proceed: fix the
> disks one by one, removing the funplug script (or changing its
> permissions) on both disks, *or* do it only on one disk and use only
> that disk latter -- it will start in degraded mode, but you would
> still have the untouched disk, in case anything runs bad.
> I would go for the second option, putting the safeguard disk in a
> drawer, to not get confused with which is which ;-)
>
> Anybody else has a suggestion?

Still not sure how I should go on regarding this... any suggestions
would be welcome.

[Joao Cardoso]

What I have done with raid1 in Alt-F-0.1B6, always using the web
interface:

1-poweroff
2-remove right bay disk
3-poweron
4-stopped raid1, as it was inactive, then start it, which made it go
to degraded mode
5-remove a file from the raid1
6-poweroff (not unplug!)
7-reinsert removed disk
8-poweron
9-raid1 started in degraded mode, added to it the partition of the
removed disk
10-raid1 start rebuilding (just a few seconds, as the raid had intent-
bitmap active)
11-when it finished, there was no traces of the removed file in the
array.

So, I guess that you can do the same, removing the funplug file.

Doing it in a friend linux computer might involve typing commands in
the command line, which is prone to errors.

I still think that the better option is to use only an old disk in the
box, install Alt-F on it, and then hot-plugging one of the current
disks (inserting it with the power on, tested only on a B1 board), and
them use the above sequence from point 4.

But that is what *I* would do.