First Steps With MBWE

The Western Digital MyBook World Edition runs on a cut down version of Linux and as such can be accessed via SSH.

---

STEP 1. - Enable SSH

To make any changes to your MBWE you will need to remotely log in to the box using the Secure Shell protocol (SSH - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell). SSH is used to log into a remote machine and execute commands. There are two methods currently available to enable SSH:

Method 1: "Cleaner" Alternative

Follow the instructions at http://www.mybook-linux.co.nr/sshaccess.html. The source code for the script is provided in the FAQ at the bottom of the page. This code was checked by others, yet there is always a possibility yo do not install the same code as you have checked.
Both methods trick the MBWE into running a firmware upgrade that includes a custom script to enable the SSH daemon. Both uses different methods, however this method seems to provide a 'cleaner' solution.

Method 2: Martin Hinner Orginal Hack

Martin Hinner provides a script that enables SSH remotely. Instructions can be found here here: http://martin.hinner.info/mybook/sshaccess.php. Note that you can look into the contents of the script yourself, Martin Hinner has posted instructions for this. This code was checked by others, yet there is always a possibility you do not install the same code as you have checked.

Make SSH Permanent

Once you have enabled ssh and gained access to the box you will need to have the ssh daemon auto start:
Method 1 editing the inetd.conf
You can have inetd start the SSH daemon only when needed by editing /etc/inetd.conf.

# nano /etc/inetd.conf

Remove the # symbol from the following line:

#ssh stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/sshd sshd -i

Reboot the device and the SSH daemon will now start on demand when you try to connect.
Method 2: adding sshd at startup
Alternatively, you can have the SSH daemon start when the device boots. To do this add the following line to /etc/inittab

::sysinit:/usr/sbin/sshd

With this method the SSH daemon is always running waiting for someone to connect, even when no one is using it.

PLEASE NOTE: if you are using a newer firmware edition you will need to use ALLCAPS for your username when using ssh to login.
For example if you created a user called joeblogs login with JOEBLOGS

Alternatively, for the truly paranoid, you could create your own web server and serve the pseudo-firmware.
Now that SSH daemon is started you can login to your MBWE and start installing programs.

---

STEP 2. - Install Optware Package Management

Optware provides access to hundreds of pre-compiled binaries. Configure Optware and get access to hundreds of precompiled software packages easily! This is recommended way to install software, as it will save you lots of time and will keep your MyBook in order. The benefits of using Optware are:

1. Fast installation
2. Easy updates
3. Automatically resolves dependancies

---

STEP 3. - Get a decent text editor

Next up, I would get a decent text editor since VI is terribly unintuitive and certainly not newbie-friendly. You will need to frequently edit text files on your MBWE if you wish to change many of the basic settings and change the default behaviour of the programs you install. Nano is an easy to use alternative to the editor vi, but it is not included on the system by default. You will need to install it manually.

Install Nano Using Optware

Using Optware

If you followed the right way and configured Optware, you can just do:

/opt/bin/ipkg install nano

Compiling Nano Natively

Compiling Nano Natively

You can also compile nano natively on the device, however this will take a long time when compared to using Optware. While nano is a small package with few dependencies, the whole process will take you more than an hour to complete.¹

You will need use an account that has root privileges so login as root or use the su command change to switch user. Move to the location where you want to compile[. In the following example we are using the folder /tmp/myfiles:

# su
!enter your password for root
# mkdir /tmp/myfiles
# cd /tmp/myfiles

Install the dependancies

In order to get nano compiled, you will need a version of curses installed as well. You can use ncurses from GNU.

Download the ncurses source code

# wget http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses/ncurses-5.6.tar.gz

Uncompress the source and move into the source directory

# tar zxvf ncurses-5.6.tar.gz
# cd ncurses-5.6

Compile and install the program

# ./configure
# make
# make install

This whole process can take more than 40 minutes.

Install Nano

Download and uncompress the nano source code:

# wget http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/v2.0/nano-2.0.6.tar.gz
# tar -zxvf nano-2.0.6.tar.gz

Move into the directory which was just uncompressed in:

# cd nano-2.0.6

Compile the code and install the program with these commands

# ./configure
# make
# make install

(for inexperienced users, please note that these are the 3 commands used almost universally to compile and install programs in Linux. Become familiar with them if expect to compile many programs in the future)

And thats it, your new text editor is now installed. All you need to do now is type nano filename to open and edit your files using this editor.

---

STEP 4. - Understanding the File structure

If you want to create new share folders and control network permissions then I suggest using the web-interface provided. But if you want to access these folders from the shell, you can find them at

• /shares/internal/

Also remember that Linux is case sensitive so to access the default share folder of PUBLIC, type:

# cd /shares/internal/PUBLIC/

You may find if you are not logged in as root that you can't access them so su in and change the folder permissions using (for the default share folder again)

# chmod 755 PUBLIC

Footnotes

1. this guide was used as a template