Upgrading the DNS-323 to firmware 1.06 & what to do if you lock yourself out of ssh!
Published January 17th, 2009 in dns-323, hacks, unix
Just wanted to report that my upgrade to 1.06 was a success. Mostly.
I downloaded the 1.06 firmware update from D-Link’s support site, unzipped the file, and then pointed the 323 web interface to it. It flashed successfully, and everything booted up without issue.
However, I’d been having minor problems with the embedded iTunes server (mt-daapd) not working… at all… So being the bright guy I am, I impulsively clicked the “Restore to factory defaults button”.
Don’t do that.
What ended up happening was that the root password (for ssh) was erased from the NVRAM. Meaning, I couldn’t log in via ssh. Oops.
What I learned from all this was a new recommendation for you all: When upgrading anything on the 323, RE-ENABLE TELNETD (chmod +x /ffp/start/telnetd.sh) just in case.
I had to jump through a few hoops to get back in. Initially, I tried to modify the fun_plug script (its a simple shell script) in the root directory of Volume_1 through my Windows SMB share. I had inserted the chmod +x /ffp/start/telnetd.sh command a few lines down in the script (after $FFP path is defined) but for some reason, it was as if the 323 was not reading the fun_plug when it booted. I restarted the damn thing at least a dozen times, keeping an eye on fun_plug.log and saw that it was not changing. I have absolutely no explanation why that was the case.
As a last ditch-effort to ease my growing frustration, I decided to download the original fun_plug and fun_plug.tgz from fonz and reboot the DNS. I did not delete my existing /ffp directory on Volume_1. I’m really glad I didn’t because what happened next surprised me. About 3 minutes after the 323 rebooted, I noticed that the .tgz file disappered, which means it picked up the fun_plug this time! The .tgz uncompressed and to my surprised, left my original scripts intact! I was able to telnet to the 323 and run the pwconv, passwd root, login, and store-password.sh scripts to re-set my root password, and did not have to make any other changes to keep transmission or any of my other cron scripts working.
So, now I’m happily running 1.06 and everything is normal. You can too, just avoid that factory-reset button. 
Did you get your itunes server working after that headache? If so, how? =)
@Jason, heh, no. I’m convinced the built-in mt-daapd is either a) corrupted (tried that), b) misconfigured (doubtful), or c) a POS (likely). I’m going to disable it try out firefly…
Thanks. I guess I’ll do the same. Great site by the way. I’m pretty clueless in linux and your site has made it possible for me to enhance my dns-323. Far easier than wading through the forums (though I did a fair share of that too).
Your instructions on enabling unrar support didn’t pan out for me, but I got it to work using some old DOS-era logic.
Did you recently nuke the “enable USB” entry? I thought you had that up a few days back…
Jason, yeah, actually I am writing up a separate post on getting USB enabled. I hadn’t actually tried doing it until the other day… stay tuned!
> What ended up happening was that the root password (for ssh) was erased from the NVRAM. Meaning, I couldn’t log in via ssh. Oops.
There’s a simpler solution: http://wiki.dns323.info/howto:ffp#the_root_user (Look for ‘Reactivating telnet.’)
It’s basically a fun_plug.tgz that contains only the /ffp/start/telnetd.sh script.
I had firmware 1.06 installed for a week or two, but it seems like there’s some problem printing PDFs from Macs to a printer connected on the USB port. Since this is functionality we use regularly, I had to downgrade to 1.05 to get that it back. (And I never have been able to get the UPnP AV server to play nice with my Kodak EasyShare EX1011 digital picture frame, but that’s a different matter…)
anyone know if its possible to update the firmware (in my case, from 1.05 to 1.06) without a working web UI? (i get the infamous web server failure after login)
i would have thought it would have been possible to do from telnet access, but how?
Diff. question - I updated just recently to 1.06 and from this time on the HD lights turned amber (i.e. HD problem) every time the system went to hybernate state. I had to reset and then it worked again until hybernate. So I stepped back to 1.05 where I dont have this problem. Can anybody telle me what I have done wrong? Thanks
Houston I have a problem…
I reformatted the DNS-323 after having done the hack once. when i went to do it over again i encountered the following message when trying to SSH into the DNS-323 (after having started SSH):
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@ WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that the RSA host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the RSA key sent by the remote host is
a9:7f:a1:a8:73:bb:3e:43:af:44:8d:3f:32:60:e8:35.
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in /Users/bernadinegilfond/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending key in /Users/bernadinegilfond/.ssh/known_hosts:1
RSA host key for 192.168.1.200 has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.
Bernadines-iMac:~ bernadinegilfond$
Now what??
Please help! Thx