File service connection failure: RN21200 2-bay home NAS

StephenB -- will send the full log zip, thanks for pointing me to the wizard. And the email alerts problem -- I've fixed it. Sent a test mail, it reached. 

Retired_Member   -- I checked the workgroup name -- it's given as WORKGROUP. So, at least from the UI, there's nothing left to do. And the NULL for SMB encryption -- this too has been this way, and untouched from Day 1. It didn't stop the smbd from starting earlier. I'll just wait to get some more clarity before I specify anything in this field, I think.

I've sent JohnCM_S a copy of the full logs with a request to help.

In the meantime, even the NFS service has stopped working. So, the box is currently just sitting there, completely useless for its intended use.

Ah well.

Can you enable ssh and log it as root? That might let you experiment (starting/stopping services, etc).

If you modify things then Netgear has the right to deny support.  But if you are just poking around a bit that shouldn't be an issue.  https://kb.netgear.com/30068/ReadyNAS-OS-6-SSH-access-support-and-configuration-guides

Hi shuvam,

We cannot really tell why SMB will not start on your NAS. It looks like it does start sometimes. Can you enable SDM (Secure Diagnostic Mode) on the NAS so we can take a look? You may enable it by going to System > Settings > Support on the NAS local admin page. Please PM me the 5-digit code after enabling it.

Regards,

Hi StephenB 

I have enabled SSH in the initial days itself, and I can log in. I created a non-root user and changed its shell from /bin/false to /bin/bash, so I can now log in as non-root over SSH too. I don't know what commands to try to start and stop services.

However, I tried starting the SMB service from the System --> Settings page of the admin web interface, and it popped up a dialog box, I clicked OK, it went through the motions of starting the service, and again reverted to the service being off. As you know, there are these long green "lights" on the web interface to show which services are active. SMB always shows inactive. Interestingly NFS shows service active, and I can't connect to NFS either, though I could till a few days back.

Any suggestions what commands I should try from the root shell prompt? I don't think it's just /etc/init.d/smbd start.

Hi @JohnCM_S I just enabled SDM and sent you PM with the 5-digit port number. Thanks for trying to help.

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shuvam wrote:

 

Hi @JohnCM_S I just enabled SDM and sent you PM with the 5-digit port number. Thanks for trying to help.

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I think it's best to give JohnCM_S some time to diagnose it before we continue.

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I think it's best to give JohnCM_S some time to diagnose it before we continue.

 

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I agree. :)

Thanks a lot, JohnCM_S 

I tested access from my Linux laptop.

The Windows SMB access seems to be working, thanks a lot. The NFS access is more complicated.

In my Nautilus file browser, when I access "Other locations", I see three entries for my NAS (screenshot attached):

• an all-caps entry NAS-C702
• a lower case entry nas-c702 (AFP) with "AFP" at its end
• a lower case entry, just nas-c702

I don't remember seeing the first of these three 2 days ago when I had last checked. Today, I tried the first one, all-caps, and I could access the shared area on the NAS.

The second area I have always ignored, since it says "AFP" (which is an Apple protocol, I believe).

The third one is the one which I used to use: nas-c702. It had stopped working a few days ago, and it's not working even now.

You're right about NFS service working -- the "System --> Settings" screen always showed NFS with a green light, even when I stopped being able to connect to it. Now, "System --> Settings" is showing both SMB and NFS with green. The SMB is clearly a fix -- it used to indicated inactive before.

Screenshot of what I see when I try to access the NAS using the third entry in my file browser. This error has been consistent for the last 3+ days.

I checked now from Kodi, running in LibreELEC on my Raspberry Pi.

From that device, whatever Kodi thinks is NFS is working. And of course, SMB is working too. So, I can say that this is a 100% fix.

Thanks a lot.

Hi JohnCM_S, after this finally has been solved, would you mind giving a brief abstract on what the issue was and how Netgear's resources collectively resolved it?

Of course, you do not need to provide a detailed step-by-step description of the process, but getting a rough idea of the fix would support the approach of exchanging knowledge within the community, which is what you probably want to keep alive as much as possible, right?

Kind regards

Hi shuvam and Retired_Member,

The smb.conf file does not look correct when we checked it so we restored that file to default to fix it.

Regards,

JohnCM_S, thanks a lot, I very much appreciate your responsiveness. Have a nice weekend and kind regards

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The smb.conf file does not look correct when we checked it so we restored that file to default to fix it.

Where did you restore the original contents from? Is there a path where the original file is stored on my NAS, from where I can restore it if it gets corrupted again?

Retired_Member

You are welcome. You have a nice weekend as well. :)

shuvam

The ReadyNAS OS keeps a list of default config files at /etc/default/config/ (Note: Never edit any files under /etc/default/config/).

L3 did a cp -rP /etc/default/config/etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf, manually changed the workgroup since you were using a custom workgroup, and then saved and restarted samba.

Regards,