You can confirm that it worked by trying to connect to the NAS with telnet. If you get a log-in prompt, the system is in tech support mode.
This mode would allow Netgear to access the system remotely, it would also allow someone with linux skills to mount the OS partition and data volume manually, and do troubleshooting on their own.
What apps do you have installed? It is possible (perhaps even probable) that an app incompatibility is interfering with the ReadyNAS application. Though it sounds like the apache server is working, since qBittorrent's web page is responsive.
You can mount the OS partition (and chroot) by entering
# rnutil chroot
That should be enough to troubleshoot, though /apps won't be there (since it is a mount point for /data/.apps). But you can mount the data volume also with
# btrfs device scan
# btrfs fi show
# mount /dev/md127 /data
This assumes the data volume is healthy (which seems to be the case, since qbittorent works, and I think you have access to the shares).
Generally to access the logs you run journalctl. I think in this case you'd be looking for errors related to readynasd or apache - you can use grep to filter on those. For example,
Figuring out how to fix it is another matter. Though it seems counter-intuitive, it might be faster for you to back up the files, do a factory reset, rebuild the NAS, and restore your data from the backup.
Seems to me there is likely a command that would let you create the log zip file via ssh - but I don't know what it is. Perhaps @JohnCM_S can share that (or other tips on troubleshooting the this problem).
May 09 07:40:32 ReadyNAS systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server (Safe Mode)... May 09 07:40:33 ReadyNAS apache2[2531]: AH00526: Syntax error on line 3 of /etc/frontview/apache/fv-admin.conf: May 09 07:40:33 ReadyNAS apache2[2531]: DocumentRoot '/frontview/dashboard' is not a directory, or is not readable May 09 07:40:33 ReadyNAS systemd[1]: apache2-safe.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1 May 09 07:40:33 ReadyNAS systemd[1]: Failed to start The Apache HTTP Server (Safe Mode). May 09 07:40:33 ReadyNAS systemd[1]: apache2-safe.service: Unit entered failed state. May 09 07:40:33 ReadyNAS systemd[1]: apache2-safe.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
May 09 07:39:47 ReadyNAS readynasd[2341]: readynasd log started May 09 07:39:48 ReadyNAS readynasd[2341]: readynasd started. (restarted=0) May 09 07:39:48 ReadyNAS readynasd[2341]: DB (main) schema version: 24 ==> 24 May 09 07:39:49 ReadyNAS readynasd[2341]: DB (queue) schema version: new ==> 0 May 09 07:39:56 ReadyNAS readynasd[2341]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "/frontview/dashboard/dictionary.xml" May 09 07:40:14 ReadyNAS readynasd[2341]: Service 'apache2.service' went to unexpected state 'failed'. Expect to be 'inactive'('deactivating'). May 09 07:40:25 ReadyNAS readynasd[2341]: Service 'apache2.service' went to unexpected state 'failed'. Expect to be 'active'('activating'). May 09 07:40:26 ReadyNAS readynasd[2341]: Failed to call method GetUnitFileState: No such file or directory
Tried to do a OS reinstall with 6.10.0 and 6.9.5 and I get "DEBUG: $PORT $IP Recovery" error.
I'd do a factory reset. Even if you get past /frontview/dashboard there could be other files that are missing or corrupted. It'll be difficult to find them all.
I guess If I do a factory reset it will take me back to version 5 or older of the OS?
A factory reset would reinstall 6.10.0 onto the disks. Whenever you do a firmware update, the system writes the current firmware install package into the flash memory.
I have about 9TB of data, mostly converted movie and audio collection that I would hate to have to backup.
Well, if it isn't backed up somewhere, then at some point you will lose it. Of course even with a backup, restoring 9 TB of data will take a while, so it is a painful option.
Paid netgear support is another avenue, though they might want to sort out how you've used ssh.
If I want to try a "Factory Default" without losing the data on the disks, can I still use a scratch disk?
Is there a "Factory Default" Guide using a scratch disk?
Well, doing a "factory default" installs the software onto the disks (destroying whatever was on them before).
You could try doing a default to a scratch disk. If it works, it would only tell you that the flash has the correct contents. It won't solve the issue on your current disks. The process is simple - just power down, remove your current disks (labeling by slot, so you can properly install them later). Then follow the procedure in the manual. When done, you'd power down again, and reinsert your operational disks into their original slots.
It might be possible to copy off some folders in the OS partition to external storage, and then overwrite those folders on your operational disks. But it is high-risk (and you'd need to be very careful to preserve ownership and file permissions). Definitely not something to attempt without a backup.
To me it seems to be irresponsible to install the OS in the same drives as the data without a way to reinstall the OS without wiping the data.
I don't know if I'd go quite that far, but I do agree it would be good if there was a supported way to fully reinstall the OS (and also if there was a good way to back it up to the data partition). It would be tricky to re-apply the settings safely though.
