I've set up TM on my MBP (Mavricks) to back up to my user share on my ReadyNAS Duo v2 following these instructions: viewtopic.php?f=71&t=59974It works fine, mostly. But, as others have observed, if there's a connection problem the backup will become "corrupted" and TM will want to start a new backup from scratch, which is annoying. However, there's this explanation of how to "fix" and "reset" the existing backup on a NAS, and it works: http://www.garth.org/archives/2011,08,2 ... rrors.htmlSort of. I run the fix, and it lets me access the old TM backup. However, it won't use that backup due to a file permission issue. That is, after I fix the old backup, I can go into the TM and see the earlier files, but TM won't use it to continue backing up. It says the file is read-only. When, I look at the files in the user directory using Terminal, I see the sparsebundle, and ls -l tells me it has the following permissions: drwx------ 1 MBPusername staff 16384 date mbpname.sparsebundleI've done some reading on various pages about chmod or chown commands, but I'm not sure: a) what the correct permissions are to get this working again, and b) how to set them recursively to include the files inside the sparsebundle. Thoughts?

The ownership and permissions seen via SSH are what are important.

Ok. That makes sense.Sorry to be such a n00b, but I'm not sure how to check that nor what the correct permissions should be. [I've only recently switched to Mac OS.]I've installed the ARM add-in to allow SSH root access. [I needed to do that first, right?]But, now when I use cyberduck to SSH in, it gives me errors, whether I'm using the admin account or the user account. {I've tried to look around the forum for advice, like here, viewtopic.php?f=11&t=45118, but it mostly seems to assume that I've already been able to login via SSH.}Thanks for additional tips/links.I'll type up a step-by-step for the forum, if/once I get it working.

You have to login as root (password initially set to be the same as for the admin user).Generally I'd use the Terminal for this.

Gotcha. Thanks for your patience and sorry for being dense. So, in Terminal, I've gone to New Remote Connection, chosen SSH, user "admin", SSH (Automatic), and then in the dropdown I type "SSH 192.168.1.xx" [no quotes]. However, it prompts me using my MBPuser@192.168.1.xx, not admin@192.168.1.xx. I've tried leaving the admin box in the terminal "new remote connection" screen either blank or putting 'admin' but either way it wants to log me into the readynas as the MacOS user. Hrm. The first time, it gave me a message about the RSA key fingerprint. I typed 'yes.' Could that be why it is now connecting me, and then immediately disconnecting? I'll do some reading tomorrow and try to fix this myself. Thanks again. [feeling n00bish]

Use the 'root' user not 'admin'.# ssh root@ip.address.of.nas# ls -la /c/.timemachine

Permission problem with sparsebundle in user share

15 Replies

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mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Sep 14, 2014
The ownership and permissions seen via SSH are what are important.
md96
Aspirant
Sep 17, 2014
Ok. That makes sense.

Sorry to be such a n00b, but I'm not sure how to check that nor what the correct permissions should be. [I've only recently switched to Mac OS.]

I've installed the ARM add-in to allow SSH root access. [I needed to do that first, right?]

But, now when I use cyberduck to SSH in, it gives me errors, whether I'm using the admin account or the user account. {I've tried to look around the forum for advice, like here, viewtopic.php?f=11&t=45118, but it mostly seems to assume that I've already been able to login via SSH.}

Thanks for additional tips/links.

I'll type up a step-by-step for the forum, if/once I get it working.
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Sep 17, 2014
You have to login as root (password initially set to be the same as for the admin user).

Generally I'd use the Terminal for this.
md96
Aspirant
Sep 17, 2014
Gotcha. Thanks for your patience and sorry for being dense.

So, in Terminal, I've gone to New Remote Connection, chosen SSH, user "admin", SSH (Automatic), and then in the dropdown I type "SSH 192.168.1.xx" [no quotes]. However, it prompts me using my MBPuser@192.168.1.xx, not admin@192.168.1.xx.

I've tried leaving the admin box in the terminal "new remote connection" screen either blank or putting 'admin' but either way it wants to log me into the readynas as the MacOS user. Hrm.

The first time, it gave me a message about the RSA key fingerprint. I typed 'yes.' Could that be why it is now connecting me, and then immediately disconnecting?

I'll do some reading tomorrow and try to fix this myself. Thanks again. [feeling n00bish]
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Sep 17, 2014
Use the 'root' user not 'admin'.

# ssh root@ip.address.of.nas
# ls -la /c/.timemachine
md96
Aspirant
Sep 17, 2014
I'm in! Thanks for the help.

So, using Terminal, I opened a new SSH remote connection, using

ssh root@192.168.1.xx

After entering the password, I typed

ls -la /c/home/usershare

(because I've got 2 MBP time machines backing up to 2 user shares, which I don't use for anything else--I'm thinking maybe I should just move them to manually created separate shares b/c it will be *potentially* easier to reset the permissions, no?)

The permissions on the sparsebundle are:
drwx--S--- 4 username users 4096 2014-09-17 10:50 macbookpro.sparsebundle

What should the permissions be, and what is the command to change them?

Thanks for all the help so far!
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Sep 17, 2014
That ownership looks like it is probably correct if you are using an ordinary share.

I guess you could try

# chown -R username:users /c/home/usershare/macbookpro.sparsebundle

What version of RAIDiator are you running?
md96
Aspirant
Sep 17, 2014
So, I used that command, and it seemed to finish quickly (2-3 seconds). The permissions did not change. It still lists:
drwx--S--- 4 username users 4096 2014-09-17 10:50 macbookpro.sparsebundle

[I'm not worried about messing up this particular backup--so willing to try various commands/options. (I rsync my home folder to the NAS separately.) I would like to have a batch of commands to run whenever the backup needs to be fixed, rather than starting a fresh TM backup every time.]

My RAIDiator is 5.3.9. I usually wait a bit before installing the update b/c I've had to roll back at least once.
md96
Aspirant
Sep 18, 2014
Ok. I did some additional testing.

Using the chown -R username:users sets the permissions to
drwx--S--- 4 username users 4096 2014-09-17 10:50 macbookpro.sparsebundle

This allows me to open the time machine, but when I want to write to the sparsebundle it tells me that I don't have write permissions (the original problem).

So, just to see what happens, I typed (which I found while reading through a mac forum):

chown -R `id -un`:`id -gn` /c/home/username/macbookpro.sparsebundle

This changed the permissions to
drwx--S--- 4 root root 4096 2014-09-17 10:50 macbookpro.sparsebundle

Then, when I enabled time machine, it started backing up, but by creating a brand new sparsebundle (macbookpro 1.sparsebundle). [sigh]

So, I removed that new sparsebundle, re-chown'd the file permissions to username:users, and am back where I started. Hrm.
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Sep 18, 2014
There were some TM relevant fixes in 5.3.10.

How did you configure TM to backup to an ordinary share?

What version of Mac OS X are you running?

What is the output of

# cat /c/home/username/macbookpro.sparsebundle/Info.plist
# du -csh /c/home/username/macbookpro.sparsebundle