Hard Drive not working - "No mounted USB disks detected"

[adam803]

Hi there

I just got a new TP-LINK TL-WDR3600 and flashed it today w/ Gargoyle 1.58. Thus far everything has been going great, except I can't get the router to recognize any hard drives.

I'm using Mac OSX 1.6.8, and the drives are all Mac Extended (Journaled) Formatted. I tried a 2TB (not USB powered) drive, and a 1TB USB Powered. Neither show up. Oddly the 1TB shows a small 200mb partition, but this partition is FAT formatted, and I think must be some sort of recovery partition built into the drive (a Lacie) as it doesn’t show up at all in disk utility when I plug it into my computer.

Lastly, I had the same issue using the built in firmware on the router, but had hoped Gargoyle would fix that.

I'd also prefer not to reformat the drive. 4GB file size is a huge issue for me (lots of big files on drive) so FAT is out, and I only use Mac, so NTFS is out.

Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

Thanks!

[BashfulBladder]

I hope you are not adverse to the command line. This is a multi-layered problem:

a. Gargoyle doesn't come standard with HFS+ support
b. Gargoyle won't mount HFS+ partitions automatically
c. HFS+ partitions will be read-only if they are journaled

Let me just first start with saying I compile my own firmware with hfs+ and the USB patch already included. I don't do this manually, so try to be understanding when I skip a beat.

1. Mac: copy the usb_storage file from the router to your desktop:

Code: Select all

scp root@192.168.1.1:/etc/init.d/usb_storage ~/Desktop

You might want to make a backup of it just in case.

2. Mac: download, unzip & apply this patch:

MacUSB.patch.zip

(974 Bytes) Downloaded 416 times

Code: Select all

cd ~/Desktop && patch -i ~/Desktop/MacUSB.patch

(drag&drop the usb_storage file (from step1) onto the terminal window when it asks "File to patch:")

3. Mac: copy the patched usb_storage file back onto the router:

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scp ~/Desktop/usb_storage root@192.168.1.1:/etc/init.d/

4. Mac: connect the external drive, open Disk Utility.app, select the non-EFI, HFS+ partition(s), hold down the option key & from the File menu select "Disable Journaling". Eject & power down.

5. router: ssh in & install the HFS+ kernel module:

Code: Select all

opkg update
opkg install kmod-fs-hfsplus_3.3.8-1_ar71xx.ipk

6. router: connect the external hard drive & power up

7. Mac: visit the router's Gargoyle usb storage page using your web browser. See if the HFS+ partitions are now listed. Share. Save.

8. Mac: in Finder.app, select Go->Connect to Server... - enter smb:blah/junk then Go->Computer & it should be available.

9. You: Oooh & aaah. Or curse & spit.

And the 200MB EFI partition on a GUID partitioned non-OS drive serves no purpose, so while its okay to use it, its small size means you are going to be monitoring its free space.

Also, I didn't do much testing, I copied a few files & moved along.

[adam803]

Thank you so much for these instructions! I'm not great at Command Line but I can try my best at it. Ran into trouble at step 2 though... Getting the following error, any tips?

File to patch: /Users/Adam/Desktop/MacUSB.patch
patching file /Users/Adam/Desktop/MacUSB.patch
Hunk #1 FAILED at 65.
Hunk #2 FAILED at 113.
2 out of 2 hunks FAILED -- saving rejects to file /Users/Adam/Desktop/MacUSB.patch.rej

Also can you clarify a bit on this step? Not sure how to SSH into the router exactly. The 2nd and 3rd steps are just lines i need to Copy and Paste into Terminal, right?

5. router: ssh in & install the HFS+ kernel module:
opkg update
opkg install kmod-fs-hfsplus_3.3.8-1_ar71xx.ipk

THANK YOU!!!!

[BashfulBladder]

Here is how a patch file works:

Somebody (in this case me) takes a file & makes a duplicate. In that duplicate file, changes are made (in this case to support automounting of HFS+). The 'diff' command is run (by me) against the 2 files. The end result is a patchfile with differences between the original & modified duplicate. The patchfule is used by the 'patch' command to modify a provided original to spit out a file with the included modifications. If your usb_storage is substantially different that what is expected it will fail (as it has apparently). If it is slightly different, fuzzy logic can still successfully patch the file - it need not be 100% identical.
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It might be that you are running the patch file against itself. You can't just skip a step & think 'oh, it will just work out; moving right along....'. Similarly, if I forget a step along the way, no joy for you.

1. On your Mac, open /Utilities/Terminal.app
2. Referring to this page copy this text:
<code>scp root@192.168.1.1:/etc/init.d/usb_storage ~/Desktop</code>
If you changed the IP address of your router, adjust 192.168.1.1
3. Paste the copied text into the Terminal.app window. Command-V
4. Hit return
5. The router will prompt for your password. It is the same password for the web interface. When you type your password, characters will not be shown on the screen. You can hit the delete key to correct a mistake. Or if you don't enter the right password, hit the up arrow key to get the last command & repeat. After you enter the correct password, a line underneath will be appear with the filename, 100% & the filesize. If successful, the file was copied from the router to your computer.

scp is... type 'man scp' to learn more than I can explain. The important distinction from 'ssh in' is that the Terminal.app window is essentially controlling your computer.
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When I say 'ssh in' (again, 'man ssh'), you initiate a connection between your computer & the target host (in this case, the router). You again enter your password. If successful. the shell prompt changed from (hostname):~ (yourshortname)$ to root@(deviceName):~# to let you know the commands you enter are going to be sent & executed on the connected device.

You do the dirty deed(s) & type 'exit' or just close the Terminal window.

See, your Mac has programs (command line programs) installed. So does your router. Some are the same (mostly). Others are only present on 1. In this case, 'opkg' is the OpenWrt Package Manager program. opkg is present only on the router, not your computer. You have to enter that command inside a ssh session. Your Mac will error out with -bash: opkg: command not found.

I could just provide you with my file & hope that it works out for the best - but you still face putting that file onto your router. So no matter what, you have to learn some shell skillz.
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Another thing you can do is nag & pester someone with commit privileges to the Gargoyle repository to include this patch. That way when a new version comes out you won't have to this again - which you will if nothing changes.

I have edited my original response to include code tags around lines that you will need to copy & paste into a Terminal window. Note the target device I refer to: Mac or router. You can have multiple Terminal windows open, so juggle between the two.

When I say:
Mac: "echo $USER", that command is pasted into a Terminal.app with your name at the shell prompt (represented by $)
When I say:
router: "opkg update", that command is pasted into a Terminal.app window which has an active ssh session - you ssh-ed in & entered the password, the shell prompt is root@somethere:-~#

[BashfulBladder]

As per PM, here is the usb_storage file

[BashfulBladder]

And here is my ar71xx platform HFS+ kernel module to get around your md5 mismatch.

If you look at 'opkg --help', there is a force option of some sort too.

And if THAT doesn't work, its not going to happen.

[adam803]

Still getting the md5 error, even w/ this version of the package.

root@Gargoyle:~# opkg install /tmp/kmod-fs-hfsplus_3.3.8-1_ar71xx.ipk
Installing kmod-fs-hfsplus (3.3.8-1) to root...
Collected errors:
* opkg_install_pkg: Package kmod-fs-hfsplus md5sum mismatch. Either the opkg or the package index are corrupt. Try 'opkg update'.
* opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package kmod-fs-hfsplus.

Manual route doesn’t seem to be working

Only other thing I can think of is perhaps the opkg update feature isn't seeing the package. I think they're in different directories. Your link for DL was in http://downloads.openwrt.org/attitude_a ... ]12.09-rc1[/b]/ar71xx/generic/packages/. The opkg update appears to be searching through 12.09-beta2, see below

root@Gargoyle:~# opkg update
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/attitude_a ... ackages.gz.

Could that possibly matter? Maybe if I could guide opkg to the rc1 directory I could get it to download that version and work? Or is the md5 error likely to happen either way, because the files you’ve sent are exactly the same as that?

Either way, thanks again for trying, I really appreciate your help.

[BashfulBladder]

As I stated in the first post: I compile my own firmware with hfs+ and the USB patch already included. I don't do this manually.

I don't even know my the usb_storage patchfile didn't work for you - and I made that file.

Maybe just opkg install kmod-fs-hfsplus

But I'm sure you already tried that.

And I think I saw something about 2TB drives needing a patched compiler:

https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/13420