Ubuntu, OSX & the LaCie Network Space 1TB

8Dec/08Off

Ubuntu, OSX & the LaCie Network Space 1TB

I recently got myself a NAS from LaCie. The price was quite attractive and I badly needed the storage space as my old 300GB external hard disk from Western Digital was no longer enough.

This is my first experience in working with a NAS, here is a quick review:

First, my set up:

I have the NAS hooked up to my WGR614v6 router.
I connect to the NAS from two laptops and in both cases through WiFi.
My operating systems are OS X 10.5.5 and Ubuntu 8.10

Design

Perhaps the most striking aspect is the design. It is minimalist yet very elegant. Apparently it was designed by Neil Poulton, and although I have no idea who he is, I think this was a most successful design.

Pros

Due to its function, a NAS is great if you have several computers in the house and wish to easily share data between them, or make backups. The NAS is a central storage location.

The LaCie Network Space comes with private and public storage locations. Two user accounts, one for managing the NAS and also accessing the private storage area, and another for the public storage. It can act as an FTP server and a media server to deliver content to upnp media players.

Administration is carried out through the browser. The LaCie has status lights that can be turned on and off through the administration page. The software includes a LaCie Network Agent that can help you access the administration page, configure ethernet settings manually and connect to the NAS.

The Network Agent work in OSX, Linux and Windows.

It has a usb socket for attaching other hard disks and thereby increasing the storage space. You cannot attach it to a computer however.

Cons

It does not have raid and cannot act as a webserver / mysql server. In this price range (€150) that is to be expected.

The configuration possibilities are minimal and basic. This NAS is designed for home use. Connect and forget.

It scans the media files once an hour, during this time, if you are copying to or from the NAS the speeds will drop. If your media collection is small (under 60GB) this won't be an issue.

File Transfer Speeds

The speeds are based entirely on the method you choose to connect to the NAS. I connect through WiFi (g) and average about 2.5-3MB/sec. That is not much but it is okay for my needs as I do not have many large files to copy back and forth.

The LaCie does support Gigabit LAN and so you should average better speeds if using that method of connection.

Setup under OSX

Under OSX setup should be quite straight forward. The LaCie Network Space can be access through the LaCie Network Agent in the menu bar:

Or through Shared:

To map the NAS folders, select System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items. Drag the share’s icon from your desktop into the list of applications.

Setup under Ubuntu

The easiest method in my opinion is to mount the LaCie NAS in your fstab file. First create your mount points in /media:

sudo mkdir /media/openshare

and

sudo mkdir /media/myshare

Then add these lines to your /etc/fstab file:

//192.168.1.64/openshare/ media/openshare cifs 0 0
//192.168.1.64/myshare/ media/myshare cifs username=user,password=password 0 0

or you can use the smb protocol:

//192.168.1.64/openshare/ media/openshare smbfs 0 0
//192.168.1.64/myshare/ media/myshare smbfs username=user,password=password 0 0

(edit ip numbers, mount point names, usernames and password to suite your needs)

Tagged as: Apple, LaCie, Linux, NAS, OS X, Ubuntu Comments Off

Comments (52) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Daan
December 9th, 2008 - 23:14

It is a bit frustrating to know that the main cons are due to the firmware: limited user/permission management, scanning for media files which cannot be turned off, no control over time stamps etcetera, no way to use the USB port to hook up to a PC. The device runs on a Linux OS. I wish there was a way to hack it and install a customized Linux.
CognitiveCombine
December 10th, 2008 - 00:31

I completely agree with you. It does seem a bit limited. I would have liked more control through the administration area.

It is definitely worth looking in to the possibility to modify the kernel that is on it.

Further, about one and half weeks ago I sent LaCie an email asking if one can connect two Network Spaces together but have yet to receive a response.
Daan
December 12th, 2008 - 01:47

There’s a LaCie NAS hacking community at http://lacie.nas-central.org/wiki/Main_Page . There’s no guide for the Network Space, but for other devices there are. Hacking usually involves opening the device, voiding the warranty, taking out the disk and putting it in a Linux computer, and then more advanced stuff that requires quite a bit of Linux knowledge. The Network Space is rather new NAS, so maybe a hack will come available in teh future. We’ll see.
CognitiveCombine
December 21st, 2008 - 14:35

Thanks for the link Daan,

Is the hacking community aware that the Network Space is no longer being developed?: http://www.cognitivecombine.com/?p=516

Perhaps we can obtain the source code to develop this further, its based on Linux and should be open source.

What do you think?
Daan
February 4th, 2009 - 02:58

Hey CognitiveCombine,

Good idea to contact Lacie for the source code. They have given the source for other network drives so why not this one? It would also be good if we could get root access to the device and configure and install whatever we like so that we actually own what we paid for.

In the main time I have found a way to switch off media scanning for one out of the two media servers on the device. My NetworkSpace (firmware 1.1.6) came with TwonkyMedia server installed. You can have your music streamed to you from the web interface at http://192.168.1.xx:9000/webbrowse . First, that was the only web page I could access at port 9000, except for red web pages telling me web access is restricted. However, just now I got access to http://192.168.1.xx:9000/ and http://192.168.1.xx:9000/setup and a bunch more. I am not sure why I do have access now and not before, but now I connected from a wired computer and before from a wireless laptop.

So I changed Web access to the configuration pages from Local to Public and setup a user name and password.

And I switched off the scanning.
CognitiveCombine
February 4th, 2009 - 08:14

Hey Daan,

That is very very cool. I am currently looking at the TwonkyMedia page on my NAS.

Once I get back from work I shall have to fiddle with your other tips.

Now what would be the best manner to approach LaCie about the source code do you think ?
Daan
February 4th, 2009 - 12:44

You could have a google to see how people got LaCie to give the source for other NAS’s they produced, or how people in general get the sources from manufacturers that use open source software. But I don’t know how the source would get us root access.

The TwonkyMedia server is not mentioned in the Network Space manual, however it is mentioned on the the LaCie web site in relation to other NAS’s. Probably the Ethernet Disk mini (ED mini) comes with it too. Have you noticed that when you download the log file from the Network Space it’s called “edmini_log.txt”? I guess the software on the Network Space and the ED mini is very similar. GPL source for the ED mini is here: http://www.lacie.com/us/support/drivers/driver.htm?id=10099 . It’s also for the Ethernet Big Disk. The case of those last two devices can be unscrewed to take out the disks. So these are easily hacked and indeed are documented at NAS Central (I think).
CognitiveCombine
February 4th, 2009 - 20:34

So I connected my laptop to the network through wire, but unfortunately still cannot access the media server configuration page. Whatever you did, make sure you document it

I am going to look into how one could obtain the source code without any friction from LaCie. I will probably also check with other users of Ubuntu on the ubuntuforums.org
Daan
February 5th, 2009 - 00:21

Hey CognitiveC,

Do you see the red page when you go to http://192.168.1.64:9000 ?

When I got through to the Twonky configuration page one of the first things I did was enabling Public access to the config pages. It was set to Local access. Near the setting it said:

“The access to the server configuration through the web can be limited by means of this option to the local browser. Please note that for NAS you need public access!”

Yet I accessed Twonky on my NAS remotely, and not locally. My guess is that Twonky mistakenly thought I was connecting from the localhost (the NAS itself). I don’t know, but maybe it’s because I was reconfiguring my home network after changing ISP’s. I have my old router hooked up to my new ADSL router because the new one has too few ethernet ports. The NAS was hooked up to the the old router, the PC to the new one. Then I got to the config page. The difference is that old router always assigns the same ip to the same computer (through DHCP), the new one does not. Maybe the PC was assigned the same ip as the NAS? I checked, but it seems not. The NAS always has 192.168.1.64. The ip of the PC was 192.168.1.6.

I would have to switch off Public Access to the config pages to experiment and repeat what I did, but I don’t want to because I am afraid that I would lock myself out again. So I hope this puts you on the right track when you experiment yourself.
CognitiveCombine
February 5th, 2009 - 09:27

Hey Daan,

Yes I do see the red page when trying to access port 9000.

I’m going to have to experiment around with it, I guess we have to full the NAS into thinking it is a local connection somehow.

By the way, I have contacted support and asked them to release the source code as they have done with other products, let’s see what they say. This is a first attempt.
Daan
February 5th, 2009 - 19:05

So what would be the strategy to get control over our NAS? How is the source going to help?

There must be a way to upgrade the firmware (read: add our own stuff). How is upgrading done on the Network Space? Are there any firmware upgrades for this device? I can’t find any on the net. The EDmini V2 has a built in web update function, “based on gpg signed tar files that are verified, unpacked and that can then replace particular components in the root file system.” (http://lacie.nas-central.org/wiki/SuccessStories). I don’t think our device has anything like that. And even if it had, we would not be able to use it for our own purposes without the secret gpg key, I think.
CognitiveCombine
February 5th, 2009 - 19:57

I don’t think we will be able to get past opening up the networkspace enclosure and using a usb adapter to gain access to the file system to have a look at it.

The reason I want to have a look at the source code was to gain understanding of how the whole thing is built up and put together.

For example, I don’t think the documentation mentions te Twonky Media Server or that it is accessible through the web feature?

I am a bit disappointed at having purchased the NetworkSpace, not much support or documentation. They have left us hanging basically.

We are probably better off taking the HDD out and putting it into a home made server?
Daan
February 5th, 2009 - 21:05

Hmmm… Opening the enclosure voids the warranty and there are no screws or anything in the enclosure. How do you open it? There isn’t even a warranty seal on it. I guess the whole case is a warranty seal! And I don’t even know what kind of HD is in there. It might be some custom made thing that you can’t fit onto standard cables.
Daan
February 6th, 2009 - 11:17

I talked to the guys at nas-central.org. They suggested I open the case with a tin opener.

Anyway, they thought it was a good idea if we post all we know about the Network Space on the Wiki and forum at nas-central.org. They are putting up subforum for the Network Space and I’ll make a wiki for it as soon as I have time.

Did you find your way to the Twonky config pages yet? Any word from LaCie on the GPL source code?
CognitiveCombine
February 7th, 2009 - 20:40

Hey there,

I looked at the enclosure, it seems to be made of soft and flexible plastic. I pulled on the sides a little and noticed that some internal connectors came loose quite easily. I am tempted to use a little ’soft’ force and see if I can get the enclosure of that thing

Today I attached the NetworkSpace to my laptop running Ubuntu 8.04.1 directly i.e. no router in-between the two.

I was able to access the drive normally, but still not able to see the config page. In fact using this method I was not able to access the normal config pages either, I could not call up the page in the browser, as I could not identify a possible ip address to use when connecting in this method.

The wiki idea sounds very good, I would be happy to post all I know as well.
Daan
February 8th, 2009 - 02:15

Hi!

I just found out how to access the Twonky config pages. Connect from ip 192.168.1.6. Strange huh? Worked for Twonky servers at 192.168.1.64 and at 192.168.1.66.

Wiki and forum are up as well:

http://lacie.nas-central.org/wiki/Main_Page and
http://forum.nas-central.org/viewforum.php?f=46

and then click through to Network Space.

By the way, you can run LaCie_Network_Assistant to set the ip of the NAS, so that you know where to go if you’re hooking it up directly to your pc.
CognitiveCombine
February 8th, 2009 - 16:34

I could not get this to work, are you connecting through wireless or ethernet? So far I have only tried it through wireless, and despite having the ip 192.168.1.6 I got the red page with “access denied” on it.
Daan
February 8th, 2009 - 17:13

In both cases I connected from a Windows XP desktop (wired, ip 192.168.1.6). The Twonky server was at 192.168.1.64:9000 (the LaCie NAS, wired) and on my laptop (Linux, wireless, 192.168.1.66:9000). Maybe the ip of the Twonky server is important too. 192.168.1.6 gets through to 192.168.1.64 and 192.168.1.66 – see the pattern?
CognitiveCombine
February 8th, 2009 - 17:42

Daan you are the man!

It worked I am looking at the configuration page for the Twonky Media Server right now, wirelessly also I might add. Very nice, thanks so much for finding this out.
Daan
February 8th, 2009 - 18:39

I am happy to see that somebody else can confirm that it works.

It would be interesting to see which ip’s get through to which ip’s. Maybe we should experiment a little.

This is quite a serious bug. Maybe we should inform the Twonky developers a.s.a.p.
George
February 9th, 2009 - 00:56

Hey guys – I can confirm too that this works; my IP was 192.168.2.7, so logged into the control panel of the Network Space and set it’s static IP to 192.168.2.77 – sure enough, I’m into the control panel at http://192.168.2.77:9000! Excellent find guys – major bug Twonky!

Looking forward to what else we can find out about this box – please, keep up the good work!
Vasilis
February 9th, 2009 - 16:15

Daan you really are the man.I don’t know how you found this trick.
My lacie 500g used to work all the time!!! i think now it damages itself less.imagine 400g of music and video being scanned forever!! i thought it had a couple of months to live.thanks.
Daan
February 9th, 2009 - 17:37

Yeah, that really is something that worried me a lot: the effect of the scanning on the durability of the drive.
But what about the other media server, FireFly (mt-daapd)? What additional services does it provide? Does it scan too?
CognitiveCombine
February 9th, 2009 - 18:02

Not sure about mt-daapd, I read through some documentation and found out that by default the password and username should be mt-daapd. Tried those in the hopes of getting to a config page, but it was too good to be true. I have contacted LaCie asking if they can give me the info, let us see what they say.

I am currently busy with work and an upcoming exam, but I plan on taking the Network Space out of the enclosure at some point and using a USB adapter, attaching it to my computer to have a look at the file system. Perhaps then I would be able to look inside some config files to get some passwords and usernames, for mt-daapd for example.
Marcel
February 10th, 2009 - 14:10

Yes, it works just as you told, thanks for your efforts. My computer (iMac) has a static IP 192.168.0.2, I gave my NetworkSpace 1TB a static IP 192.168.0.22, and that gave me full access to TwonkyVision at 192.168.0.22:9000.

Almost unbelievable you guys discovered this, great!
CognitiveCombine
February 10th, 2009 - 17:21

I have some bizarre news:

I contacted LaCie Support in Germany asking them a) that I had heard that the NS is in fact still being developed and b) whether they have any access data for Twonky.

Their answer was that I should check the site from to time since an update is being developed (this from the same support guy who several weeks earlier told me the NS is no longer being developed).

And, here comes the kicker, as far as Twonky is concerned, its not included in the NS, only on the Ed Mini.

I have no idea what’s going on. It seems that officially Twonky is not on the NS?
Daan
February 11th, 2009 - 21:33

Access data for Twonky? Or do you mean FireFly?

As said before, the log file on the NS is called edmini_log.txt. And it contains Twonky, which was supposedly only on the ED mini. I guess they have just copied over everything from the ED mini.
CognitiveCombine
February 13th, 2009 - 15:32

At the time I wrote LaCie I was asking about Twonky. However they have also informed me that only LaCie can carry out an update for the customer. In other words we would have to send in our Network Spaces to have them upgraded. Very disappointing.
Daan
February 13th, 2009 - 18:19

I am thinking of opening the NAS. Somebody has already done it (to get access to the Twonky config pages!):

http://forum.nas-central.org/viewtopic.php?f=221&t=606&sid=c0719f17f0147a3012864e6db3999684

He says its easy.
CognitiveCombine
February 14th, 2009 - 20:13

Wow nice, thanks for the heads up, I think I may open it up very soon, just need to buy a SATA to USB adapter or something like that.
Daan
February 16th, 2009 - 11:01

I just bought one. 20 euros in the first shop I tried. It adapts USB to IDE and to SATA.
CognitiveCombine
February 17th, 2009 - 09:31

Nice, keep us updated on what goodies you find Daan

I am crazy busy right now, hence no updates on the blog and also not time to look at the Network Space. Things should calm down early March…
Simonides
February 18th, 2009 - 13:33

When you decide to purchase USB-SATA adapter and start your hacking, do not do as I did and fail to take copies of system partitions (sda7,sda8,sd9).. Actually, if you (CC or Daan) manage to make the copies, I would be delighted to have one . I any case, you can successfully run telnet/sshd servers using the tips in “Add SSH on LACIE Edmini V2″ on nas-central and/or install some additional software as well – I did before I managed to do something very stupid .
Daan
February 19th, 2009 - 00:45

I will make copies, for sure. And disk images. I did not succeed in opening the device, tho’. I have tried to pop it open with a knife between the plastic and metal, but it did not pop.

How do you open it?
Simonides
February 20th, 2009 - 09:44

Very much the same way you are trying to: by sticking a knife between plastic and the metal on the longer side of the casing ( always open near the side where usb-connection is ). Stick your knife to approximately half of the depth of the box and bend. You have to bend the plastic somewhat to get it open. Good luck!
toni
February 20th, 2009 - 11:25

Is there any possibility to be able to install subversion in Lacie Network Space??
Aubweb
February 20th, 2009 - 11:29

Hi,

I’ve some issues with my network space and twonky.
It seems that the media server is restarting every 20 seconds.

For example on my Playstation 3 I always get a message saying that the media server has been disconnected then it’s back again, disconnects, back again…

Same issue when I access to http://192.168.2.77:9000 sometimes it works sometimes I have a 404 error

I would that it’s very unstable and unusable
but I’ve no problem to browse my files from my computer…it’s only the media server that has a problem…

any clue on this issue ?

Many thanks
berg
March 1st, 2009 - 15:49

thanks guys, this twonkysuff really works ) cheers!
Chad
March 2nd, 2009 - 01:54

Excellent work… getting into the twonky config seems to have finally fixed the 30 minute problem with PS3 playback.
Daan
March 2nd, 2009 - 09:58

For the mt-daapd (FireFly) config webpages:

http://192.168.1.64:3689

username: admin
password: L@CieD@@pd

See also http://lacie.nas-central.org/wiki/Category:Network_Space , where we try to gather all info on the NetworkSpace.
Thoth
March 3rd, 2009 - 21:29

Tried to apply the IP trick (PC 192.168.1.6 – Drive 192.168.1.66 or 64)

Didn’t work for me unfortunatley…anyone else with that problem?
Daan
March 8th, 2009 - 23:41

Simonides, I opened the case and made copies of the three partitions you mentioned. If you are still interested, ask CognitiveCombine for my e-mail address and contact me.
Simonides
March 11th, 2009 - 13:44

Great and thanks! I have contacted CC about the issue.
Daan
March 11th, 2009 - 16:44

I was just thinking, you can also send me a personal message at http://forum.nas-central.org . Might be quicker.
CognitiveCombine
March 11th, 2009 - 22:37

I have forwarded Daan’s email to those who requested it
Sizzle
March 20th, 2009 - 21:47

Hi – I’ve had SOME luck with mt-daapd. Had access, went away for the weekend – came back and am now locked out. I changed some settings but it was working with these settings…
The drive appears on itunes (in shared) but I get a -3620 error and can’t access tracks. I still have access to twonky. Any ideas?

(I’m using a MAC G5 with 10.5.6)
Angelo
March 21st, 2009 - 14:44

Hi, I was configuring mt-daapd. I just wanted to change the MP3 directory.
From: MP3 Dir: /home/openshare
To: /home/openshare/Music/MP3/Rock

After restarting I can’t login back to the page (192.169.1.102:3689) and I get an Error when i choose the network space server in iTunes (-3260).

What did I do wrong or how can I repair it????

(already restart and disconnect the power etc..)
(Twonkyserver page is still loading (:9000)
cybob10
March 27th, 2009 - 15:46

Hi Angelo,
I have exactly the same issue you have. Yesterday I configured my daapd (just changing the mp3 directory like you did). Everything was working fine, I could see the shared music in itunes and play the streams.

During the night devices were powered off.
Today itunes gives me a -3260 error and asks me to check my firewall settings. But these settings did not change since yesterday. And I still have the error when disabling any firewall on my network.
I still can access the admin page on networkspace:3689. It does it on my 3 pcs (Win XP)

I am using LobsterTunes on my WM6 smartphone to play twonky streams, and that works fine. The Twonky server looks fine..
halex
April 6th, 2009 - 18:08

cybob10, I think your problem is with the version of iTunes. This message pops up when you use the last ver. of itunes (8.1.50). Have you upgraded recently? It doesn’t work with the latest version. And guess what? …they won’t be building a fix!
Angelo
April 7th, 2009 - 22:40

I have restored the NAS to factory and than changed the MP3 directory again. But I still receive the error in iTunes and can’t login back to :3689.

I was wondering if it is allowed to change it or did Lacie blocked it to be change?

It is annoying because I have to 56Gb of MP3 in the openshare and the Shared iTunes cannot build it.(it keep going back to My Library -Music).
That’s why I want to change/set it to one folder only.

Help pls..!!!