Turn WD My Cloud into a Synology-like disk station
It turns out that the hardware used by WD My Cloud (at least the one I have, a 3TB single drive unit) is close enough to Synology disk stations that you can boot a WD My Cloud with software derived from the Synology Linux. You can also put in a clean Debian and an OpenMedia vault server.
The Synology disk station Linux seems to have many interesting plugins, although I believe the WD My Cloud is a bit underpowered compared to Synology's own hardware.
Here is a guide and files for how to do it, from the user Fox_exe ("Fox Allester") at the https://community.wd.com boards:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_6OlQ_H0PxVa040STRHQUU3VU0&usp=drive_web#list
I have just tested it and it does work! I have only tested SSH connection and that the web based control panel works so far. You should be able to login with
ssh root@<IP NUMBER>
with the password "mycloud". Or login to the admin account. They use the same password.
Changing the password
To change the password for both root and admin, type while being logged in as root:
synouser --setpw admin <NEWPASSWORD>
Put a space first so that your new password doesn't end up in the command history (In fact scratch that space-thingy trick, I just went back and noticed that the command line history also keeps commands with preceding space. I guess that is because it is busybox and not the normal bash. Weird).
Then make sure you can log in as both root and admin with your new password through other terminal windows, before logging out from your root session.
A few notes on the files linked to above & installation
You may want to verify the contents of the above files. I do not assume they are suspicious in any way, but since they do not come from a well known repository it may still be prudent.
The user names and passwords listed in the beginning are also valid for the new disk station setup.
Preparing a new hard drive from a Linux computer
I did not re-use the drive in my WD My Cloud cabinet. Instead I used a hard drive I had lying around and put it into a Linux machine, and issued all commands in the guide from that Linux machine.
Hence i did not do the tftp stuff and such, that is I did not do the work through the WD My Cloud device. I just had the files mentioned in the guide on the host computer's file system, and copied them in place to the hard disk, instead of using tftp.
The guide is written for using a hard disk that uses the newer GPT-partitioned format and not the older MBR (Master Boot Record) format at the beginning of the hard disk. I used gparted to make sure the disk was in GPT format.
- What’s the Difference Between GPT and MBR When Partitioning a Drive?
- Using the New GUID Partition Table in Linux (Goodbye Ancient MBR) | Linux.com
If you follow the guide and parted starts complaining of too many primary partitions, then your drive is in MBR format and needs to be changed into CPT format.
Other offerings from Fox_exe
Update: It seems Fox_exe has been busy preparing other options for the WD My Cloud:
Clean debian and OpenMediaVault on WDMyCloud! - Cloud Storage / My Cloud - WD Community
However the clean Debian download link deems to be dead right now, although the Open Media Vault link works.
Update 2: This link seems to go to all his stuff, including a downloadable Debian: