Using a Mox router, I tried to set up a networked share using a usb flash drive. I don’t know how to use all this command line stuff that the OpenWrt wiki uses, and I’m thinking this router is too complicated for non-IT professionals who want something a little more useful than what Forris can do.
After setting up the drive in Forris’ storage and using as much as I could of this guide for LuCi https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/nas/usb-storage-samba-webinterface
I couldn’t get the server to be seen on a mac. After reformatting the flash drive to NTFS and plugging it back in to start the process from the beginning, I now cannot even get the drive to format. I get this error on the storage page. “Your setup is currently broken and you are probably loosing data, set a new storage device as soon as you can!” And this error in Notifications:
Error from 2019/10/09 09:12:43
Adding drive /dev/sda1 failed.
Technical details: ERROR: not a btrfs filesystem: /srv
As the error says, the drive stays HTFS even after reboot. I’ve deleted the mount point in LuCi and the attempt at a shared directory in LuCi’s Network Shares tab. I tried unmounting a /srv mount point in LuCi that has “none” for filesystem, and when I do that Notifications in Forris then tell me that a certain uuid can’t be found. I think it was the uuid of the flash drive before I reformatted, but I’m not certain.
I am really thinking this router is kind of unusable for people who don’t use command line Linux. Am I wrong?
I too currently struggle with sharing a USB drive. Did you manage to get it working?
I suspect Forris / Storage has nothing to do with sharing or accessing a USB drive. I understood it would use the USB drive for system purposes, probably not what you want.
Thank you for the link to OpenWrt, it looks like the way to go.
I managed to mount the USB drive as /mnt/usb-drive via LuCI / System / Mount Points. I had to add the mount point manually, it wasn’t added automatically.
I also added the /mnt/usb-drive to LuCI / Services / Network Shares / Shared Directories (name “klicenka”, empty Allowed users, Browseable, Allow Guests). I can browse its content when I SSH into MOX.
However, I don’t know how to access it from my Ubuntu notebook, connected to MOX’s WiFi.
I tried smb://192.168.1.1/ on my Ubuntu computer (Files / Other Locations) but I got “Connection Rejected” error.
Do I have to configure the Firewall to allow Samba connections? It’s a LAN connection so I thought I wouldn’t have to.
I too would appreciate some documentation for command line shy users.
Thanks @JardaB! The key information for me was to go to LuCI / System / Startup and enable Samba (and start it as well, so that I don’t have to wait until reboot).
Things are working perfectly now, thank you.
Just a few observations:
My directory and all files already were a=rwx so I didn’t have to change anything in /mnt/usb-drive
Files uploaded via the share also get a=rwx with my setting for “Mask for new files” and “Mask for new directories” empty. Just an observation that empty = 777.
I still can’t get this to work. My Samba was disabled as well, but after enabling and rebooting that did nothing to help the situation. The /srv directory appears to not exist and Forris is telling me I might be losing data, but I can’t make the usb flash drive the /srv one because it won’t format it to btrfs.
I’m at the point where I’m probably going to have to reset the router and start all over again. But that sucks because I have like 50 devices filled out with static leases that I’ll have to redo.
I really wish someone from Turris can help out with this.
I suggest you start by disabling Forris / Storage. I understand you only want to share the USB drive, not use it for storing data of various applications running on the router.
That should resolve the “losing data” issue - the router will start storing its data in the default location.
Then you can format the drive with a file system that the router will recognize and toy with mounting (LuCI / System / Mount Points) and Samba (LuCI / Services / Network Shares / Shared Directories) settings.
Try placing the flash drive on the front port. In the past I have had large and long - term problems with multiple types of flash drive in the rear slot under the WiFi antenna.
