Well fear not because there's a way (actually two ways) to revert to the old firmware.
The Seagate Central
keeps a copy of 2 versions of firmware. The currently running firmware and the previously
running "old" firmware.
We can program the Central's bootloader (U-boot) to revert to the previous
firmware.
There are two ways
to do this. You only need to do one of them.
METHOD 1 : Via ssh (no need for root access)
Ssh into the Seagate
Central. If you don't know how to ssh or you don't know what ssh is, then just proceed to Method 2.
I only tested this procedure with the "admin" account but I
think it should work with any valid
userID.
Issue the following
command
admin@Seagate-4xxxx:~$
/sbin/fw_printenv | grep kernel
current_kernel=kernel2
The output of the
command will either say "kernel1" or "kernel2". This
indicates which of the two copies of firmware
the bootloader will run. We want to change this to the other one in order to
run the previous firmware.
So if the output of
your command said "kernel1" then we want to switch to
"kernel2" by running the
following command
admin@Seagate-4xxxx:~$
/sbin/fw_setenv current_kernel kernel2
If the output of
your command said "kernel2" then we want to switch to
"kernel1" as follows
admin@Seagate-4xxxx:~$
/sbin/fw_setenv current_kernel kernel1
Finally check that
your changes took effect by running the following command again.
admin@Seagate-4xxxx:~$
/sbin/fw_printenv | grep kernel
current_kernel=kernel1
Now reboot your
Central either by power cycling it or using the Management Web Page
(Settings Tab ->
Setup -> System -> Restart Button)
The unit should now
be running the "old" firmware.
This method uses the fw_printenv and fw_setenv commands which view and set the environment variables that the U-boot bootloader use to determine how to boot up the Central. Seagate have kindly left them executable by normal non-root users.
METHOD 2 : Power cycling 4 times while the LED light flashes green
If you don't want to
ssh into your unit then
use this method
Step 1 : Power down
your central.
Step 2 : Power Up
again and watch the little LED light on top of the unit.
Step 3 : When the
LED changes from solid amber/green to flashing green let it blink about 2 times
then quickly unplug the power.
Step 4 : Goto Step 2
and repeat at least 4 times.
Step 5 : Power on and
let the unit fully boot up so that the LED light goes solid green. The unit should now be running
the "old" firmware.
This method takes
advantage of a custom Seagate feature in the U-Boot bootloader whereby if the unit fails to fully
boot 4 times in a row it will switch to the backup firmware.
After completing Method 1 or Method 2 your Central is
hopefully running the "old" firmware. You can confirm by using the
Management Web Page (Settings Tab ->
Setup -> About ) then look at the
displayed Firmware Version.
Now a note for those of you reverting firmware because you lost root / su access. If you have
previously set a non blank root password then at this point you should
*hopefully* be able to use the
"su" command to get root access again with your old password.
However if you
had a blank root password then you still won't have
root access. This is because even though "su" access is technically
enabled again, the "new" Seagate Central
Firmware has changed your blank root password into a new secret password which
no one knows.
I am going to put up another post about a method of modifying the Seagate Central firmware to get rid of the new root password in the near future.
