I have a broken Western Digital MyBookLive with two 2TB drives on-board. One appeared to have gone Bad which uncharacteristically took the whole ‘network serving’ concept off line

I took out and marked both 2TB drives as A and B
(do it! or you will wish you had…)
then tested them both on my Linux MINT 20 Ulua (AKA Ubuntu 20) workstation. BE SURE yours has NO raid devices on it EXCEPT what we are doinf here : )

You can ‘hot swap’ drives it seems and I have been doing so over a SATA cable that hangs out the Server box. 
I am not responsible for having said that; It just did not break
MY workstation

None of the following works over USB-
USB does not send all the drive stats needed, it seems..

“A” showed S.M.A.R.T. Error
by using gsmartcontrol which confirmed multiple bad sectors waiting to be relocated- which Was Not Happening : )
“B” seemed Okay- But I homed in on “A”. Just Cos
Note I only left “A” connected, and NOT “B”.

OK so, all as ‘root’
I ran:
lsblk
to identify what block/storage Devices the system could still ‘see’

NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 596.2G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 100M 0 part
└─sda2 8:2 0 596.1G 0 part /mnt/d2win
sdb 8:16 0 119.2G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 0 71.7G 0 part /mnt/win
├─sdb2 8:18 0 547M 0 part
├─sdb3 8:19 0 7.8G 0 part [SWAP]
└─sdb4 8:20 0 39.1G 0 part /
sdc 8:32 0 931.5G 0 disk
└─sdc1 8:33 0 931.5G 0 part /mnt/1TBDATA
sdh 8:112 0 1.8T 0 disk
├─sdh1 8:113 0 1.9G 0 part
├─sdh2 8:114 0 1.9G 0 part
├─sdh3 8:115 0 489M 0 part
└─sdh4 8:116 0 1.8T 0 part

There at 1.2TB was the drive with 4 partitions of /dev/sdh…
the largest, /dev/sdh4 likely holds the mass of Data I am after

mount /dev/sdh4 /mnt/tmp
gives:”  unknown filesystem type ‘linux_raid_member”
Reading up some it looks like we need the “mdadm” (Multi Disk Admin Tools?) command line utilities and the use of this command:
mdadm --assemble --scan
This it seems will find anythign that looks liek RAid partiotns and mount them as such under /dev/md*

so! 
ls /dev/md*
gave me:
/dev/md126 /dev/md127

So!

root@SSD128:/mnt# mount /dev/md126 /mnt/tmp
mount: /mnt/tmp: can’t read superblock on /dev/md126.
root@SSD128:/mnt# mount /dev/md127 /mnt/tmp
mount: /mnt/tmp: can’t read superblock on /dev/md127.
root@SSD128:/mnt#
root@SSD128:/mnt# mdadm –verbose –assemble –force /dev/md127 /dev/sdh4
mdadm: looking for devices for /dev/md127
mdadm: /dev/sdh4 is busy – skipping
root@SSD128:/mnt# mdadm –stop /dev/md127
mdadm: stopped /dev/md127
root@SSD128:/mnt# mdadm –verbose –assemble –force /dev/md127 /dev/sdh4
mdadm: looking for devices for /dev/md127
mdadm: /dev/sdh4 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 0.
mdadm: no uptodate device for slot 1 of /dev/md127
mdadm: added /dev/sdh4 to /dev/md127 as 0
mdadm: /dev/md127 has been started with 1 drive (out of 2).

…. To Be Completed …

Thanks to a listener’s Comment!:
All references to GCONTACTSYNC in this article are obsolete, Use CARDBOOK Plugin

This article assumes you use a something@gmail.com Email address or Google Apps or Google GSuite (can be Free for Non Profits)

That you use free THUNDERBIRD Email already set up using IMAP but realize your Contacts are not part of the clever syncing your Mail Folders use (Warning: Will NOT work with anything but Google!- No Yahoo!, Earthlink, etc!!)

So. your online http://www.gmail.com Contacts will not appear within Thunderbird’s own Address Book,
or at least not be In Sync…
You CAN see them at: http://contacts.google.com
But they are NOT the same in your Tunderbird Contacts.
Well, Thunderbird will collect the addresses of people you write or reply to, but this will NOT be the same set as the web based Contacts. SO! :

-0) If you ever Replied or Wrote to someone within Thunderbird, most likely they will end up in the address book called
“Collected Addresses”.
Start typing some part of the name on the To:, CC: or BCC: Line,
and the whole address collected should come up…
No?

0) In Thunderbird,  Search for, and reply to whoever it is you need to contact:
use: View.. Toolbars.. Quick Filter toolbar to be certain it is ON
(It’s incredibly useful anyway)
– Search for the Name of the person as Sender that you want to write to
– assuming they wrote you at least once, they will be there and you can use REPLY!

No? OK!

1) Just use gmail.com website anyway : )

2) Best of Both Worlds:
Use Thunderbird alongside: https://contacts.google.com
to get the best of BOTH worlds- Copy & Paste from that list into the TO: line, etc…

3) I use the GContactSync  CARDBOOK add on Application to pull contacts
FROM GOOGLE into THUNDERBIRD and merge them up.
You MAY and up with duplicates this way so an additional plugin is then used to remove the duplicates. A bit messy but ideal when complete. DO NOT install it from there– that’s just for Info.
In Thunderbird, click
Tools… Addons… Extensions..
And search for:

GContactSync No! since ver 78 it’s CARDBOOK

Then permit its use on your Google account
Be Vewwy Vewwy CAreful where you Go from here as you are likely to end up with Duplicates (for which there is a separate Fixer Extension).
Best is to look carefully at the GContact  CARDBOOK Sync settings on your Toolbar (after you have Re Started) and see offerings for which directions the sync is to go: BOTH ways is probably NOT a good idea at first- Set it to copy FROM Google TO Thunderbird first?

you have Backups, right?

Within Thunderbird, click Tools > Address Book.
Select the desired Address Book (s).
Note: Make sure that you are selecting a specific address book.
The selection by default is set as “All Address Books”
and exporting this way will result in a blank file.
Select Tools > Export…
Note: If you do not see the Export option, click View > Toolbars to turn this option on.

Select “LDIF” (Industry Standard that will allow you to re import)
from the Format drop-down box.
Choose where you want to save the exported file, give the file a name, and click Save.

Comments Welcomed!

Using: Linux, exiftool, mediainfo
Requires- Intermediate LINUX skills and Google.
Further Reference: https://exiftool.org/filename.html
You MAY want to clean up file naming with DETOX

I have lots of small MP4 video files with arbitrary sequence numbers like:
dji_001.mp4, dji_002.mp4.. etc etc- making it hard to divide them into folders later for particular filmed events with maybe a dozen files with similar time stamps… The file dates themselves are unreliable as it may be much later and the date of the copy not the filming.
These video files contain realistic  internal metadata of all sorts tagged when the video was made that’s VERY interesting including GPS info, altitude and way more:
Hey, try it yourself!
exiftool myfilename.abc
or
mediainfo filename.xyz
for any movie
Note: that EXIF Timestamps are very reasonably in UTC so consider that when you wonder why your videos are tagged hours off–
Unless you are near 0 longitude (Western Europe..) ; )
My exif data DOES store lat/long but that’s another Project : )

To batch rename an entire folder of arbitrarily named files and recursively, everything below::
(No Line Break, BTW!)

exiftool “‘-filename<CreateDate” -d %Y_%b_%d_%a_@_%I:%M_%p%%-c.%%le -r -ext mp4 *
Result:
2018_Aug_13_Mon_@_07:49_PM.mp4

(I fear Spaces so tend to use the Underbar _ character)

exiftool “-filename<CreateDate” -d %Y-%b-%d-%a_@_%I:%M:%S_%p%%-c.%%le -r -ext mp4 *
gives:
2014-Jan-01-Wed_@_12:00:56_AM.mp4

(Note: If meant for Windows these filenames contain things like Colon “:” which it May NOT like)

exiftool “-filename<CreateDate” -d %Y_%b_%d_%a_%I.%M.%S_%p%%-c.%%le -r -ext mp4 *
gives: 2018_Aug_13_Mon_07.44.08_PM.mp4

the DATE/TIME variables can be studied by using:
man date
and:
man exiftool
will remind you the “-r” option is to be Recursive, which you may not want… and more.

exiftool can also work on still images. Very useful!

• This guide is a “nutshell” (Brief guides) script that assumes a reasonable level of Linux proficiency & understanding & is not geared to a particular Linux or specific instructions
  Lots of Googleable Entries such as green COMMANDS should help : )_
• I am assuming an already running LINUX system of recent origin (I use MINT, an Ubuntu/Debian derivative) on a drive all its own, NOT RAID, possibly a small SSD of 64GB and the addition of 2 EMPTY identical drives to be put in RAID1 formation (Mirrored, that is 2 identical drives ‘combined’ redundantly into one for DATA use)
  NOT for Operating System Boot use in this guide.
• Do not use BIOS RAID or  Hardware Raid this is all Software Raid done by LINUX
• TEST ALL THE DRIVES that will be used including any Operating System drives using their S.M.A.R.T. facility. IE: GSMARTCONTROL GUI
• If the drives are over 2TB in size (and perhaps even if they are not) they must be configured, partitioned and formatted using GPT not old style MBR (Master Boot Record) This works even on old PC architecture without EFI else you will not see outside the 2TB boundary : )
• Using “PARTED” utility (Do not use FDISK) 
• “label” the disk “gpt” as per instructions. Create conventional ext4 partition on EACH drive using the whole partition ideally,
• Check whether you have RAID utility: “MDADM” and if not, get it.
• Check What You Have Got: lsblk AKA: “LiStBLocK”
• Check whether something raid like is around yet (Not as silly as it sounds while we are experiment:)
  cat /proc/mdstat
• Know the Device Names then use this command:
  $sudo mdadm –create –verbose /dev/md0 –level=1 –raid-devices=2 /dev/sda /dev/sdb
• above assumes devices were /dev/sda, /dev/sdb. But you knew that..
• on another console, run : cat /proc/mdstat
• This will show you the ongoing Mirroring Process-
• a new ‘device’ will now exist: /dev/md0 as specified above. You can mount this like so on an existing Mount Point:
• mount /dev/md0 /mnt/raid
• I use no Options as things seem to get Auto detected nicely. 
• TO make it auto mount add entry to /etc/fstab- Use “blkid” to find its UUID which is the correct way to Mount stuff in Linux
• YOu can use the device IMMEDIATELY after issuing the last “mdadm” command above and mounting the array- It can simultaneously be written to while mirroring but the drives will be VERY VERY BUSY and in my case, overheated while doing so!
• I use the “HDDTEMP” utility to check drive temperatures:
  Example: sudo hddtemp /dev/sd[a-b]  
• Use advanced  features of SMARTMONTOOLS to Email or Notify you if SMART monitoring notices drive degradadtion,
  Not Covered Here
• Use “NETHOG” to watch how the server is being used by the Network
• To Be Continued. Enjoy!
•  

Cleaning up Funny File Names
Keep your Original files somewhere SAFE as a source to restart the project should it hiccup : )
Utilities Used: Google them for your Platform…
Examples are for Image Files- Suit Yourself here though.
Red is Commands- Green is My Results.

detox, exiftool, imagemagick, convmv, 

I copied a lot of cranky old 20 year old Floppy Disk image files into a Linux folder to clean up with the intention they should end up inside Apple Photos which would use their proper Image Timestamp to good effect : )

$ls -l
-rwxr-xr-x 1 sysop sysop 59993 Mar 29 2003 <A9>2002 12 19 Sunrise -5<B0> (21).jpg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 sysop sysop 78345 Mar 29 2003 <A9>2002 12 19 Sunrise -5<B0> (79).jpg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 sysop sysop 55210 Mar 29 2003 <A9>2002 12 31 Silvester (1).jpg
-rw-r--r-- 1 sysop sysop 55302 Mar 29 2003 ©2002 12 31 Silvester (2).jpg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 sysop sysop 190714 Feb 15 2003 20%20Mutterstuten%20mit%20Fohlen.jpg

Be Nice! Lets Set ’em all to reasonable Permissions:
$chmod -Rvc 644 *

This untangles ‘funny’ characters and irregularities:
$detox -r -v *

These three unify foreign language characters to standard UTF-8
(Note the final "." period meaning "Here")
$convmv -r -f windows-1252 -t UTF-8 .
$convmv -r -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 .
$convmv -r -f cp-850 -t UTF-8 .

Clean Em Up!! Lowercase names:
$for file in $(ls); do mv -i ${file} ${file,,}; done
Replace spaces in file names with underbar:
$rename ‘s/\s/_/g’ ./*.jpg

None of this so far changes the original Time Stamp on the file-
Its Creation date, only its access point: Its Name.
Which is Good. Could be useful.
Older digital Pictures did not use the EXIF metadata
that records when the Picture was taken, etc, so, this is all we have got: the File Creation Date listed by “ls -l “.

I wanted to standardize on .JPG files, as there were a mix  of GIF, BMP, etc etc.. Your choice however.
ImageMagick's MOGRIFY is good for that; Here, making all gifs into jpgs.

$mogrify -format jpg *.gif

*note* I found some animated GIFs and the result was an array of single .jpg's
as jpg does NOT have the ability to Animate! Ugh!
IE: This single file has 6 images within it. using ImageMagicks' "identify" utility.. Just a Warning...

$identify WdfAnimate.gif
WdfAnimate.gif[0] GIF 275x440 275x440+0+0 8-bit sRGB 256c 98.7KB 0.000u 0:00.000
WdfAnimate.gif[1] GIF 275x440 275x440+0+0 8-bit sRGB 256c 98.7KB 0.000u 0:00.000
WdfAnimate.gif[2] GIF 275x440 275x440+0+0 8-bit sRGB 256c 98.7KB 0.000u 0:00.000
WdfAnimate.gif[3] GIF 275x440 275x440+0+0 8-bit sRGB 256c 98.7KB 0.000u 0:00.000
WdfAnimate.gif[4] GIF 275x440 275x440+0+0 8-bit sRGB 256c 98.7KB 0.000u 0:00.000
WdfAnimate.gif[5] GIF 275x440 275x440+0+0 8-bit sRGB 256c 98.7KB 0.000u 0:00.000

The resulting new JPG output files have today’s timestamp,
not that of the original GIF, So! ::

$for i in *.gif; do touch -r "$i" "${i%.*}.jpg"; done

This ‘touches’; (Sets the Timestamp) as the SAME as a Reference file– the Original.
Now Let’s mess with the file “witch.gif” for Testing; Then apply to All..

$jhead -exifmap witch.jpg
File name : witch.jpg
File size : 67559 bytes
File date : 2000:02:16 08:35:32
Resolution : 398 x 300
JPEG Quality : 92

No EXIF data Present. Let’s create it with the current File Date:
$jhead -mkexif witch.jpg
Modified: witch.jpg

Now Look: Additional MAP file EXIF records the EXIF
Timestamp as if when Picture was Taken
regardless of what happens to the file’s timestamp from here on out:

$jhead -exifmap witch.jpg
Map: 00008-00038: Directory
Map: 00038-00058: Data for tag 0132
Map: 00058-00076: Directory
Map: 00076-00096: Data for tag 9003
Map: 00096-00126: Directory
Map: 00126-00126: Thumbnail
Map: 00126- End of exif
Map: 00000 49 49 2a 00 08 00 00 00 02 00
.. thumbnail data, I think?? ...
Map: 00120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 11 04
File name : witch.jpg
File size : 67677 bytes
File date : 2000:02:16 08:35:32
Date/Time : 2000:02:16 08:35:32
Resolution : 398 x 300
JPEG Quality : 92
______________________

Use the Manual Pages for these Utilities here for much more useful stuff : )

Heads Up as I am notified my Virtual Linux Server logs have suddenly starting growing much faster than usual.
Also I got a warning that Virtual Memory was Low.

This is the image after things got fixed:
Looking through logs I see torrents of failed login attempts over the SSH (Secure Shell) and FTP port (yes I am trying hard to switch to SFTP but that’s another story) at the rate of 5 per second or more at times.
Several Issues to Note:
 I moved SSHD from default port 22 to 1066 years ago. 
That was not, I thought a ‘well known port’ unless of course someone figures it out.
Had not changed it since. 
– Server auto updates itself regularly and I scan and check it manually now & then.
and there does not appear to be a crack so much as brute force attacks perhaps combined with guesswork.

• Hackers obviously scanned & found the (years old) ‘new’ port.1066. I since moved it again.
  – Hackers then launched a barrage of brute force attempts with various names and who knows what password on that particular port. (logins fails restricted to 3 per 600s session in /ec/ssh/sshd_config)
  – Interestingly, ‘root’ was never tried (It’s disabled anyway)
  I assume as this could trigger a default alert- But: admin, demo, test etc? Of course.
  – These attacks came from unique IP addresses all over the word. Yes, folks, mainly China and Asia. Russia did not show up per se but then why would it? : )
  Few came from the same source IP or even subnet more than once. RESPONSES:
  – I tried to Ban China in Iptables. Not so easy as it sounds and a poor solution anyway being a majority of the sources, but not all.
  Overfilling Iptables uses up kernel memory and exhausts Virtual Memory : (
  – I setup “fail2ban”, which examines pre determined  log files for fails and acts upon it to ‘ban’ the source using Iptables again.
  which is useless as each attempt was from a new IP. Oh Yes! From literally YEARS ago I suddenly recalled /etc/hosts.allow & /etc/hosts.deny which act on the initial service port connection and CAN check wildcard hostnames by name AND IP.
  So now my rules are: Deny from anywhere EXCEPT couple of my local ISPs. No-one gets in now, regardless, unless their reverse IP name matches ISPs in my area.
• a good solution would be light on server resources lest the result be a Denial Of Service attack overwhelming the system with blocking rules. 
• Judging by what’s happening recently  I fear a “Grey Goo Meltdown” of the Internet- I assume MOST of these attacking hosts have themselves been broken into and turned into ‘zombie bots’ attempting to propagate themselves. The ultimate purpose is to obtain a concerted powerful platform running software of the primary attacker’s choosing to launch denial of service attacks on target domains
  These services are For Hire on the Dark Web.Here is a sample log at the end of this post ,
  and I am thankful my slackadaisical  inattention was not more severely punished by the blackhats of the Internet.
  I used to use hosts.allow/deny on EVERYTHING with only minor inconvenience.Security is Interesting & entertaining much like a firework display until you get blasted… : )

Mar 1 03:44:54 s19410066 sshd[5235]: Failed password for invalid user aion from 49.235.69.80 port 55082 ssh2
Mar 1 03:44:54 s19410066 sshd[5237]: Received disconnect from 49.235.69.80: 11: Bye Bye
Mar 1 03:44:57 s19410066 sshd[5348]: Invalid user odoo from 211.193.58.173
Mar 1 03:44:57 s19410066 sshd[5349]: input_userauth_request: invalid user odoo
Mar 1 03:44:57 s19410066 sshd[5348]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): check pass; user unknown
Mar 1 03:44:57 s19410066 sshd[5348]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=211.193.58.173
Mar 1 03:44:59 s19410066 sshd[5348]: Failed password for invalid user odoo from 211.193.58.173 port 34944 ssh2
Mar 1 03:44:59 s19410066 sshd[5349]: Received disconnect from 211.193.58.173: 11: Bye Bye
Mar 1 03:45:01 s19410066 sshd[5350]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=202.79.168.244 user=root
Mar 1 03:45:02 s19410066 proftpd: pam_unix(proftpd:session): session opened for user willowsweather by (uid=0)
Mar 1 03:45:04 s19410066 sshd[5350]: Failed password for root from 202.79.168.244 port 58772 ssh2
Mar 1 03:45:04 s19410066 sshd[5352]: Received disconnect from 202.79.168.244: 11: Bye Bye
Mar 1 03:45:17 s19410066 sshd[5574]: Invalid user jose from 167.172.118.117
Mar 1 03:45:17 s19410066 sshd[5575]: input_userauth_request: invalid user jose
Mar 1 03:45:17 s19410066 sshd[5574]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): check pass; user unknown
Mar 1 03:45:17 s19410066 sshd[5574]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=167.172.118.117
Mar 1 03:45:19 s19410066 sshd[5574]: Failed password for invalid user jose from 167.172.118.117 port 58284 ssh2
Mar 1 03:45:19 s19410066 sshd[5575]: Received disconnect from 167.172.118.117: 11: Bye Bye
Mar 1 03:45:20 s19410066 sshd[5576]: Invalid user admin from 139.59.13.223
Mar 1 03:45:20 s19410066 sshd[5577]: input_userauth_request: invalid user admin
Mar 1 03:45:20 s19410066 sshd[5576]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): check pass; user unknown
Mar 1 03:45:20 s19410066 sshd[5576]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=139.59.13.223
Mar 1 03:45:22 s19410066 sshd[5576]: Failed password for invalid user admin from 139.59.13.223 port 59480 ssh2
Mar 1 03:45:22 s19410066 sshd[5577]: Received disconnect from 139.59.13.223: 11: Bye Bye
Mar 1 03:45:44 s19410066 sshd[5584]: reverse mapping checking getaddrinfo for 187-45-103-15.mhnet.com.br [187.45.103.15] failed – POSSIBLE BREAK-IN ATTEMPT!
Mar 1 03:45:44 s19410066 sshd[5584]: Invalid user time from 187.45.103.15
Mar 1 03:45:44 s19410066 sshd[5585]: input_userauth_request: invalid user time
Mar 1 03:45:44 s19410066 sshd[5584]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): check pass; user unknown
Mar 1 03:45:44 s19410066 sshd[5584]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=187.45.103.15
Mar 1 03:45:46 s19410066 proftpd: pam_unix(proftpd:session): session opened for user artol by (uid=0)
Mar 1 03:45:47 s19410066 sshd[5584]: Failed password for invalid user time from 187.45.103.15 port 55849 ssh2
Mar 1 03:45:47 s19410066 sshd[5585]: Received disconnect from 187.45.103.15: 11: Bye Bye
Mar 1 03:45:58 s19410066 sshd[5589]: Invalid user demo from 49.234.60.13
Mar 1 03:45:58 s19410066 sshd[5590]: input_userauth_request: invalid user demo

Happy New Year, I think!

Odds Of Death In The United States By Selected Cause Of Injury, 2017 (1)

I copied this data from the social security administration site for use in the Nevada county Altar Show– a commemorative exhibition for over 100 ‘artists’ to present what they thought was important.
i thought this was important as it commemorated a life as yet not over but Sure to Happen: But how?
Which way would you choose if you could?
“Natural Disasters?” “All Other CAuses”?
Just Saying,  as they say right here in California!

(1) Based on fatalities and life expectancy in 2017. Ranked by deaths in 2017.
(2) Includes all types of medications including narcotics and hallucinogens, alcohol and gases.
(3) Includes hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, dust storms and other cataclysmic storms.

Source: National Center for Health Statistics; National Safety Council.