In the Links page there is a site run by Martin Hinner with a script page that enables SSH remotely and allows you into the shell without having to do anything complicated, however, the contents of the script have not been revealed yet so use this at your own risk (I have used it and not noticed anything untoward however)
The whole process doesn't require hard drive disassembly. It does not even require physical access to the drive. It works fine on every WD MyBook WE models (both I and II, capacities from 320GB to 2TB).
Then enter this URL into your browser:
Click on "Click to download and install".
(Note: if you are interested how this works, click here).
Now you have to be patient, whole process will take a while - not 30 minutes as stated on the firmware upgrade page,
because you are not actually performing any upgrade.
The "upgrade" process will generate ssh host keys.
This takes maybe 1 or 2 minutes.
Then root's password is reset (set to '') and finally, sshd process is spawned.
Please note that you will not be informed about the operation progress.
Just try to log in using ssh after few minutes to see if it has succeeded.
When you find out that sshd is running, log in under the new user you have created in the first step.
You should get bash shell immediately.
Then type "su -" (no password) to get root shell.
(su means super-user)
In order to get ssh daemon running each time you power-up your MyBook, add the following line to /etc/inittab:
::sysinit:/usr/sbin/sshd
Now reboot your MyBook to see it if works.
I purchased a wd mybook 500 world with 01.01.18 firmware. I added the admin passwd and created an account called bill. I then went to the Firmware upgrade page. I get "Applying new firmware
The drive is currently busy. Please stop using all shares and try again."
Has anyone else seen this error on new units as of 9 /20/2007.
wd case
number 092007-524-5152
Answer: Today I bought one with 01.01.18 Firmware and got that error message too. The first steps necessary can be quite tricky so here's how I did it.. First, find a windows station on your lan and instal the software provided on the CD included with the unit and register your machine. This will change the firmware somehow. You should have your admin account set up properly by doing this step. Next, restart your mybook. Then you should be able to upgrade the firmware. BUT you still won't be able logging in via ssh! The admin account won't work. You must still enter the web interface and on the tab "File Sharing -> User Management" create a new account. It will be that one you use in logging in. After doing this there shouldn't be problem spawning the shell…
Issue 10/21/07: I cannot get around this issue with 01.01.18. I have tried doing everything you said here - I installed MioNet, I registered the machine, and I've restarted the mybook several times. No matter whether I try directly accessing Hinner's firmware or just click "Upgrade the System Firmware" from the web gui, I still get the "currently busy" error. I also tried making WDAnywhere access inactive in case that was the issue. It is clear that I don't have an sshd running on the mybook.
Another answer: I bought one today with the same fw version. However, as I do not have access to a windows computer, I solved the problem by connecting to the samba share using konqueror (i.e. KDE file browser) and after closing that window I was able to do the firmware upgrade. Adding users can be done using the web interface. There is no need for windows to succesfully hack into your WD MyBook :-)
And yet another answer: By going to "General Settings -> WD Anywhere Access settings" and disabling the NAS I got rid of the nasty message and I could install SSH as stated. No need to use Win*.