cyrus-sasl-libs – 2.1.22-2 – Provides client or server side authentication (see RFC 2222).
libxml2 – 2.6.31-1 – Libxml2 is the XML C parser and toolkit developed for the Gnome project.
pcre – 7.6-2 – Perl-compatible regular expression library

Then install the following two:
php – 5.2.5-1 – The php scripting language
php-fcgi – 5.2.5-2 – The php scripting language, built as an fcgi module

Run a ldconfig, and try php -v for some successful output in the command line, if not,
try the following trick

ipkg install -force-reinstall php php-fcgi

YES, RE-INSTALL THE PACKAGES!

Pressing the recovery button while powering up the device resets the admin user name and password to default without erasing shared folders or volumes. The recovery button also resets network configuration to DHCP (obtain an IP address automatically). Follow the instructions below to reset the device using the recovery button.

1. Turn off the device and disconnect all cables from the unit.

2. Insert a paperclip or narrow tipped pen into the recovery slot on the back of the unit. Press and hold down the recovery button.

3. While continuing to hold down the recovery button, connect the power cable to the back of the unit.

4. Hold the recovery button down until 10 seconds after the power/activity LED lights on the front of the device, then release the button. The unit may take up to three minutes to boot up completely.

I want to access the web interface is because a new firmware 02.00.18 has been released – although there are reports saying the new firmware is not good, I trust WD only upgrade the firmware if they think it is necessary ……

Either way, I now have a ‘test’ directory displaying results in my browser – thanks again, will move on to the rest of the steps when I get more time….

can’t load library ‘libpcre.so.0′

I already have pcre installed, also installed nano and the other libraries you mentioned originally:
ibxml2 openssl pkgconfig

But still no progress – have you any other ideas? I’m running 2.00.15 firmware (already on the box when I got it)

I currently have installed:

bzip2 – 1.0.5-1 – Very high-quality data compression program
cyrus-sasl-libs – 2.1.22-2 – Provides client or server side authentication (see RFC 2222).
gdbm – 1.8.3-2 – GNU dbm is a set of database routines that use extensible hashing. It works similar to the standard UNIX dbm routines.
gettext – 0.14.5-2 – Set of tools for producing multi-lingual messages
libdb – 4.2.52-3 – Berkeley DB Libraries
libstdc++ – 6.0.3-6 – Standard C++ library, needed for dynamically linked C++ programs
libxml2 – 2.6.31-1 – Libxml2 is the XML C parser and toolkit developed for the Gnome project.
libxslt – 1.1.22-1 – An XML Stylesheet processor based on libxml2
nano – 2.1.1-1 – A pico like editor
ncurses – 5.6-3 – NCurses libraries
openldap-libs – 2.3.38-1 – Open Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
openssl – 0.9.7m-4 – Openssl provides the ssl implementation in libraries libcrypto and libssl, and is needed by many other applications and librari
pcre – 7.6-2 – Perl-compatible regular expression library
php – 5.2.5-1 – The php scripting language
php-fcgi – 5.2.5-2 – The php scripting language, built as an fcgi module
pkgconfig – 0.15.0-1 – Package configuration tool
transmission – 1.10-1 – lightweight BitTorrent client and daemon with WWW interface
zlib – 1.2.3-2 – zlib is a library implementing the ‘deflate’ compression system.

Below is my ipkg list_installed result

bzip2 – 1.0.4-3 – Very high-quality data compression program
cyrus-sasl-libs – 2.1.22-2 – Provides client or server side authentication (see RFC 2222).
expat – 2.0.1-1 – XML Parser library
fontconfig – 2.5.0-0 – Font configuration library
freetype – 2.1.10-4 – Free truetype library
gconv-modules – 2.2.5-7 – Provides gconv modules missing from the firmware. These are used by glibc’s iconv() implementation.
gdbm – 1.8.3-2 – GNU dbm is a set of database routines that use extensible hashing. It works similar to the standard UNIX dbm routines.
gnuplot – 4.2.2-2 – Command-line driven interactive data and function plotting utility
hdparm – 8.5-1 – Linux hard drive parameter utility
libdb – 4.2.52-3 – Berkeley DB Libraries
libgd – 2.0.35-2 – An ANSI C library for the dynamic creation of images
libiconv – 1.11-2 – Converts between character encodings.
libjpeg – 6b-2 – collection of jpeg tools
libpng – 1.2.25-1 – Portable Network Graphics Libraries
libstdc++ – 6.0.3-6 – Standard C++ library, needed for dynamically linked C++ programs
libxml2 – 2.6.31-1 – Libxml2 is the XML C parser and toolkit developed for the Gnome project.
libxslt – 1.1.22-1 – An XML Stylesheet processor based on libxml2
logrotate – 3.7.5-1 – Rotates, compresses, removes and mails system log files.
nano – 2.0.7-1 – A pico like editor
ncurses – 5.6-3 – NCurses libraries
openldap-libs – 2.3.38-1 – Open Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
openssl – 0.9.7m-3 – Openssl provides the ssl implementation in libraries libcrypto and libssl, and is needed by many other applications and librari
pcre – 7.6-2 – Perl-compatible regular expression library
php – 5.2.5-1 – The php scripting language
php-fcgi – 5.2.5-1 – The php scripting language, built as an fcgi module
pkgconfig – 0.15.0-1 – Package configuration tool
popt – 1.7-2 – A C library for parsing command line parameters.
procps – 3.2.7-6 – PROCPS System Utilities
readline – 5.2-2 – The GNU Readline library provides a set of functions for use by applications that allow users to edit command lines as they are
screen – 4.0.3-2 – A screen manager that supports multiple logins on single terminal
termcap – 1.3.1-2 – Terminal emulation library
thttpd – 2.25b-5 – thttpd is a lightweight http server
transmission – 1.06+r5187-2 – lightweight BitTorrent client and daemon with WWW interface
unzip – 5.52-3 – A (de)compression library for the ZIP format
zlib – 1.2.3-2 – zlib is a library implementing the ‘deflate’ compression system.
Successfully terminated.

However I am facing an error… when I try to restart the lighttpd daemon, it gave me an error :
—–
opt/bin/php-fcgi: can’t load library ‘libpcre.so.0′
2008-03-23 16:48:10: (mod_fastcgi.c.920) child exited: 16
2008-03-23 16:48:10: (mod_fastcgi.c.923) if you try do run PHP as FastCGI backend make sure you use the FastCGI enabled version.
You can find out if it is the right one by executing ‘php -v’ and it should display ‘(cgi-fcgi)’ in the output, NOT (cgi) NOR (cli)
For more information check http://www.lighttpd.net/documentation/fastcgi.html#preparing-php-as-a-fastcgi-program
2008-03-23 16:48:10: (mod_fastcgi.c.1200) [ERROR]: spawning fcgi failed.
2008-03-23 16:48:10: (server.c.673) Configuration of plugins failed. Going down.
—–
Seems that the libpcre.so.0 library is not available. I’ve tried finding it in optware, to no avail.

Please help me! Thanks!