Dead silent dedicated Linux music server for USB DAC's.

TomS · « **Reply #640 on:** 13 Jul 2011, 01:03 am »

You'll need IP address and path to the Windows share where your music is. Then just to test your connection you're going to have to mount that share from Voyage. Once mounted to a directory on Alix you can "cd" to that directory and do an "ls -l" command to find out if the Alix has rights and can see it.

TJHUB · « **Reply #641 on:** 13 Jul 2011, 01:26 am »

Quote from: TomS on 13 Jul 2011, 01:03 am

You'll need IP address and path to the Windows share where your music is. Then just to test your connection you're going to have to mount that share from Voyage. Once mounted to a directory on Alix you can "cd" to that directory and do an "ls -l" command to find out if the Alix has rights and can see it.

The machine that has my FLAC files on it has a static IP address, so that part is easy. What I don't understand how to do is get the Alix to have a static IP address so it never changes. I'll have to call my ISP tomorrow about that one as I'm using their DSL modem/router.

TomS · « **Reply #642 on:** 13 Jul 2011, 02:11 am »

To do it from Voyage you can edit the /etc/network/interfaces file with WinSCP and just change the parameters for eth0 to your own IP such as 192.168.1.110 or something that's not used on your network.

TomS · « **Reply #643 on:** 13 Jul 2011, 02:14 am »

Quote from: TomS on 13 Jul 2011, 02:11 am

To do it from Voyage you can edit the /etc/network/interfaces file with WinSCP and just change the parameters for eth0 to your own IP such as 192.168.1.110 or something that's not used on your network.

A little more info here, just substitute your own addresses http://list.voyage.hk/pipermail/voyage-linux/2007-November/010221.html

jrebman · « **Reply #644 on:** 13 Jul 2011, 02:29 am »

Terry,

Don't worry, it will come back quicker thhan you think. I too was very used to linux about 10 years ago and used almost exclusively through grad school, but when I dove into this project I felt like I was starting from scratch. I eventually figured out enough to work around some documentation and procedural errors in installing the NF client on my NAS box, so I'm sure you'll get thoug this too. Ted B. had no experience and he got it going with help from Tom, Nick and Mike, and as soon as I'm done with my power supply, I'll be diving back in with the alix itself. Nowhere near ready to help you or others at this point yet.

-- Jim

TJHUB · « **Reply #645 on:** 13 Jul 2011, 02:30 am »

Thanks again. I'll work on this tonight.

TJHUB · « **Reply #646 on:** 13 Jul 2011, 02:33 am »

Quote from: jrebman on 13 Jul 2011, 02:29 am

Terry,

Don't worry, it will come back quicker thhan you think. I too was very used to linux about 10 years ago and used almost exclusively through grad school, but when I dove into this project I felt like I was starting from scratch. I eventually figured out enough to work around some documentation and procedural errors in installing the NF client on my NAS box, so I'm sure you'll get thoug this too. Ted B. had no experience and he got it going with help from Tom, Nick and Mike, and as soon as I'm done with my power supply, I'll be diving back in with the alix itself. Nowhere near ready to help you or others at this point yet.

-- Jim

I'm not feeling too good about all of this right now, but it is getting better. I think I understand more of what I need to do. Ted sent me some screen shots and info to work from. I'm going to try and fight my way through that tonight and tomorrow when I get more time.

It's funny how the most simple thing can stop you with this stuff.

TJHUB · « **Reply #647 on:** 13 Jul 2011, 03:04 pm »

Quote from: TomS on 13 Jul 2011, 01:03 am

You'll need IP address and path to the Windows share where your music is. Then just to test your connection you're going to have to mount that share from Voyage. Once mounted to a directory on Alix you can "cd" to that directory and do an "ls -l" command to find out if the Alix has rights and can see it.

I have my Alix's IP address as static and it's seen on my normal network. I have, and used, both Putty and WinSCP. I have edited my fstab file, but I don't think I'm doing it correctly as I'm not sure I have the share path correct. How do I know exactly what it is? The PC has a static IP address, so that I have.

So this would be the next baby step, right?

nyc_paramedic · « **Reply #648 on:** 13 Jul 2011, 11:51 pm »

Quote from: TJHUB on 13 Jul 2011, 03:04 pm

I have my Alix's IP address as static and it's seen on my normal network. I have, and used, both Putty and WinSCP. I have edited my fstab file, but I don't think I'm doing it correctly as I'm not sure I have the share path correct. How do I know exactly what it is? The PC has a static IP address, so that I have.

Are you going to use CIFS? Can we see the text of you fstab? I've never set up an Alix using Windows. I don't even have access to a Windows machine. I do know that a few people have setup Alix with CIFS and Windows machine. Now if I can only remember who...

So this would be the next baby step, right?

TJHUB · « **Reply #649 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 12:48 am »

I don't even know what CIFS is. Ted (using Windows) is helping me by giving me screen shots and files from his setup, but I see conflicting information and it's confusing me. I've learned enough to be dangerous at this point. I think I understand what needs to be done, but I'm missing key pieces to the puzzle. I've tried a lot of things, but I know I'm doing it wrong.

So here is a list of things I think I'm doing wrong:

1. I don't have my own user name and password on the Alix. I'm still using "root" and "voyage". Is that wrong?

2. I changed my network shares today. I had some weird names, so I simplified them. The machine I use as a server is running Windows XP. It's name is "SERVER" and the shared drive name is "Media". My FLAC files are all sitting in a directory called "Music".

3. I think I need some directories on my server's shared drive. Directories like "mpd", "playlists", and whatever else?

4. I created a user on the server machine as "mpduser" with a password of "mpduser" and that user is logged in. I don't know if that's correct or not.

5. The only lines I added to fstab are:
//192.168.0.50/Media /mnt/tunes smbfs
user=mpduser,pass=mpduser,uid=103,gid=29 0 0

I was trying to follow Ted's fstab structure from what I understood from his screen shots.

6. I have not edited the mpd.conf file yet.

I'm sorry guys. I'm starting to think I shouldn't have gotten myself into this.

ted_b · « **Reply #650 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 01:42 am »

Terry, you are doing fine, and it has not been very long, just a couple days really (took me almost 3 weeks). Don't panic. Here are my dangerously inept answers:

1) Root and voyage are correct.
3) MPD is the only folder I needed to create on my shared drive other than my music folders, which were there
4) My Windows machine has a user called mpduser with a password of mpduser, but I never actually log in physically with it. i just made sure it has the correct permissions.
6) I can't imagine much happening until mpdconfig is edited. You know to run putty and make sure you are in read/write mode when editing fstab or mpconfig.

TomS · « **Reply #651 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 01:51 am »

Quote from: TJHUB on 14 Jul 2011, 12:48 am

1. I don't have my own user name and password on the Alix. I'm still using "root" and "voyage". Is that wrong?

Just create the same account user "mpduser" and password "mpduser". There is an entry in mpd.conf that refers to this that you'll need to edit at some point.

Quote

2. I changed my network shares today. I had some weird names, so I simplified them. The machine I use as a server is running Windows XP. It's name is "SERVER" and the shared drive name is "Media". My FLAC files are all sitting in a directory called "Music".

Your Alix mount command can refer to the server as either //SERVER/ or //192.168.0.50/ as the beginning of the path name. You'd need the whole path to your "Music" directory so //SERVER/Media/Music ??

Quote

3. I think I need some directories on my server's shared drive. Directories like "mpd", "playlists", and whatever else?

Those are all you need at the same level as "Music" in the directory tree.

Quote

4. I created a user on the server machine as "mpduser" with a password of "mpduser" and that user is logged in. I don't know if that's correct or not.

Correct

Quote

5. The only lines I added to fstab are:
//192.168.0.50/Media /mnt/tunes smbfs
user=mpduser,pass=mpduser,uid=103,gid=29 0 0

This is the one I'm not sure about as I don't have a Windows box working to check it. This might make sense:

//192.168.0.50/Media/Music /mnt/tunes cifs defaults 0 0

Quote

6. I have not edited the mpd.conf file yet.

The are only a few entries to fix up once you're sure you can see the server properly from Voyage command line and the fstab entry works on re-boot.

Quote

I'm sorry guys. I'm starting to think I shouldn't have gotten myself into this.

It's ok, you're not stuck in the swamp just yet

TomS · « **Reply #652 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 01:55 am »

Oh, if you refer to /mnt/tunes you will need to create that directory on Voyage. As Ted mentioned the FIRST thing to do is "remountrw" which allows you to write to the CF card. To create that directory just move to the mnt directory with "cd /mnt" and then "mkdir tunes" to create the directory "tunes" at /mnt/tunes.

TJHUB · « **Reply #653 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 02:08 am »

Thanks Ted and Tom. You guys are really great and I can't thank you enough for the help.

Your posts are making me think I'm scary close to having this working. I'll run through your posts carefully and give you updates.

Working on it now...

TomS · « **Reply #654 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 02:15 am »

When you get ready for mpd.conf this blog has some great info http://cheap-silent-usb-linux-music-server.blogspot.com/

TJHUB · « **Reply #655 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 02:29 am »

I think I have a problem. When I rebooted the Alix, I don't get the heartbeat LED any more. The left LED is on steady and I can't access the Alix with Putty or WinSCP.

All I did was make that "tunes" directory under /mnt, and edit the fstab file to what Tom suggested. Did I screw something up? Is this thing now dead?

TomS · « **Reply #656 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 02:39 am »

Actually, my LED stays on too, but the board is working just fine. Creating a directory under /mnt shouldn't cause any problem. I wouldn't think fstab problem would just cause it to hang on boot up either. hmmm, might need Nick to jump in here.

TJHUB · « **Reply #657 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 02:41 am »

Quote from: TomS on 14 Jul 2011, 02:39 am

Actually, my LED stays on too, but the board is working just fine. Creating a directory under /mnt shouldn't cause any problem. I wouldn't think fstab problem would just cause it to hang on boot up either. hmmm, might need Nick to jump in here.

Well this sucks. I've rebooted the thing 10 times with the exact same results.

TomS · « **Reply #658 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 02:47 am »

Try giving it a little more time, at least a few minutes, in case something is hanging and it actually times out.

TJHUB · « **Reply #659 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 02:48 am »

Quote from: TomS on 14 Jul 2011, 02:47 am

Try giving it a little more time, at least a few minutes, in case something is hanging and it actually times out.

In the process of doing that now...