How to: Setup link to your share for jukebox

[m69bv3]

Hi,

In this tutorial I will try to Make link to Network Clear to all.

Target Users:
NMT user using any kind of "Jukebox" and need to set a direct link to a persitent share on the NMT.

knowledge required:
Nothing but English and common sense!

Theory:

You want to configure a direct link to a share configured on the NMT for your favorite Jukebox.

You will need:

• A NMT device
• A Network share (SMB|NFS)
• A jukebox
  

Assuming your NMT is on, go to "Network Share" under "Setup".
Click "Add" button.

Then provide a share name, whatever you want but write it down. In the rest of this tutorial we will call this share name "mysharename"

After, you need to provide an "url" link to your share, like:

• smb://yourserver/yoursharedfolder
• nfs://yourserver:/yoursharedfolder
  

The point here isn't to discuss share's url format.
Add credential if required to access to your share.
At the end click on "Add" button.

Your share is now created and accessible from "Source" menu.
Browse it to test the configuration.
You must see your files as expected.

Now the more "technical" part.

To understand the behavior of share handling on NMT I will generalize some points.
Sorry for purists I know it's may be wrong but I want to KISS!

So on Linux, Unix, *ix OS file system is a little bit different from Windows.
The is no concept of drives like "C:" or "D:".
Unix world works in a different way:

Quote:All files accessible in a Unix system are arranged in one big tree, the file hierarchy, rooted at /. These files can be spread out over several devices. The mount command serves to attach the file system found on some device to the big file tree.

So, your internal hard drive, your USB key, your network shares needs to be mounted somewhere in this "big" tree in order to be used by the NMT.

A mount point isn't really a "folder" is more a link to another place but transparent for the user/applications.

If you take a deeper look inside the NMT file system are mounted in:

Code:

/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives

There is two categories of file systems:

• Local
• Network
  

Hard drives are mounted under:

Code:

/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK

Under this you find your folder "Music, Photo, Video, etc.."

Network shares are mounted under:

Code:

/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE

So back to our case, remember you have previously created a share called "mysharename".
So you will found a "folder" under "/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE" of the same name of your share:

Code:

file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/mysharename

Final point:
The link to use is "file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/mysharename" whatever your share is SMB or NFS, just the name matter!
Share name is case sensitive!

NB:
But there is a limitation!
Since a mount point is a "link", there is a target behind! (simple)
But in NMT the shares aren't "linked" at startup. There are linked the first time you browse them manually after started.

Since the shares aren"t "linked" you will not be able to use the link build in this tutorial.

So before using your jukebox you must enter manually on your share from "Source" menu.

In a future tutorial I will explain how to "link" shares on startup.

I hope it's help someone.
Feel free to correct me and to give me advices!

Exemples:
1>
Your share name is "Movie", so your link is "file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/Movie"
and a direct link to a file:

Code:

file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/Movie/toto.avi

2>
Your share name is "TvShows", so your link is "file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/TvShows"
and a direct link to a file under the "Prison break" directory:

Code:

file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/TvShows/Prison break/Prison.Break.S04E05.avi

Sorry for my english, I'm French!

[cheaper_popcorn]

Excellent effort. Green repo for you.

[gsbaker]

(09-23-2008 05:54 PM)m69bv3 Wrote:  In a future tutorial I will explain how to "link" shares on startup.

Thanks for this explanation - it is very helpful. Looking forward to your next post. Will this enable elimination (or at least automation) of the "manual" mounting process?

[yellow360f]

I love this how to. It will help a lot of folks that are noobs. we need more how to: like this, but this one would have saved hours of frustration for me when i got my pch a110.

I am really interested to know how you mount links at start up. i am having a hard time understanding/making it work (the script that was done in the skin thread)

Great job.

[m69bv3]

Thanks all!

I'm quite busy theses days! I will try to post a new tutorial for automount shares next week end!

[tyreless]

I'd love to get this working but I'm having no luck.

I want to link to index.htm which is on my HARD_DISK in the Video folder. I've tried a few different ways but it's no go. I tried it with username nmt and password 1234, but that didn't work. I tried setting up a network share first and then using the sub-folder, but that didn't work.

I keep getting an "unknown filesystem" message.

Can you help? Thanks in advance.

[m69bv3]

(10-13-2008 10:57 AM)tyreless Wrote:  I'd love to get this working but I'm having no luck.

I want to link to index.htm which is on my HARD_DISK in the Video folder. I've tried a few different ways but it's no go. I tried it with username nmt and password 1234, but that didn't work. I tried setting up a network share first and then using the sub-folder, but that didn't work.

I keep getting an "unknown filesystem" message.

Can you help? Thanks in advance.

Assuming your "index.htm" is at the root of your hard drive, the link should be:

Code:

file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/index.htm

[andersa]

Please update the first post as smb://yourserver/yoursharedfolder/ is not a valid path. smb://yourserver/yoursharedfolder is the correct way (no trailing slash) of entering a network share.

/Anders

[sorcer1]

(09-23-2008 05:54 PM)m69bv3 Wrote:  Since a mount point is a "link", there is a target behind! (simple)
But in NMT the shares aren't "linked" at startup. There are linked the first time you browse them manually after started.

Since the shares aren"t "linked" you will not be able to use the link build in this tutorial.

So before using your jukebox you must enter manually on your share from "Source" menu.

Hello,
There is a firmware to fix it ?