2008/06/05

Running Mediatomb on CH3WNAS natively!

I managed to get MediaTomb running on the Grab'n'Go CH3WNAS without gentoo! There is no need to follow the gentoo steps in http://forum.dsmg600.info/t916-Installing-mediatomb.html since the MediaTomb project itself provides binaries for the PPC cpu with no dependencies. MediaTomb provides you a better uPnP Server than the original upnp in the firmware.

Since uPnP has no authentication, make sure you run the CH3WNAS behind a NAT router!

Those are the steps to setup MediaTomb on the CH3WNAS:
  • Download the mediatomb build for the ppc-platform:
    http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mediatomb/mediatomb-static-0.11.0-r1-linux-uclibc-ppce300c2.tar.gz
    (or, to get the latest version, surf to http://mediatomb.cc/pages/download#static and then click on the latest mediatomb-static*-ppc*tar.gz file)

  • unzip the tar.gz and ftp (e.g. with gftp) the full mediatomb-directory to the CH3WNAS under HD_a2 (= /mnt/HD_a2/ on the device)

  • telnet to the device (scroll down in my previous post for fun_plug'in and enabling telnet)

  • make executable:
    chmod 775 /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/usr/bin/mediatomb

  • chmod mediatomb.sh for easier ftp(*):
    chmod 777 /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh

  • edit (e.g. with ftp mediatomb.sh to start mediatomb as daemon +fix LAUNCHDIR bug):
    #!/bin/sh

    # if you want to launch this script from a different directory (for example
    # from an another init script or similar, set the LAUNCHDIR variable below
    # to the absolute path of the mediatomb.sh script

    #LAUNCHDIR=`pwd`
    LAUNCHDIR=/mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb

    rm -f $LAUNCHDIR/mediatomb.log

    export MEDIATOMB_DATADIR="$LAUNCHDIR/usr/share/mediatomb"
    export MEDIATOMB_MAGIC_FILE="$LAUNCHDIR/usr/share/file/magic"
    $LAUNCHDIR/usr/bin/mediatomb -m $LAUNCHDIR -f config -d -l $LAUNCHDIR/mediatomb.log

    !! Remark: Make sure the script is Unix-encoded (single \n for line-breaks), otherwise you'll get a "-ash /mnt/hd_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh" error. try this command to translate the linebreaks:
    /mnt/HD_a2/busybox dos2unix /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh > /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh.new
    mv /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh.new /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh
  • a first run will create the config.xml:
    /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh
    then run kill `pidof mediatomb` to stop the daemon

  • for easier editing of the config.xml (*):
    chmod 666 /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/config/config.xml

  • now modify (ftp) the newly created /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/config/config.xml in order to add a fixed ipadres or interface and optional port.

    <server>
    ...
    <name>Michael's MediaTomb</name>
    <udn>...</udn>
    <ip>192.168.1.30</ip>
    <port>50505</port>
    <!-- or define port <interface>br0</interface> -->
    <home>/mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/config</home>
    ...
    <protocolInfo extend="yes"/>
    ...
    <!-- add extra mappings for jpeg / mpeg -->
    <map from="JPG" to="image/jpeg"/>
    <map from="jpg" to="image/jpeg"/>
    <map from="mpg" to="video/mpeg"/>
    <map from="m4a" to="audio/mpeg"/>
    ...
    The config.xml is well-documented at http://mediatomb.cc/pages/documentation#id2536421. Check out the docs in order to support for example PS3 connections.
  • for auto-startup, you can add the following lines your fun_plug:
    ...
    #kill legacy upnp
    kill -9 `pidof upnp`

    #start mediatomb
    /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh

    As you can see, I still run firefly, because I couldn't get a uPnP client working in Ubuntu (Rhythmbox).

  • after startup, connect to MediaTomb for configuring the directories to watch: (e.g.) http://192.168.1.30:50505/
I'm not 100% sure that my config is OK, because I couldn't get Rhythmbox (+python-coherence) connecting to MediaTomb. I can see the uPnP broadcast messages from MediaTomb in WireShark and the Cidero java client can connect to MediaTomb and show a tree of media files. Cidero has no playback capabilities, so it's still possible I'll have to tweak the config a bit.

update 9/7/2008: fixed the config for serving jpeg (see comments below) / using correct 'magic' files. If you used a previous version of this post, delete the bogus config.xml and mediatomb.db* files and follow the steps starting with fixing mediatomb.sh.

(*) Close this small security hole: revert to the original protection with a chmod 440 or 550 afterwards. Of course, with telnet and upnp enabled, you'd better keep the CH3WNAS behind a NAT router.
at

19 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 29, 2008 at 5:42 PM

    Thanks for the tutorial, it works!

    But it looks like mediatomb is running multiple times. Is it normal?

    Here is my process list:
    PID Uid VmSize Stat Command
    1 root 216 S init
    2 root SW [keventd]
    3 root SWN [ksoftirqd_CPU0]
    4 root SW [kswapd]
    5 root SW [bdflush]
    6 root SW [kupdated]
    8 root SW [mtdblockd]
    9 root SW [khubd]
    33 root SW [loop0]
    364 root 264 S /usr/sbin/chkbutton
    365 root 628 S /web/webs
    368 root 256 S /bin/atd
    382 root 644 S smbd -D
    384 root 672 S nmbd -D
    426 root 216 S /bin/op_server 6 6 6
    483 root 212 S -sh
    495 root 308 S crond
    551 root 280 S ftpd: accepting connections on port 21
    595 root 124 S /mnt/HD_a2/busybox telnetd
    600 root 3900 S /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/usr/bin/mediatomb -m /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb -f config -d -l /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.log
    601 root 3900 S /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/usr/bin/mediatomb -m /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb -f config -d -l /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.log
    602 root 3900 R /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/usr/bin/mediatomb -m /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb -f config -d -l /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.log
    605 root 3900 S /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/usr/bin/mediatomb -m /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb -f config -d -l /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.log
    607 root 3900 S /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/usr/bin/mediatomb -m /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb -f config -d -l /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.log
    609 root 3900 S /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/usr/bin/mediatomb -m /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb -f config -d -l /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.log
    611 root 3900 R /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/usr/bin/mediatomb -m /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb -f config -d -l /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.log
    612 root 3900 S /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/usr/bin/mediatomb -m /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb -f config -d -l /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.log
    613 root 1252 S smbd -D
    614 root 228 S -ash
    622 root 3900 S /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/usr/bin/mediatomb -m /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb -f config -d -l /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.log
    632 root 3900 S /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/usr/bin/mediatomb -m /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb -f config -d -l /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.log
    634 root 308 R ps

    ReplyDelete
  2. MichaëlJuly 7, 2008 at 9:56 PM

    The multiple processes are child- (forked) processes of the main mediatomb run.
    The busybox ps command doesn't show those, but by looking into /proc/pid/status, you can find the Parent process.

    The following script demonstrates this:
    cd /proc
    grep Name */status | grep mediatomb | /mnt/HD_a2/busybox cut -d ':' -f 1 | while read a
    do
    echo "/proc/$a $(grep PPid $a)"
    done

    result:
    /proc/1373/status PPid: 750
    /proc/1405/status PPid: 750
    /proc/747/status PPid: 1
    /proc/750/status PPid: 747
    /proc/751/status PPid: 750
    /proc/754/status PPid: 750
    /proc/756/status PPid: 750
    /proc/760/status PPid: 750
    /proc/761/status PPid: 750

    --> subprocesses hang under the main 747 / 750 pid.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJuly 9, 2008 at 11:31 AM

    Thanks for the instructions, mediatomb is running now on my CH3WNAS. With the firmware update to 1.05, the built-in UPNP Server of the CH3WNAS did not update the contents anymore, so I went for mediatomb. Unfortunately, Mediatomb does not work as expected with my Playstation 3. Although I set the parameters protocolInfo extend="yes" and map from="avi" to="video/divx", most of my divx movies are not working. The worst thing however is that none of my JPG pictures are displayed / found. They are also not listed in the Mediatomb GUI in the folder All Photos. So I suspect there is a misconfiguration of Mediatomb.

    Regarding the charset, I needed to leave them on default and not changing to UTF-8. Otherwise German umlaut Characters (äöüß) are not displayed correctly.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJuly 9, 2008 at 12:22 PM

    map from="JPG" to="image/jpeg"/

    Adding this parameter fixed the problem of not being able to display JPG files.

    i also added following

    map from="mpg" to="video/mpeg"/
    map from="m4a" to="audio/mpeg"

    ReplyDelete
  5. MichaëlJuly 9, 2008 at 11:33 PM

    thanks for you feedback. I tried to integrate your comments in an updated version of this blogpost.
    I also fixed a problem with finding the 'magic' files.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJuly 11, 2008 at 9:07 AM

    Hi Michael,

    did you try to run Mediatomb with the new firmware 1.05 from conceptronic? With the new firmware I experience problems on auto scanning the upnp directory. New files / changes are not automatically updated in the upnp database although I specified an update interval of 1800 sec in mediatomb.
    Apparently, this is not a problem of mediatomb as conceptronic's integrated upnp server does not automatically update either. Do you have 1.05 installed? Could you please verify that?

    Thanks
    Markus

    ReplyDelete
  7. MichaëlJuly 11, 2008 at 10:57 PM

    Markus,
    I still have v1.04 installed. I'll try to upgrade and report back.

    I must admit I don't update my media files often. After fixing my original config settings (correct the bad 'magic' directory / missing jpg's) I couldn't make mediatomb detect the jpgs. I had to remove the mediatomb.db first.

    Michael

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJuly 15, 2008 at 8:35 AM

    From Conceptronic support:

    Dear Markus,

    Thank you for making us aware of this issue.
    We have forwarded this to our R&D department and they have already gave us a
    new firmware which fixes this problem.
    This should be released today (Tuesday) or tomorrow (Wednesday) after some
    more internal testing.

    Thanks once again we always appreciete when people come forward with their
    problems so we can fix them!

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousAugust 11, 2008 at 1:13 PM

    Thanx for the clear tutorial. It works, but I've one little problem.
    The tracks are always played in random order. Even when I created a playlist, it doesn't follow the order of the playlist. Very annoying.
    Do you know what I can do to fix this ?

    ReplyDelete
  10. MichaëlAugust 14, 2008 at 9:38 PM

    I must admit I don't use the upnp server a lot for now.

    Make sure you have the latest ch3wnas firmware installed. If your problem persists, perhaps you should check out the Mediatomb forums.

    I'll let you know if I investigate the UPnP playlists further.

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousAugust 14, 2008 at 11:20 PM

    About my problem with the playing order: that was not a problem.
    My mediaplayer (MusicPal) was turned to random playing, accidently.
    Sorry. Thanx for your reply.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousAugust 18, 2008 at 7:32 AM

    Every time I try to run mediatomb.sh for the first time, I get
    "-ash: //mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh: not found"


    I was able to Telnet into the device and chmod the files in the first steps. I verified those permissions via FTP, so the telnet is working.

    It allows me to chmod mediatomb.sh, but when I type:
    "/mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh"

    I get:

    -ash: /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh: not found

    What am I doing wrong?

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousAugust 18, 2008 at 7:54 AM

    I must note I'm using a D-Link DSM-G600 , not a CH3WNAS

    Current Firmware Version : 1.02
    Firmware Date : 10/19/2006


    Would CH3WNAS firmware work on the DSM-G600?

    ReplyDelete
  14. MichaëlAugust 20, 2008 at 2:48 PM

    @Greg:
    - the firmware of CH3WNAS and DSM-G600 is somewhat different because of some different hardware config.
    - the mediatomb.sh must be unix-encode (single \n for line-breaks)
    try this command to translate the linebreaks:
    /mnt/HD_a2/busybox dos2unix /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh > /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh.new
    mv /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh.new /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh

    ReplyDelete
  15. JanAugust 21, 2008 at 5:07 PM

    Mediatomb runs well on my CH3WNAS but the initial indexing step was awfully slow, it needed 7 days for 15000 MP3 files.

    Bye,
    Jan

    ReplyDelete
  16. UnknownOctober 22, 2008 at 4:25 PM

    Thanx, I can see MediaTomb at my Netgear. But I've still a problem. I can't create a database.

    My Mediatomb logfile shows:
    2008-10-22 16:20:52 INFO: database created successfully.
    2008-10-22 16:20:52 INFO: Initialized port: 50505
    2008-10-22 16:20:52 INFO: Server bound to: 192.168.5.3
    2008-10-22 16:20:53 WARNING: magic_load: could not find any magic files!
    2008-10-22 16:20:53 INFO: MediaTomb Web UI can be reached by following this link:
    2008-10-22 16:20:53 INFO: http://192.168.5.3:50505/

    At the http site a see the database and the filesystem, but the filesystem shows online mediatomb files.

    I hope you can you me.

    ReplyDelete
  17. josacoDecember 27, 2008 at 10:04 PM

    The config.xml and the config directory doesn´t create for me , i run /mnt/HD_a2/mediatomb/mediatomb.sh and nothing´s happened , the # dont return any error msg but i cant kill with kill `pidof mediatomb` , give me a usage list post . Can you help me ? What command is use to PID List ???

    Thx and sorry for my bad english :S

    ReplyDelete
  18. josacoDecember 28, 2008 at 7:15 PM

    Finally i´ve run mediatomb , the mediatomb.sh issue are solved with a dos2unix converter for win32 named "DOS2UNIX" . Now i am going to configure trasconding for the ps3 if it is possible.

    Dears

    ReplyDelete
  19. AnonymousSeptember 22, 2010 at 5:43 AM

    Please update your post with info how to install latest version 0.12.1

    Thank you

    ReplyDelete