MiniDLNA media server

[blindman]

minidlna-1.0.22-1.pet works pretty well for me.
But substitle in the same folder (and with the same name "video_name".srt) with the movie doesnt come while viewing on another pc with vlc.
Has anyone an idea how to make it work?
Thank you for every answer.

Hello,
thanks shinobar for your work.

Do you have any ideas with my problem?

[stevielee]

Hi all -

I have a few questions on this subject. I am new to "power user" type topics, so I was wondering if there are sites that really give great info on how to do media streaming, protocol types, etc. Because it seems that this thread would be very popular for people wanting to use puppy for streaming. Do they use other protocols and tweak their details rather than using dlna? Is one confined to using dlna if the streaming client device (like my LG BP220 blu ray player) seems, I guess, to use only dlna? It would be nice to get some responses on those questions.

I have used the minidlna program here in puppy, and it works well enough. It seems to take a while to scan, though. Is there a way to prevent recursive directory scanning? Also, what is a presentation url and the http port for media transfer traffic? Can this url and port be used for anything - like being accessed with a browser or monitored with a utility that monitors data incoming on ports?

Thanks,

Steven

[ally]

I recent user of this pet

shinobar - thanks matey - brilliant stuff!!

[linbie]

Hi
With default settings I can get minidlna to work with pupeee. However if I use the same config file on slack 5.3 the server is not seen by any device?

Any suggestions

[linbie]

Hi
With default settings I can get minidlna to work with pupeee. However if I use the same config file on slack 5.3 the server is not seen by any device?

Any suggestions

Worked it out - Turn Off the Firewall

[BJF]

A bit of a late entry here, but I installed the minidlna-1.0.22-1.pet on a roughly 5 year old (I can check that out and supply details) Dell box running LXPup-Precise-Retro 14.10 that is our print server in the hope of having it serve photos and maybe music to a Samsung Smart TV.
I plugged a usb 1Tb drive in, and altered the .conf file to point to it; sdb1. Then I did the /etc/init.d/minidlna restart command and it returned a list of hyphenated options and a ready cursor. I rebooted and repeated the restart.
Going to the television, the server isn't visible in the Source menu where it would show up. My Galaxy S2 cellphone will appear as will our son's Windows laptop. I conclude then that the Dell box isn't connecting.
Could I ask for advice please as to whether -Retro could be expected to handle MiniDLNA and how to have the television get its attention. A setting to alter somewhere perhaps?

The box is ethernetted to a Belkin router and obviously in wifi contact with several laptops and phones from which it can and does print. There is no firewall in operation.

Thanks.

[greengeek]

I plugged a usb 1Tb drive in, and altered the .conf file to point to it; sdb1. Then I did the /etc/init.d/minidlna restart command and it returned a list of hyphenated options and a ready cursor. I rebooted and repeated the restart.

Hi BJF - I don't have any experience of this (just trying it now) but I have a couple of questions:
- Did you remove the ".sample" suffix from the minidlna conf file?
- Are your files in the root of sdb1 or within a subfolder?
cheers!

[greengeek]

Hi Shinobar, thanks for this utility. I downloaded the minidlna-1.0.22-1.pet (the larger one with the internal sqlite) and found that it also needed the ffmpeg_runall-0.7.6-p4.pet to run on my Slacko 5.6 derivative. I followed your easy instructions and away it went happily serving to the Philips media player box. I haven't used this function on the Philips before and found that I had to select Upnp - I had been expecting to select DLNA but the option was not shown.

It works very well. Thanks!

[BJF]

Greengeek: Hi there. Answers to those two questions..

Yes, the .sample suffix was removed from the modified file and the file saved alongside the original. Does the existence still of the suffixed file as well create a problem?
And.. The drive sdb1 contains two folders, namely one of the drive-issue NTFS utilities parcelled up into something I named CameWithIt, another labelled Photos, and a Screeny captured file.

I'd imagined that I would see the server on the television Sources menu anyway, and from that the content of sdb1 as listed above. But I see no server. Would some other instruction in the .conf file be needed to either wake MiniDLNA, or reveal those folders to the program? Should I specify the path as .../mnt/sdb1/Photos and thereby wake it?

Oh, and thanks.

[trapster]

The suffix does not matter.
I have /etc/minidlna.conf, /etc/minidlna.conf-orig and /etc/minidlna.conf-bak.

Here is my /etc/minidlna.conf that I have been using for years with no issues on a samsung smart tv.

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# port for HTTP (descriptions, SOAP, media transfer) traffic
port=8400

# network interface to bind to (this is the only interface that will serve files)
network_interface=eth0

# set this to the directory you want scanned.
# * if have multiple directories, you can have multiple media_dir= lines
# * if you want to restrict a media_dir to a specific content type, you
#   can prepend the type, followed by a comma, to the directory:
#   + "A" for audio  (eg. media_dir=A,/home/jmaggard/Music)
#   + "V" for video  (eg. media_dir=V,/home/jmaggard/Videos)
#   + "P" for images (eg. media_dir=P,/home/jmaggard/Pictures)
media_dir=/mnt/sdb1/mp3
media_dir=/mnt/sdb1/mp4
media_dir=V,/mnt/sdb1/movies
media_dir=/mnt/sdb1/photos

db_dir=/etc/minidlna

#log_dir=/etc/minidlna

# set this if you want to customize the name that shows up on your clients
friendly_name=Puppy DLNA Server

# this should be a list of file names to check for when searching for album art
# note: names should be delimited with a forward slash ("/")
album_art_names=Cover.jpg/cover.jpg/AlbumArtSmall.jpg/albumartsmall.jpg/AlbumArt.jpg/albumart.jpg/Album.jpg/album.jpg/Folder.jpg/folder.jpg/Thumb.jpg/thumb.jpg

# set this to no to disable inotify monitoring to automatically discover new files
# note: the default is yes
inotify=yes

# set this to yes to enable support for streaming .jpg and .mp3 files to a TiVo supporting HMO
enable_tivo=no

# default presentation url is http address on port 80
presentation_url=http://XXXXXXXX:8400/index.php

# notify interval in seconds. default is 895 seconds.
notify_interval=900

# serial and model number the daemon will report to clients
# in its XML description
serial=12345678
model_number=1

[rufwoof]

Hi,
I've installed minidlna on my Puppy Slacko... then restarted it... but how can I use it?
How can I see my samsung smart TV and viceversa

I've taken the more direct approach. TV VGA input from PC VGA output (nvidia card in my case). External HDD plugged into PC USB, download to/play anything on that directly from PC to TV. Option to unplug the HDD and plug it into the TV's USB and play movies via the TV's media browser.

In short, TV (32 inch £100 cost in my case) is PC's monitor.

[greengeek]

I'd imagined that I would see the server on the television Sources menu anyway, and from that the content of sdb1 as listed above. But I see no server.

Hi, could you list what the TV sees as possible sources please? (does it show Upnp or DLNA or "network services" or something similar?). As far as I understand it the dlna link is not like a normal network share it is a special protocol that should be listed separately. Maybe there is some other menu item which enables/disables some types of network services.
Also - have you ever had any dlna link running to this TV before?

Would some other instruction in the .conf file be needed to either wake MiniDLNA, or reveal those folders to the program?

I don't think so. The proramme will be aware of them but the question is whether or not the TV has the capabilities to search recursively. When I tried it I only made the media directory change that Shinobar suggested and my media player box was able to find the files, search recursively and play them on the TV. (OK my philips media box has different code to your TV but the principle is the same).
EDIT : - It would pay to check what port your TV expects a dlna link to be incoming on. If different to what is shown in your conf file then update the setting in the conf file.

Should I specify the path as .../mnt/sdb1/Photos and thereby wake it?

That should not be necessary but I think it is certainly worth a try. I imagine that different devices have different abilities in terms of recognising filesystems or folder/directory structures.

Are you able to post the contents shown in your terminal when you start the server? The hyphenated options you mentioned do not appear when I start the minidlna server here.

EDIT :If you continue to have problems I would recommend you try booting your Dell from a CD containing Slacko 5.6 (enter puppy pfix=ram at the boot prompt) and run the dlna server as mentioned in my previous post (it will also need the ffmpeg pet suggested by Shinobar). At least I know that combination works so it might be worth a trial if nothing else is successful.
.

[BJF]

Trapster: This is my .conf file. Comparing it to yours and expecting to look into sdb1, what do you see wrong with it. I notice for instance that my network interface to serve (fourth line) is commented out. Bingo?? Critique please, since in ignorance as a consumate file share Noob I only changed the path.

Code: Select all

# port for HTTP (descriptions, SOAP, media transfer) traffic
port=8200

# network interfaces to serve, comma delimited
#network_interface=eth0

# set this to the directory you want scanned.
# * if have multiple directories, you can have multiple media_dir= lines
# * if you want to restrict a media_dir to a specific content type, you
#   can prepend the type, followed by a comma, to the directory:
#   + "A" for audio  (eg. media_dir=A,/home/jmaggard/Music)
#   + "V" for video  (eg. media_dir=V,/home/jmaggard/Videos)
#   + "P" for images (eg. media_dir=P,/home/jmaggard/Pictures)
media_dir=/mnt/sdb1

# set this if you want to customize the name that shows up on your clients
#friendly_name=My DLNA Server

# set this if you would like to specify the directory where you want MiniDLNA to store its database and album art cache
#db_dir=/var/cache/minidlna

# set this if you would like to specify the directory where you want MiniDLNA to store its log file
#log_dir=/var/log

# this should be a list of file names to check for when searching for album art
# note: names should be delimited with a forward slash ("/")
album_art_names=Cover.jpg/cover.jpg/AlbumArtSmall.jpg/albumartsmall.jpg/AlbumArt.jpg/albumart.jpg/Album.jpg/album.jpg/Folder.jpg/folder.jpg/Thumb.jpg/thumb.jpg

# set this to no to disable inotify monitoring to automatically discover new files
# note: the default is yes
inotify=yes

# set this to yes to enable support for streaming .jpg and .mp3 files to a TiVo supporting HMO
enable_tivo=no

# set this to strictly adhere to DLNA standards.
# * This will allow server-side downscaling of very large JPEG images,
#   which may hurt JPEG serving performance on (at least) Sony DLNA products.
strict_dlna=no

# default presentation url is http address on port 80
#presentation_url=http://www.mylan/index.php

# notify interval in seconds. default is 895 seconds.
notify_interval=900

# serial and model number the daemon will report to clients
# in its XML description
serial=12345678
model_number=1

# specify the path to the MiniSSDPd socket
#minissdpdsocket=/var/run/minissdpd.sock

# use different container as root of the tree
# possible values:
#   + "." - use standard container (this is the default)
#   + "B" - "Browse Directory"
#   + "M" - "Music"
#   + "V" - "Video"
#   + "P" - "Pictures"
# if you specify "B" and client device is audio-only then "Music/Folders" will be used as root
#root_container=.
[code]

[/code]

[greengeek]

yes, uncomment the network eth0.

[trapster]

I would use:

Code: Select all

media_dir=/mnt/sdb1/Photos

if you indeed have a directory named "Photos" on sdb1.

Also, make sure sdb1 is mounted.

[BJF]

Greengeek: Answers...

I can see son's Windows laptop as his machine name in Sources menu on the tv, and can play photos from my Galaxy S2 by choosing it from Sources once I activate DLNA on it. Son won't let me near his laptop for fear of what I might discover! All this implies that the tv is alive and well and the server isn't.

The phone can be searched for video, photo, or music from the tv and once a choice has been made, open folders. It is definitely recursive then?

If I do / / minildna -restart I don't get the hyphen options! Curious... wonder where they came in then. Ah yes. Typed just minidlna and they appear.

A question then would be how do we know if it is running? The lack of error messages in terminal?

Trapster: Added the /Photos to the /mnt/sdb1 line, saved and did -restart in terminal. sdb1 is being mounted by PCManFM but is that only for itself and not the whole system? Does MiniDLNA need to mount it? And the fundamental question still remains: Why doesn't the tv see the server (yet)?

Cheers guys.

[trapster]

Most important is to see if it's actually running.
To check to see if it's running, type in a terminal:

Code: Select all

top 

or

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htop

I do not think the hyphen "-" works with minidlna -restart

I believe the proper command is:

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/etc/init.d/minidlna restart

I use

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minidlna &

in my /etc/rc.d/rc.local to have it start when booting.

what messages do you get in the terminal when you type

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minidlna -restart

[BJF]

Trapster: htop shows no sign at all of MiniDLNA as a running item.
If I type the restart with a hyphen, or without, there is equally no response.

Interestingly, my phone shows on the tv as an Allshare device and is completely searchable.

I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but i believe MiniDLNA isn't loading at all and won't tell me why.

Rufwoof: you might just have something there!

Thanks for your time, guys.

[greengeek]

Hi BJF - does your Dell have a CD drive? Could you temporarily boot from a Slacko 5.6 CD and try again? I feel you need to try a Puppy that is proven to work and then go back to your current Puppy. (you wont need to set up any of the usual network shares etc - just boot from CD, load the 2 pets and configure the conf file and it should work)

[gcmartin]

I know this thread discusses use of @Shinobar's PET for serving media to DLNA devices, but, @ETP has produced this PET.

His concept is that one can have a FULL USB dedicating to booting and serving DLNA protocol media files on the home LAN.

One needs to have a blank USB handy and if you follow these instructions, you are completed with a operational server ready for your use. Once booted it is reasonably simple to use. It has sample media files setup in the folders for DLNA. In this case, the user need do NOTHING and all is operational upon booting.

There should be no problem as a 5 yr/old PC is a 64bit PC.

I seem to remember another PUP offering containing DLNA built-in but my memory fails.

Hope this is helpful