Drake, Freevo, Networks and more!

[squeech]

Alright everyone, it's time for my next great venture in technology. This time, I have set forth to build my own media PC (a PC that acts as my entire home entertainment system). The machine is already built, and I've decided to load Mandrake Linux 8.2 on it. I am running Freevo to control all of the audio/video/TV stuff (courtesy of the info given to me by samwichse...thanx dude this proggy is awesome)!

Just one quick question regarding a network with media files on it...

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Now for my query. I am still quite new at Linux, but I'm beefing up pretty quick. I am able to get Freevo to recognize and play the audio and video files on the local machine, but I want MORE!!!

This system will be the main terminal in a 3-4 PC network to share an internet connection, etc. and all the PCs have numerous MP3s and MPEGs that I want to be able to play through freevo and, subsequently, my TV and stereo.

HOW DO I DO THIS?

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Freevo has a text configuration file that tell it where to look for media files in the form ('title', 'location')...for instance, the entry:

('MP3s', '/home/media/MP3s')

would create an entry in freevo for all the mp3s in that folder located at /home/media/MP3s.

But what can I enter in the location field so that it points to a shared network folder (e.g. in Windows I could type \\CompName\MyDocs\MP3s in the location field and it would look on the remote comp).

I am not in the least bit familiar with Linux's file sharing techniques, but I am well versed with Win32. Thus, if you can relate the two I might understand it quicker. Side note: is there like a network neighborhood equivelant in Linux?

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Bottom line: I guess I need a quick tutorial in how Linux deals with local networks and file sharing (e.g. how I can access a remote computer's files), and then how I can implement that into Freevo.

Thanks in advance guys! I'm excited!

[squeech]

^^

[strangerstill]

OK... First off, some terms.
In Linux, Windows File Sharing is called Samba (because it uses the SMB protocol)
In Linux, the 'native' network file sharing protocol is NFS, the Network File System.
However, Drake does support Samba (with the samba-client, -server and -common packages)
To get it so that any program can access a Windows shared drive you need to mount it into your filesystem. Now, distros have friendly ways to do this (In the Drake 9.1 Control Center, you go to Mount Points and then Samba Mount Points and it lets you find servers on the network and connect to their drives)

However, the one way that is *guaranteed* to work is to do it by hand
What you need is put a line in fstab like this:

//dave/c                /mnt/dave       smbfs   user,noauto,password=<PASSWORD>,uid=ed,gid=ed,rw

then use mount /mnt/dave to mount it!
//dave/c is just the Windows-style network path with /s for \s (Linux treats \s as special characters) while /mnt/dave is the mount point - the directory /mnt/dave will need to exist for this to work. Alternatively you could say mount it in /home/me/media/remote/dave
After mounting the drive you can treat it as if it's part of your local filesystem (kinda like giving it a drive letter in Windows)
If you want it to get mounted on each time you boot just remove noauto from the fstab line above.

Finally, if things don't work or if you just want to play around you can use the samba tools, they are smbclient and smbmount, e.g. "smbclient -L dave" will list all the shares on computer dave and "smbmount //dave/c /mnt/dave" will mount a shared drive temporarily (until you unmount it or reboot)

[squeech]

Very cool!

I've heard mention of Samba before. Are the Samba packages loaded into Drake 8.2 (or packaged so I can load them later) or will I need to d/l them (I would just check the system's software package list, but it's in my shop right now and I'm not working today ).

Now here's where the NooB really shines through...I've worked with fstab briefly as a C++ library (e.g. #include <fstab.h>), but where is it located for me to add that necessary code (I would probably do the mount by hand)? Is it just /etc/fstab?

One other query if I may: I was reading somewhere (after I read your post) that I can mount a remote computer's partition using <host>:/<dir> notation. In other words, can I enter these mount points using the machines respective IP addresses? Ex:

192.168.1.105:/c     /home/media/remote/dave     smbfs     user,uid=ed,gid=ed,rw

(I removed noauto because I always want it mounted, and I don't want a password). Does this command work, or can you only do this for NFS type mounts?

Also, just for relations sake, mounting the drive to /home/media/remote/dave is like if I map a network drive in Windows and it has an icon in My Computer? Cool!

Thanks again, my learning curve just steepend immensely!!

[strangerstill]

Originally posted by squeech
Are the Samba packages loaded into Drake 8.2 (or packaged so I can load them later)

No idea, sorry! Drake 9.1 does come with the rpms on the CD.

Is it just /etc/fstab?

Yep, sorry!

In other words, can I enter these mount points using the machines respective IP addresses? Ex:

192.168.1.105:/c     /home/media/remote/dave     smbfs     user,uid=ed,gid=ed,rw

AFAIK host:/dir is the NFS syntax, for Samba you need //servername/sharename - to specify the IP address put ip=192.168.1.105 in the options.
BTW: the uid=, gid= is because Samba doesn't support Unix file permissions and ownership properly; this forces the mounted share to belong to the relevant user.

Also, just for relations sake, mounting the drive to /home/media/remote/dave is like if I map a network drive in Windows and it has an icon in My Computer? Cool!

Yes - and in fact, recent versions of the Gnome desktop will put an icon for that drive on your desktop for easy access. Don't know if KDE does anything similar.

Oh, one more thing: both Konqueror and Nautilus support you putting a samba path in the address bar as smb://servername/sharename - then you can browse the server and view/edit files (by having them copied to a temp directory generally, although a few applications support what's called a VFS - virtual file system)

Finally, to browse the whole network/workgroup visually, you can use LinNeighborhood or similar programs - but personally I just use smbclient -L server

[strangerstill]

Ah, interesting.
About IP addresses: in "//server/share" the server can be the Windows Networking (NMB) name, the IP address or the hostname (resolved by DNS)

So //192.168.1.105/c would work and you wouldn't need to put ip=192.168.1.105

[nukes]

yes.
The nmb name is either resolved via the hosts file /etc/hosts, DNS, or the WINS server specified in /etc/samba/smb.config.
Remember to set the workgroup (in /etc/samba/smb.conf) and make sure you have access rights to that share.

[squeech]

Sweeeeeet!

I'm really growing to love the power you really have over your system in Linux. That should be all the info I need for now, but if I run across something else that I can't figure out, I'll holler here!

Thanks again stranger and nukes!

BTW, in event of curiousity, I went to Drake's site and 8.2 comes with Samba 2.2.3 ready for action!