Roku Can’t See Linkstation Live/Firefly

[cezza]

Hello there,

I’m having a few issues setting up Firefly on a Buffalo Linkstation Live so that it can be accessed from a Roku Soundbridge.

I followed these instructions (http://wiki.fireflymediaserver.org/Linkstation_Live_Pro_Install) to install all the necessary files and libraries on my Linkstation, and everything appears to have gone swimmingly; I can browse to the Linkstation on port 3689 and the Firefly web interface seems to indicate that everything’s running as it should be, and it can see my mp3s, but my Roku tells me that it can’t see any music libraries.

I’m at a complete loss. If I enable the Linkstation’s embedded media server that immediately appears on the Roku’s interface and I can play songs from it, but from Firefly not a jiffy…

I originally that it might be a Linkstation software issue (I was originally running 1.03), so I upgraded the Linkstation to 2.03 and reran the installation instructions, but that doesn’t seem to have helped.

NB. I tried this originally using a wireless connection, but because of the issues I was having I decided to connect to the same switch that the Linkstation is connected to…

I’d be very interested in any pointers you may have.

Versions:

Firefly: syn-1586
Linkstation Live (HS-DHGL(JINMU)): 2.03
Roku Soundbridge M1000: 3.0.42

mt-daapd.log:

2007-08-02 13:40:04 (4032e550): Firefly Version svn-1586: Starting with debuglevel 3
2007-08-02 13:40:04 (4032e550): Plugin loaded: ssc-script/svn-1586
2007-08-02 13:40:04 (4032e550): Plugin loaded: rsp/svn-1586
2007-08-02 13:40:04 (4032e550): Plugin loaded: daap/svn-1586
2007-08-02 13:40:04 (4032e550): Starting rendezvous daemon
2007-08-02 13:40:04 (4032e550): Starting signal handler
2007-08-02 13:40:04 (4032e550): Initializing database
2007-08-02 13:40:25 (4032e550): Starting web server from /usr/local/share/mt-daapd/admin-root on port 3689
2007-08-02 13:40:25 (4032e550): Registering rendezvous names
2007-08-02 13:40:25 (4032e550): Serving 6722 songs. Startup complete in 21 seconds
2007-08-02 13:40:25 (4032e550): Rescanning database
2007-08-02 13:41:08 (4032e550): Starting playlist scan
2007-08-02 13:41:16 (4032e550): Updating playlists
2007-08-02 13:41:17 (4032e550): Scanned 6722 songs (was 6722) in 52 seconds

[Kaiten]

What conf file are you using?

Can you post the contents of it?

[cezza]

Here’s the contents of my mt-daapd.conf:

# $Id: mt-daapd.conf.templ 1526 2007-04-09 04:23:51Z rpedde $
#
# This is the mt-daapd config file.
#
# If you have problems or questions with the format of this file,
# direct your questions to [email protected].
#
# You can also check the website at http://mt-daapd.sourceforge.net,
# as there is a growing documentation library there, peer-supported
# forums and possibly more.
#

[general]

#
# web_root (required)
#
# Location of the admin web pages.
#
# If you installed from .RPM, .deb, or tarball with –prefix=/usr, then
# this is correct.
#
# If you installed from tarball without –prefix=/usr, then the correct
# path is probably /usr/local/share/mt-daapd/admin-root.
#

web_root = /usr/local/share/mt-daapd/admin-root

#
# port (required)
#
# What port to listen on. It is possible to use a different
# port, but this is the default iTunes port
#

port = 3689

#
# admin_pw (required)
#
# This is the password to the administrative pages
#

admin_pw = mt-daapd

#
# db_type (required)
#
# This is what kind of backend database to store the song
# info in. Valid choices are “sqlite” and “sqlite3”.
#

db_type = sqlite

#
# db_parms
#
# This is any extra information the db needs to connect.
# in the case of sqlite and sqlite3, this is the name
# of the directory to store the database in
#
# If you installed from RPM or .deb, this path likely already
# exists. If not, then you must create it. The directory itself
# must be writable by the “runas” user.
#

db_parms = /usr/local/var/cache/mt-daapd

#
# mp3_dir (required)
#
# Location of the mp3 files to share. Note that because the
# files are stored in the database by inode, these must be
# in the same physical filesystem.
#

mp3_dir = /mnt/disk1/mp3

#
# servername (required)
#
# This is both the name of the server as advertised
# via rendezvous, and the name of the database
# exported via DAAP. Also know as “What shows up in iTunes”.
#

servername = Firefly %v on %h

#
# runas (required)
#
# This is the user to drop privs to if running as
# root. If mt-daapd is not started as root, this
# configuration option is ignored. Notice that this
# must be specified whether the server is running
# as root or not.
#
# This is also ignored on Windows.
#

runas = nobody

#
# playlist (optional)
#
# This is the location of a playlist file.
# This is for Apple-style “Smart Playlists”
# See the mt-daapd.playlist file in the
# contrib directory for syntax and examples
#
# This doesn’t control static playlists… these
# are controlled with the “process_m3u” directive
# below.
#

playlist = /usr/local/etc/mt-daapd.playlist

#
# password (optional)
#
# This is the password required to listen to MP3 files
# i.e. the password that iTunes prompts for
#

#password = mp3

#
# extensions (optional)
#
# These are the file extensions that the daap server will
# try to index and serve. By default, it only indexes and
# serves .mp3 files. It can also server .m4a and .m4p files,
# and just about any other files, really. Unfortunately, while
# it can *attempt* to serve other files (.ogg?), iTunes won’t
# play them. Perhaps this would be useful on Linux with
# Rhythmbox, once it understands daap. (hurry up!)
#
# Failing that, one can use server-side conversion to transcode
# non-standard (.ogg, .flac) music to wav on the server side.
# See the ssc_* options below.
#
# To be able to index .ogg files, you’ll need to have configured
# with –enable-oggvorbis. For .flac, –enable-flac, for .mpc,
# –enable-musepack.
#

extensions = .mp3,.m4a,.m4p,.ogg,.flac

#
# ssc_codectypes (optional)
#
# List of codectypes for files that the daap server should
# perform internal format conversion and present to clients
# as WAV files. The file extensions that these codectypes correspond
# to must also be present in ‘extensions’
# configuration value, or files are not probed in the first
# place.
#
# Valid codectypes:
#
# mp4a – for AAC (.aac, .mp4, .m4a, .m4p)
# mpeg – for mp3
# wav – for wav
# wma – for wma
# ogg – for ogg
# flac – for flac (.flac, .fla)
# mpc for musepack (.mpc, .mpp, .mp+)
# alac for alac (.m4a)
#

ssc_codectypes = ogg,flac,alac

#
# ssc_prog (optional)
#
# Program that is used in server side format conversion.
# Program must accept following command line syntax:
# ssc_prog filename offset length …
# Parameter filename is the real name of the file that is
# to be converted and streamed, offset is number of bytes
# that are skipped from the beginning of the _output_ file
# before streaming is started, length is length of the song
# in seconds (or zero). All other possible arguments must
# be ignored. The resulting wav file (or the rest of
# the file after initial seek) is written to the standard
# output by the ssc_prog program. This is typically
# a script that is a front end for different conversion tools
# handling different formats.
#

ssc_prog = /usr/local/bin/mt-daapd-ssc.sh

#
# logfile (optional)
#
# This is the file to log to. If this is not configured,
# then it will log to the syslog.
#
# Not that the -d switch will control the log verbosity.
# By default, it runs at log level 1. Log level 9 will churn
# out scads of useless debugging information. Values in between
# will vary the amount of logging you get.
#

logfile = /var/log/mt-daapd.log

#
# rescan_interval
#
# How often to check the file system to see if any mp3 files
# have been added or removed.
#
# if not specified, the default is 0, which disables background scanning.
#
# If background rescanning is disabled, a scan can still be forced from the
# “status” page of the administrative web interface
#
# Setting a rescan_interval lower than the time it takes to rescan
# won’t hurt anything, it will just waste CPU, and make connect times
# to the daap server longer.
#
#

rescan_interval = 1800

# always_scan
#
# The default behavior is not not do background rescans of the
# filesystem unless there are clients connected. The thought is to
# allow the drives to spin down unless they are in use. This might be
# of more importance in IDE drives that aren’t designed to be run
# 24×7. Forcing a scan through the web interface will always work
# though, even if no users are connected.

# always_scan = 0

#
# process_m3u
#
# By default m3u processing is turned off, since most m3u files
# sitting around in peoples mp3 directories have bad paths, and
# I hear about it. 🙂
#
# If you are sure your m3u files have good paths (i.e. unixly pathed,
# with relative paths relative to the directory the m3u is in), then
# you can turn on m3u processing by setting this directive to 1.
#
# I’m not sure “unixly” is a word, but you get the idea.
#

# process_m3u = 0

#
# scan_type
#
#
# This sets how aggressively mp3 files should be scanned to determine
# file length. There are three values:
#
# 0 (Normal)
# Just scan the first mp3 frame to try and calculate size. This will
# be accurate for most files, but VBR files without an Xing tag will
# probably have wildly inaccurate file times. This is the default.
#
# 1 (Aggressive)
# This checks the bitrates of 10 frames in the middle of the song.
# This will still be inaccurate for VBR files without an Xing tag,
# but they probably won’t be quite as inaccurate as 0. This takes
# more time, obviously, although the time hit will only happen the
# first time you scan a particular file.
#
# 2 (Painfully aggressive)
# This walks through the entire song, counting the number of frames.
# This should result in accurate song times, but will take the most
# time. Again, this will only have to be incurred the first time
# the file is indexed.
#

scan_type = 2
debuglevel = 5

#
# compress
#
# Whether to use gzip content-encoding when transferring playlists etc.
# This was contributed as a patch by Ciamac Moallemi just prior to the 0.2.1
# release, and as such, hasn’t gotten as much testing as other features.
#
# This feature should substantially speed up transfers of large databases
# and playlists.
#
# It will eventually default to 1, but currently it defaults to 0.
#

#compress = 0

[plugins]
plugin_dir = /usr/local/share/mt-daapd/plugins

[Kaiten]

Hmm, nothing out of the ordinary there. Can you increase the debug level & try again? See what the output is.

[cezza]

I’ve looked at the debugs at higher levels, and can’t see any significant issues, and it just gets to the stage where all the library data makes it difficult to see the wood from the trees – actually, what I’ll do is create a subset of my library (one or two files) and create debugs from 1 – 9 which I’ll then post.

I’m kinda thinking it may be a software issue on the Roku (I’m running the latest code for the Roku Radio beta – if it still is in beta) – when I had Firefly running on my XP box I obviously installed Bonjour, and I’m thinking when I’m running Firefly under the BusyBox OS the communication mechanism is slightly different, and my level of Roku code can’t see Firefly. Pure conjecture, but you’ve got to start somewhere…

[Kaiten]

Not sure what else to try then, possible load iTunes if you have access to windows or mac, see if it appears there.

Another thing, try the java applet.

[sonichouse]

It might be that the mDNS name is too long

you currently have

servername = Firefly %v on %h

on my slug I have

servername = %h Music

and that works.

Might be worth a try ?

[cezza]

@sonichouse wrote:

It might be that the mDNS name is too long

you currently have

servername = Firefly %v on %h

on my slug I have

servername = %h Music

and that works.

Is that a know issue? Certainly an easy thing to try – I will report back…

[cezza]

@Kaiten wrote:

Not sure what else to try then, possible load iTunes if you have access to windows or mac, see if it appears there.

Sorry if I sound stupid, but what is it that I’m looking for where? FYI, I can run PCast on the Linkstation and the Roku sees that, and I can also run WMP on my PC… Both servers appear on the Roku…
@Kaiten wrote:

Another thing, try the java applet.

I’ve tried to access the applet referenced in the install guide I referred to earlier, but my browser can’t see it. I’ve not dug around in the file system to see if it’s there or not…

[Kaiten]

OK you want to run svn-1586, standalone instead of a SubApp of PCast. You say that it does not show on your Roku Soundbridge, running beta software.

I gave you an alternative way to see if your svn-1586 install is working.

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