I have been running the Firefly Media Server (mt-daapd) for sometime now. I initially installed the version that is supplied in the Ubuntu universe repository which is currently version 0.9-svn-1586.
Recently I purchased a Pinnacle Soundbridge (Roku Soundbridge outside of the UK) and wanting to be bleeding edge I check out the Firefly Media Server website and discovered that the latest nightly build is version 0.9-svn-1696. According to the descriptions of the various releases this had several bugs fixed, including a major memory leak. The author kindly produced deb packages for most versions of Ubuntu except for Gutsy, so I decided to see if I could compile from source and get the latest up and running. Not being a Linux expert I did some research and did not find a single guide that was 100% correct, so I have hopefully captured all the commands that I used to get this up and running. I hope this is sufficient information for those like me who are unfamiliar with compiling from source.
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paul General, Hardware, Software 7.10, Compiling, Firefly, Gutsy, Media Server, Pinnacle, Roku, Rokulabs, Soundbridge, Source, Ubuntu
I have been meaning to write about NASLite for sometime now but for some reason I have never got around to it. NASLite is a Network Attached Storage (NAS) Operating System that is designed to make it simple to turn a computer into a dedicated file server running SMB/CIFS, NFS, AFP, FTP, HTTP and RSYNC protocols.
This was my very first encounter with a Linux based operating system and what a pleasant one it was. Server Elements have done a fine job in creating a NAS application that simply works. They come in various flavours depending on the hardware and protocols you wish to run on. I personal use NASLite-2 USB which boots from a 8MB USB memory stick!
Although NASLite is not free it is reasonably priced and is a easy way to convert an old computer and lots of hard disks into the NAS storage device of your dreams!
Over the years I have upgraded my hardware and am now the proud owner of a 1.5TB RAID5 NAS server. The hardware is as follows:
- ASUS A7v266-E Motherboard
- 1.4Ghz Athlon Processor
- LSI Megaraid 150-4 SATA RAID Card
- 4 x 500GB HDD
- 768MB RAM
- Netgear GA311 Gigabit Ethernet Card
This is relatively high spec compared to what I have run before, so if you have an old computer in your loft then dust it off and give it a try!
paul Software Linux, NAS, NASLite, RAID, Server Elements
Well in a previous post I said that my scanner didn’t work, which was true. However recently I had to use it so I booted into Windows XP and all was well. I decided to see if I could get it to work under Ubuntu 7.10 and low and behold it worked first time….what a mystery?
The bad news is that I went to use it today and it isn’t working again! So this needs further investigation. If anybody can point me in the right direction then please drop me a line!
paul Hardware 3590, Epson, Linux, Scanner, Ubuntu
Since getting an iPod a few years ago I go introduced to audio podcasts and in the last 12 months video podcasts. Under Windows XP I used iTunes to manage my iPod, including podcasts but as iTunes does not exist for Linux I had to search for an alternative.
Many of the Linux music players support podcasts and iPod integration but my experience has been somewhat disappointing, however I stumbled across gPodder, which not only handles audio and video podcasts extremely well it also synchronizes them directly to my iPod! It is still actively being developed (even I have recently contributed with some bug fixes and features!) and I am sure if a stable windows version could be made it would even become popular on that platform too.
gPodder should be available in most Linux distributions, check out the gPodder WiKi for information on how to obtain it for the popular distros and how to build from source. You will also find information on how to join the mailing list where you will meet a friendly bunch of people to share ideas and get help if you should need it.
paul Podcasts, Software gPodder, iPod, Podcast, Podcatcher
This is the break down of the main hardware in my system:
- ASUS A8N5x Socket 939 Motherboard
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200
- 2.5GB DDR RAM
- ASUS Nvidia GeFource 6200 256MB PCI-E video card
- LSI Megatrends 150-4 SATA RAID Card
- 3 x 320GB SATA configured in a RAID 5 Array
- Epson Perfection 3590 Photo Scanner
- Canon Pixma IP5000 printer
The only piece of hardware that has specifically been chosen to work with Linux is the LSI Megatrends 150-4 SATA RAID card. I discovered that most of the RAID provided on motherboards is referred to as Fake Raid which requires software drivers in conjunction with the hardware. Unfortunately there are not many (or maybe any) that are supported under Linux so I decided to find a cheap hardware RAID card that was supported.
All in all Ubuntu 7.04 and Ubuntu 7.10 worked out of the box with the above hardware, with one exception. The Epson Perfection 3590 Photo Scanner. Doing research it appears that there are not many of the modern day scanners supported under Linux, which is a real shame. I however will keep searching to see if I can find a solution and get this scanner working.
In general I am impressed with the hardware detection. I have installed Ubuntu 7.10 on a cheap Chinese laptop that is about 4 years old and it works perfectly, including the wireless card! So I would certainly not hesitate anybody giving it a go!
paul General, Hardware
If you would have asked me about Linux a few years ago I would have claimed that it was miles away from reaching mainstream users and it didn’t include half the features that Microsoft provides with Windows XP. Now these thoughts and comments had no grounding as I had never seen or tried Linux!
Earlier on this year I was toying with the idea of upgrading to Windows Vista, it was for no reason other than the fact that I wanted to have the so called latest and greatest. I was soon put off by the negative press and most of all the unattractive price tag! On discussing this with a friend, he suggested that I tried Linux, and in particular Ubuntu. That was back in March and now I rarely run Windows, and if I do it’s usually under a virtual machine in Linux.
The journey has not been smooth all the way, and in fact I am still having issues with certain pieces of hardware and finding the best software for each task, but I what I intend to do with this blog is share my experience and hopefully encourage those who are skeptical about a move to Linux to simply give it a try. Where possible I will give step by step guides on how I achieved different things so that hopefully other people can benefit from the late nights I have spent trying to get something to work!
paul General Linux, Ubuntu, Vista