Ok, whatever I tried yesterday was clearly done in a dumb moment – I’ve copied my itunes xml to the slug again and now it works just fine.
Just to verify, this is the preferred method for managing a slug with iTunes:
Slug shared music file: /public/mp3
iTunes music library location: //slug/public/mp3
Then: Rip cds using iTunes, directly to the slug music folder.
Then: Copy the xml from pc/mac to relevant slug folder.
This method seems to work perfectly well for me, but I just wanted to know if anyone had any alternatives (I’m always open to new suggestions).