Firefly an Maxtor Shared Storage II or Buffalo LS Homes. ?

[midi]

I want to buy a NAS system to stream my WAV, FLAC and ALAC musicfiles with my Soundbridge M1001.

Two NAS devices are interesting for me:

1. the new Maxtor Shared Storage II (MSS II)
2. the Buffalo Linkstation Homeserver

I prefer the MMS II, because it´s faster and quiet.

After reading a lot of threads in different forums i´m not sure if it is possible to install and run FF on this devices without a lot of problems. I´m not a computer expert…

If it should be possible, which FF or mt-daap version is the right one ?

Thanks !

[rpedde]

@midi wrote:

I want to buy a NAS system to stream my WAV, FLAC and ALAC musicfiles with my Soundbridge M1001.

Two NAS devices are interesting for me:

1. the new Maxtor Shared Storage II (MSS II)
2. the Buffalo Linkstation Homeserver

I prefer the MMS II, because it´s faster and quiet.

I didn’t look exhaustively, but it doesn’t appear that the MSS II has hacked/optware firmware yet. The MSS+ does, but not he MSS II.

I may be wrong. If it doesn’t, then it will be difficult to get it working on the mss ii.

The linkstation appears to be a regular HG, which is a ppc device. It will (should?) run either openlink or freelink. For freelink, there are packages on the nightlies page, and it’s easy to get working assuming you know debian already. :-/

Othereise, openlink would be easier, but I don’t have a package prebuilt. I see them floating around the linkstation forums, though, so I think it’s available.

So generally, my thoughts would be that the linkstation would be more easily hackable, and if you already have linux experience and/or don’t mind hacking around on the thing, I’d go for linkstation running freelink.

If you didn’t want to mess with it, and just wanted something that would work, I might go with linkstation on openlink.

If you really, *really* wanted to hack, you could attack the mss II. Rebuild the firmware from the GPL package with backdoor, build a cross toolchain and see if you could get something compiled for the mss II.

🙂

After reading a lot of threads in different forums i´m not sure if it is possible to install and run FF on this devices without a lot of problems. I´m not a computer expert…

That’s how it read to me, too. I’d guess that would change, but right now the devices are pretty spendy, which makes people hesitate to take the risk of developing new firmware for them. They would be expensive bricks.

If it should be possible, which FF or mt-daap version is the right one ?

Thanks !

Almost all nas devices come with mt-daapd 0.2.4 built in firmware. The MSS II does, I’m not sure if the linkstation does. In either case, you reallyw ant to be running nightlies on it though, which means you’ll need to have a device that is hackable in the sense that people have already figured out a way to run custom software on them.

Which (again) makes the linkstations look more appealing.

None of them will be simple though — there’s a fair learning curve even just with regard to installing something someone else already compiled and set up for you.

If you are willing to hack on it, though, I think you’ll be happy with the results.

From a “lots of documentation” standpoint, the nslu2 isn’t a bad way to go either. With OS on flash disk and an external hdd, it’s a quiet and configurable platform.

— Ron

[midi]

First – thank you very much !

But it seems to be very difficult with the MSS II. I think i keep my hands off the MSS II.

I´m looking for a Buffalo Linkstation oder nslu2 solution.

Sadly, there are no pre-installed Firefly devices like the Freecom FSG or better the INTRADISK with Twonky on the market. So you have to put a lot of time and energy to get the systems running. And a risk is still there.

[rpedde]

@midi wrote:

First – thank you very much !

But it seems to be very difficult with the MSS II. I think i keep my hands off the MSS II.

I´m looking for a Buffalo Linkstation oder nslu2 solution.

Sadly, there are no pre-installed Firefly devices like the Freecom FSG or better the INTRADISK with Twonky on the market. So you have to put a lot of time and energy to get the systems running. And a risk is still there.

True. But there have been *lots* of people through these forums that we’ve gotten set up on nslu2+mt-daapd nightlies. Lots. It might take a weekend, but you’ll get there.

Anyway, good luck. It’s a fun trip.

— Ron

[Ted Harper]

@midi wrote:

Sadly, there are no pre-installed Firefly devices like the Freecom FSG or better the INTRADISK with Twonky on the market. So you have to put a lot of time and energy to get the systems running. And a risk is still there.

In Australia at least, there are a couple of companies offering pre-configured NSLU2+drive+Firefly. See http://www.anymedia.com.au/products_sb_NAS_Option.htm and also http://www.frequency.com.au/sales/music&audio/ (about 3/4 the way down the page). If such a pre-installed device isn’t available where you are, it would seem to be a missed marketing opportunity for an enterprising shop (and the profit would on the surface appear to be pretty good on such a pre-installed box too vs just selling the separate components as they might otherwise be doing).

ted.h.

[midi]

One more question:

My Firefly Version (svn-1417) supports FLAC and ALAC Files. Does this the newest Mt-daapd.ipk nightlie svn-1417 too ?

I´ve a Pinnacle Soundbridge M1001. Now i´ve read that thisone isn´t running with mt-daapd – is this right ? If this is right, i think a NSLU2 solution isn´t possible (or only with Twonky possible).

Thanks for your patience…

[rpedde]

@midi wrote:

My Firefly Version (svn-1417) supports FLAC and ALAC Files. Does this the newest Mt-daapd.ipk nightlie svn-1417 too ?

Yes.

I´ve a Pinnacle Soundbridge M1001. Now i´ve read that thisone isn´t running with mt-daapd – is this right ? If this is right, i think a NSLU2 solution isn´t possible (or only with Twonky possible).

Nope, the nightly version will work fine with the pinnacle. I think the confusion is that mt-daapd *is* firefly, I just kept the unix programs named “mt-daapd” to make upgrades easier. At some point, I suppose I’ll probably expunge all the mt-daapd references everywhere and make it firefly through and through.

But yeah, everything should work fine with nightlies, including transcoding and pinnacle (rsp protocol).

— Ron

[midi]

Ok – i ordered a NSLU2 with an WD My Book HD.

There are some different instructions for installing Firefly flying around in different forums. I´ve absolutely no linux experience.

Is the nightlie “mt-daapd_svn-1433-1_armeb.ipk” the right one and is it still necessary to go like that ?:

“From the telnet session “cd /tmp” and then “cp /share/hdd/data/public/mt-daapdXXXX.ipk /tmp” where mt-daapdXXXX.ipk is the specific filename of the distribution you downloaded. Then run these commands in order. “ipkg update”, “ipkg install gdbm”, “ipkg install libid3tag”, and finally “ipkg install mt-daapdXXXX.ipk” again referencing the actual filename.”

Or is it enough or right to go like this:

“ipkg update” and “ipkg install mt-daapd_svn-1433-1_armeb.ipk”

ONCE AGAIN – THANKS !

[rpedde]

@midi wrote:

Ok – i ordered a NSLU2 with an WD My Book HD.

There are some different instructions for installing Firefly flying around in different forums. I´ve absolutely no linux experience.

Hrm.

Those look to be some old instructions. 🙂

I think the fastest/best way right now is something like:

root@nslu2# echo "src firefly http://ipkg.fireflymediaserver.org/armeb" > /etc/ipkg/firefly.conf

root@nslu2# ipkg update

root@nslu2# ipkg install mt-daapd

If you want to keep up with nightlies, you can do a:

root@nslu2# ipkg update

root@nslu2# ipkg install mt-daapd

Right now, I’m not automatically rebuilding the slug repositories whenever I release a new nightly, but whenever I get around to it. 1433 is in the slug repo at ipkg.fireflymediaserver.org, though.

— Ron

[midi]

Sorry, but i have problems…

I had no problems to install unslung. But when i try to install (Telnet is enabled but i use Putty) an use

“ipkg update”

i get this message:

LKG298063 login: root
Password:
No directory, logging in with HOME=/

Welcome to Unslung V2.3R63-uNSLUng-6.8-beta

---

NOTE: THIS SYSTEM IS CURRENTLY UNSLUNG

---

BusyBox v0.60.4 (2005.03.22-06:52+0000) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter ‘help’ for a list of built-in commands.

# ipkg update
Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/nslu2/cross/stable/Packages.gz
wget: ipkg.nslu2-linux.org: Host name lookup failure
Downloading http://ipkg.fireflymediaserver.org/armeb/Packages
wget: ipkg.fireflymediaserver.org: Host name lookup failure
Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/nslu2/native/stable/Packages.gz
wget: ipkg.nslu2-linux.org: Host name lookup failure
Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/unslung/modules/cross/6.8-beta/Packages.gz
wget: ipkg.nslu2-linux.org: Host name lookup failure
An error ocurred, return value: 4.
Collected errors:
ipkg_download: ERROR: Command failed with return value 1: `wget –passive-ftp -q -P /tmp/ipkg-cSxQSR http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/nslu2/cross/stable/Packages.gz’
ipkg_download: ERROR: Command failed with return value 1: `wget –passive-ftp -q -P /tmp/ipkg-cSxQSR http://ipkg.fireflymediaserver.org/armeb/Packages’
ipkg_download: ERROR: Command failed with return value 1: `wget –passive-ftp -q -P /tmp/ipkg-cSxQSR http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/nslu2/native/stable/Packages.gz’
ipkg_download: ERROR: Command failed with return value 1: `wget –passive-ftp -q -P /tmp/ipkg-cSxQSR http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/unslung/modules/cross/6.8-beta/Packages.gz’
#

What´s wrong ? Thanks !

[Author]

Posts