LinuxMCE Forums

General => Users => Topic started by: drjenk on December 10, 2008, 06:40:31 am

Title: Pictures?
Post by: drjenk on December 10, 2008, 06:40:31 am
Hi,
I have a NAS with a bunch of pictures.  How do I configure Linux MCE to see my /media/pictures directory on my NAS?  It did seem to find my audio, by way of finding the windows share it is configured as.  The pictures directory is directly parallel to my music directory, but I don't see them.  I see under "media files sync" there are directories configured under /home/public/data, how do I add a path to my NAS?  I see it under /mnt/device/37/

Thanks
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: Afkpuz on December 10, 2008, 07:19:43 am
In media files sync, check under other.  My second hard drive is listed under there.  Perhaps your NAS is there too.
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: drjenk on December 11, 2008, 06:57:39 am
Yes I can browse to my pictures through the web page, under the "other" subdirectory.  Problem is they don't appear when selecting the "Pictures" item from the orbiter, though the directory is set as "LinuxMCE Pictures".  It only will display /home/public/data/pictures.  Looking at the media scenarios and choosing "pictures", it is defined to "show file list" of type 7.   My music is in a parallel directory next to pictures, and linuxmce can see those through "audio" menu selection. 
How do you define what directory is seen when you select "pictures" from the media menu on an orbiter?
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: tkmedia on December 11, 2008, 08:43:23 am
I don't think  the pictures menu is working ATM




Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: Zaerc on December 11, 2008, 08:02:10 pm
You should choose the LMCE (or pluto) directory structure (or whatever it is called) and not "Public".  Then move your files under the "pictures" (or videos or audio, etc) subdirectories.
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: drjenk on December 12, 2008, 06:23:34 am
You should choose the LMCE (or pluto) directory structure (or whatever it is called) and not "Public".  Then move your files under the "pictures" (or videos or audio, etc) subdirectories.

I have my pictures on a NAS (Dlink DNS-323) that is configured raid1, so I can minimize my chances of losing them.  At  no point do I want them in a single disk.  I also have this drive backed up to a separate partition on the network nightly (photography hobbyist).  So I would really prefer they remain where they are.

I found this finally:  http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/How_are_media_files_organized%3F

I see at the bottom how it instructs you to create a symlink to where your media is to see it, under the /home/public/data.  So I made a symlink to /mnt/device/37/Media/My Pictures/ under /home/public/data/pictures/.   I only wonder if the number "37" ever changes and gets re-assigned. 

I also see it says linuxmce should have made these symlinks automatically, but that didn't work for me.
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: tschak909 on December 12, 2008, 07:24:11 am
If it didn't, this means that permissions with the NAS are incorrect.

You should _NEVER_ make the symlinks yourself because LMCE manages all storage devices.

-Thom
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: drjenk on December 12, 2008, 08:06:48 am
So if I make the permissions on the NAS such that they are correct (I assume I use the same login as I use with the admin page), do I need to force linuxMCE to catalog the media (since it is already discovered), or should it on it's own?



Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: tschak909 on December 12, 2008, 01:20:44 pm
It should do it on its own. Also make sure your share name does not contain any spaces.

-Thom
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: Zaerc on December 12, 2008, 08:08:27 pm
That outdated wiki page you're refering to has been slightly updated.  As Thom says, never mess with the symlinks, that only ends in tears.
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: drjenk on December 14, 2008, 04:19:48 am
It should do it on its own. Also make sure your share name does not contain any spaces.

-Thom


Ok I did delete the manually created symlinks from the pictures dir.

I'm still not able to get any pictures to display.  Here is what I see:
-My mp3 collection is in a parallel directory to my pictures on the same share, and see all my music when selecting "audio" from the media menu.
-When browsing my share under public/data/other under media sync I see all my pictures directories on the NAS, with a checkbox next to them like they are in the database.  But all I see when selecting pictures from the media menu is "flickr", no pictures. 
- I do not either my audio or pictures as a symlink created anywhere under home/public/data/audio or /pictures, yet I can see audio.  (but no pictures).

I also did a full resynchronize in the media sync page for /home/public/data, then did a quickload router, and regen orbiter, no luck.  It seems like if the pictures are showing up as being in the database, that they should be showing up in the pictures menu?

 
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: drjenk on December 17, 2008, 03:58:20 am
Has anyone got pictures to display from a NAS?
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: krippler on December 17, 2008, 05:52:18 am
Assuming I understand you correctly, what you are trying to do is not currently possible.

This is because when viewing pictures from orbiter, you can only sort them via "Filename". This means you can browse the pictures from the /home/public/data/pictures directory and only see pictures immediately in this directory and its sub-directories even if they have been catalogued. You will notice the exact same behaviour for your video and audio files if you sort by Filename. However, for video and audio files you have the option of sorting based on other criteria(ie. Title) which allow you to see all catalogued files.

I havnt a clue how it might be done but perhaps the other sort options can be made available for pictures in the future.
Until then, you have only 2 options:
1. As Zaerc said, use the LMCE directory structure on the NAS and move all the media files into the appropriate directories. The files would remain on the NAS so this shouldnt affect your RAID1 setup. And if your nightly network backup is of the entire NAS(with all directories and files), it should continue working just as it is. Thus, preserving the same level or redundancy you have now.
or
2. This option is not recommended, as Thom mentioned, but you can manually create a symlink to the pictures on the NAS in the /home/public/data/pictures directory and hope that nothing breaks. At the very least this will create duplicate entries in the database and possibly cause other problems.

Good luck
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: tschak909 on December 17, 2008, 06:00:26 am
it WILL cause what you mention...until UpdateMedia gets rid of the symlink...although the duplicate file entries will still be in the database.

-Thom
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: drjenk on December 18, 2008, 11:52:39 pm
use the LMCE directory structure on the NAS and move all the media files into the appropriate directories. The files would remain on the NAS so this shouldnt affect your RAID1 setup.

You should choose the LMCE (or pluto) directory structure (or whatever it is called) and not "Public".  Then move your files under the "pictures" (or videos or audio, etc) subdirectories.


Ok I thought Zaerc meant move the files to the core, but I guess not.  I am a little confused by how to make what he said happen.  Currently my pictures directory the NAS is \\share\Media\My Pictures, and I see it currently under linuxmce media sync screen at /home/public/data/other/share/Media/My Pictures.  I do see there are directories /home/pluto/, and /home/linuxmce/.  How do I "choose" one of these directories, and still have my pictures residing on the NAS, so that they appear when I select "pictures" on the orbiter?  Do you mean put a symlink under one of these directories instead (which I assume should not cause the problems mentioned when creating symlinks under the public directory)?

Thanks
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: drjenk on December 19, 2008, 08:31:45 pm

I havnt a clue how it might be done but perhaps the other sort options can be made available for pictures in the future.

Good luck

Also, can any of the developers comment on whether or not viewing pictures from  NAS will be supported in the next version?

Thanks
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: krippler on December 20, 2008, 04:46:33 am
To get the pictures on ur NAS or any drive in general to appear in the pictures menu on orbiter while keeping them on the device just do the following:

1) When the drive is detected by the system, use the LMCE directory structure on it. This will not erase or damage anything already on the drive, it will just give you some new directories (ie. public, user_1, user_2, etc.)
(In your case, you have to get LMCE to re-detect your NAS, I assume this can be done by simply removing it from the admin website and then plugging it in again. However, I've never tried this myself and cannot guarantee that it will be detected again automatically. Meaning, you might need to take additional steps to get it to be detected again)

2) Move the pictures into the "/public/data/pictures" directory on the NAS (you can have the pictures in sub-directories from this point forward). Now your pictures should appear in orbiter.

Basically what happens is, when you use the LMCE directory structure the new folders are created on the drive(if they dont already exist) and symlinks are automatically created to the appropriate places. ie. A symlink is created in the "/home/public/data/pictures/" directory on the root drive to "/public/data/pictures" on your NAS.

Hope that helps. Best of luck.
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: drjenk on December 20, 2008, 09:48:32 am
I see, thanks for the clarification.
A little scared to delete it, but maybe this is the only way...


Thanks
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: drjenk on December 20, 2008, 12:32:05 pm
If I do have problems with redetection of my NAS, is there a way to force detection?
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: tschak909 on December 20, 2008, 06:34:27 pm
No. There isn't, and there should never need to be.

If your device isn't being detected, chances are, your network is set up incorrectly.

-Thom
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: drjenk on December 20, 2008, 10:13:29 pm
Well I have 2 nics in the hybrid, one connected directly to my dsl modem which is configured as dhcp server, and that is it for that NIC.  The other network card is connected directly to a switch, to which I have all other devices connected, including my NAS (other devices are a media live media director upstairs, a windows based pc, a t-mobile linksys wireless router (dhcp server turned off), and an xbox360, which can connect to xbox live fine, all of the above configured to get settings via dhcp).  I am able to browse the internet from my pc, 2 wireless laptops, I can connect to the dlink NAS admin screen, linux mce admin page etc.  As far as network setup, I cannot see any problems.  Everything has worked pretty well, except for of course displaying pictures other than the flickr slideshow on the home page. 
I did notice another thing.  Somewhere along the line, the NAS stopped being recognized when I go and rip a cd, or dvd.  When I first got this up and running a couple weeks ago, when I ripped one of our dvds, I could see the directory structure and choose a directory destination on my NAS.  I could then play it  upstairs on my media director.  I notice I cannot see the directory structure a few days ago when trying to rip one of my cds. 

There was at least one previous instance where someone had a similar issue, and needed to force redetection.  I saw a previous post about another person who had said "no" to using his NAS as a storage unit, and wanted to use it after changing his mind.  He was pointed to the unknown devices page, to then select "unlock", and reload router.  This did not work for him, he was then directed to doing a database command, which then worked after a "couple days".  So I tried to delete my NAS device, then turned it off/on, to try and see if linuxmce would detect.  No go.  I cannot see the IP/MAC of my NAS in the unknown device screen, although I can still ping it from the hybrid fine.
64 bytes from 192.168.80.251: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.188 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.80.251: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.236 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.80.251: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=0.259 ms

So perhaps I made the problem worse, but this looked like the only way to try and get my pictures on my TV (to choose "use linuxmce filesystem" when redetected, to then move my pictures under the appropriate directory structure).  I can still see the NAS fine otherwise however, from my other pcs.  The only thing I can think of to try is maybe give the NAS a fixed IP, but I see no reason why this should help (?).




S
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: krippler on December 21, 2008, 10:05:02 pm
I believe your network config should be fine. As for detecting the NAS again, I recently deleted one of my internal harddrives from the admin page and upon restarting the core it was automatically re-detected.

You shouldnt need to do any unlocking from the "unknown devices" page unless you chose to always ignore the device when it was detected. I suggest you unplug the NAS from the network, make sure it is deleted from the admin website, then restart the core. Upon restart plug the NAS in again and it should be detected within a few mins.

Also, please note that by default, the system reserves 192.168.80.[2-128] for LMCE devices with the rest being left for devices external to the system. This means that once the NAS is setup and being used by LMCE it will automatically be assigned an IP address within this range (I think this address remains constant for as long as the device exists). Your NAS' IP is outside this range, so unless you've changed the default network settings in the web-admin it would appear that LMCE doesnt know it can use the NAS for storage.
Title: Re: Pictures?
Post by: drjenk on December 24, 2008, 03:16:51 am
I did your suggestion, and it is being assigned the .251 address again.  It is definitely gone from the device list on the "tree" view under CORE, where there was an entry previously titled "DNS-323".  I have not changed anything in the network config screen at all, it is at it's default setting, where the ranges of .2 to .128 are pluto devices.  Every other network device is working just fine, including the diskless media director.  And it was working at one point, because I did rip a dvd when I first got the system going, in fact the image is still on the NAS.  Somewhere along the line it stopped being recognized and I am really stumped as to what could have caused this. 

I am wondering if there isn't somewhere else in the admin screen I am just not finding (and I have hunted), where all of the devices that ARE found are listed, and their status (pluto or non-pluto). 

So I hope I can get this going because I really want this to work.  Other aspects seem to be working ok, including mythtv (although I am not using this as it is intended, until I get my hdhomerun I ordered, it is just capturing output from my current pvr). 

Thanks for the suggestions and by all means please post any additional ideas you think of.  I was thinking possible do a swap of my interfaces, and do the same with the physical cables, to maybe force a redetection, but I fell may be digging the hole a bit deeper than it already is.