Configuring KnoppMyth for using samba

Samba allows you to access your MythTV box via Windows or Macintosh computers on your network.

It is already configured to share the /myth directory, but is not set to start on boot. Therefore, all you actually need to do to begin using samba is to start it up. Open an Xterm window, su to root, and start the daemon:

su
/etc/init.d/samba start

However, if you want to avoid doing this each time you restart your MythTV box, do the following to set samba to start up automatically (as su):

update-rc.d samba defaults

Tweaking Samba for optimal speed

The out-of-the-box R5F27 /etc/samba/smb.conf file contains (at least it did on my system) some suboptimal settings that dramatically REDUCED file transfer speeds to/from my Win32 box. After a little testing I discovered the offending settings were contained in the socket options line: SO_SNDBUF=8192 SO_RCVBUF=8192.

Remove them if you're having slow xfer times on your system. Here is my current lines:

#       socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_SNDBUF=8192 SO_RCVBUF=8192
socket options = TCP_NODELAY

Noticed how I simply commented out the original line and added the new one under it. Doing this is better than just deleting the original since it leaves a record of the original for your reference in the future.

Connecting to MythTV box from Windows or Macintosh

To connect to this machine from Windows XP, you can use My Network Places. Your MythTV box should appear with whatever name you gave it during installation. When prompted to log in, use the mythtv username, with the default password of mythtv (or a different password if you've changed it, which you can set up for samba (again, as su)...

smbpasswd -a mythtv

To connect to your MythTV box via Mac OS X, from the Finder, select Go->Connect to Server. In the dialog box that follows, type smb://name-of-mythtv-box/myth/ , then login with username of mythtv and default password of mythtv. You can also use a Finder window in column view and click on the Network logo to view servers similar to Windows' My Network Places functionality.

Connecting to a Windows machine from your MythTV box

In order to do this, I believe you need to install some additional utilities. At a minimum, you should install smbclient. However, there is a nice GUI utility called LinNeighborhood that also installs smbclient... you can then access your Windows shares via the command line or the GUI. To install:

su
apt-get update
apt-get install linneighborhood
exit
LinNeighborhood &

(Note: You must run LinNeighborhood from X-Term and note that the package name is all lower-case but the application's is not)

If you don't care to install LinNeighborhood do this:

su
apt-get update
apt-get install smbclient
apt-get install smbfs
smbmount //10.0.0.100/Downloads /myth/music/protoss

Then rescan your music directory. The music should show up. To make this mount permanent follow the directions given in the Other Utilities and Hints section below.

Using smbclient is similar to using a FTP client. You connect to the Windows machine by typing:

smbclient \\\\windows-server-name\\shared-folder-name -U xp_username

Substitute your Windows server name, shared folder name, and XP username in the appropriate places. (The extra backslashes are present as escape characters for the backslashes needed for the NT server and share name). You'll be prompted for a password, which is the XP password for that username.

You will then get an smb: \> prompt, at which point you can type help for a list of some of the things you can do. You'll primarily want to put files to the Windows machine or get files from the shared folder, then exit to leave smbclient.

LinNeighborhood is a GUI for mounting shared folders. I had the most luck using it by first connecting to the server via the Add button...

typing in the IP address of the Windows server in the dialog box that follows...

...then click Query. The Machine and Group are automagically filled in. Click OK to add this server. Right-click on the machine's name and pick "scan as user"...

...this lets you enter your XP username and password to access the server, and to pick a Linux mount point for the folder you're accessing.

A quick tutorial on using LinNeighborhood can be found at:

http://samba.netfirms.com/linneighborhood/lintour.htm

Other utilities and hints

o KnoppMyth has set up the /myth/ directory to have read/write access for the mythtv user. If you would like to change these settings, or would like to share other directories, webmin makes it easy to configure samba via a web-based interface. (see WebminHowTo for details.)

o While you're in webmin set the workgroup of the MythTV to the same workgroup as your Windows machines to speed up browsing in My Network Places.

o If you would like to always mount a Windows shared directory on startup of your MythTV box, you will need to add a line to /etc/fstab as follows:

su
nano /etc/fstab
(this assumes you have nano for your text editor; substitute your editor of choice here)

Add as the final line:

//windows-server-name/shared-folder-name /linux/mount/point smbfs username=xp_username,password=xp_password 0 0

Then save and exit your text editor.

Another example mount (this one uses a guest login, and tries to set the permissions for writing files to the share):

//149.135.128.182/public /mnt/nas smbfs guest,uid=mythtv,dmask=0777 0 0

You can also avoid entering your password in the fstab file by pointing to a 'credentials' file. See instructions on how to do this at the following page:

http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Filesystems/Mounting_smbfs_Shares_Permanently.html

o If the samba share is not visible/discoverable from your windows box, make sure your firewall is not blocking it.

o The only way to make XP Home remember the password for a shared directory on another machine (including samba) is if the (samba) username/pass is the same as the Windows username/pass.

Credits

This howto is adapted from the one found at:
http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=422