Best way of installing and configuring MiniDLNA on Manjaro?

[EuroNiceguy]

Hello Everyone,

I am in the process of getting rid of the Mac OS on all my computers, and installing Manjaro. Including on our Media Server.

The Main question on this post is regarding the installation and running of MiniDLNA on our Thecus 5 bay NAS (which was once upon a time, a Windows 10 based NAS).

I installed miniDLNA using the terminal command: sudo snap install minidlna-jdstrand which was successful.

Can you advise on how to set it to boot upon start up and how to enter the configuration section to point the application to the Hard Drives, etc please.

Thank you in advance,
Michael

[kearney]

Manjero > Manjaro

[EuroNiceguy]

My Mistake. I apologise

[megavolt]

Hello @EuroNiceguy and welcome

@EuroNiceguy

I installed miniDLNA using the terminal command: sudo snap install minidlna-jdstrand which was successful.

No idea about the snap package, but the native package have a service file:

$ pamac list --files minidlna | grep systemd 
/usr/lib/systemd/system/minidlna.service

Therefore:

sudo systemctl enable --now minidlna.service
sudo systemctl status minidlna.service

Now the service starts and will also start on boot.

@EuroNiceguy

how to enter the configuration section to point the application to the Hard Drives, etc please.

Just type:

sudo nano /etc/minidlna.conf

and enter your configuration.

[kearney]

It is fine. I always make such wrong about speeling. I use pamac and fine the pkg named minidlna. Is that the same as the minidlna-jdstrand?

[EuroNiceguy]

Thank you everyone so far.
Would it be an idea to delete the MiniDLNA I have installed already, and if so, How do I do that please?

[megavolt]

@EuroNiceguy

How do I do that please?

sudo snap remove minidlna-jdstrand 

pamac install minidlna

[EuroNiceguy]

Many thanks.

I just successfully done all that. Thanks again.

I have a couple more questions in regards to configuring MiniDLNA. Can I ask here, or is there a specialty forum I need to ask at?

[megavolt]

@EuroNiceguy I changed topic and the section. You can continue here, without opening a new topic.

If you disagree, then change it anytime. You are in control

[EuroNiceguy]

I am happy with that, Many thanks. and it will create benefits by helping other people set up a media server with ease.

The Thecus NAS has an SSD which is the boot disk that has the Manjaro OS and MiniDLNA, as well as 2 Hard Drives that has Music files & Videos respectively.

How do I configure MiniDLNA to work with the Hard Drives?

[megavolt]

@EuroNiceguy

How do I configure MiniDLNA to work with the Hard Drives?

First I would recommend to add the HDD to /etc/fstab for mounting on boot.

[root tip] Mount partition using fstab

Make a permanent mountpoint. Linux Foundation Refererence The FHS document has a limited scope: Local placement of local files is a local issue, so FHS does not attempt to usurp system administrators. FHS addresses issues where file placements need to be coordinated between multiple parties such as local sites, distributions, applications, documentation, etc. So for the sake of this article there is no standard as we are talking about Local placement of local files is a local issue and …

Then please read the man page:

man minidlna.conf

There you see:

       media_dir
              Path to the directory containing the media files minidlna should share.
              Use this option multile times if you have more than one directory to share.

              Example:
               media_dir=/opt/multimedia/videos
               media_dir=/opt/multimedia/movies

       You can also restrict an entry to a specific media type, you do this by using the following syntax:
          the letter 'A', 'V' or 'P', followed by a comma (',') followed by the path.
          The meaning of the first letter is as follows:
                             'A' for audio files
                             'V' for video files
                             'P' for image files

           For example, if you want to include only video files located
           in /opt/multimedia/videos directory, and only music
           in /opt/multimedia/music, then you would use
                              media_dir=V,/opt/multimedia/videos
                              media_dir=A,/opt/multimedia/music

           Another example would be
                              media_dir=V,/opt/multimedia/videos
                              media_dir=V,/opt/multimedia/movies
                              media_dir=A,/opt/multimedia/music

           Or, if you did not care what type it finds, then you could use
                              media_dir=/opt/multimedia/videos
                              media_dir=/opt/multimedia/movies
                              media_dir=/opt/multimedia/music

           You can mix it up, find anything in music, but only Videos, in videos and movies
                              media_dir=V,/opt/multimedia/videos
                              media_dir=V,/opt/multimedia/movies
                              media_dir=/opt/multimedia/music

That should explain it and edit the file /etc/minidlna.conf

After restarting the service, it should be applied:

sudo systemctl restart minidlna.service

[EuroNiceguy]

Thank you for that.

The names of the disks are labeled sdb1 and sdc1, which is above sdb and sdc respectively. These disks have no partitions.

Do I use these names? And how would I integrate as per your recommendations?

[megavolt]

@EuroNiceguy

The names of the disks are labeled sdb1 and sdc1, which is above sdb and sdc respectively. These disks have no partitions.

That is not a label.

• sdb means → Serial Disk B
• sdb1 means → Serial Disk B Partition 1

So clearly: /dev/sdb is the whole disk. /dev/sdb1 is the first Partition of the second Disk.

The disk must be mounted into a folder.

Example:

mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt

Please read the link for more explanations:

[root tip] Mount partition using fstab

Make a permanent mountpoint. Linux Foundation Refererence The FHS document has a limited scope: Local placement of local files is a local issue, so FHS does not attempt to usurp system administrators. FHS addresses issues where file placements need to be coordinated between multiple parties such as local sites, distributions, applications, documentation, etc. So for the sake of this article there is no standard as we are talking about Local placement of local files is a local issue and …

[EuroNiceguy]

Thank you for your support so far.

From what I can see, it seems like the disks are mounted already. I am sorry for hassling you on this topic.

Lastly, How do I set for MiniDLNA to recognise the 2 target drives sdb1 and sdc1 please?

[megavolt]

@EuroNiceguy

From what I can see, it seems like the disks are mounted already.

I hope not on /run/media. Please open a terminal and enter:

lsblk --fs

and post the output here.

@EuroNiceguy

Lastly, How do I set for MiniDLNA to recognise the 2 target drives sdb1 and sdc1 please?

How would you add it based on what I wrote already about it? Sorry, but I will not repeat myself. If it is a problem of understanding, then please be more precise.

Best way of installing and configuring MiniDLNA on Manjaro?

First I would recommend to add the HDD to /etc/fstab for mounting on boot. Then please read the man page: man minidlna.conf There you see: media_dir Path to the directory containing the media files minidlna should share. Use this option multile times if you have more than one directory to share. Example: media_dir=/opt/multimedia/videos media_dir=/opt/multimedia/movies You can also restrict an entry to…

[EuroNiceguy]

as requested upon lsblk --fs, please find below;

NAME   FSTYPE   FSVER LABEL      UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
loop0  squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/core18/2344
loop1  squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/core/12834
loop2  squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/bare/5
loop3  squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/core20/1405
loop4  squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/gnome-3-28-1804/161
loop5  squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/gnome-3-34-1804/77
loop6  squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/gtk-common-themes/1519
loop7  squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/snap-store/558
loop8  squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/snapd/15177
loop9  squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/gnome-3-38-2004/99
sda                                                                                  
└─sda1 ext4     1.0              558d7226-b7d4-42f2-9b83-7e752b922534   44.3G    19% /
sdb                                                                                  
└─sdb1 ext4     1.0   Video Disk a3d664d4-ad44-43f9-b877-707922d133a6    8.5T     1% /mnt
                                                                                     /run/media/homeserver/Video Disk
sdc                                                                                  
└─sdc1 ntfs           Music Disk 4DEC917D761960ED                        9.1T     0% /run/media/homeserver/Music Disk

[megavolt]

When pasting terminal output, add three backticks ` OR 3 tilde ~ above and below the text:

text

I did it this time for you. Please do it like this in the future.

Thank you

[EuroNiceguy]

I apologise. I am rushing to learn Linux as I want to become an Ex-Mac sooner rather than later

[megavolt]

Ok let’s do it step by step:

Mounting

1. Create the folders:

sudo mkdir -pv /HomeServer/{Video,Music}

2. Now unmount it:

sudo umount -v /mnt
sudo umount -v /run/media/homeserver/Video\ Disk
sudo umount -v /run/media/homeserver/Music\ Disk

3. Make it permanent. Edit the /etc/fstab file

sudo nano /etc/fstab

4. Add there

# Video on /dev/sdb1
UUID=a3d664d4-ad44-43f9-b877-707922d133a6   /HomeServer/Video   ext4   defaults   0   2
# Music on /dev/sdc1
UUID=4DEC917D761960ED                       /HomeServer/Music   ntfs-3g   defaults,noatime,windows_names,hide_hid_files,hide_dot_files,big_writes,uid=1000,gid=1000   0   0

and save it with CTRL + S and close it with CTRL + X

5. Now mount the folders:

sudo mount -v /HomeServer/Video
sudo mount -v /HomeServer/Music

6. Check if the data is there:

ls -la /HomeServer/Video
ls -la /HomeServer/Music

MiniDLNA

1. Edit the textfile:

sudo nano /etc/minidlna.conf

2. Add there:

media_dir=V,/HomeServer/Video
media_dir=A,/HomeServer/Music

and save it with CTRL + S and close it with CTRL + X

3. Restart the service:

sudo systemctl restart minidlna.service

Ok I hope that makes it clearer for a beginner.

[EuroNiceguy]

Many thanks.
Is there a way of making a donation or paying you direct for your time?