Raspberry Pi or something else for xmbc & NAS

[koushik]

I just made a dedicated music player using BBB and MPD on Debian Linux. It is working well although I am far from being settled down. Presently my PC is serving as storage over network just by sharing the music directory.

However it is not really practical solution as the whole project of BBB were undertaken to get away from keeping PC on during music listening sessions.

Now I am thinking of building a NAS(really a shared directory over n/w) and HTPX using xmbc around Raspberry pi using separate SD card to boot from.

Looking for feasibility and guidance from experts.

Thanks.

 

[sam9s]

You want to build one machine for XBMC and NAS or you wanna keep things separate. Also NAS will just act as your storage??

 

[koushik]

I want to them keep separate in terms of booting. Hardware would be same if possible.

NAS will be storage from where BBB should read the music files.

 

[ranjeetrain]

Koushik,

After many trials I have found that it is best to keep the music PC "light". So, if you have built your music PC around BBB, you're fine on that.

However, I won't say use a NAS. I have found a storage device connected directly on the USB bus is the second best solution. Reading off a NAS comes lower into my priority list.

I'd suggest invest in a USB bus powered external portable drive and store your music on it. 1 TB will cost you around 4k and is enough to store 1000s of tracks in lossless format at redbook resolution. This will solve your problem and is as good as it can get in your setup.

 

[koushik]

Ranjeet,

The thing is BBB has only one USB port and I found many website discussing that "it is the worse way to connect but it should work" - that connecting both DAC and storage to same USB port using hub.

I have seen something like this Storage but I need someone to confirm me that this works, before I can take the plunge.

 

[sam9s]

Koushik, you have to decide you want to take, USB route or Network route to connect the storage device. USB route might be confined to certain hardware, but Network route will be open for all (more compatible). For USB route you can also look in to something like Synology USB station ... this is just an example there are other USB stations as well much cheaper.

If you take LAN route, you can go for a DIY NAS using old hardware lying around and installing any NAS OS like FreeNAS, UNRAID......... OR a Non DIY route can be to go for a One Disk NAS like Synology DS112j

WD My Book will also suffice your requirement I am sure ....

 

[koushik]

I have decided on LAN route and I think WD My Book Live will be a good way to start for now. My gut feeling also says that this will work as per my requirement. According to CNet review it is quite fast and that should be enough for application of Music-Only server.

So dropping the idea of Rasbpi NAS and going for the WD My Book Live.

 

[gobble]

Smart choice - as long as it can serve samba shares or act as an NFS server. I retired my older music PC as a nas box serving the music folder as an NFS share. Now I use the cubox i4pro as e headless audio PC running mpd. The nas box is wired while the i4 acts as a wireless NFS client.

No point getting another device and HDD separately.
So does it serve samba shares? NFS?

G0bble

 

[koushik]

So does it serve samba shares? NFS?

No idea Gobble, sam9s may comment on that ...

 

[ranjeetrain]

WD My Book and WD My Book Live are two entirely different products. WD My Book is the type I had suggested. It's an external HDD. It works on every OS that is capable of mounting an external storage device on the USB bus, including Debian

OTOH, WD My Book Live is an external HDD with a built-in networking feature. It's a simple NAS for non-technical people. This allows for keeping the PC off while playing music, but needs to be on when PC wants to use it for storage.

WD My Book Live supports Samba shares.

 

[hydra]

Smart choice - as long as it can serve samba shares or act as an NFS server. I retired my older music PC as a nas box serving the music folder as an NFS share. Now I use the cubox i4pro as e headless audio PC running mpd. The nas box is wired while the i4 acts as a wireless NFS client.

...

Slightly OT, sorry koushik

@gobble, can somebody completely uneducated in Linux set up a cubox for music easily enough?

 

[manniraj]

Slightly OT, sorry koushik

@gobble, can somebody completely uneducated in Linux set up a cubox for music easily enough?

Hydra, even I am noob in Linux but yes setting up a distro on either cubox or Pi is tough. It took me lot of effort to setup MPD on my Pogoplug device. Hence I went with the Pi along with Openelec which is simple and also gives you an option to directly playback the music over your external DAC (I use a ODAC) and also you can make it headless if you want by using the XBMC app on your android/iOS. Its really simple and easy with just copying the image of Openelec on a SD card and boot it on Pi and initial setup, thats it.

 

[koushik]

WD My Book Live supports Samba shares.

There you go Gobble. Ranjeet confirms that it supports Samba.

 

[gobble]

Slightly OT, sorry koushik

@gobble, can somebody completely uneducated in Linux set up a cubox for music easily enough?

You can download a binary image file of voyage mpd for cubox called mubox and burn with a single command or I can upload my archlinux image to drop box for you to burn into sdcard with a single command - With additional instructions to change your mpd.conf and IP address of course.


G0bble

 

[manniraj]

You can download a binary image file of voyage mpd for cubox called mubox and burn with a single command or I can upload my archlinux image to drop box for you to burn into sdcard with a single command - With additional instructions to change your mpd.conf and IP address of course.


G0bble

Please do that, even I would like to try it on my Pogoplug for MPD and I hope it should work with this device as well.

 

[gobble]

Please do that, even I would like to try it on my Pogoplug for MPD and I hope it should work with this device as well.

I just took a log at this pogoplug thingie. While it is ARM architecture, the hardware is slightly different SOC. My archlinux image wont work on this.
Moreover I boot using uboot. But for PogoPlug -

Booting into Arch Linux ARM is only supported from storage devices using either the SATA or USB 2.0 port on the top of the device. There is no U-Boot support for either SD or USB 3.0 booting.

Try this guide instead of pogoplug: ArchLinux for PogoPlug

If you are buying cubox i4pro let me know. I can share my install image.
My cubox image will be only for audio. I never tested video playback. For XBMC there is always openelec and a few other ready to install players.



G0bble

 

[sam9s]

No idea Gobble, sam9s may comment on that ...

It does support NFS share but a quick read tells me that it only has default public mount, so if that is not much of a concern, you are good.

 

[gobble]

It does support NFS share but a quick read tells me that it only has default public mount, so if that is not much of a concern, you are good.

The default public mount is OK to put the music files in. Its where you mount on the client for mpd to read that matters. In any case I was enquiring for the OP not for myself.I'm good with my nas box.
G0bble