Ubuntu
totem package

How can Totem see my FreeNAS UPnP server

Asked by Mike Smith - dominoconsultant

I have been using Ubuntu for a couple of years now so I'm not a complete Ubuntu n00b (always learning though).

I've just recently set up a FreeNAS server to aggregate all my movies, TV shows, music, & pictures. The main reason is the imminent arrival of a Popcorn-Hour A110 that will allow us to play our media on our TV.

The FreeNAS seems to be working great as I can see everything from my wife's "media-smart" HP tablet. What I'm really after is a straight-forward way for me to open a media client for video and music (they can be separate) from any of my growing inventory of Ubuntu machines.

I hoped Totem would have a facility to browse a UPnP server on the local network. I have installed python-coherence but don't see any changes within Totem.

Any suggestions?

MikeSmith@ dominoconsultant.org

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Huygens (huygens-25) said : 		#1

Hello Mike,
I think the "media-smart" computer and your FreeNAS are using a discovery service sometimes called Zeroconf, other times Bonjour or Avahi. As far as I know, Totem was (perhaps now is still 'is') not capable of using Avahi. Note that Avahi is the default implementation in Ubuntu of this service discovery mechanism. For a short introduction to Avahi, see this little article I wrote: http://www.berthon.eu/ice_and_fire/?p=110

What I would advise you is to try first Rhythmbox and see if you can see your shared media.
Then if it is working, you should try to Google around if there is a plugin for Totem that supports Avahi. For your information, I did not find a candidate in the available packages for Ubuntu (in Synaptic)

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Huygens (huygens-25) said : 		#2

Sorry, I think my previous answer is not completely relevant... I did not know FreeNAS. It seems that it is using UPnP to share directory on the network, directory where you would have your video. Is this correct?
And then, on the 'media-smart' you can see this and play its content, but not on Ubuntu. Is this correct?

However, as I can see in the documentation it is still using Zeroconf (they use another word for it: mDNS or multicast DNS) to advertise on the network the available services. Perhaps on Linux you need to make sure that mDNS is activated (see my article in my previous post here), see in the System -> Administration -> Services.
Then, try Rhythmbox to see if it could find at least the music on the FreeNAS by using the combination of Zerocong + UPnP. Make sure that the following plugins in Rhythmbox are activated: DAAP ; DLNA/UPnP.

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask Mike Smith - dominoconsultant for more information if necessary.

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