Pretty cool eh?

First, a bit about my environment:

• Server:
  • Windows Home Server
  • Debian “Lenny” running in a VM
  • Behind a Linksys WRT54G running Tomato
  • SSH forwarded into the linux VM
• Client
  • Windows Vista Enterprise
  • Behind an ISA firewall

To accomplish this task, I used the following tools:

• smbfs – Samba filesystem kernel module
• mt-daapd – Firefly media server
• Putty - Windows SSH client
• Rendezvous Proxy – Windows utility that proxies the Apple Rendezvous protocol from an arbitrary network address

Here is what I did, step by step:

1) Setup Debian to automatically mount my Home Server’s music share on boot:

$ sudo mkdir /mnt/mp3
$ sudo vim /etc/fstab

Add a line to the end of the file like this:

//<ipaddress>/Music  /mnt/mp3  smbfs username=<username>,password=<password>  0  0

Where <ipaddress> is the IP of your media server, and <username> and <password> are a login that has access to the file share

Then, I mounted the share manually to avoid having to restart:

$ sudo mount /mnt/mp3

2) Setup mt-daapd (you can grab this from sourceforge at http://tinyurl.com/mt-daapd):

$ wget <url path to mt-daapd tarball>
$ tar -zxvf <path to tarball>
$ cd mt-daapd-x.x.x.x  # x's are in place of the version number
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

Now you need to configure mt-daapd:

$ sudo cp contrib/mt-daapd.conf /etc
$ sudo cp contrib/mt-daapd.playlist /etc
$ sudo vim /etc/mt-daapd.conf

Most of the defaults should be fine, but you’ll need to change web_root from /usr/share/… to /usr/local/share/…  You’ll also want to change the admin_pw to a more secure password.

Next, we’ll make mt-daapd load on boot automatically:

$ cd /etc/init.d
$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/sbin/mt-daapd mt-daapd
$ sudo update-rc.d mt-daapd defaults

We’re now ready to launch mt-daapd:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/mt-daapd start

Ok, barring any errors, you’ve now got sharing working locally.  The next step is to get to that share remotely.

3) Setup an SSH tunnel to your media server.

On your client machine, launch Putty and input the following settings:

• Session
  • Host Name (or IP address): the hostname or IP of your router.  In my case, I have a dynamic IP, so I use dyndns.org along with the appropriate settings in my router’s firmware.
  • Connection type: SSH
• SSH
  • Check “Don’t start a shell or command at all”
  • Check “Enable compression”
• SSH -> Tunnels
  • Source port: 3689
  • Destination: your linux box’s local IP plus port 3689 (ex. 192.168.1.100:3689)
  • Click Add

You’ll probably also want to save this configuration in the Session tab.  Optionally, you can setup SSH Key authentication so you don’t have to type your password every time you connect.

4) Setup Rendezvous Proxy:

Install Rendezvous proxy (download link above) and run the application

Click Add Host and input the following settings:

• IP Address: localhost (we direct the traffic to our SSH tunnel this way)
• Port: 3689
• Host Label: what shows up in iTunes
• Service Type: _daap._tcp. (iTunes Host)

Click Add and then launch iTunes.  You should now see your home media server in the left column.  Have fun!

(Thanks to Luc Dewavrin for his tutorial on setting this up.  It took some extra steps, but his documentation was priceless)

It goes like this: When I was shopping for all the parts in the machine, I explicitly chose a motherboard that supported hardware RAID. I installed Debian on the machine and was a bit bewildered when it showed both hard drives.  After doing some research, I found the issue:

When they say hardware RAID, they actually mean software RAID that is supported by the BIOS. In fact, it is very similar to a WinModem. That means that you are forced to use Windows if you actually want to use the RAID. Well, shit. Now, I am aware that there are experimental drivers for using SATA RAID on Linux (see dmraid), but most people agree that using the built-in Linux software RAID support (see mdadm) is preferred and better supported.

Anyway, after a long night of various fail and life-hating, I’ve now got a 500GB software RAID1 set running Debian “Lenny” Beta 2.

Off-topic: I’m seeing this odd behavior where when I cold-power-on my machine, it turns on, then suddenly dies after 2 seconds…then, without touching it, it turns on again and finishes booting. I’m using an Intel P35 chipset, and my friend Zach also is seeing the same issues on two of his C2D boxes, so perhaps it’s a chipset issue.

Then, I went out to grab some lunch and decided that I needed to take advantage of the day. I opened all my windows and the sunroof and took a drive around Issaquah before going to Qdoba for some tasty-delicious Mexican Gumbo.

When I got back home, I saw a couple of packages waiting on my doorstep. My new GPS mounting kit and aux adapter for my car had arrived. I installed the GPS mount which looks great and makes using the TomTom a lot more comfortable.

I got back on my computer and worked some more on WPListCal. Then Alex gave me a call. I headed to his place, and we installed my aux adapter. I’ve now got 2 RCA inputs to my car’s factory radio. One of them is plugged into my Sirius radio which sounds tons better now that it’s not going over FM. The other input will go to a Harmon Kardon Drive & Play so I can control my iPod.

After a celebratory trip to Hooters for some delicious wings and beer, I headed back home and finished working on WPListCal. I was up until 5am coding…what can I say? I was in a groove.

Anywho, I’m probably going to hang out with Alex and Ferdinand later today.

I’ve posted the plugin in the WordPress plugin directory for download. For more information about WPListCal, visit the plugin’s homepage.

Note: Please post questions and comments on the plugin’s homepage.

P.S. Yes, I know….Tanenbaum or go home, but this book has me in it….so ha!

Then we decided to go get dessert at Cheesecake Factory. 4 appetizers and a round of drinks later, we left without eating any dessert. We walked across the street to the movie theater and watched a rather bad horror movie about scarry shit in Mexico. I slept through most of it. I slept well that night.

Saturday, I got a chance to relax during the day: watch some TV, surf the net, etc. At night, I met up with a bunch of people for Ferdinand & Hitomi’s birthday party. We had dinner at Etta’s near Pike Place Market, and then we went over to Game Works for some gaming. I haven’t been to Game Works in a long time, and I was sad to see that the big game where you strapped in and were raised up in the air in front of a huge video screen was broken and no longer used. This was the big deal about Game Works when it first opened. What a pity. Anyway, we played for a while and then dispersed. I went home and got caught up in something or other on the computer and ended up going to sleep at 4am.

Sunday, I hung out with a friend for the daytime, and then went out with Dwayne and Michael for Michael’s birthday. All these November birthdays…clearly people like to get lucky on Valentine’s Day.

I’ve started developing a plugin for WordPress. I’ll post more about it when it’s closer to being finished.