2011-06-26, 04:48
Hey all,
I have a Mac Mini running Mac OS X, with XBMC running on top of that.
I have a few issues (2) that I can't seem to work out, and would really appreciate some suggestions.
Probably the most straight forward to attend to is mounting volumes, and this may well be my lack of Mac know-how shining through.
1. I have all my media stored on a server, along with an SQL database that all my XBMC devices share, and a central Thumbnails folder also on this server.
Everything is setup fine on the server.
On my Mac Mini, I have told the Mac to mount the network location of the thumbnails folder to a volume. I have then setup a shortcut within the userdata folder of XBMC that links to this mounted volume.
Here is where I have trouble occasionally. The Mac mounts the volume first at login, followed by launching XBMC. This works fine. However, sometimes for whatever reason, the remote network share is not mounted, so when XBMC launches, the Thumbnails shortcut goes nowhere so a folder Titled Thumbnails is created at the usual location of the mounted volume. So now there are no thumbnails.
Upon restarting the Mac Mini, the folder titled Thumbnails still exists in the Mounted Volumes directory, so when the volume is successfully mounted it is now labelled "Thumbnails-1". So now I have to go in manually and delete this folder so that after next boot the Mounted Volume has the correct name.
Has anyone got a better way of achieving central thumbnail sharing? The whole needing to mount a volume thing is so strange to me. I just used symbolic links in Windows which just works if the share is available, or doesn't if its not.
2. I have a Harmony One universal remote, and have set the Mac Mini to the device "Plex Player" (perhaps Plex Media Server, can't recall at present).
This works on a very basic level and I can navigate XBMC fine, however a huge majority of the buttons double up on functionality. From what I have read this shouldn't be happening, but I have also read that the Plex option has been made useless by Logitech.
What else can I do to configure my Harmony remote for use with a Mac Mini running XBMC? I have a spare Dell branded USB MCE IR receiver that I can connect to the Mac Mini, I just don't know how to utilise it under Mac OS. That would be my preferred option if it's do-able, as that receiver would be far less restricted than the inbuilt Mac one.
Also, is it possible to use either the inbuilt IR module, or the external USB one, to cold boot the Mac Mini using the Harmony remote? I don't like my chances, but you never know unless you ask! If not, what other options are there?
Thanks for taking the time to read my problems. Any feedback/suggestions are much appreciated.
Oh and I did try and do my research before posting these questions. Just couldn't find anything that was useful enough for me that I could apply to my problems.
I have a Mac Mini running Mac OS X, with XBMC running on top of that.
I have a few issues (2) that I can't seem to work out, and would really appreciate some suggestions.
Probably the most straight forward to attend to is mounting volumes, and this may well be my lack of Mac know-how shining through.
1. I have all my media stored on a server, along with an SQL database that all my XBMC devices share, and a central Thumbnails folder also on this server.
Everything is setup fine on the server.
On my Mac Mini, I have told the Mac to mount the network location of the thumbnails folder to a volume. I have then setup a shortcut within the userdata folder of XBMC that links to this mounted volume.
Here is where I have trouble occasionally. The Mac mounts the volume first at login, followed by launching XBMC. This works fine. However, sometimes for whatever reason, the remote network share is not mounted, so when XBMC launches, the Thumbnails shortcut goes nowhere so a folder Titled Thumbnails is created at the usual location of the mounted volume. So now there are no thumbnails.
Upon restarting the Mac Mini, the folder titled Thumbnails still exists in the Mounted Volumes directory, so when the volume is successfully mounted it is now labelled "Thumbnails-1". So now I have to go in manually and delete this folder so that after next boot the Mounted Volume has the correct name.
Has anyone got a better way of achieving central thumbnail sharing? The whole needing to mount a volume thing is so strange to me. I just used symbolic links in Windows which just works if the share is available, or doesn't if its not.
2. I have a Harmony One universal remote, and have set the Mac Mini to the device "Plex Player" (perhaps Plex Media Server, can't recall at present).
This works on a very basic level and I can navigate XBMC fine, however a huge majority of the buttons double up on functionality. From what I have read this shouldn't be happening, but I have also read that the Plex option has been made useless by Logitech.
What else can I do to configure my Harmony remote for use with a Mac Mini running XBMC? I have a spare Dell branded USB MCE IR receiver that I can connect to the Mac Mini, I just don't know how to utilise it under Mac OS. That would be my preferred option if it's do-able, as that receiver would be far less restricted than the inbuilt Mac one.
Also, is it possible to use either the inbuilt IR module, or the external USB one, to cold boot the Mac Mini using the Harmony remote? I don't like my chances, but you never know unless you ask! If not, what other options are there?
Thanks for taking the time to read my problems. Any feedback/suggestions are much appreciated.
Oh and I did try and do my research before posting these questions. Just couldn't find anything that was useful enough for me that I could apply to my problems.
