2013-11-27, 18:45
Hi All,
Now that I have two XBMC machines (a Mac Mini running 10.6.8 and now a Raspberry Pi running Raspbmc) I'm trying to get file sharing working reliably between them so that they can both play each others movie libraries over the network.
In the direction from Mac Mini to Pi it works perfectly - the Movies folder of the Mac is shared over SMB using built in windows file sharing in Snow Leopard, the Pi connects to the share on the Mac Mini using the SMB browser built into XBMC - eg smb://MAC-MINI/Movies etc. It connects 100% reliably, movies stream without problems and most importantly, if the Mac Mini is turned off it doesn't interfere with the normal use of the Pi in any way other than not being able to access those files hosted on the Mini - no annoying popup errors etc, and next time the Mac Mini is turned on those files are accessible again without doing anything special. No complaints.
In the other direction things are not so rosy.
The Raspberry Pi is running an SMB server sharing its local Movie folder, I can connect to this share absolutely perfectly from a Windows 7 laptop, and also browse to it through the network browser in windows as well as connecting directly by name - eg name resolution is working properly.
Not so on the Mac Mini. If I try to use the built in SMB browser in XBMC on the Mac it occasionally will find the network name of the Pi, but usually not. Even if I enable a share on the Windows 7 machine it will occasionally see that but more often that not it will not even see that, so I believe the problem is at the Mac end not the Pi end.
If I try to manually enter the name of the PC and share with the correct syntax - smb://PCNAME/Share etc, this too fails to connect, to either Pi or Windows 7 PC.
Neither Raspberry Pi nor the Windows laptop with an active share show up automatically in the Finder sidebar as they should, either.
The only workaround I have found is this:
1) Manually connect to the Pi share through the Go To->Server menu option in the finder, using the correct syntax as above, this will connect to the Pi's SMB share 100% reliably.
2) Drag the mounted drive on the desktop to the Login Items so that it will be "launched" automatically on login, thus triggering the share to be mounted.
3) Add a Video source which points to the mount point of the mounted network share. ( /Volumes/Pi )
This allows me to access the PI share on the Mac through XBMC and play content across the network however there are many drawbacks to this approach:
1) Even if you set it not to open a window at login in the login items, a window for the share will open when the Mac boots just before XBMC launches. XBMC will launch over the top of it and hide it but if you alt-tab to other apps later you have an extra window cluttering things up.
2) If the Pi is off when the Mac boots it will display a connection error window which WILL obscure XBMC and require a mouse to dismiss.
3) If the Pi is off when the Mac boots and the Pi is later turned on there is no way from XBMC to force it to attempt to remount the remote share, so you have to fiddle around in the finder with a mouse to restore the network connection - not good for a media centre primarily controlled with an IR remote.
4) Like 2, if the Pi is turned off or rebooted while the Mac is running the same connection error window will appear over top of XBMC and require a mouse to dismiss.
5) There is no easy way that I'm aware of to control the mount point the Mac uses for the remote network volume. Because the remote share name is Pi it mounts it at /Volumes/Pi - if you have two Raspberry Pi's with the same share name that you want to mount at the same time, tough luck. I'm guessing it may rename one mount point slightly but then there will be no consistent mapping between mount points and remote Raspberry Pi's which could confuse XBMC.
I'm aware that there were some problems with the built in SMB client in XBMC with OS X Lion and later, but I was under the impression it should work ok in Snow Leopard ?
My ideal solution would be to find out why the built in SMB client in XBMC is not able to either browse computer names, nor connect to them even if entered manually, and get that working, thus avoiding the ugly workarounds in the finder described above.
Anyone have any suggestions ? The SMB client in XBMC seems to work fine in both Windows and Linux (Raspbmc)
Now that I have two XBMC machines (a Mac Mini running 10.6.8 and now a Raspberry Pi running Raspbmc) I'm trying to get file sharing working reliably between them so that they can both play each others movie libraries over the network.
In the direction from Mac Mini to Pi it works perfectly - the Movies folder of the Mac is shared over SMB using built in windows file sharing in Snow Leopard, the Pi connects to the share on the Mac Mini using the SMB browser built into XBMC - eg smb://MAC-MINI/Movies etc. It connects 100% reliably, movies stream without problems and most importantly, if the Mac Mini is turned off it doesn't interfere with the normal use of the Pi in any way other than not being able to access those files hosted on the Mini - no annoying popup errors etc, and next time the Mac Mini is turned on those files are accessible again without doing anything special. No complaints.
In the other direction things are not so rosy.
The Raspberry Pi is running an SMB server sharing its local Movie folder, I can connect to this share absolutely perfectly from a Windows 7 laptop, and also browse to it through the network browser in windows as well as connecting directly by name - eg name resolution is working properly.
Not so on the Mac Mini. If I try to use the built in SMB browser in XBMC on the Mac it occasionally will find the network name of the Pi, but usually not. Even if I enable a share on the Windows 7 machine it will occasionally see that but more often that not it will not even see that, so I believe the problem is at the Mac end not the Pi end.
If I try to manually enter the name of the PC and share with the correct syntax - smb://PCNAME/Share etc, this too fails to connect, to either Pi or Windows 7 PC.
Neither Raspberry Pi nor the Windows laptop with an active share show up automatically in the Finder sidebar as they should, either.
The only workaround I have found is this:
1) Manually connect to the Pi share through the Go To->Server menu option in the finder, using the correct syntax as above, this will connect to the Pi's SMB share 100% reliably.
2) Drag the mounted drive on the desktop to the Login Items so that it will be "launched" automatically on login, thus triggering the share to be mounted.
3) Add a Video source which points to the mount point of the mounted network share. ( /Volumes/Pi )
This allows me to access the PI share on the Mac through XBMC and play content across the network however there are many drawbacks to this approach:
1) Even if you set it not to open a window at login in the login items, a window for the share will open when the Mac boots just before XBMC launches. XBMC will launch over the top of it and hide it but if you alt-tab to other apps later you have an extra window cluttering things up.
2) If the Pi is off when the Mac boots it will display a connection error window which WILL obscure XBMC and require a mouse to dismiss.
3) If the Pi is off when the Mac boots and the Pi is later turned on there is no way from XBMC to force it to attempt to remount the remote share, so you have to fiddle around in the finder with a mouse to restore the network connection - not good for a media centre primarily controlled with an IR remote.
4) Like 2, if the Pi is turned off or rebooted while the Mac is running the same connection error window will appear over top of XBMC and require a mouse to dismiss.
5) There is no easy way that I'm aware of to control the mount point the Mac uses for the remote network volume. Because the remote share name is Pi it mounts it at /Volumes/Pi - if you have two Raspberry Pi's with the same share name that you want to mount at the same time, tough luck. I'm guessing it may rename one mount point slightly but then there will be no consistent mapping between mount points and remote Raspberry Pi's which could confuse XBMC.
I'm aware that there were some problems with the built in SMB client in XBMC with OS X Lion and later, but I was under the impression it should work ok in Snow Leopard ?
My ideal solution would be to find out why the built in SMB client in XBMC is not able to either browse computer names, nor connect to them even if entered manually, and get that working, thus avoiding the ugly workarounds in the finder described above.
Anyone have any suggestions ? The SMB client in XBMC seems to work fine in both Windows and Linux (Raspbmc)