Angelos Italianknows Blog

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Running Twonky Server on the Looqs Meebox


Given that the Meebox wont stream to my XBox 360 I did some digging around and have been able to get TwonkyServer working.. It turns out that the nice chaps at Twonky distribute NAS versions of their TwonkyServer, all you need to do is work out what hardware you have..
Firstly, to find out the processor. Easiest way is to do a uname –a
meebox> uname -a
Linux meebox 2.6.15 #224 Tue Nov 3 21:07:04 KST 2009 armv4l unknown
meebox>


The arm41 kinda gives it away….Also the marketing fluff says its an Arm9 32bit, not sure why thee looqs thinks its an Arm41…

Next step, Little-Endian or Big-Endian, most ARM systems are Little Endian, and Sparcs are big endian…

meebox> echo -n I | od -to2 | head -n1 | cut -f2 -d" " | cut -c6
1
meebox>

This script returns 1 for little endian and 0 for big endian
Finally which version of libc

meebox> ldd --version
ldd (GNU libc) 2.3.5
$Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
$Written by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
meebox>

So there we have it, little-endian, libc2.3.5 and ARM Processor.
Going to the twonky website you need to download this file http://www.twonkyforum.com/downloads/7.0.5-Special/twonky-armel-glibc-2.2.5-special-7.0.5.zip




Installation steps


Download twonky for ARM-Little endian http://www.twonkyforum.com/downloads/...

Unzip it on your PC

1. On the NAS telnet in and create 3 directories on the harddisk. One is to store the twonkyServer executables, one to store the app Data and one to store them all

e.g. for me

meebox> mkdir /mnt/ide3/twonky
meebox> mkdir /mnt/ide3/twonky/twonkyServer
meebox> mkdir /mnt/ide3/twonky/twonkyAppData

2.Copy all the files on the PC to the twonkyServer directory

3. You now need to change the permissions of the twonkyserver executables
meebox> cd /mnt/ide3/twonky/twonkyServer
meebox> chmod 700 twonkys* twonkyproxy twonkywebdav cgi-bin/* plugins/*


4. You can now run the twonkyServer using the FULL PATH and also by adding the –appdata flag tells twonkyServer to store its app data in the directory given (twonkyAppData) and not its default directory of $HOME/.twonky


meebox> /mnt/ide3/twonky/twonkyServer/twonkystarter 
-appdata /mnt/ide3/twonky/twonkyAppData


5.Finally to access the web interface use http://NAS_ADDRESS:9000/webconfig

Unfortunately everytime the NAS is rebooted step 4 needs to be re-executed. I need to work out how to edit the startup scripts to get this running on boot.. I think i simply need to edit the startup scripts but Ive heard many NAS’s wipe their root (/) filesystem on boot…

A todo…

Oh also worth knowing that TwonkyServer is not free, costs €14.95 (link), but when you consider that it works with most devices and many TVs actually quote TwonkyServer as a recommended DNLA server.
[edit] Whooo looks like twonky are offering a 50% discount!

Enjoy!

12 comments:

  1. "Unfortunately everytime the NAS is rebooted step 6 needs to be re-executed."

    Erm... Unless I'm mistaken, there are only 5 steps?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Angelo,

    Thanks v much for the information. Saved me alot of time and £7 for Twonky Server is a steal at the moment :) Forgive my ignorance of linux/busybox, but could one create a startup script to run step 4 on startup of the Box ? If so, anyone know how to do it ?

    ReplyDelete
  3. The following easy command would add it so Twonky reboots at startup...

    echo "/mnt/ide3/twonky/twonkyServer/twonkystarter
    -appdata /mnt/ide3/twonky/twonkyAppData" >> /system/hddapp/etc/rc

    or you could add:-

    /mnt/ide3/twonky/twonkyServer/twonkystarter
    -appdata /mnt/ide3/twonky/twonkyAppData

    to the bottom of "/system/hddapp/etc/rc" with a text editor

    ReplyDelete
  4. does anybody know why im getting this error please...
    [Startup] - LOG SYSTEM: upnp_ini_file_init_DATA Dir : Appdata folder/TwonkyServer - cannot be accessed or not writable


    Ive chmod several times now

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ Sweep9 and to anyone

    for teh Auto-Start

    I try to make your suggestion but I get following error

    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    GigaNas> echo "/mnt/ide3/public/twonky/twonkyServer/twonkystarter
    -appdata /mnt/ide3/public/twonky/twonkyAppData" >> /system/hddapp/etc/rc

    -sh: can not create /system/hddapp/etc/rc: Permission denied

    well I already loged in as Admin

    please help


    P.S: I have another model of NAS which Also runs with the same twonky file, Twonky runs perfectly.. but I really need Autostart

    ReplyDelete
  7. I just connected with FileZilla via sFTP, downloaded the rc file, edited with Notepad++ and uploaded again. Seems to be working fine. Though I have two versions of Twonky running due to messing around before I found this page :D

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. For all those having start-up issues make sure you manually type section 4...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Can anyone tell me if and where there is a firmware file to download? I want to have a backup when I gone to mesh up and try to update it to modern times. I will publish a working version.
    Thx in advance

    ReplyDelete