# Testing minidlna



## balanga (Mar 18, 2019)

I've installed net/minidlna and am looking for a client to test it with. Any suggestions?

Tried multimedia/vlc and multimedia/kodi but neither find my server.

Is there anything available like a simple text mode dlna client?


----------



## xtremae (Mar 18, 2019)

You could use a (web)browser either on localhost or a phone/tablet/laptop, etc. I believe the service listens on port 8200 by default, but you need to check your local minidlna.conf
The webUI is used mostly for diagnosing service status and indexed files, not media playback.


----------



## A.Petrov (Mar 19, 2019)

VLC (PC version) has bad uPnP/DLNA implementation. Don't know about Kodi.
I suggest to you VLC for mobile phone (both - Android/iPhone version) or foobar2000 for PC (under wine it also works fine) with uPnP plugin.
And, of course, all modern SmartTV/mediaBOX has uPnP/DLNA support.
The only thing - all devices (server/clients) should be in the same subnet. Or you should open uPnP ports(1900)/protocols (ICMP/UDP) for transparent forwarding on the gateway/rourer (for example from wired subnet into the wireless subnet in your home infrastructure). Modern routers has the dedicated option in their firewall settings.

PS.
For further exploring DLNA capabilities, switch from minidlna to mediatomb, nowadays known as gerbera. It does not present in a ports/packages collection, but well compiles from the sources. The benefit - it can hold a lot of the data (counts in TBs)


----------



## balanga (Mar 20, 2019)

I just realised I was using an old version of VLC and newer versions are supposed to support  UPnP according to:-









						How to Access Media from UPnP or DLNA using VLC
					

VLC can easily access media from UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) as well as DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance). The option is available in the View




					www.vlchelp.com
				




but when I try I don't see a *Universal Plug'n'Play* option under *Local Network.*

Does anyone else? Perhaps it is available as a plugin or extension...

Maybe I need to use a Network URL to the Minidlna server on VLC, but I'm not sure of the format.



Think I'll give the simple cli upnp/dlna browser a try...


----------



## A.Petrov (Mar 21, 2019)

balanga said:


> when I try I don't see a *Universal Plug'n'Play* option under *Local Network*


Compile VLC from ports collection. In packages distribution uPnP capability is switched off (it unusable on large uPnP collections).


----------



## balanga (Apr 3, 2019)

I've built it from ports now and  *do* see a *Universal Plug'n'Play* option under *Local Network* but it doesn't find anything.

Do I need to do anything within FreeBSD for it to access a UPnP server?


----------



## Joe (Apr 4, 2019)

I run minidlna on OpenBSD. Is your client on the same subnet as your server? Are you firewalling anything?

Post your config and maybe we can spot something. I have several dlna clients- VLC as suggested above is a good choice but I think there are probably some Android clients that could make testing quick and easy. I'll check my phone and update here if I find anything.

Update: VLC and X-Plore file manager on Android both have dlna clients. I can't remember if X-Plore uses a plugin but in my setup it's there. This might be an easier way to see if your minidlna server is serving..

Dumb question: is the minidlna server running? You can check the log(s) to see if it is. It issues startup and shutdown messages and also shows you the files it is indexing as it goes. Not sure where they go in /var/log/minidlna/minidlna.log


----------



## balanga (Apr 5, 2019)

Actually, I know the server is working. I'm looking for a FreeBSD client. I've just tried VLC and Kodi on Debian and the UPnP functions work, but they don't work on FreeBSD.

Maybe there is a simple text mode client on FreeBSD which I can use.   audio/mpg123 is supposed to accept a URL as input, but I don't know how to specify a URL for UPnP connections.


----------



## A.Petrov (Apr 5, 2019)

balanga said:


> but I don't know how to specify a URL for UPnP connections.


Switch server to Mediatomb/Gerbera. It has a WEB-interface, and from there you can catch an URL's for your media content.


----------



## balanga (Apr 5, 2019)

A.Petrov  - thanks for the suggestion. It isn't the easiest app to install and some of the instructions are incorrect, for instance:-`pkg install wget git autoconf automake libtool taglib cmake gcc libav ffmpeg \
libexif pkgconf liblastfm gmake`

Doesn't work because liblastfm does not exit.

I carried on anyway using `[CMD]git clone`[/CMD] adding any missing pkgs as required.

The instructions say:-


> If you decide against running as a system service for whatever reason, then when run by a user the first time startup of Gerbera creates a folder called ~/.config/gerbera in your home directory.


but I didn't see such a directory created automatically, so created it manually.

But in the end I didn't manage to set up a mysql database for it. I didn't know if database auto creation was not compiled in, so I tried creating the tables manually, but not sure how this is supposed to work:-

```
$ mysql [-u <username>] [-p] \
  <database name> < \
  <install prefix>/share/gerbera/mysql.sql
```
I know the path is wrong for FreeBSD, but I don't know what the instruction is supposed to do.

Any guidance would be appreciated.


----------



## A.Petrov (Apr 6, 2019)

balanga said:


> Doesn't work because liblastfm does not exit.


But `liblastfm-qt5` exist. Use it instead, if you want to use lastFM functionality


balanga said:


> but I didn't see such a directory created automatically, so created it manually.


Yes, I am see the same, automaticaly none is created. Ok, not a problem. Do all things by hands:
`mkdir  /usr/local/etc/gerbera/`
`gerbera --create-config > /usr/local/etc/gerbera/config.xml`
`echo gerbera_enable=\"YES\" >> /etc/rc.conf`
Save as gerbera startup script into location`/usr/local/etc/rc.d/gerbera` followed code:

```
#!/bin/sh

# PROVIDE: gerbera
# REQUIRE: NETWORKING
# BEFORE:  LOGIN
# KEYWORD: shutdown

. /etc/rc.subr

name=gerbera
rcvar=gerbera_enable

gerbera_config="/usr/local/etc/gerbera/config.xml"
gerbera_logfile="/var/log/gerbera.log"

start_cmd="/usr/local/bin/${name} -c ${gerbera_config} -l ${gerbera_logfile} &"
stop_cmd="killall -15 ${name}"

load_rc_config $name
: ${gerbera_enable:=no}
: ${gerbera_msg="Nothing started."}

gerbera_start()
{
    echo "$gerbera_msg"
}

run_rc_command "$1"
```
install mysql-server if you want to use it.
tune gerbera database / user / privileges:
`mysql`
`CREATE DATABASE gerbera;`
`CREATE USER 'gerbera'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'gerbera';`
`GRANT ALL ON gerbera.* TO 'gerbera'@'localhost';`
`flush privileges;`

then edit  `/usr/local/etc/gerbera/config.xml` to enable mysql connection. Don't forget to setup password:

```
<sqlite3 enabled="no">
  <database-file>gerbera.db</database-file>
</sqlite3>
<mysql enabled="yes">
  <host>localhost</host>
  <username>gerbera</username>
  <database>gerbera</database>
  <password>gerbera</password>
</mysql>
```

Now, gerbera should be workable.
`service gerbera start`

Go to and read `/var/log/gerbera.log` to see that all is ok. Or not Ok, then read what gerbera say to search the way to fix what is goes wrong.


----------

