Problem installing Slimserver on Terastation

[mwilner]

anyone familiar with the process who can help? I've changed the firmware to provide root access, installed Perl 5.8.5, and installed the SlimServer, but no dice. It seems to require MySql and other supporting software, but I can't make it work. Incredible detail can be provided to any Good Samaritan out there who is interested.
Thanks!

[aubuti]

Slimserver 6.5 uses MySQL, and even though it runs its own instance, it needs certain MySQL libraries to be in place already to run. You need mysql-server, mysql-client, mysql-common, and libmysqlclient. And it all has to be at least version 4.1, with version 5.0 recommended. I don't know if there is a debian-based firmware hack for the Terastation (like FreeLink for the LinkStation), but that seemed to be the easiest way to get MySQL on my LinkStation.

I was about to point you to the linkstationwiki.net site and forum, and even point out a thread where someone seemed to be making progress, but that seems to be you!

Have you tried running earlier versions of slimserver? It is only the most recent (6.5.0) that requires MySQL. If you haven't done so, it might be best to install 6.3.x, get it working, and then see if you can get MySQL on it and upgrade to 6.5. Earlier versions of slimserver are available at http://www.slimdevices.com/downloads/

Good luck.

[mwilner]

This must be it! I could not understand why I could install slimserver on my linkstation a year ago, but now i need all this additional stuff to install it on the terastation.

One question - do I have to uninstall the 6.5 version before i can install an earlier one? If so, how do I do it?

Bless you - this has been making me nuts!

[aubuti]

You don't really need to uninstall 6.5 since you didn't get it running, but you might as well. I mean, just because you have 1TB of storage doesn't give you the right to be sloppy, right? ;o) I would go in and delete the slimserver directory and sub-directories. That is, login as root, change to one level above the slimserver directory (/usr/local in my case) and type "rm -r slimserver/".

That part is optional-but-recommended, but this next part is required. If 6.5 created a database "cache" file then you need to delete it. In your case it doesn't sound like 6.5 got that far, but check just in case. In my setup I run slimserver as the fictitious user "slimserver" and all of the database files are kept in /home/slimserver. To start fresh, I would just (at a minimum) clean out anything that had mysql anywhere in the name or db in the extension.

6.5 does have some nice improvements, especially for running on underpowered platforms like TeraStatation or LinkStation. So after you've got 6.3 running, you might want to keep working to install MySQL and eventually 6.5. Or you could just sit back and listen to the music!

[stevos]

Out of insterest where do you install the mysql-xxx files once you find them?

[aubuti]

If you install it via a package manager (like apt-get or RPM), then you don't have to worry about it. The package manager knows where to put it. If you do a manual install, the package will have a readme file with instructions. Note that it's not at all like installing a slimserver plugin, where you simply copy a set of files to the Plugins directory. You need to build/compile these packages for your specific environment (CPU, libraries, etc.).

FWIW, in my case (LS HG with PowerPC processor and debian OS) apt-get put the binary executable for the mysql client in /usr/bin/mysql, and the server in /usr/sbin/mysqld. Those seem reasonable enough places to me.

[mwilner]

for the terastation, do i need SlimServer_v6.3.0.no-cpan-arch.tar.gz or SlimServer_v6.3.0.tar.gz?

[aubuti]

I can only tell you what I've done: I've never used the no-cpan-arch, and always used the SlimServer_vX.x.x.tar.gz files. Note that after you unzip everything where you want it (often /usr/local, but it could be something else), you'll need to run the Perl script Bin/build-perl-modules.pl. This will compile the binary perl modules that you need.