Touch with USB drive : mastering TinySB

[zub]

@ JohnSwenson : to add another Linux computer just to have another way of sharing my content through the regular Squeeze server seems a little bit .

Why do you say it is really difficult to get access to a networkdrive this with TinySBS. It is not also based on a regular Linux distribution? It is not possible to mount drive? And to change the conf file of the TinySB puting the name of the newly mounted drive instead of the USB one?

Regards

Julien

[aubuti]

The Touch's OS is Linux, but it certainly is not "a regular Linux distribution." It is customized for the Touch's limited hardware and specialized purpose of serving music. I haven't followed the details closely, but I am pretty sure you would first have to install (and possibly build) the client software for accessing the network drive onto the Touch. Then you would need to configure it so that the music library's SQL database is stored on an SD card or USB drive inserted in the Touch, because you definitely don't want all the traffic to/from the db going over the network for performance reasons.

Search these forums and you will find at least one example of someone who managed to mount an external drive on TinySBS via NFS. As I recall it wasn't easy (your main question), and it wasn't clear that performance was satisfactory.

[JohnSwenson]

@ JohnSwenson : to add another Linux computer just to have another way of sharing my content through the regular Squeeze server seems a little bit .

Why do you say it is really difficult to get access to a networkdrive this with TinySBS. It is not also based on a regular Linux distribution? It is not possible to mount drive? And to change the conf file of the TinySB puting the name of the newly mounted drive instead of the USB one?

Regards

Julien

The Touch does not come with a samba client (it has a samba SERVER, not the CLIENT) so you cannot mount a windows network share. You CAN mount an NFS share if you have such a setup, but it does take a bit of work.

I still still think the best bet is to go the route of a box with either internal drive or external drive, which has a decent enough processor to operate as both a regular file server (NAS like behavior) AND has SBS running. SBS has local access to the music on the drive, and the regular samba server and/or NFS server can share the files with other computers. The drive can have other stuff on it other than music so it can be a general purpose file server for the rest of your environment. The music files are still accessible over samba to any other application on another computer. Linux is by far the best OS for this sort of thing, thats what I have in my house.

It doesn't have to be big and power hungry, I have a little FitPC2 running vortexbox software which is 5watts and silent (other than the drive) which is both the SBS server and general purpose file server (photos, videos etc) for the rest of the computers on the network. It works great, is very unobtrusive and silent.

I don't see the disadvantage to this sort of setup. Everything gets done, and done well, the server just sits in the back corner of the spare bedroom, nobody even knows its there, its just the little tiny black box on the shelf.

John S.

[Sosh]

I have not timed it, but with my 7k track collection a full
rescan takes more than a few minutes and less than an
hour. Incremental scan takes a few minutes.

Do you mean that every time you switch it on you have to wait a few minutes before using it? That sounds unacceptable to me :/

[JJZolx]

Do you mean that every time you switch it on you have to wait a few minutes before using it? That sounds unacceptable to me :/

If the Touch has been completely powered down, then yes, it scans the attached disk drive or SD card when started up. If you keep power supplied to the device and hit 'Off' (standby), then it doesn't have to rescan the media when you turn it on again.

[Sosh]

That's unfortunate - I don't like leaving things on in standby when I'm not using them. (presumably the drive also has to stay on?) Is there no way to disable this automatic rescan? (I mean, you know when you've added tracks right?!)

[vzs]

Hi all!
I'm a new SBT user and thanks to jean2's first post I was able to use my external 1T WD Elements HDD without any problems yet. I'm still in the middle of reconverting my ape files and tagging my flacs but everything work smoothly so far. I have ~2K files yet and my library will probably grow up to ~7K files.

First impression is very positive, I didn't used my cd player since I got my hands on the Touch and will probably sell it soon.

However I have to big concerns with the SBT:

1. I neither like to let things under power so I'm experiencing this unfortunate behavior of rescanning although nothing changed. This is OK for 2K files but probably for 7K or more will be a pain. It would be nice at least a third-party script that could be used to disable this rescanning behavior.

2. Although I know that the SBT is a _network_ music player I bought it to use it as a standalone USB HDD to SPDIF streaming player and I use it like that 99% of the time.
While listening to music only I shut down my noisy pc and if the internet goes down then my USB HDD streamed music just stops This behavior drives me crazy.

I'm aware that this product was not designed/intended to work without being connected to an SB server but I cannot believe that it cannot be tricked somehow when its internal server is up and running.
With a nice script, cant we do some kind of loopback to itself to trick the SB server connection?

Thanks,
Zsolt

[jean2]

That's unfortunate - I don't like leaving things on in standby when I'm not using them. (presumably the drive also has to stay on?)

Yes, the drive has to stay on, but the Toshiba HDD spins down and go in very low power mode (it's a laptop drive).

1. I neither like to let things under power

I'm like you. That's exactly why I selected the Touch and spent to much time making sure the Touch would work with an external HDD.

I have an old hi-fi system from the 90s, 4 elements including radio, CD and dual cassete (those were the time). When the system is "OFF" (just displaying the clock), it's consuming a few watts (measured with a power meter). The Touch and the HDD that replaced it are actually consuming almost the same amount of power when in standby. I have PCS, monitors and Ethernet switches that are individually consuming more standby power than the Touch and the HDD. Actually, the Ethernet switch the Touch is connected to has a higher standby power consumption, but I'm planning to replace it with a Green model eventually. Note that your HDD with its separate power supply IMHO will consume more than the Toshiba drive I'm using.

In other word, IMHO, both the Touch and the HDD have ridiculously low standby power consumption for what they do, so I would not worry about it.

Moreover, I've now added a SqueezeBox Radio in my house which connect to the TinySB on the Touch, which is one more reason for the Touch to stay on all the time. I can tell you that it's very convenient to be able to start listening to the radio without having to go to the other side of the house to switch on the Touch.

While listening to music only I shut down my noisy pc and if the internet goes down then my USB HDD streamed music just stops This behavior drives me crazy.

I don't understand why the Internet would go down if you switch off your PC. Your router must be broken. What kind of router it is ? I'm personally using a Linksys WRT54GL that is cheap, works well, and accept alternative firmwares.

Regards,

Jean

[Mnyb]

Maybe he is using internet sharing over his PC and does not have a router ?

There is a bug with the touch that it requires a network connection to work even in local mode with USB HD . Internet does not need to work just the network conection I think ? Note that it can be server for aditional players even when using Tiny SC .

But it is a network music player....

[vzs]

Maybe he is using internet sharing over his PC and does not have a router ?

There is a bug with the touch that it requires a network connection to work even in local mode with USB HD . Internet does not need to work just the network conection I think ? Note that it can be server for aditional players even when using Tiny SC .

But it is a network music player....

Sorry for this small misunderstanding... I have a router that serves both the Touch and the PC, so no need to have the PC on.

Good to hear that requiring a network connection in local mode is a bug and not a feature Is it reported somewhere? ...so I wait patiently for a fix.

Regarding letting things in standby mode: I'm not that concerned about those few watts consumed but once a thunderstruck in the flat I'm living burned my whole PC setup Nevertheless was my fault as I haven't used any over voltage protection but since then I don't leave things on stand-by.