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N5200 Module: FIREFLY
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Facts
Name: FIREFLY (Firefly media server for iTunes and Roku Soundbridge)
Maintainer(s): Andreas Vogel (omega)
Target: N5200
Latest version: 2.00.03
Depends on module(s): none
Description
General Overview and Installation
This module comes as a ZIP compressed file with the name N5200_<modname>_<version>.zip, where <modname> is the module name and <version> is the version number of the module. While unpacking the ZIP file, a new directory N5200_<modname>_<version> containing the module and its source code is created.
The module file is called <modname>.mod and the source code is located in the directory <modname>. The source code is included for interested people and is not needed for module installation. The file Makefile can be used to rebuild the module on Linux systems.
The module is installed using the "System"->"Module Mgmt" menu in the Thecus Web Server Administration. Specify the file <modname>.mod as the module file and press "Install".
The whole installation process is logged and sent as an E-Mail if you're configured in the E-Mail notification configuration. After successful installation enable the module in order to run the module.
After uninstallation of the module, a log of the uninstall process will be send to the user(s) configured in the E-mail notification configuration. Prior uninstallation of the module, the actual configuration data is backed up to the place "/data/raid/module/backup/<modname>". When the module is installed again, the module configuration is restored from that place if available.
Module version 2.00.00
The FireFly Media Server previously known as mt-daapd is a freely available media server for iTunes and Roku Soundbridge protocol. It consists of just one monolithic executable doing the iTunes protocol (DAAP) and the randezvous handling (MDNS). I've tested this server with the iTunes 7.0.2.16 client for Windows and haven't found any errors yet.
There are a number of features that differentiate Firefly Media Server from those other servers, and here is a partial list:
- Support for running on unix/POSIX platforms
- Support for Windows (beta versions)
- Support for Mac OSX (coming soon!)
- Support for on-the-fly transcoding of OGG, FLAC, Apple Lossless, and WMA (beta versions)
- Web-based configuration
- Support for user-created smart playlists (beta versions)
- Integrates with iTunes library including reading playlists
- Supports serving streaming radio stations
- Did I mention fast?
- Under active development!
For further information on FireFly please visit the project homepage.
After installation, you need to configure at least one directory where all of your media is located. The administration web page can be accessed by connecting to your N5200 at port number 3689, e.g. http://1.2.3.4:3689. You'll be asked then for a username and password (username is "admin" and password is "firefly"). Please change this password for security reasons. In the "config" menu of the configuration page, there is an entry called "MP3 Dir" which should be set to the root of your MP3 directory tree. After that open the "status" page and start the background scan by pressing the "start scan" button.
Now you should be able to see your N5200 device in the iTunes client.
On the module property page, you can do this:
- See a short module description.
- There is a link to access the FireFly Media Server administration page
Module version 2.00.01
Fixed a small typo, no big change.
Module version 2.00.02
On request of Chris185 at the Thecus Forum I've ceated this updates of the FIREFLY module. This versions installs FireFly version svn-1498 which is a nightly build. Therefore this version could be somehow unstable. But it seems to support the Pinnacle Soundbridge so here it is.
There were a lot of internal changes in the FireFly code compared to the previous offcial version and the new version now supports plugins and uses a sqlite V3 database for storing all of its data.
I made some basic tests with this version so at least it should start to run.
Module version 2.00.03
On request of mark2c at the Thecus Forum I've created this update of the FIREFLY module. This versions installs FireFly version svn-1586 which is a nightly build.
The main improvement are:
- On-the-fly transcoding support for Ogg-Vorbis (.ogg) and FLAC (.flac) files
- better support of DLNA/UPNP AV
- hopefully some other improvements that I haven't found out yet :-)
News
- <2007-01-25>: First public release.
- <2007-01-28>: Bug fix release.
- <2007-02-09>: 2.00.02: now uses FireFly version svn-1498, should support Pinnacle Soundbridge now
- <2007-08-07>: 2.00.03: now uses FireFly version svn-1586, transcoding OGG and FLAC should work now
Versions
- Version 2.00.03
- Release date: 2007-08-07
- Works on firmware: 1.00.06.5
- Does not work on firmware: <= 1.00.05
- Download: N5200_FIREFLY_2.00.03.zip (ca. 11 MB)
- Major changes: now uses FireFly version svn-1586
- Version 2.00.02
- Release date: 2007-02-09
- Works on firmware: 1.00.06.5
- Does not work on firmware: <= 1.00.05
- Download: N5200_FIREFLY_2.00.02.zip
- Major changes: now uses FireFly version svn-1498
- Version 2.00.01
- Release date: 2007-01-28
- Works on firmware: 1.00.06.5
- Does not work on firmware: <= 1.00.05
- Download: N5200_FIREFLY_2.00.01.zip
- Major changes: Bug fix release.
- Version 2.00.00
- Release date: 2007-01-25
- Works on firmware: 1.00.06.5
- Does not work on firmware: <= 1.00.05
- Download: N5200_FIREFLY_2.00.00.zip
- Major changes: First public release.