Experimental Firefly/iTunes Music server for the HP Media Vault

There is an open source version of the iTunes server with an unpronounceable name, mt-daapd, now called the Firefly server, that emulates the network sharing function of iTunes. This program  has been ported to a number of embedded Linux devices and these instructions will guide you through the installation on the HP Media Vault. This software is experimental only and although it has little risk of damaging your HP Media Vault, please understand that the only support for it will be through the HP Media Vault Yahoo Group via Lee Devlin. It's NOT an official release from HP.

This installation requires some Linux skills, namely the ability to log in to your HP Media Vault via telnet and perform a few simple commands.  There's a way to start it automatically by copying a file called startup.sh in the /shares/Volume1 directory which is explained later. 

One  limitation to this open source server when compared to a PC or a Mac iTunes server is that it will not stream DRM-protected files, such as those purchased from the iTunes music store. 

Here are the steps for installing and running the Firefly server:

Download firefly version svn 1463 and shared libraries, unzip them on a PC.   There are 9 files at the top level and 3 folders with 21 additional files.  Just drag and drop them 'as is' on to the MediaVault's FileShare folder.  Don't try to put them in a sub directory because if you do, the startup scripts won't work.

One of the files is called mt-daapd.conf.  This is a configuration file that includes changes to allow FireFly to run directly from FileShare folder.   You can take a look at it and make any changes you deem necessary with Notepad or similar text editor.  The file has fairly detailed explanations for each setting.  One edit you may need to make is the location of the music files on your Media Vault if they are not already stored somewhere under the folder "MediaShare."  Otherwise, you shouldn't have to make any changes to the file.

 After you've unzipped and copied all the files and folders to FileShare, telnet into your HP Media Vault using telnet by following the procedure for enabling telnet in the FAQ and execute these commands.

cd /shares/Volume1/FileShare

./firefly

The firefly server should now be running.  You can check for it by checking the "process status" with this command:

ps

You should see some processes at the end of this list called mt-daapd, that look like this:

...
31996 root 948  S /shares/Volume1/FileShare/mt-daapd -c /shares/Volume1
31997 root 1364 D /shares/Volume1/FileShare/mt-daapd -c /shares/Volume1
31998 root 1364 S /shares/Volume1/FileShare/mt-daapd -c /shares/Volume1
31999 root 1364 S /shares/Volume1/FileShare/mt-daapd -c /shares/Volume1
32000 root 752  R ps

 

If so, it should be working.  If for some reason the you don't see any mt-daapd processes, it means the server did not start, so you can execute the debug option to see if it gives you any clues.  To do that use these commands:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.:/lib

./mt-daapd -c mt-daapd.conf -d9

You can use iTunes on your PC or Mac to see if a new server has appeared on your network with the name you entered in the mt-daapd.conf file (The default name is HPMediaVault svn 1463).  Make sure that iTunes is configured to look for servers on your network, i.e., in iTunes select Edit->Preferences->Sharing and enable 'Look for Shared Libraries'. 

If you ever want to kill the server, you can use this command from the telnet prompt:

killall mt-daapd

If you want to start firefly automatically, copy the file called startup.sh included in the package to the directory /shares/Volume1 and it will start during power up as long as you are running firmware version 1.2.5.6 or newer on your Media Vault.  Here is the command to copy the file from FileShare to that location:

cp /shares/Volume1/FileShare/startup.sh /shares/Volume1/startup.sh

Please email me if you run into any difficulty with these instructions.

Return to the HP Media Vault FAQ