So I've got an XBox 360. It lets you play music off of a Windows XP machine (and I've got this working fine) or a Windows Media Center machine. You have to have this software called Windows Media Connect that serves up the songs if you're just running XP.

The latest version of Windows Media Connect will let you add shares that come from remote sources, ala my samba shares on my linux box, where all my music is. But the Xbox won't see the songs even though it sees my XP machine running windows media connect.

So to simplify my summary ... here's what I've got while trying to get my music catalog shared from my linux to my xbox:

Linux Samba Share -> Windows XP (with Media Connect) -> Xbox 360

It's not just music either, I have a folder of photos shared, but Xbox won't see them unless they're local on that XP machine.

All my permissions for the shared folders are world readable (chmod 755)

It's almost like the Xbox can tell if it's originating from a non-Microsoft OS and it omits all that content.

Anyone try this? Anyone have any luck when they did?

Greg

I assume that you've tried it with a remote share from a real Windows box and it worked? If so, you could try setting the OS version number on your samba machine to match a real Windows OS instead of the default number not used by any real version of Windows and see if that helps.

Ahh, that NETWORK thing ... I guess I figured if I had it set up to accept guest access as read only that was what it was after ... so I should create a NETWORK samba user? is there a method to not requiring a password for this user I wonder?

I've got the WMC currently set up to share out my \\server\music folder and it doesn't complain about not having any access or anything ... I think there's just too many things that have to work just right to get this going ...

Peter have you had any luck?

Greg

in my smbd.log I see:
[2005/12/08 17:08:17, 0] lib/util_sock.c:get_peer_addr(1150)
getpeername failed. Error was Transport endpoint is not connected

But there's also an entry for 0.0.0.0.log ... Is this even a normal IP?

[2005/12/08 17:08:17, 1] smbd/process.c:process_smb(1084)
[2005/12/08 17:08:17, 0] lib/util_sock.c:get_peer_addr(1150)
getpeername failed. Error was Transport endpoint is not connected
Connection denied from 0.0.0.0
[2005/12/08 17:08:17, 0] lib/util_sock.c:write_socket_data(430)
write_socket_data: write failure. Error = Connection reset by peer
[2005/12/08 17:08:17, 0] lib/util_sock.c:write_socket(455)
write_socket: Error writing 5 bytes to socket 24: ERRNO = Connection reset by peer
[2005/12/08 17:08:17, 0] lib/util_sock.c:send_smb(647)
Error writing 5 bytes to client. -1. (Connection reset by peer)

Somewhat related, has anyone found a Windows Media Connect emulator for Linux? I'm in a similar situation where all my music is on a Linux box, however, I don't have a Windows machine I can put WMC on and have any sort of uptime.

The mt-daapd is a handy thing for sharing out the music to iTunes, just need something similar for this now.

Actually, just grabbed WMC 2.0 earlier (didn't even know it was out), and tried it on the notebook. I told it to share \\central\media\music (my music folder), and after it scanned, the XBox 360 saw the music and could play it back.

My Samba implementation might be a bit different though, as I have mine set up as an NT4 domain that my notebook is joined to. Though maybe my samba settings for the share will help:

[media]
path = /home/media/
write list = drakino, user2, user3, user4
force user = user5
force group = users
create mask = 0774
directory mask = 0775
guest ok = Yes

I do the force user and permissions to avoid any issues with user 2 unable to delete something user3 put there.

Can you send me your whole smb.conf file (sanitized if you like)

what version of samba are you using (not that it really matters I think)

If this thing produced some sensible errors in the logs I'd have this fixed by now.

The good news is you got it to work, so that means it's at least possible.

Just to clarify you don't have a Windows Media Center server on your network, you just have Windows Media Connect and a linux box?

Greg

how did you account for that "NETWORK" account business?

Also, you said that when you shared it initially, it did some sort of scanning business? Was that on the xbox side or the Windows Media Connect side? what did it look like?

greg

I sent you a PM with my smb.conf file. Samba version is 3.0.10. And to clarify, I am running the Windows Media Connect 2.0 on an XP Pro SP2 box that is joined to the samba domain. I ran the Media Connect control panel and told it to share out \\central\media\music to everyone. The XP box then said it was scanning the folder for files for a while (I have a lot of music). This was indicated on the Settings part of the WMC screen, in the Folder Sharing area. Once it finished, I went to the music part of the dashboard, selected computer, and it found my notebook. It then let me select music to play back, and just worked.

I haven't done anything with a "NETWORK" user on my samba install. As far as I can tell, WMC on my PC is connecting to the share using my credentials, as my samba logs just show normal connects to the share, similar to when I map a drive M: to \\central\media.

It looks like you HAVE to run a domain controller in Samba and have your XP box login on that domain in order for the Windows Media Connect to stream your music.

However now my XP has two seperate logins for each person in the house ... one for the domain and one for the local box ... Do you know of a way to merge everyone's local accounts over to the network logins that way they keep all their bookmarks, email settings, desktops, etc? As it is, the XP machine is acting like it's a whole new person when they log into the domain. Stupid computer, this baseball bat will teach you to become self aware and think for yourself!!!

Greg

IIRC, you should now have multiple folders for each user in "Documents and Settings". I think you should be able to copy the data from the local directory to the domain directory.

That said, your users should also be able to log into the machine instead of the domain. Just select the machine instead of the domain in the login box. You might have to click a button or something to make that dropdown show up.

Actually, it looks like there's a "Copy To" button in "My Computer->Properties->User Profiles" or somewhere like that.

It seems the Xbox 360 is just a normal uPnP receiver for music and photos. Anyone worked with a Linux uPnP client? I've poked at uShare, but can't verify it is working normally, and the XBox won't see it. I'm going to bed though for now, since it might just be something I'm overlooking at 4am.