NFS sharename without spaces on external drive?

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drfruit
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NFS sharename without spaces on external drive?

Post by drfruit »

I use NFS in combination with a networked media player from Pixelmagic, Mediabox 100. NFS makes it possible to access high bitrate media files, because Samba is too slow (and UPnP does not support those mediatypes).

My problem is, the Mediabox can only map NFS shares without spaces in the name, like Public, but the TS-109 gives my external drives names like "USB Disk 1", with two spaces in the name. This means that all my media files have to reside on the internal HDD.

I already tried to create a new NFS share with a short name like "Usb" and then select "USB Disk 1" as the path to this new share, but that does not work. I know nothing about UNIX or NFS, so maybe I am doing it wrong.

How can I create a NFS share without spaces in the name on an external drive? Any help would be much appreciated. :)


TS-109 Pro
fw 1.1.0
500 GB Seagate ST3500630AS
NFS, FTP, UPnP enabled
external devices: 500 GB Samsung HD501LJ USB 2.0 in Data Sharing mode, formatted as EXT 3
HP LaserJet 1300 printer
Speed 1000 Mbps, MTU 1500
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kent
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Post by kent »

We are sorry, now we can't support to customize the name of usb disk.
Maybe you can feedback the bug to the Mediabox support.

BTW,
if you copy data from USB to internal SATA HDD, the NFS access would be higher.
I am Kent. Nice to meet you!
drfruit
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Post by drfruit »

kent wrote:Maybe you can feedback the bug to the Mediabox support.
They do not answer my request, so I guess they have no idea what is happening.
kent wrote:if you copy data from USB to internal SATA HDD, the NFS access would be higher.
I know, but these .ts-files can have a size of 30 GB, so my internal drive will fill up very soon... and it takes a while to copy. It would be nice to use my 1 TB external drive too.

Thanks anyway!
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TheEnvoy
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Post by TheEnvoy »

Just a shot:

You could try the following:

- log in to your QNAP by ssh or telnet
- cd to the Public directory and create a symlink to your USB drive:

Code: Select all

ln -s path/to/USB\ Disk\ 1 USBDisk
If the mediabox can follow that symlink then your done

regards
TheEnvoy
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"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary
Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- B. Franklin

// TS-409 Pro - Debian Lenny
// TS-109 Pro / FW: 1.1.1 0831 (offline)
drfruit
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Post by drfruit »

TheEnvoy wrote: - log in to your QNAP by ssh or telnet
- cd to the Public directory and create a symlink to your USB drive:

Code: Select all

ln -s path/to/USB\ Disk\ 1 USBDisk
Thanks for helping, but how do I cd to the Public directory? All cd commands end in 'can't cd to (...)'. I have no idea where I am when the session opens or how to see a directory list. I hope I don't have to learn Linux just to do this one thing. :?
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TheEnvoy
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Post by TheEnvoy »

No need to despair ;)

I think the path is /Share/Public but i'm not quite sure,
i'll look up the directory structure when i'm back home and give you the way in more detail
Think! :idea: Search :!: Ask :?:

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary
Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- B. Franklin

// TS-409 Pro - Debian Lenny
// TS-109 Pro / FW: 1.1.1 0831 (offline)
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TheEnvoy
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Post by TheEnvoy »

Hey drfruit,

i just pluged in a usb drive for the first time so i can give you the exact commands...

normaly I would use absolute paths but this is an issue with nfs exports, that's
why you need to try the relative path

start of by opening a ssh connection to you qnap - use admin as user and the corresponding password
you are left in the /root directory (you can check that by issuing the pwd command)
now just do the following line by line*:

Code: Select all

# cd /share/Public
# ln -s ../USB\ Disk\ 1/ USBdisk
Now you have a link to the root of you USB Disk named USBdisk in your Public share.
Of course you can place the link in any other share as well, they are all to be
found in /share, to see them just type

Code: Select all

ls /share
*you can use tab-completition so you don't need to type every char i.e when there is
only on directory starting with "P" or "U" like in "USB.."...

Hope that works for you!
regards
TheEnvoy
Think! :idea: Search :!: Ask :?:

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary
Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- B. Franklin

// TS-409 Pro - Debian Lenny
// TS-109 Pro / FW: 1.1.1 0831 (offline)
drfruit
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Post by drfruit »

Hello TheEnvoy,

It's not quite working as expected. After giving those commands, I see a link called USBdisk under Public, but opening it brings me back to Public.
I also see a link called USB Disk 1 under Public, which does the same thing.
I removed the first one, but the second one does not want to be removed (tab completion does not work for it). Any ideas?
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TheEnvoy
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Post by TheEnvoy »

Hmm, the given command should, properly applied, only result in one link.

Could you please give the output of the following command:

Code: Select all

ls -l /share/Public/ 
Was the USB Drive connected when you made the link? Did you check that you really
didn't miss any part of the command and followed it to the point?
Think! :idea: Search :!: Ask :?:

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary
Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- B. Franklin

// TS-409 Pro - Debian Lenny
// TS-109 Pro / FW: 1.1.1 0831 (offline)
drfruit
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Post by drfruit »

TheEnvoy wrote:Could you please give the output of the following command:

Code: Select all

ls -l /share/Public/ 
drwxrwxrwx 2 guest guest 4096 Sep 4 19:21 Californication
drwxrwxrwx 3 admin administ 4096 Sep 9 16:31 Dvd
drwxrwxrwx 2 guest guest 4096 Aug 25 22:30 John from Cincinnati
lrwxrwxrwx 1 admin administ 13 Sep 11 23:30 USB Disk 1 -> ./USB Disk 1 /
Was the USB Drive connected when you made the link? Did you check that you really
didn't miss any part of the command and followed it to the point?
Yes in both cases, AFAIK. :?

I wonder if my TS-109 is OK, as I have some issues with it. I had to change Guest access to Public from Full Access to Read Only (!?), before Putty would even let me access it. Also, Public will sometimes disappear in Windows Vista for no apparent reason, and re-appear after a few minutes. Not sure if Vista or my Qnap is to blame for this.
I just made a backup, so I plan to restore the TS-109 and/or install the latest FW. (Providing I can find a checksum for the FW file.)
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TheEnvoy
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Post by TheEnvoy »

I think you missed a dot by issuing the ln -s command, which is of course crucial
to get it working. One dot means the currunt directory two dots stand for the
parent directory.

There is _no_ space between the two dots! You can remove the "USB Disk 1"-Link
with

Code: Select all

rm USB\ Disk\ 1
and then try again.

A blank space between the dot would also account for the failing tab completition,
as you don't have a "USB Disk 1"-Folder in the Public directory at that time.

As to Vista, i'm not familiar with it, so i don't know for sure, but i think that
it probably is the problem. Wouldn't touch it with a pliers atm, let it mature first.
The link should work nethertheless.

Regarding the update to the new firmware: I'm also thinking about updating. But I'm
still not sure as there seems to be an issue with the update - at least for some.
Hence a checksum would really be a nescity. Maybe we can countercheck with each
other. Exchanging md5 sums (in an new thread then).
Think! :idea: Search :!: Ask :?:

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary
Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- B. Franklin

// TS-409 Pro - Debian Lenny
// TS-109 Pro / FW: 1.1.1 0831 (offline)
drfruit
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Post by drfruit »

Thanks, that did the trick. The space I entered between the two dots must have been the problem. Linux is so strict...

Now I have a link called USB1 (shorter to enter on my Mediabox) to USB Disk 1. However, I see the link under Public over Samba, but when I open it, the directory is empty.

Over NFS I do not see the link on my Mediabox. I guess the problem is in the Mediabox; even over Samba, I see the USB Disk 1 listed as "USB", which does not work of course (this was already so before I tried your suggestion).
Thanks for your efforts! I will just have to wait for a better network media player.

I will calculate a MD5 checksum for the new FW and put it in the FW thread.
drfruit
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Post by drfruit »

I updated to FW 1.1.1 and it all seems to work fine

Only I see something strange. In /share there is a link to Public, but I can not open it like the other links there.
In HDA_DATA I see a directory Public, which i can open and see all my files.

The opposite is true for USB Disk 1. When I open the link to it in /share, I can see all my files on the USB HDD. When I go to HDA_DATA and open the directory USB Disk 1, it is empty.

Is this normal? And could it be the reason why the symlink to USB Disk 1 does not work?
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TheEnvoy
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Post by TheEnvoy »

the normal directories are residing (true for internal drive) in /share/HDA_DATA and are exported from there, the according directories in /share are just links, so if you cannot access /share/public then there probably is a problem with the link (ls -l again)

the usb drives however are mounted in /share/external so there shouldn't be a USB Disk 1 in you HDA_DATA directory, maybe some leftover from your tries to make the link work for your mediaplayer

so I guess this could result in not beeing able to access your files over the symlink, you could try to use the actuall directories

Code: Select all

# cd /share/HDA_DATA/Public
# ln -s ../../external/USB\ Disk\ 1/ USBdisk
Think! :idea: Search :!: Ask :?:

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary
Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- B. Franklin

// TS-409 Pro - Debian Lenny
// TS-109 Pro / FW: 1.1.1 0831 (offline)
drfruit
Easy as a breeze
Posts: 420
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:27 pm

Post by drfruit »

I think I am starting to understand a bit (!) how this works.
But I do not see "USB Disk 1" in /external. In stead, it is called "sdo". Is this a problem?
Yesterday, I already created a link to /share/external/sdo in one of the directories that are visible on my Mediabox, but that did not work. I think the Mediabox ignores links, so the trick will probably not work anyway.

Now I just want my Qnap to be "normal".

Today I found a link in /share called Public, that pointed to a non-existing file (something with SPOOL in the name). I am sure I did not create that link, so the Qnap must have done that. I removed it and created a link to the real Public directory, which now works.

Is there a way to reset the directory structure to mint condition without having to restore all my media files afterward (which will take a day)? I can move files easily with WinSCP.

Thanks for all your help! :D
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