Using B2 NAS from a Linux laptop?

[Mark Fishman]

searching through the forum and the website, I see lots of references and explanations about using the B2 NAS from a Windows (or Sonos) system. Since my home computers are pretty much all Linux now (various LTS versions of kubuntu), and the B2 is running some flavor of Linux, I naturally would prefer to mount its storage using NFS -- if it's supported.

What NAS protocols are supported on the B2?

Thanks -- Mark F.

[Tony]

Mark :

Short answer :  Server Message Block (SMB, formerly CIFS)

Longer answer : 

I use the B2 NAS functionality from my Linux & Windows machines.   

The B2 makes its music folders available via the SMB protocol implemented with Samba - the B2 internally is a Linux powered Raspberry Pi.

But I've not had a lot of luck "browsing" my LAN to find the B2 from any of my Windows or Linux computers - very "hit & miss".  

However, assuming you know the IP address of your B2, it's pretty simple.  You can get your B2's address from the OLED display when the B2 is not playing anything. Then use whatever file browser you have in your Linux box and find the "Open Location" menu item.   Type in   smb://192.168.1.xxx/music/ where xxx is set to your IP address.  

I've modified my B2's Linux setup quite a bit, but I think the default user & password (according to this Brennan Web Site page)  is "The user is root and the password is brennan."  (I've given up on trying to convince Martin what huge security gap that is ...)

Note that keeping the B2 at a fixed IP address adds a bit of complication.  As posted elsewhere in this group, you need to either assign your B2's MAC address to a fixed IP in your network router setup or hack the internal network config file in the B2 to always use a fixed IP address.  (I keep meaning to document how that's done for the B2). Otherwise, hope your router always assigns the same IP address each time you restart your B2 - or you will have to remap the B2 in your file browser each time you want to access it.

Hope that helps?

[Paul Marwick]

Given that the B2 Linux is pretty stripped down, I'd be surprised if NFS support is included (I'll have a look when I get home tonight...). However, if you're using Linux on other machines in your network, you really don't need to use the SMB support in the B2 for access. I've never had much luck with the B2 NAS function - tends to time out most of the time if the machine is anything other than idle.

The quickest and easiest way to access the B2 from a Linux desktop/laptop is to use Midnight Commander. May take a bit of getting used to, but it works and is quick and easy once you are used to it. It is also available in just about every Linux distribution I've ever tried, though not very often installed any more. 

Install mc, open it, tab to the right pane, press "F9" > ""h and enter "root@brennanb2" (or root@<b2 ip> if you can see the name on the network), then enter the root password and you have file access and (if you're up to the potential risks) edit access for any text file on the B2. You are also able to navigate to any part of the file system, instead of being limited to /media/Music.

Obviously, you need to use it with some caution, and it does depend on you knowing the IP that the B2 is on (or, as in my case, having decent local DNS so it can be identified by name). But for copying, editing file names and editing files (use the latter with a great deal of caution...).

Some of the GUI Linux file managers may offer SSH access as well - I've been using Midnight Commander for years, so I've never investigated any of the GUI options.

:) And I must repeat that I don't consider the publicly known username password to be such a huge security hole...

[dclement]

Hi Mark,

I've never had any trouble seeing my B2 on the network, though I admit it takes a while to respond the first time (because of the many folders in /music).

Once NAS is enabled, you should see it as "BRENNANB2" under "browse network". Then again, the first response may be slow (2 or 3 retries).

Then you might want to add a shortcut to "smb://brennanb2/" or even "smb://brennanb2/music/", which appears to work regardless of the IP address. I could verify that with both Thunar (XFCE browser) and Caja (Mate browser).

HTH, Daniel