[Twonky Server 7.2 Serial Number
Rancul Ratha
Si I installed PuTTY, shut down Twonky, enabled SSH access, logged in to the Linux as root, and found that there was no twonky.db as suggested. But there was a db directory, so I moved that and db.info into a backup directory, and re-started Twonky. It still seemed to be having trouble.
Everything was going smoothly. Then I started to change the various parameters back to what I wanted: sharing directories, rescan interval, and, finally, the compilation directory names. The latter required a server restart. The log file is now showing the
if you want a factory restore to the quick instead of full. Same thing except the full write multiple patterns everywhare on the disk to prevent recovery, good if you sell a drive, externly slow to complete
Q. What is a Media Server?
A: A Media Server is a piece of software that looks for media files on a disk, or network, and creates a catalogue, or database, of the files it finds. The server uses the file type and metadata embedded in the file to create the database. Client applications can then interrogate this database, and request the server to send the file to them, or to a media renderer for playback. This combination of file store, database and server is often called a media library.
The Media Server on the MyCloud is called Twonky, and uses the DLNA and UPnP protocols to talk to client applications and renderers.
Q. Where should I put my media so Twonky finds it?
A: By default, when MyCloud starts Twonky (when you turn on Media Streaming), it tells it to look for all types of media (music, photos & videos) in all folders in the Public share. If you use the Twonky UI, and go to the Sharing page, you will see just one line:
You can change the folders and media types to suit your requirements, by using the Browse button to select the folder, and the drop-down menu to select file types. For instance, I use the following settings to serve media from my private Media share:
If you want allow people to see your media library within your local network, but not allow them to modify it, you can also create a private share, and put your media in it. Enable media serving on the private share, using SharesShare ProfileMedia Serving
These settings will stay in place provided MyCloud does not restart Twonky; this will happen if you turn Media Streaming off and back on in the Dashboard, or if the firmware is upgraded, [or if you do a System Only Restore].
Another common reason seems to be that, following a MyCloud restart or firmware upgrade, it comes back with the SharesPublicMedia Serving turned off. This seems to manifest itself as Twonky scanning the directories, and finding lots of media (viewed using the SettingsStatus page of the Twonky UI), but, when it finishes the scan, it seems to suddenly realise that Media Serving is turned off, and goes and deletes all the entries from its database, and the media counts fall back to zero, [or near zero]. The default state of the MyCloud is confused; Media Serving defaults to OFF:
Q. Can I stop Twonky searching in certain folders in my media storage folders?
A: Yes, you can do this by adding the name of the folder to the list of ignored directions, using the SettingsAdvancedIgnore Directories control in the Twonky UI. The list is simply a set of comma-separated strings.
[Note that this list will do a substring match on folder names (i.e. it will exclude any directory that includes one of the exclude strings), so you can exclude folders by mistake, if they include one of the exclude strings.]
Q. How does the Twonky service work on the MyCloud?
A: [Twonky is installed as a Linux service. Like other such services, there is a service control file in the /etc/init.d directory]:
Another way of fixing the settings is to leave this script alone, but change the file it uses as the source of the settings. Admittedly, this will still override any changes made via the Twonky UI. The file is found here:
If you need to make your music library available to visitors who cannot be trusted, create a private share and put all your media under that, then enable media serving on that share, and get Twonky to search for media in that private share. DLNA ignores access control, so DLNA clients will be able to see the media on your private share, but visitors will not have access to your private share via network file access.
[However, if you feel that secured access to the Twonky UI is necessary, then I would suggest that you disable the Twonky server using the SettingsMediaMedia Streaming control, then SSH login as root, and start Twonky using the command:
Q. Why does my media player not show the right track information?
A: A media server looks at the metadata stored in the file, as well as the path and filename. There can be all sorts of metadata tags within a file (Artist, Album Artist, Album, Track Title, Publish Date, Composer, etc, etc), and a media server will fetch these and provide some or all of them to media client applications.
I prefer to do it the easy way though. You have 2 mac addresses for the WD MyCloud. 1 under the device itself and another for the other devices where the twonky server sits as an unknown device on windows 8.1. Block the unknown device mac through the modem/router and when you double click on your WDMyCloud via windows explorer to access network shares, it will log you into the twonky GUI with a nice user friendly interface.
I have just purchased a WD EX2 NAS, and following initial setup a couple of weeks ago, it suddenly lost its Twonky setting, ie I couldnt access using port :9000, meaning I couldnt access my films on my smart TV etc.
After installing according to the #1, the server installs and runs. However, 2 serious problems occur. Firstly, the server installs from your /flash disk, but after the first run, the -ini file (twonkymedia-server.ini) and all your database are built and run at RAM under 2 directories "/twonkymedia" and "/var/twonkymedia". Secondly, after next reboot of your server, all your settings including the license number are gone and you need to start over. The solution to the problem of loosing license number and settings is suggested in #2 above, however, the database (music, video, photos), cache and all related data are lost once again and need to be built all over. I have checked few options and come to the following solution. In case if another novice needs to go through the same torture of "trial and error" step, these guides may prove handy. Do it on your own risk, though.
We will use cache drive and an invisible path to keep the inifile and all twonky related material untouched during a reoot. Instead of cache drive, I assume any another drive off the array (S.N.A.P. etc) can be used as well. (Your boot Flash disk too, but we will not be willing too many writes/deletes to the flash mount).
7. Now you can make the necessary adjustments (defining the directories of the media, entering the license number and etc.) using the TwonkyMedia server web browser at " _or_its_IP:9000". Let it build the database and this can take an hour or two depending on how much media you have to share.
10. Open the ini file "/mnt/cache/.packages/tms/twonkymedia/twonkymedia/twonkymedia-server.ini" with your editor and change a few lines (I will try to go trough these next). To be precise, 8 lines need to be modified:
In order to be able to start/stop the server and have the unRaid shut down/reboot we will use unMenu and the user scripts. Otherwise the unRaid willnot be able to unmount the drives since TMS will be using them. Go and get the included scripts here, remove the .txt suffix and drop them at /boot/unmenu. As a result you will have "Start Twonky" and "stop twonky" options at "users' scripts" page in unMenu.
Is there a free Twonky version you can try? I'd like to try playing with this as well since I'm trying to setup a buddy with a PS3 and I didn't have the greatest luck with PS3MediaServer. Of course nothing says I can't try again, but I just haven't.
I have tested the above setting and it is functioning as it was meant to. One "small" problem, though. While twonky is running, if you try to "reboot" the unRaid, it seems that it takes ages trying to unmount "/mnt/cache" drive and reboot fails.
I wrote two scripts (attached here). Remove the .txt suffix and put them in /boot/unmenu/. You will be able to run them using the "user scripts" in unMenu. The first one will start the twonkyserver and the other one will stop it properly so you can shut down the unRaid properly.
Could some body write/suggest a small script which once needed could KILL the twonkymedia server properly, so unRaid could cleanly power down? This could then be added e.g. to the list of user scripts in unMenu. I could not find any option in the twonkymedia servers admin GUI where you could shut down the server (there is only an option to "restart" the server).
I am answering myself I wrote two scripts and added to /boot/unmenu.. Now, you can start and stop twonkymedia via the "user scrpts" page in unmneu. I enclose both here (remove the .txt suffix). Still would be very nice if an experienced linux member kindly checks/improves out the commands. Thank you.
If you have already installed ffmpeg and have it running, then this part is easy. If not, follow the following guides. As a left over from Windows installation, the ffmpeg path defined in original file "ffmpeg.location" (in /twonkyserver/cgi-bin/) is wrong. Just replace c:/ffmpeg with "usr/bin" and you will be fine. Restart the TMS and go to the admin GUI and you will see the video transcoding option available (mpeg2, flash, mpeg4 etc.). Otherwise they are all greyed out.
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