Testing minidlna

You could use a (web)browser either on localhost or a phone/tablet/laptop, etc. I believe the service listens on port 8200 by default, but you need to check your local minidlna.conf
The webUI is used mostly for diagnosing service status and indexed files, not media playback.
 
VLC (PC version) has bad uPnP/DLNA implementation. Don't know about Kodi.
I suggest to you VLC for mobile phone (both - Android/iPhone version) or foobar2000 for PC (under wine it also works fine) with uPnP plugin.
And, of course, all modern SmartTV/mediaBOX has uPnP/DLNA support.
The only thing - all devices (server/clients) should be in the same subnet. Or you should open uPnP ports(1900)/protocols (ICMP/UDP) for transparent forwarding on the gateway/rourer (for example from wired subnet into the wireless subnet in your home infrastructure). Modern routers has the dedicated option in their firewall settings.

PS.
For further exploring DLNA capabilities, switch from minidlna to mediatomb, nowadays known as gerbera. It does not present in a ports/packages collection, but well compiles from the sources. The benefit - it can hold a lot of the data (counts in TBs)
 
I just realised I was using an old version of VLC and newer versions are supposed to support UPnP according to:-

www.vlchelp.com

How to Access Media from UPnP or DLNA using VLC

VLC can easily access media from UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) as well as DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance). The option is available in the View
www.vlchelp.com www.vlchelp.com

but when I try I don't see a Universal Plug'n'Play option under Local Network.

Does anyone else? Perhaps it is available as a plugin or extension...

Maybe I need to use a Network URL to the Minidlna server on VLC, but I'm not sure of the format.



Think I'll give the simple cli upnp/dlna browser a try...
 
I've built it from ports now and do see a Universal Plug'n'Play option under Local Network but it doesn't find anything.

Do I need to do anything within FreeBSD for it to access a UPnP server?
 
I run minidlna on OpenBSD. Is your client on the same subnet as your server? Are you firewalling anything?

Post your config and maybe we can spot something. I have several dlna clients- VLC as suggested above is a good choice but I think there are probably some Android clients that could make testing quick and easy. I'll check my phone and update here if I find anything.

Update: VLC and X-Plore file manager on Android both have dlna clients. I can't remember if X-Plore uses a plugin but in my setup it's there. This might be an easier way to see if your minidlna server is serving..

Dumb question: is the minidlna server running? You can check the log(s) to see if it is. It issues startup and shutdown messages and also shows you the files it is indexing as it goes. Not sure where they go in /var/log/minidlna/minidlna.log
 
Actually, I know the server is working. I'm looking for a FreeBSD client. I've just tried VLC and Kodi on Debian and the UPnP functions work, but they don't work on FreeBSD.

Maybe there is a simple text mode client on FreeBSD which I can use. audio/mpg123 is supposed to accept a URL as input, but I don't know how to specify a URL for UPnP connections.
 
balanga said:
but I don't know how to specify a URL for UPnP connections.
Click to expand...
Switch server to Mediatomb/Gerbera. It has a WEB-interface, and from there you can catch an URL's for your media content.
6344
 
A.Petrov - thanks for the suggestion. It isn't the easiest app to install and some of the instructions are incorrect, for instance:- pkg install wget git autoconf automake libtool taglib cmake gcc libav ffmpeg \ libexif pkgconf liblastfm gmake

Doesn't work because liblastfm does not exit.

I carried on anyway using [CMD]git clone[/CMD] adding any missing pkgs as required.

The instructions say:-
If you decide against running as a system service for whatever reason, then when run by a user the first time startup of Gerbera creates a folder called ~/.config/gerbera in your home directory.
Click to expand...
but I didn't see such a directory created automatically, so created it manually.

But in the end I didn't manage to set up a mysql database for it. I didn't know if database auto creation was not compiled in, so I tried creating the tables manually, but not sure how this is supposed to work:-
Code: 
$ mysql [-u <username>] [-p] \
  <database name> < \
  <install prefix>/share/gerbera/mysql.sql
I know the path is wrong for FreeBSD, but I don't know what the instruction is supposed to do.

Any guidance would be appreciated.
 
balanga said:
Doesn't work because liblastfm does not exit.
Click to expand...
But liblastfm-qt5 exist. Use it instead, if you want to use lastFM functionality
balanga said:
but I didn't see such a directory created automatically, so created it manually.
Click to expand...
Yes, I am see the same, automaticaly none is created. Ok, not a problem. Do all things by hands:
mkdir /usr/local/etc/gerbera/
gerbera --create-config > /usr/local/etc/gerbera/config.xml
echo gerbera_enable=\"YES\" >> /etc/rc.conf
Save as gerbera startup script into location /usr/local/etc/rc.d/gerbera followed code:
Code: 
#!/bin/sh

# PROVIDE: gerbera
# REQUIRE: NETWORKING
# BEFORE:  LOGIN
# KEYWORD: shutdown

. /etc/rc.subr

name=gerbera
rcvar=gerbera_enable

gerbera_config="/usr/local/etc/gerbera/config.xml"
gerbera_logfile="/var/log/gerbera.log"

start_cmd="/usr/local/bin/${name} -c ${gerbera_config} -l ${gerbera_logfile} &"
stop_cmd="killall -15 ${name}"

load_rc_config $name
: ${gerbera_enable:=no}
: ${gerbera_msg="Nothing started."}

gerbera_start()
{
    echo "$gerbera_msg"
}

run_rc_command "$1"
install mysql-server if you want to use it.
tune gerbera database / user / privileges:
mysql
CREATE DATABASE gerbera;
CREATE USER 'gerbera'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'gerbera';
GRANT ALL ON gerbera.* TO 'gerbera'@'localhost';
flush privileges;

then edit /usr/local/etc/gerbera/config.xml to enable mysql connection. Don't forget to setup password:
XML: 
<sqlite3 enabled="no">
  <database-file>gerbera.db</database-file>
</sqlite3>
<mysql enabled="yes">
  <host>localhost</host>
  <username>gerbera</username>
  <database>gerbera</database>
  <password>gerbera</password>
</mysql>

Now, gerbera should be workable.
service gerbera start

Go to and read /var/log/gerbera.log to see that all is ok. Or not Ok, then read what gerbera say to search the way to fix what is goes wrong.
 
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