NASMount Plug-in for Humax Foxsat HDR Web Interface

adrianf36

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Good Evening All,

I am pleased to announce the release of the NASMount plug-in for the Foxsat HDR Web Interface.

This one's been a long time coming, partly due to me having a lack of time to get it finished and partly because of some serious difficulties discovered in early testing. So before we get started there are a few thank yous to be said.

Firstly, please read the documentation for the credit for the source of inspiration for this plug-in. I would love to post here but since it came from what may be considered a rival forum it will just get deleted I suspect.

Massive, massive thanks to raydon for giving me the pointers on compiling the relevant kernel modules, providing a new Custom Firmware to support NASMount and fix the early problems with it, and for helping with the scripting in the final stages of packaging. Thanks also to the beta testers (raydon, REPASSAC, Partridge and David500) who bravely experimented with early versions despite serious problems and who also provided superb feedback during the test cycles.

Okay, so what is NASMount? Simply put, NASMount creates a virtual USB drive and "plugs it into" the Foxsat. It then allows you to mount one or more shared network drives onto the virtual USB device and access them as if they were a physical USB device plugged directly into the Foxsat.

Advantages of the NASMount Plug-in:


  • No need for large, separately powered USB disks to be physically attached to the Foxsat
  • Supports multiple network mount points meaning archives can be split across multiple network attached devices e.g. a NAS Box, a laptop etc.
  • Recordings can be archived to network shares using built in Foxsat UI functions
  • Recordings can be played directly from archives - no updates of sidecar files required
  • Removes the need to upgrade the internal disk in the Foxsat to a larger size when it gets full - simply archive your recordings to NAS and have them available any time
  • Allows recordings to be archived and accessed from multiple Foxsat receivers if you're lucky enough to have more than one!

PLEASE read the documentation provided with this package and available in the documentation pages of the Web Interface after installation. Your attention is drawn especially to the "Known Issues" section which details a scenario which can lead to a lock up of the Humax User Interface but is easily avoided once you understand the limitation.

Pre-requisite
You will need to download the latest version of the Custom Firmware (v 4.1.0) which raydon has kindly prepared to support NASMount. It will not work without it and is available from the usual download link in the first post in this thread (http://www.avforums.com/forums/free...r-bundle-foxsat-hdr-release-4-0-part-3-a.html)

Installation
Install in the usual way. Visit the "Package Management" page of the web interface and click on the "upgrade package list from Internet" button. Once complete, visit the "available" tab and install NASMount. Configuration is via the "Settings" page of the web interface after installation.

I hope you find this plug-in useful.

Regards to all on the forums,

Adrian.
 
Brilliant Adrian. :thumbsup: and thanks

working a treat, only thing though is I don't understand the Share Name and Mount Directory. I presumed the share name was just an identifying tag that the user would recognise when selecting a device to connect to ie. my Nas or my laptop etc. As for the Mount directory this is the folder on the device from which the Humax is pointed to presumably. So based on that, I filled in the required fields and got an error that the humax couldn't create a mount. I decided to change the share name to the same as the mount directory name and Bingo. :smashin:

Once again many thanks to you and to all the guys who supported you with it.
 
Hi GC,

The share name is the network name of the share on your NAS or laptop or whatever. The Mount Directory is the name of the folder that will be created on the virtual USB drive under which those files will be visible.

You can leave the mount directory blank and the files from your NAS will be visible at the root of the vUSB in the Humax UI (saves navigating down one folder level) but this will limit you to a single mount point. If you have e.g. Two NAS shares to mount you must specify a mount directory for each e.g. NAS1 and NAS2 in order to then be able to browse to each on the Humax.

Hope that makes sense.
 
Adrian

Tried this out and received the following messages in the log

Tue Jan 29 18:28:51 GMT 2013 : Found Gadget on : sda1
Tue Jan 29 18:28:51 GMT 2013 : Pinging Host 192.168.1.2
Tue Jan 29 18:28:53 GMT 2013 : 3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
Tue Jan 29 18:28:53 GMT 2013 : Ping of host successfull .... mapping drive
Tue Jan 29 18:28:53 GMT 2013 : Making mount point directory /media/sda1/HDMovies
Tue Jan 29 18:28:53 GMT 2013 : Mounting //192.168.1.2/HDMovies onto /media/sda1/HDMovies
Tue Jan 29 18:28:53 GMT 2013 : ERROR Mounting //192.168.1.2/HDMovies onto /media/sda1/HDMovies
Tue Jan 29 18:28:53 GMT 2013 : Finished mounting all mount points

The share name is correct and can be seen on the network ( My media server sees it and will play video from it)

I set up a new user on Web Interface access control and used the credential on the share. Is that correct ? Or should I use credentials from an account set up on the pc. The only account on the pc doesn't use a password and NASMount doesn't allow spaces in fields
 
......
The share name is correct and can be seen on the network ( My media server sees it and will play video from it)

I set up a new user on Web Interface access control and used the credential on the share. Is that correct ? Or should I use credentials from an account set up on the pc. The only account on the pc doesn't use a password and NASMount doesn't allow spaces in fields
The user name and password specified for NASMount should be the username and password required to access the network share, and not a Web Interface username and password.

Not sure I follow the comment about spaces. Do you mean that NASMount won't allow you to enter a blank password? That's correct. I hadn't thought that blank passwords would be commonplace. Apologies for that.

One solution would be to create a new user account on the PC that does have a password and to assign that permissions to the share. Then use the credentials for the new user account for NASMount.

If it's a common problem and there are lots of you out there using blank passwords I'll alter the validation on NASMount so that blank passwords can be used.

Hope that helps you sammywammy too. If not, can you post more details please.
 
The user name and password specified for NASMount should be the username and password required to access the network share, and not a Web Interface username and password.

Not sure I follow the comment about spaces. Do you mean that NASMount won't allow you to enter a blank password? That's correct. I hadn't thought that blank passwords would be commonplace. Apologies for that.

One solution would be to create a new user account on the PC that does have a password and to assign that permissions to the share. Then use the credentials for the new user account for NASMount.

If it's a common problem and there are lots of you out there using blank passwords I'll alter the validation on NASMount so that blank passwords can be used.

Hope that helps you sammywammy too. If not, can you post more details please.


Adrian I am using the same password used to access my server but still comming back with a error mounting I'm using the wdtv as the storage device to archives to which has a USB device attached to it

If I use apps on my android phone I cah access the wdtv USB just fine but by using your add on it seems to not want to access it

so what's going on here ?
 
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Slightly confused I'm afraid. If I understand correctly you have a USB drive connected to your wdtv and it's that which you are trying to connect to using NASMount.

Does the wdtv share the USB drive onto the network? Can you access the share using any other device e.g. a PC? If so, are you using the same credentials as you would use to connect to the shared USB drive from a PC?

Or have I misunderstood?
 
Slightly confused I'm afraid. If I understand correctly you have a USB drive connected to your wdtv and it's that which you are trying to connect to using NASMount.

Does the wdtv share the USB drive onto the network? Can you access the share using any other device e.g. a PC? If so, are you using the same credentials as you would use to connect to the shared USB drive from a PC?

Or have I misunderstood?

no you got it correct and yep the wdtv shares the USB over network I can access it using a app on my phone which scans and access my network storage devices and i can also access it using a pc just fine

I'm using exactly the same creditable as I would with a pc thepc picks it up fine. The app mediahouse for android picks it up fine


I appreciate you replying back and helping now I just need to know

so what's going on here
 
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Could be a case sensitive thing perhaps.

The PC might not care but the Foxsat will probably need the share name specified in exactly the same case as its shared. Have you used correct capitalisation etc when entering the share name in NASMount?
 
Could be a case sensitive thing perhaps.

The PC might not care but the Foxsat will probably need the share name specified in exactly the same case as its shared. Have you used correct capitalisation etc when entering the share name in NASMount?

I'm pretty sure but I will have to do some testing again I will let you know how I get on
 
Sounds a great addition to the custom firmware, just one question, do you have to have a NAS drive attached to your network, or can you set up some kind of (virtual NAS) drive on an existing Windows PC, and point the Humax to that? And if you can can anyone point me in the right direction to creating the NAS drive thingy on my PC...sorry if the is a dumb question
Thanks in advance

Stacey
 
Hi Stacey,

No need for anything fancy, NASMount will connect to a standard file share on a Windows PC - if you're running Windows that is. If so, what version? I'll try and knock up some notes on how to create a share if you need them.
 
Sammywanny,

Just realised. MediaHouse is a uPnP media browser. So sounds like your wdtv is serving the files on the USB drive via some sort of built in media server. Unfortunately that's not what we need here. NASMount will connect to a network file share only. It does not connect to uPnP media servers.
 
The user name and password specified for NASMount should be the username and password required to access the network share, and not a Web Interface username and password.

Not sure I follow the comment about spaces. Do you mean that NASMount won't allow you to enter a blank password? That's correct. I hadn't thought that blank passwords would be commonplace. Apologies for that.

One solution would be to create a new user account on the PC that does have a password and to assign that permissions to the share. Then use the credentials for the new user account for NASMount.

If it's a common problem and there are lots of you out there using blank passwords I'll alter the validation on NASMount so that blank passwords can be used.

Hope that helps you sammywammy too. If not, can you post more details please.

Adrian,
As per your suggestion I added a new user account to the pc & gave it a password and using these credentials the share mounted first time.

I'd still like it to allow a blank password as well as spaces in share names as most of my share names have spaces in them (Windows Vista)
 
Hi Stacey,

No need for anything fancy, NASMount will connect to a standard file share on a Windows PC - if you're running Windows that is. If so, what version? I'll try and knock up some notes on how to create a share if you need them.

Running Vista 32 SP2. This is going to save me, as SWIMBO is always complaining that "it's all your stuff blocking up the HDD on the Foxsat!!"

Thanks

Stacey
 
Running Vista 32 SP2.
Ok so, it should work like this:

  1. Open Windows Explorer
  2. Navigate to and select the folder that you want to share
  3. Right click on the folder and select "Properties"
  4. Select "Sharing" tab
  5. Click "Advanced Sharing"
  6. Tick "Share this folder"
  7. Enter a Share Name (will default to the folder name but you can change it)
  8. Click "Permissions"
  9. If "Everyone" is displayed in the "Group or user names" section, select it and click "Remove"
  10. Click "Add"
  11. Enter the username you want to be able to access the share (one of the users on the Vista PC)
  12. Click "Check Names" (Vista should then change the name to <computer name>\<User Name>)
  13. Click OK
  14. Select user just added in "Group or user names" section
  15. Tick "Full Control" in the "Allow" section below
  16. Click "Apply"
  17. Click "OK"
  18. Click "OK"
The "Share Name" you entered in step 7 above will be the share name to use in NASMount. Don't use spaces ..... see earlier posts from twosheds.

The user you select in step 11 must have a password set. Again, see earlier observations from twosheds. This will then be the username and password to use in NASMount to connect.

Think that should work. Don't have Vista (only Win7) but from a quick google the process looks comparible. The above process will (I think) require the logged on user to have admin rights on the PC. You may get some User Access Control pop-ups during the process too - unless, like a lot of people, you've switched them off.

Hope that works.
 
Just wanted to say a massive "THANKS" to Adrian, Raydon and everyone else involved for this brilliant add-on. So simple to setup and so powerful in the flexibility it offers. I now have three shares mounted across my two file servers and it all works perfectly.

Having innocently asked, only yesterday, whether it might be possible to mount remote Windows filesystems on the Humax, a complete packaged solution falls into my lap the following day. Now that's what I call service! You guys are awesome. :clap:

Regards, Ian
 
Sammywanny,

Just realised. MediaHouse is a uPnP media browser. So sounds like your wdtv is serving the files on the USB drive via some sort of built in media server. Unfortunately that's not what we need here. NASMount will connect to a network file share only. It does not connect to uPnP media servers.


Thanks for that piece of information Adrian so I guess I will need to buy a proper NAS Anyway I still like this add on I think its great. Thankful for your support
 
A big THANK YOU from me also to all of you at the Humax Foxsat Bletchley Park laboratory :smashin:

Every time I revisit this forum after a week or so absence I seem to find another jaw dropping development that imo makes the Humax Foxsat HDR the best pvr available for the price especially after upgrading the internal drive to 2TB.

My only worry is that I'll outlive the innovative support for this machine. What'll I do then? :rolleyes:

Adrian, I don't know about others, but I also use blank passwords on all of my network shares so it would help me if you could alter the validation on NASMount so that blank passwords can be used.

I've tried streaming from a USB3 external drive attached to my W7 desktop that's available on my network but the HD recordings break up (especially the BBC 3D ones) so I'll probably have to split these up and store them directly onto my network share's internal drives for smoother streaming.
 
A big THANK YOU from me also to all of you at the Humax Foxsat Bletchley Park laboratory :smashin:

Every time I revisit this forum after a week or so absence I seem to find another jaw dropping development that imo makes the Humax Foxsat HDR the best pvr available for the price especially after upgrading the internal drive to 2TB.

My only worry is that I'll outlive the innovative support for this machine. What'll I do then? :rolleyes:

Adrian, I don't know about others, but I also use blank passwords on all of my network shares so it would help me if you could alter the validation on NASMount so that blank passwords can be used.

I've tried streaming from a USB3 external drive attached to my W7 desktop that's available on my network but the HD recordings break up (especially the BBC 3D ones) so I'll probably have to split these up and store them directly onto my network share's internal drives for smoother streaming.


Ok can anyone explain what I need to use this add on before I get things horribly wrong

so far I understand sharing a fodler from the windows its shared on network which will allow me to push my recording to the windows machine and play them also from that folder but that's fine and dandy but that's not my intention

ok what I would like to do is buy a storage that plugs into my router then push recordings to that now which NAS DO I NEED TO BUY FOR THIS TO WORK
links to the exact product would be helpfull if someone one could point in the right direction or does it not work with a pc only windows folder meaning only send recordings can be sent to a actual pc that's got folders that on a network share and won't work strictly with a NAS drive attached to my router?

I'm trying to stop involving pc altogether


second I thought I did have the WDTV Live has a network share because if I go into network share on windows on my pc the wdtv is in there meaning it is a share am I not right?

I mean the windows media player picks up wdtv as a share in network places its there as a network share in network places so it should work with this add on should it not ? I don't mind getting a new NAS drive as I'm due one anyway but just wondering why I can't make wdtv work the same unless wdtv is sharing not by smb/cifs ?

can anyone please clarify I really thought it would work with were the way I have it set up as a network share over my network?

any ideas please
 
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can anyone please clarify I really thought it would work with were the way I have it set up as a network share over my network?

any ideas please
Hi again,

Ok - just googled the manual for the WDTV Live and it does appear to have an on-board Samba server to share the USB drive appropriately for NASMount. Not clear from the manual how it shares this though. Looks like it might allow annonymous access in which case we'd need to address the blank password (and possibly username) problem already highlighted.

I've got a WDTV Live knocking about somewhere. Don't use it any more as moved to XBMC running on a Raspberry Pi but I'll dig it out when I get a chance and have a play and try to post some instructions if I can get it figured out.

Unlikely to be today though I'm afraid.
 
Hi again,

Ok - just googled the manual for the WDTV Live and it does appear to have an on-board Samba server to share the USB drive appropriately for NASMount. Not clear from the manual how it shares this though. Looks like it might allow annonymous access in which case we'd need to address the blank password (and possibly username) problem already highlighted.

I've got a WDTV Live knocking about somewhere. Don't use it any more as moved to XBMC running on a Raspberry Pi but I'll dig it out when I get a chance and have a play and try to post some instructions if I can get it figured out.

Unlikely to be today though I'm afraid.


Thankful btw it does let you set a password and username bcoz its not just anonymous access
you set it through the wdtv so I don't think the username or password is my problem ether anyway I'm glad you have a wdtv to test the NASMount plugin I will stay stuck to this post hopefully we can get this sorted because I knew WDTVLive mentioned samba share so technically should be possible

Once again thanks for you continuous support for the add on its a great add on and would look forward to your results you get
 
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