[renMike]

Hi,
I've recently added a Pi to my list of xbmc devices and seem to generally have it working, with the exception of syncing to my SQL install. The SQL install was put in place to share my content from my NAS to all the xbmc devices in the house and has been working fine whilst there have only been windows devices. Now that I have a Pi I seem to have a problem. The Pi doesn't like my SMB shares from the NAS and so I thought i'd go with NFS as these seem to give good performance. It works well. But, It seems that the change in share type is causing a problem (unless I've misdiagnosed the problem). I end up with duplicates of media in the Pi install and no Syncing.
Looking in the MySQL database I can see that there are a mixture of file path types in the records and so i'm presuming that because NFS <> SMB this is the cause of my problem.
Is it likely that the share differences are causing my problem?
Is there a recommended way of coxing the Pi and Windows devices to sync? (i'm using advancedsettings and MySQL)
Which common share type can I use to allow the Pi and Windows machines to sync successfully?

Hardware:
NAS: Synology DS211+
PC1: Windows 7 Professional - Hardwired
PC2: Windows 7 Starter - Wireless
Pi: Model B - Hardwired

If I've missed anything then please let me know.

[Milhouse]

Of course you end up with duplicates - "nfs://<movie-path>avatar.mkv" is a completely different media item to "smb://<movie-path>avatar.mkv".

The SMB movies won't play in your Pi (unless you can get SMB working) and likewise the NFS movies won't play on your Windows PCs (unless you add NFS support).

If you want to share your media content between Windows and Pi, I would suggest you get the bottom of your SMB share problem - SMB is known to be working on the Pi, so this suggests something in your NAS setup is not right.

MySQL is the recommended way to share a media library, so no problems there, just make sure that all clients are able to access the same media using identical sources (in your case this pretty much means SMB).

[renMike]

Great, I think that's what I need to know.
In summary... SMB is the way to go.

[robweber]

If you really can't get SMB working there isn't any reason NFS shouldn't work for windows and the PI. I've been using NFS on my windows clients for a long time with no issues (or crazy configurations, default install + XBMC).

[jayman13]

I couldn't get smb on my raspberry pi either. I'm using nfs just fune though...

[nickr]

You can use path substitution if you want to mix and match source types. You'll find info for that on the wiki.

[renMike]

If you really can't get SMB working there isn't any reason NFS shouldn't work for windows and the PI. I've been using NFS on my windows clients for a long time with no issues (or crazy configurations, default install + XBMC).

I can see that Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate will run an NFS client, but apparently not Professional (which is what I have).
Do you run either Enterprise or Ultimate? If so that would explain why you can use NFS. If not, then how do you get NFS to work on Pro or Starter?

---

I couldn't get smb on my raspberry pi either. I'm using nfs just fune though...

I can get NFS to work on the Pi just fine as well, but it appears from an earlier answer that this is my problem since my other devices are using SMB. Do you have any other devices using non NFS sharing protocols?

---

You can use path substitution if you want to mix and match source types. You'll find info for that on the wiki.

This sounds promising, but the only wiki article I could find was this one: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Path_substitution.
I'm already using this to share Thumbnails (as per its example) but do you think I can also use it to share sources? I'd be interested to hear how it can be done if you know.

[jayman13]

Just make all your devices use NFS. There is a program that works well on windows. I think $20 that allows you to run an nfs server on any windows installation.

[renMike]

Just make all your devices use NFS. There is a program that works well on windows. I think $20 that allows you to run an nfs server on any windows installation.

Great. Am I allowed to ask what the app is or do I get kicked out for such tactics?
Does that mean you use this app on your Windows PC and successfully attach to an NFS share?
Do you also use a common MySQL instance to share metadata across a number of devices and does it work?

---

I've managed to get my Pi to use an SMB share, but I've had to use an IP address rather than a NetBIOS name and as a result (presuming it's this) I still can't sync across the devices. Do all devices have to connect in the exact same way so that the 'c22' column in the movies table of the database reads the same?

[jayman13]

I'm not home or I would mention it. I'm sure you can because I got it from the xbmc wiki. Just google xbmc nfs windows and check the wiki for the program...

[popcornmix]

Just make all your devices use NFS. There is a program that works well on windows. I think $20 that allows you to run an nfs server on any windows installation.

Probably hanewin. http://www.hanewin.net/nfs-e.htm.
You can test it free for a month. I use it, and it works well.

[jayman13]

Just make all your devices use NFS. There is a program that works well on windows. I think $20 that allows you to run an nfs server on any windows installation.

Probably hanewin. http://www.hanewin.net/nfs-e.htm.
You can test it free for a month. I use it, and it works well.

Yup, that's it.

[renMike]

Thanks guys. I'll look into it. I Think I'd prefer NFS to SMB for performance reasons. Just a shame that MS dropped support for it in Win 7.

[renMike]

What I'm looking at (following the link and xbmc wiki link) is a NFS Server. Call ne naïve, but don't I require a NFS Client?

[nickr]

Your server requires an NFS server. Linux provides this pretty well out of the box. eg https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguid...ystem.html

Each XBMC instance has it's own built in NFS client.