In the ps3mediaserver thread (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3072.msg37178#msg37178), I asked how can someone install an "add-on", in this case ps3mediaserver on the USB drive so that I don't need to install it all over again when I reboot my server. It goes like this:

Me and my son - well mainly my son - managed to make it working on my brand new unRaid 4.4.2 build. My son told me that the way unRaid works, it mounts the whole OS in an image and when we installed the packages required to run PMS, we in fact intalled it on a disk image and not the actual USB flash drive. In order to demonstrate that, he rebooted the server and PMS is not working anymore. I should say, he could not run mplayer when he demonstrated this fact to me.

 

Are we missing something here ? If not, how can we make sure we install everything on the USB drive so the we don't lose PMS every time we need to reboot this baby ?

 

As a complete Linux Noob, I can't, for the life of me, understand how this Linux thing works. I/we did install ps3mediaserver and all it's dependencies and it worked but when we rebooted the computer, there was no way in hell we could transcode our movie files again. For a Linux black belt like some of you guys on this forum, it might be as simple as counting to ten but for me, this is quite hard to do once, I really don't need to do it every time we need/have to shut the server down so your help would be greatly appreciated.

I've written a HOW-TO on getting Samba announced over Avahi, but there's also a chapter about permanent storage of files and packages, and the go script that is run at startup.

Loking good so far !!! I followed your "receipe" and Avahi runs OK. Now on to ps3mediaserver...

Close but no cigar... 

 

I seem to get the packages installed every time I reboot the computer, which is a good thing. At least, now I understand how this thing works. Unfortunately, every time I reboot, I get a different response from the computer. Some time, I can get a near perfect reboot and I can watch almost all mkv file I already have on the server. I say almost as some of them give me grief but I suspect I need to install more codecs to read them correctly. Some other times, those file I was able to watch can't be read anymore - I get the corrupt data message - while I can read others...

 

I can't, for the life of me, figure out what is happening in this darn box. Oh well, I shut every thing off for the night and I'll keep trying to make this thing work again tomorrow night. Hopefully, some day, either I'll figure it all out and I'll finally be able to watch HD movies on my plasma TV or Tom will have incorporated it in his next version.

 

Rant on

As George said in his I have questions about unRaid thread, I too would really like to have some kind of phone support from Lime Technology or even better, be able to custom order a working copy of Unraid with the add-ons I really want/need. In my case, I'd like unMenu (tried it, liked it), maybe BubbaRaid (did not try it as I don't have a PC in the house to finish the installation), ps3mediaserver (I really really need this to take full advantage of my PS3) and a torrent client with a GUi I can access from another computer. That custom install would probably cover 99.5% of my needs and I'm willing to bet it would cover the needs of quite a bit of many unRaid users too. That would be a great package to offer to potential unRaid users that have a hard time finding their way in a shell environment.

 

At this time, I have limited funds to allocate to an unRaid server. I have already spent an amount that could have been spent somewhere else (back to school expenditure most probably) if I'd known I'd be spending too many evenings trying to make this thing work and I'm only trying to run ps3mediaserver at this time. I'm not even sure I'll try installing a torrent client on this computer even though that would make a lot of sense as I really don't feel like spending countless hours in front of this darn computer working my *ss off and still getting nowhere.

Rant off

 

Time to go to bed now. Tomorrow will be another day.

 

Close but no cigar... 

 

I seem to get the packages installed every time I reboot the computer, which is a good thing. At least, now I understand how this thing works. Unfortunately, every time I reboot, I get a different response from the computer. Some time, I can get a near perfect reboot and I can watch almost all mkv file I already have on the server. I say almost as some of them give me grief but I suspect I need to install more codecs to read them correctly. Some other times, those file I was able to watch can't be read anymore - I get the corrupt data message - while I can read others...

 

I can't, for the life of me, figure out what is happening in this darn box. Oh well, I shut every thing off for the night and I'll keep trying to make this thing work again tomorrow night. Hopefully, some day, either I'll figure it all out and I'll finally be able to watch HD movies on my plasma TV or Tom will have incorporated it in his next version.

 

Rant on

As George said in his I have questions about unRaid thread, I too would really like to have some kind of phone support from Lime Technology or even better, be able to custom order a working copy of Unraid with the add-ons I really want/need. In my case, I'd like unMenu (tried it, liked it), maybe BubbaRaid (did not try it as I don't have a PC in the house to finish the installation), ps3mediaserver (I really really need this to take full advantage of my PS3) and a torrent client with a GUi I can access from another computer. That custom install would probably cover 99.5% of my needs and I'm willing to bet it would cover the needs of quite a bit of many unRaid users too. That would be a great package to offer to potential unRaid users that have a hard time finding their way in a shell environment.

 

At this time, I have limited funds to allocate to an unRaid server. I have already spent an amount that could have been spent somewhere else (back to school expenditure most probably) if I'd known I'd be spending too many evenings trying to make this thing work and I'm only trying to run ps3mediaserver at this time. I'm not even sure I'll try installing a torrent client on this computer even though that would make a lot of sense as I really don't feel like spending countless hours in front of this darn computer working my *ss off and still getting nowhere.

Rant off

 

Time to go to bed now. Tomorrow will be another day.

 

 

unRAID seems to me to be more of a side project for Tom than his main business. Delivering custom unRAID builds takes a lot of time, some I guess he can't really spend on this. And that's where the forum is for, to help others with problems and questions so that Tom doesn't have to.

 

That said, I think the kind of money you spend on a Pro license should give you just that, instead of relying on a (not so active) forum. Development on unRAID is slow and new builds occur only infrequently. Maybe Tom should do a joint-venture of some kind, or hire someone, to take on active development and support.

 

However, unRAID is still a great product and lots of customization can be done with the help of this forum and the many how-to's. The money I spent on two Pro licenses was well worth it and beats any mass-storage RAID solution I've encountered so far.

That said, I think the kind of money you spend on a Pro license should give you just that, instead of relying on a (not so active) forum. Development on unRAID is slow and new builds occur only infrequently. Maybe Tom should do a joint-venture of some kind, or hire someone, to take on active development and support.

 

For the size of the forum (admittedly small) there is a lot of activity.  Without the help of members like JoeL, RobJ, WebooTech, bubbaQ, NAS, bjp999, myself and many others there would not be any help to begin with.  There is a user contributed wiki that is one of the best i have ever seen, on any site.  If i had to venture a guess and speculate a little bit, i would say that if the above members disappeared (all at the same time) for any extended period of time shit would hit the fan.  Tom would be getting many many more emails and requests for support.

 

 

That said, I think the kind of money you spend on a Pro license should give you just that, instead of relying on a (not so active) forum. Development on unRAID is slow and new builds occur only infrequently. Maybe Tom should do a joint-venture of some kind, or hire someone, to take on active development and support.

 

For the size of the forum (admittedly small) there is a lot of activity.  Without the help of members like JoeL, RobJ, WebooTech, bubbaQ, NAS, bjp999, myself and many others there would not be any help to begin with.  There is a user contributed wiki that is one of the best i have ever seen, on any site.  If i had to venture a guess and speculate a little bit, i would say that if the above members disappeared (all at the same time) for any extended period of time shit would hit the fan.  Tom would be getting many many more emails and requests for support.

 

I agree that for the size of the forum there is a lot of activity and there are quite some members that contribute quite some. Nonetheless, I imagine they are not on payroll with Lime Technology and do this in their spare time (and lots of credit for that). Tom must feel lucky to have these guys "on board". I myself try to give back to the community by writing how-to's, specifically aimed at the Mac fan base.

I agree that for the size of the forum there is a lot of activity and there are quite some members that contribute quite some. Nonetheless, I imagine they are not on payroll with Lime Technology and do this in their spare time (and lots of credit for that). Tom must feel lucky to have these guys "on board". I myself try to give back to the community by writing how-to's, specifically aimed at the Mac fan base.

 

I agree with everything you have said.  I myself try to do what i can, and like you for the Mac people in the community.  I have written up a few tutorials and applescripts to help Mac users with there unRAID servers.  I do not by any mean lump myself into the JoeL, RobJ, bjp999, etc realm of knowledge but i try to help with the wiki all i can.  There is still stuff that can be done to the wiki (tis never ending).