Configure a Synology NAS as MySQL server for XBMC

Posted by Mark - December 2, 2011 - How To

If you use XBMC and you have a Synology NAS device, then you ought to think about using the NAS to host not only your music and videos, but also your MySQL database! The Synology has built in support for MySQL and it takes only a few minutes to set it up for XBMC. This will allow you to use multiple XBMC installations and share the same database and thumbnails. In my case I use an Apple TV 2nd gen in the living room with a Crystalbuntu AppleTV 1st gen in the media room. I also have a couple of windows installs that I can use to either watch movies anywhere in the house, or just to manage the library from my desktop.

The main benefit of a MySQL setup are that there is only ever one place where you will need to update TV Show and movie information, so no matter what devices does the scraping, each device reaps the benefits! But, the reason I like it is because I can watch something upstairs and stop in the middle and then resume from any other XBMC player in the house. And, if I ever need to re-install one of my devices, there is no need to re-scrape all of my media. I just put a few config files in the userdata folder and everything is just the way it was before.

Enough with the why…How do you do it??

Part I – Installing phpMyAdmin on a Synoogy NAS

Since I like to keep things easy we will install phpMyAdmin on the Synology and then enable MySQL for Web Station. phpMyAdmin is graphical interface to MySQL and makes things very easy to manage later. This used to be a complicated task, but ever since DSM 3.2 (the Synology OS) phpMyAdmin is available as an out-of-the-box plugin package, so it could not be more simple!

Here is a video on how to get phpMyAdmin installed on your Synology NAS

Or… if you’re old school… Here is a text explanation…

Step one is to enable MySQL and the Web Station interface on the Synology.

Just open the control panel choose “Web Services.”

In the Web Services window, check “Enable Web Station” and “Enable MySQL.”

Next, we will install the phpMyAdmin package for Synology.

Once Web Station and MySQL are turned on, open the “Admin” panel with the arrow button in the top left corner of the page.

From within the Admin panel, choose the “Package Center” and click on the “packages tab.

Scroll to the bottom and find the phpMyAdmin package and click “install.”

Once is is fished installing, click on the “Installed” tab and click “Run” to start phpMyAdmin.

Now, go back to the admin panel and there should be a new phpMyAdmin icon. Click it to open a new browser window and enjoy phpMyAdmin goodness!

Note – It did not work if you cannot see this icon!

Congratulations! You now have a centralized MySQL database!

Part II – MySQL Configuration

This process used to much more difficult involving the creation of users and databases with command lines and all sorts of stuff… Now, it s two step process and only requires a single user! Check out the video for a complete walk though or keep reading for all the details.

So, first step, login to phpMyAdmin.

In the default window for MyPHP Admin, locate the “Priveleges” tab, and click it.

This will give you a list of the current database users and the option to add new users to the database. Click “Add a new user” at the bottom:

Give the user a username of “xbmc” and the same password, or one of your choice. I just use xbmc to keep it easy. Do not add anything for host. In the middle section, make sure “Grant all privileges on wildcard etc…” is checked. In the last section, select “Check All and then click GO!

You should see a confirmation saying that all went well…

Finally – And this is important, some older guides say that you need to also create databases, but this is now wrong! XBMC will create the databases for you, all you need to do is create the user and then let XBMC do the rest. If a database exists with the same name that XBMC expects to find, XBMC will try and use it, and if it is empty, XBMC will fail to connect and throw a ton of errors about “unable to upgrade database…”

That’s it! MySQL is setup.

Part III – Client Configuration and Path Substitution

Now that MySQL is setup, we need to do a couple of things on the AppleTV, Linix box or Windows box to make Thumbnals work right. By default all of the XBMC thumbnails are stored locally in the file system of the player but we want all of our XBMC boxes to share one centralized thumbnails folder. If this is not done, only the player that does a library scan can ever display the thumbnails. So, if you were to scrape on one TV, and then go to another one, all of the fan art and thumbnails would be missing and the GUI would look terrible. There are a couple of ways to do this and some of them depend on the version of your software, but right now all currently released versions of XBMC (Eden and Eden Betas) that work on the ATV1 and ATV2 support path substitution. If you need to use a symbolic link for an older build of XBMC I can explain it.. But its tedious… So I am gong to ignore it for now.

The easy way (works with) :

An Apple TV 1 using Crystalbuntu with the July 2011 update or better (not using Dharma)
An Apple TV 2 using 10.0-7 or above (11.0 or Eden Betas are best)
Just about anything using an 11.0/Eden build

You can do this the easy way by adding a section to the advancesettigns.xml file for XBMC. The Advanced settings will probably not yet exist on your ATV2 or a windows/Linux install but Crystalbuntu (ATV1 via Sam’s image) will include the file already. The advancedsettigns.xml file is used by XBMC to enable features that are otherwise hidden, such as the MySQL shared database. There is no big secret to the file, it is plain text and if it exists in the userdata folder of the XBMC install, it will be read and used.

For the sake of simplicity I will list out generic instructions for Windows, Crystalbuntu and an ATV2… The text and settings are all the same but there are minor differences in where the file is located and what may or may not be in the file already.

For Windows

(This is covered in depth in the video above)

The file is not created by default and must be located in the roaming profile. typically:

c:\users\[USERNAME]\appdata\roaming\XBMC\userdata

Go to that folder and create a text file named “advancedsettings.xml. Use notpad to edit the file and eneter the following text:

<advancedsettings>
     <videodatabase>
       <type>mysql</type>
       <host>192.168.1.XXX</host>
       <port>3306</port>
       <user>xbmc</user>
       <pass>xbmc</pass>
       <name>xbmc_video</name>
    </videodatabase>
    <musicdatabase>
       <type>mysql</type>
       <host>192.168.1.XXX</host>
       <port>3306</port>
       <user>xbmc</user>
       <pass>xbmc</pass>
       <name>xbmc_music</name>
    </musicdatabase>
    <pathsubstitution>
     <substitute>
      <from>special://masterprofile/Thumbnails/</from>
      <to>smb://192.168.1.XXX/media/Thumbnails/</to>
     </substitute>
    </pathsubstitution>
</advancedsettings>

NOTE: In your setup replace all of the IP addresses with the address of the NAS/Shared folder and also check the path for the thumbnails. I am showing an SMB share here though it can also be done with NFS as well. In my case this assumes I have a root shared folder called “media” and a folder inside named “Thumbnails” and that it has public read/write permissions. The thumbnail folder must be writeable and case matters!

For an ATV1 with Crystalbubntu or some Linux installs:

You will need to add a few lines to the existing file (or create a new one in Linux). For Crysatlbuntu, you must have already booted the ATV and actually gotten all the way to XBMC so that Sam’s scripts will have updated the file system and included the most recent advancedsettigns.xml update. Basically, boot all the way once, reboot a couple times and then follow the instructions below. If you have used your AppleTV for a while, just re-boot once to be safe.

Use Putty to SSH into the ATV2 with a userID of ATV and a password of ATV.
Type:

sudo nano /root/.xbmc/userdata/advancedsettings.xml

password is atv again

Once nano opens you should see an XML file with this (and possibly more) in it:

<advancedsettings>
 <useddsfanart>true</useddsfanart>
 </advancedsettings>

Its possible that the file may be brand new and empty… In either case you will need to add a new section between a pair of <advancedsettings> and </advancedsettings> tags. If there is noting in the file, you will need to put <advancedsettigns> above and </advancedsettigns> below what is added next.
Add the following:

NOTE: The file must start with </advancedsettigns>

<videodatabase>
       <type>mysql</type>
       <host>192.168.1.XXX</host>
       <port>3306</port>
       <user>xbmc</user>
       <pass>xbmc</pass>
       <name>xbmc_video</name>
    </videodatabase>
    <musicdatabase>
       <type>mysql</type>
       <host>192.168.1.XXX</host>
       <port>3306</port>
       <user>xbmc</user>
       <pass>xbmc</pass>
       <name>xbmc_music</name>
    </musicdatabase>
    <pathsubstitution>
     <substitute>
      <from>special://masterprofile/Thumbnails/</from>
      <to>smb://192.168.1.XXX/media/Thumbnails/</to>
     </substitute>
    </pathsubstitution>

NOTE: The file must end with </advancedsettigns>

NOTE: In your setup replace all of the IP addresses with the address of the NAS and also check the path for the thumbnails. I am showing an SMB share here though it can also be done with NFS as well. In my case this assumes I have a root shared folder called “media” and a folder inside named “Thumbnails” and that it has public read/write permissions. The thumbnail folder must be writeable and case matters!

FOR AN ATV2:

The file is not created by default and must be located in:

/private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/XBMC/userdata

So the command to create/edit the file is:

 cd /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/XBMC/userdata/
sudo nano advancedsettings.xml

Add the following text:

<advancedsettings>
     <videodatabase>
       <type>mysql</type>
       <host>192.168.1.XXX</host>
       <port>3306</port>
       <user>xbmc</user>
       <pass>xbmc</pass>
       <name>xbmc_video</name>
    </videodatabase>
    <musicdatabase>
       <type>mysql</type>
       <host>192.168.1.XXX</host>
       <port>3306</port>
       <user>xbmc</user>
       <pass>xbmc</pass>
       <name>xbmc_music</name>
    </musicdatabase>
    <pathsubstitution>
     <substitute>
      <from>special://masterprofile/Thumbnails/</from>
      <to>smb://192.168.1.XXX/media/Thumbnails/</to>
     </substitute>
    </pathsubstitution>
</advancedsettings>

Exit Nano and reboot the ATV2.

Part IV – Sources Setup

Finally, you will likely want to set-up the XBMC Sources on your primary player or some other XBMC device that is easy to work with and then copy the sources.xml file from that device and paste it to all of your other devices. The sources.xml file points XBMC to all of your shared folders and if you use a shared database then you need to have exactly the same shares (with identical paths) on each XBMC box as well. This is also the case for thumbnils since they are organized based on the full path name. That is to say that even though “smb://192.168.1.101/media/movie.avi” and “smb://NAS/media/movie.avi” may point to the same file, they have a different absolute path and therefor will not share the same database entry or thumbnail. This is also the case if one path is SMB and another is NFS. All players that share a database must use the same path to each file. And if you start with SMB and then upgrade to NFS, you will need to re-scan your library since all of the paths will change. There is a way around this, but its tedious.

I use all SMB shares since I know those will work on all of my players but I have tested NFS and its good too. And keep in mind one more time, the protocol for each share must be the same on each box sharing a database, so you cannot do NFS one one box and SMB on another.

That’s it, enjoy!

http://twitter.com/kimlidberg Kim Lidberg

Hey Mark!
I’ve followed your guide but somewhere it goes wrong for me.
When i add sources on my ATV2 xbmc does not create all the databases in mySQL?
I’m dead stuck here… what is the problem do you think?

QuixVenture

Hi Kim,

Sorry to hear that things are not going as planned… However, the databases should be created as soon as the ATV2 starts XBMC, so adding sources should not really be a factor. The best thing to do would be to look at the log file in XBMC and see if there are any errors.

Maybe you could even post it to pastbin and send a link? Also, the XBMC forums can be VERY helpfull in troubleshooting.

Take a look here for info on getting the logs:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBMC_for_iOS_specific_FAQ#Userdata_folder_and_logs

http://twitter.com/kimlidberg Kim Lidberg

Hi Mark!

No databases are created when i start XBMC…
When i try to start Web Station on my Synology DS211j i only get to my “admin” login page. Port 5000. Is that correct?
Where can i find the log file in XBMC?

Thanks for all the help!

QuixVenture

Hi Kim -

Sounds like the whole process was not completed. Can you verify that you did all of the following, and at what point things stated to go awry:

Step 1 – Enable Web Station and MySQL in the Synology control panel

Step 2 – Install the phpMyAdmin “plugin” (phpMyAdmin is only used to administer MySQL, it is not actually MySQL, you need to turn that on separately as stated in the previous step.) NOTE – This did not work unless there is a new icon in the Synology Admin panel labeled “phpMyAdmin”. The admin panel is accessed via the little arrow in the top left corner. Make sure that you “Run” the plug in before looking for it in the Admin panel.

Step 3 – Use phpMyAdmin to create a user in MySQL that can create new databases.

Step 4 – Configure “advancedsettings.xml” in the AppleTV to point to the SQL Server

Step 5 – Run XBMC and let it build the databases.

Finally, the XBMC log is here:

/private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/XBMC.log

If you did not successfully do all five steps… It won’t work!

Let me know how it goes!

Josh Helsel

A few questions:

I have a Mac Mini running XBMC in my living room. It serves as my main HTPC (main = the one I use most) and pulls media from a Synology NAS. I currently have one second gen AppleTV in the house that runs XBMC. I will be adding 2-3 in the coming weeks (figures crossed for an updated one this week). Both the Mac Mini and AppleTV pull media from the NAS via AFP.

Are there any advantages/disadvantages to having a mySQL server running on the NAS vs running on the Mac Mini? Both the NAS and Mac Mini are on 24/7, with periodic “sleep” modes during the day. I’m assuming the NAS would be the better option since that is where the media is stored.

I tried following your steps to installing mySQL on my NAS. However, when I attempted to load http://nasipaddress/phpMyAdmin nothing happens. The site attempts to load but eventually times out and I am left with a message in Safari saying the server where the web page is located is not responding.

Any idea what I’m doing wrong?

The NAS is running DSM 3.2. I apologize for the semi-lengthy post. Thanks for any help in advance.

QuixVenture

Hi Josh –

There are actually a few advantages to centralizing your MySQL, Thumbnails and Media storage on your NAS. First and foremost it allows you to make each of your clients into dumb terminals so that you can move them around, turn them off or do whatever you want to them with no risk to the “infrastructure.” Also, the Synology is very stable and very low power, but the biggest reason to centralize is purely one of convenience. if you have your database, Thumbs and media on the Synology, there is only one device to back up, and one device to wake up from hibernation when you want to watch a show!

I have actually purchased a second DS110j and a matching hard drive so that I can run the native scheduled backup jobs overnight. I also export my database via a cron job each night and save a weeks worth of backups (about 2MB each… so no big deal.) By doing this, I have no single point of failure in my setup and could be up and running after a NAS issue in about 30 minutes. I could also do “real-time” backups, but I’m willing to trade a day’s worth of changes for the security of knowing exactly when stuff will be overwritten.

And finally, the reason that I personally centralized is even more simple. When your media is in the same place as your database you do not run the risk of performing a database clean up while your media is off-line… i.e. the NAS is off the network but your Database is running and you select the option to clean your library. That scenario happened to me and it instantly wiped out my whole database… Very annoying!

As for phpMyAdmin, do you see the “phpMyAdmin” icon in the Synology admin tab? Chances are you need to make sure that both “Web Station” and “MySQL” are enabled in the Control Panel > Web Services panel on the Synology.

Also, check the Notification area and see if there are any errors reported by the NAS.

Let me know how it works out!

-Mark

Josh Helsel

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the quick response.

Yes, I do see the “phpMyAdmin” icon on the admin tab. Both “Web Station” and “mySQL” are enabled in the Web Services tab.

When I click on the “phpMyAdmin” icon, my browser attempts to load the site but times out after 30 seconds or so. The same thing happens when I click on the “Web Station” icon on the admin tab.

I have powered the NAS on and off, disabled and re-enabled “Web Station” and “mySQL” in Web Services, tried loading “phpMyAdmin” on multiple computers… all with no luck.

The Notification area does not show any errors. When I attempted to load “phpMyAdmin” the first time, I had a DDNS error but DDNS is no longer enabled.

I’m fairly computer savvy but know virtually nothing as far as the networking side is concerned. Should I be forwarding ports on my router?

I am logged in under my admin account on the NAS while attempting to do this.

Thanks again.

- Josh

QuixVenture

Hi Josh –

I suspect that phpMyAdmin is not running… In response to the recent comments I just added a bunch of new pictures to the setup process and realized that I did not clearly state that after you install the plug-in you need to “run” it. Go to the “installed” tab in the package center and make sure that phpMyAdmin is running.

Hopefully that does it!

Josh Helsel

Hi Mark,

phpMyAdmin is running on the NAS. I stopped, uninstalled, reinstalled and am having the same problem.

I followed the steps in part 1 of the tutorial to a “T”. I have problems as soon as I click on the phpMyAdmin icon. I’ll head over to the Synology forum to see if I can figure something out there.

Thanks for your help.

Kym Phillpotts

Mark, thanks for this post. Awesome work!

I’ve recently got myself a Synology NAS and decided to try centralising my XBMC library, in the past I’ve always put it off because it sounded, well, kinda painful. But your instructions here are clear and I managed to step through them without any issues (except maybe for the bit where I didn’t change the IP address in the advancedsettings.xml file )

So now I’m interested in setting this up with profiles as well, my research leads me to believe that XBMC doesn’t support this particularly well and what I would need to do is actually have different databases in mySql (eg. xbmc_videos_kids) and a different advancedsettings.xml file in the profile directory of other profiles. Any idea if this is correct?

Anyway, thanks for the great, clear and concise post!

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Hi Kym –

Sorry I totally missd this and just saw it.. I have never used profiles in XBMC but based on what I know that all sounds correct. I have also heard that they are a pain to set-up and manage, but if you get it going please share your experiences!

prowlhome

HI Thanks for this. However I am not seeing any Artwork?

Only the generated thumbs – no Album covers – DVD covers – fanarte etc

Any idea why that would be?

QuixVenture

Hi Prowlhome,

Do you see thumbs for videos? It sounds like you are having trouble with Music files… I cant say that I have ever setup Music on my XBMC but I will play around and see if it it works for me.

beavisx

Mark,

Thanks for the walkthru. I follow the instructiions and it worked but i’m having still a problem. It’s running very slow between and selections I do on xbmc. It takes 30 between menus to look at anything. I made just a small dummy directory with 3 movies it in. The movies show right just the speed is unbearable. It does the same PC and on the ATV2. Any reason it would be sooooooooooo slooooooowwww.

beavisx

Mark,

Never mind I added something into phpadmin to speed it up now it’s working like mad. Thanks for the tutorial.

QuixVenture

Hi Beavisx,

Glad to hear its all working now!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Thomas-Platt/100001228540978 Thomas Platt

Hi, if you dont mind sharing what did you set under PHPadmin as I’m also suffering this slow response?

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark

A few people have noted slow response times and after some research the common cause has been that they accidentally created the “xbmc_video” and “xbmc_music” databases in PhpMyAdmin. XBMC will create al the databases it needs and it will get confused if there is an empty database out there that it expects to be full of data.

This is a very recent development and many older guides (including this one a few months ago!) used to instruct users to create the databases… Now… That’s not good any more!

SO – Check in PhpMyAdmin and make sure that there is no old “xbmc_video” or xbmc_music” database. It’s old if it does not have a number after it, the current (as of Eden v.11) is xbmc_video60 and xbmc_music18. Databases with other numbers are fine unless you manually created them and they are empty.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Anton-Jelle/100002209397091 Anton Jelle

Hi I am trying to follow your guide but it dosn’t seem to work for me.
I’m using DSM 3.1, becaus i have cs407 and it can’t use DSM 3.2

Any way I enable Web station and MySQL. And Install phpMyAdmin-3.4.10.1-001, the lastest version I can get from the synology web site. After the installation I press “Run”.

after running phpMyAdmin there is a little redbox in the bottom that says mysqli extension is missing. At the moment i don’t know how to enable it so i ignore it and continiue with you guide. The creation of the user goes without any problems, and I go on to “advancedsettings.xml” and follow the guide. I make sure the it is the correct IP i connect to, in my case “192.168.1.4″. I place it in the directory you specified in the guide.

I create a shared folde named “media” for the thumbs.

Now I run XBMC and it scans my folders and downloades thumbs for whatever need updating. when i try and enter either my TV shows or Movie folder it is slow as hell and some times it even make my computer crash.

The “media” folder is filled with all sorts of other folders with what guss is media date and thumbs.

in phpMyAdmin there isn’t any new databases.

Any help would be nice

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Hi Anton –

I have zero experience with the older Synology appliances and did not start playing with MySQL until DSM 3.2… I’ll look around though and see if I can find any pointers.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Anton-Jelle/100002209397091 Anton Jelle

That would be greate. When I bought the NAS I had no ideer i would use the MySQL function it has, I got it used so it was cheep. Im considering bying a new to use the DSM 4.0+ but I just got a little gril so the money i scares.

BWT I have tried creating a My.Sql file in /ect and added

skip-name-resolveskip-external-locking

using Config file editor. but it didn’t seem to do any thing

http://www.facebook.com/people/Guy-Clerx/100002755236241 Guy Clerx

Wow, thank you for this.
Worked right away !
pdawg17

Maybe I am not understanding what can be done with this setup but should I be able to stop a recording on one XBMC box and resume for the same point on another? Does anything have to be done to “sync” this info or should I just be able to press stop on my remote, put that box to sleep and then wake my other box and resume?

I am using DSM 4.0 and the databases are setup correctly and there are thumbnails on my Synology NAS but I’m not sure anything is “syncing” between the boxes. For example, if I mark some shows as “watched” this info does not appear on the other box…anything I should check for?

http://www.facebook.com/people/Anton-Jelle/100002209397091 Anton Jelle

Yes if you have set it up right you should be able to stop on one xbmc and start it from another xbmc. to me it sounds like a problem with your database. the versions of XBMC on both machines must be the same

pdawg17

And should it be instantaneous? Meaning pause on one box, walk upstairs and should be able to resume on the other box? Or does the first box have to exit XBMC first?

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Hi There –

Yes it should be instantaneous. If MySQL is setup right it becomes the working repository for all XBMC library updates in real time.

I am not sure if pausing will work, but you can definitely stop a video and resume it immediately from another TV. The stop function writes the resume point to the MySQL database.

Also, from what you are describing it does not seem like you are actually connecting to MySQL. Take a look at your XBMC.log file and see if it has any errors. Also, make sure that you only see two databases in phpMyAdmin, XBMC_Video60 and XBMC_Music19.

pdawg17

Got it now guys…

My “little” problem was naming the file “advancedsettimgs.xml” on one of my boxes…slightly embarrassing…

Rene Keuter

Hello,

I have a problem.
You’re guide is awesome, but i can’t connect my nas with my xbmc eden computer.
I now see the shares but when i wan’t to connect is gives me connection refused and connection timed out. Not able to connect to networkpatch.
I believe i’m doing something wrong in the user settings, but don’t know what it is.
Could you help me?
I would love to make this work.

Greetz René

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Hi – Are you having trouble seeing the shares or configuring a MySQL Database? I would not try using the database until you have already sorted out the shares issue.

The most likely source for share issues will be permissioning on the NAS itself. Try using SMB shares since they are the most XBMC friendly in my experience.

http://twitter.com/DanPappy Danny Papworth

Hi Mark,
I’ve fellowed everything u have put on ur post but I’m not getting any databases created in mysql. There r no errors coming up but no databases. can u please help.

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Hi Danny –

If the databases were not created it must mean that XBMC was either not correctly pointed at the database, OR there was a permission issue.

My advice is to jump on the XBMC forum (xbmc.com) and post a copy of your xbmc log file in the appropriate forum for your hardware (i.e. iOS for apple TV2, Windows, or Linux for an ATV1.)

http://profile.yahoo.com/34ASS7TNYSENO25PZ444HIFMKI Sam

I am new to this whole thing on a NAS. Been running XBMC on local atv2 with smb shares to a windows box. I have created shares on my NAS for music, movies, tv, thumbnails, but was curious about permissions and how to set that in the sources xml file

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Hi Sam –

There should be virtually no difference between a windows share and a NAS share so long as you can use SMB as the protocol.

If you run into problems just run over to XBMC.com and post your log in the forums.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000959884819 Sven Teitz

Got the same problem like Danny. created an user on my synology mysql like described
added the advancedsettings.xml to my atv2. XBMC works fine but no database will be created

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Hi Sven –

Same advice as Danny here, if the databases were not created it must mean that XBMC was either not correctly pointed at the database, OR there was a permission issue.

My advice is to jump on the XBMC forum (xbmc.com) and post a copy of your xbmc log file in the iOS support form. I check the forums often so if I see it Ill take a look. Its very hard to troubleshoot without the log file, and posting it here would get messy =)

http://twitter.com/thibautheeren thibaut heeren

Is it also possible to have all your xbmc settings centralised, next to the libraries?

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Well.. In theory you could setup an additional Path Substitutions or symbolic links for the files in your userdata folder, but I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Personally, I just keep a copy of the XML files (sources.xml, favorites.xml, etc…) and just paste them into each XBMC client as I set them up. That way i can have custom gui and favorites settigns for each TV.

If you do try this though, you will need to watch out for the file permissions since they may revert to read-only files.

http://www.facebook.com/eric.felhaber Eric Felhaber

Excellent tutorial. Thank you for taking the time to put this together. I’m actually migrating my whole library from a PC on to my new DS1512+. I am already using mysql and was hoping to migrate the whole thing, but my research shows me that, while possible, I just don’t have that kind of patience. So I’m opting to start fresh.

That said, I have two points.

My main point is that PHPMyAdmin GUI has changed a lot (I’m on DSM 4.1, and PHP is ver 3.5.3). I’m lost at how to create the database with the username and password (xbmc) like you have outlined.

My second silly point is you could have saved me 10 minutes googling if you mentioned the default PHP username and password at the end of your FIRST video

Anyway, I’ll whack away at it and see what I come up with. Thanks!
Klungel

Thanx for your tutorial. I ‘ve got it all set up and working, but I have a problem with the responsiveness in xbmc. When I (for example) exit movies or tvshows, it takes a lot of time to see homescreen back. Also the start up or shut down of xbmc is a lot slower. I believe beavisx had the same problem and solved it by his own, but he didn’t share his solution. Hope you got a solution for my problem
Levi

This is not working for me. I checked all the steps.

The advancedsettings.xml file is located in my ATV2, on my laptop (inside user data folder), and I also put it on the NAS (not clear on this). I rebooted the ATV, my library is still empty, whereas the library on my laptop is up to date.

Part of the log file:

13:48:12 T:90185728 NOTICE: Starting XBMC (11.0 Git:20120331-ebfd899), Platform: Darwin iOS (11.0.0 AppleTV2,1, Version 5.1.1 (Build 9B830)). Built on Apr 1 2012

13:48:12 T:90185728 NOTICE: special://xbmc/ is mapped to: /private/var/stash/Applications/XBMC.frappliance/XBMCData/XBMCHome

13:48:12 T:90185728 NOTICE: special://xbmcbin/ is mapped to: /private/var/stash/Applications/XBMC.frappliance/XBMCData/XBMCHome

13:48:12 T:90185728 NOTICE: special://masterprofile/ is mapped to: /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/XBMC/userdata

13:48:12 T:90185728 NOTICE: special://home/ is mapped to: /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/XBMC

13:48:12 T:90185728 NOTICE: special://temp/ is mapped to: /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/XBMC/temp

13:48:12 T:90185728 NOTICE: special://frameworks/ is mapped to: /var/stash/Applications/XBMC.frappliance/Frameworks

13:48:12 T:90185728 NOTICE: The executable running is: /var/stash/Applications/XBMC.frappliance/XBMC

13:48:12 T:90185728 NOTICE: Local hostname: AppleTV

13:48:12 T:90185728 NOTICE: Log File is located: /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/

Shouldn’t the home folder be automatically mapped to my shared ‘user data’ folder on my NAS? I’ve changed the paths to Thumnails and source.xml only.

Hope you can help…

Levi

I’ve just noticed build dates of my xbmc clients do not correspond. Might this cause the problem?

DrekPil

do i need both these files on the all the htpc boxes ? or does the advanced settings / sources go on the main and the sources go on the rest ?
Maurice Cramer

Hi there, looking like a pretty straight forward Setup. Will there be any difference in setting this up for Frodo? If yes which ones? Thanks for the help
StokolaN

Just Wondering can this be done using ftp shares?

I had terrible trouble using smb shares on my system for some reason.
Scuzyboy

Hey ozymandyaz, Just trying out CB2 with NFS shares from the synology DS212 and running into some probs getting all shares to work, seems to only let Video work and not Music or Photos. Just wondering if you have tryed it or gotten it to work.
Regards
seb

Hi, the Scrapper dont work if I use the source.xml

maybe I made a mistake

Serien
smb://DISKSTAION/video/Serien

Movies
smb://DISKSTAION/video/Movies

Filme
smb://DISKSTAION/video/Filme

Happy Easter !
Marcus

Hi. First thanks for the great guide and detailed instructions. I was able to follow and get everything working except one minor but important thing. I’m not able to see the cover art on my ATV2. I am able to see it on both by XBMC PC’s (laptop with windows 7 and desktop with windows 7). I copied the same advancedsettings.xml and source.xml file to the ATV2. I created a Thumbnails folder under the video shared folder on my ds1511 nas drive. Again, I’m able to play and resume the movie from all 3 XBMC’s but I’m not able to see the cover art on the ATV2. Does it matter where I create the Thumbnails folder on my nas drive? For instance, do I need to create the Thumbnails as root shared folder?