UPnP / DLNA issue

[Biston]

I'm quite new to MoOde but have been getting to grips with it over the past month or so.

I have three Pi4s all running the latest 5.4 v2 beta.

One of the Pi4s - the main one - has a USB disk attached to it and is connected via ethernet to an Airport Extreme. On this Pi I have turned on the DLNA server. And sure enough when I go to my Mac Mini [attached via WiFi] and use, for example VLC, the DLNA server and tracks appear. So I'm pretty sure the DLNA server bit is working.

When I go to either of the other two Pi4s [both connected via WiFi], and goto the dropdown menu in Music Source, if I choose uPnP and then scan, I just see a blank line. I can't connect. Things I've tried to rule out:

- browser issue [Tried Safari and Chrome]
- connection issue in general [SMB works from both Pis and I can connect to the USB disk attached to the main Pi].


Is there something else I need to do? Possible port issue? Do I need to open ports for example?

Sorry if I'm asking silly questions. My competence level is probably about just a bit above basic. In more ways than one :-)

Thanks for any help in advance.

[Tim Curtis]

Basic? You already have a bunch of Pi-4's :-)

On those two Pi-4's open Audio Config, scroll down to the UPnP/DLNA section and turn on the UPnP Media Browser. The SCAN should then show the name of the DLNA server on your main Pi-4.

-Tim

[Biston]

Basic? You already have a bunch of Pi-4's :-)

On those two Pi-4's open Audio Config, scroll down to the UPnP/DLNA section and turn on the UPnP Media Browser. The SCAN should then show the name of the DLNA server on your main Pi-4.

-Tim

Hi Tim,

Many thanks for your swift response. Indeed it does: turning on the UPnP Media Browser works. Unfortunately after doing that, and removing the SMB Music Sources, so that the only source is UPnP, [green tick] and then RE-GEN of MPD database, and refresh of screen after database update complete, I only see a few music files. Versus for example, accessing Pi-1 from the Mac Mini using VLC, where I see all the files via UpNP [suggesting DLNA on Pi-1 is not the issue].

Originally, I was using SMB to access the files on Pi-1. Nearly all my music files show on the USB connected main PI, but via SMB on Pi-2 and Pi-3 much fewer of those files show [which is why I thought UPnP might be the way to go].

I'm using a 500GB 3.0 external disk connected to the 3.0 USB port of Pi-1. It is formatted as HFS+. I've removed journalling. I've deleted spotlight files etc. beginning with a ..

The main file structure is:

Music > CD1
Music > CD2
Music > HD
Other Files

I've used SMB to setup one music source [Music] successfully. And alternatively three separate sources [CD1, CD2 and HD] successfully. There are missing files though in both ways of doing it.

And as said, using UPnP on Pi-2 and Pi-3 - only a handful of files are shown. Is it better to use a different folder structure on the external hard disk or should that not really matter?

Sorry to trouble you.

B

[On another note, moving over to USB3 has made a real difference in terms of connecting a TEAC DAC and a Musical Fidelity DAC. I was hearing occasional bits of noise playing DSF files [even with the USB fix switched on]. That is no longer the case with USB3. I have tested this on a Pi-4 connecting the DAC to USB2 and USB3 - the same glitches appear on USB2 that do not on USB3. Originally, I bought a Pi-3+ in May to try to use MoOde and move from 4x Airport Expresses. Luckily the Pi-4 came out just as I was about to buy three more Pi-3s which is a no brainer for me as I can use USB3 to get decent speed from external disks backing up files, and 400Mbps via Ethernet versus 150Mbps on 5Ghz Wifi].

Also MoOde reminds my of my Squeezebox days more than fifteen years ago! The Airport Expresses have worked fine streaming ALAC 44Khz and controlled via iPad- very reliable. But I've been looking to better them for a while as the kit is now approaching 6 or 7 years old [which is about the time I switched from using Squeezeboxes to AX and iPad].

Keep up the good work sir.

[Tim Curtis]

To troubleshoot try the following:

1. Examine MPD log for errors and verify that MPD has added all the tracks

cat /var/log/mpd/log

Code:

Jul 14 16:08 : update: added NAS/Music/Mark Whitfield/True Blue/01 Blues For Davis Alexander.flac
Jul 14 16:08 : update: added NAS/Music/Mark Whitfield/True Blue/02 Save Your Love For Me.flac
Jul 14 16:08 : update: added NAS/Music/Mark Whitfield/True Blue/03 Immanuel The Redeemer.flac
.
.
.

2. Verify that the UPnP Media Browser has populated the directory below

/mnt/UPNP/

Example

Code:

pi@rp3:~ $ ls -l /mnt/UPNP/
total 1
-r--r--r-- 1 root root   9 Jan  1  2000  devices
dr-xr-xr-x 8 root root 512 Jan  1  2000 'RP5 DLNA'
pi@rp3:~ $ ls -l /mnt/UPNP/RP5\ DLNA/
total 3
dr-xr-xr-x  8 root root 512 Jan  1  2000 'Browse Folders'
dr-xr-xr-x 11 root root 512 Jan  1  2000  Music
dr-xr-xr-x  9 root root 512 Jan  1  2000  Pictures
dr-xr-xr-x  2 root root 512 Jan  1  2000  _search
dr-xr-xr-x  7 root root 512 Jan  1  2000  Video
pi@rp3:~ $ ls -l /mnt/UPNP/RP5\ DLNA/Music
total 4
dr-xr-xr-x 121 root root 512 Jan  1  2000  Album
dr-xr-xr-x   4 root root 512 Jan  1  2000 'All Music'
dr-xr-xr-x 176 root root 512 Jan  1  2000  Artist
dr-xr-xr-x   6 root root 512 Jan  1  2000  Folders
dr-xr-xr-x  50 root root 512 Jan  1  2000  Genre
dr-xr-xr-x 187 root root 512 Jan  1  2000  Playlists
dr-xr-xr-x   3 root root 512 Jan  1  2000 'Recently Added'
dr-xr-xr-x   2 root root 512 Jan  1  2000  _search
pi@rp3:~ $ ls -l /mnt/UPNP/RP5\ DLNA/Music/Album
total 59
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 512 Jan  1  2000 '#1 Test'
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 512 Jan  1  2000 '9_20_02 Home Recordings'
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 512 Jan  1  2000 'Acasa (Editie Speciala)'
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 512 Jan  1  2000 'Advisory Committee'
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 512 Jan  1  2000 'Afternoons in Utopia'
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 512 Jan  1  2000  Allah-Las
.
.
.

3. If MPD log is OK and the above directory is populated correctly then open the Library Config screen and Delete the Library tag cache.  It will be rebuilt the next time you open any of the Library views.

[Biston]

To troubleshoot try the following:

Hi,

Just to report back: I'm 99% confident it was a permissions issue on the external hard disk.

1. cat /var/log/mpd/log produced nothing on my main Pi connected to USB disk. Connecting to the Pi from the Mac I saw that the file structure of the external hard disk had two shares: for both its current and previous name [I had changed the name of the USB disk from 'Films and Music' to 'Files' earlier, after installing MoOde]. 
2. Better to start from scratch. New flash of 5.4 Beta 2.
3. Now cat /var/log/mpd/log produces a list of every file on disk. And it looks like a permissions issue.
4. Hard disk back into Mac. Although read and write was enabled for 'everyone', ignore permissions box on disk was ticked. I unticked that and reset permissions for all files for everyone.
5. USB disk back into Pi. All files correctly recorded. 
6. I then tried SMB and UPnP from my second and third Pi4s and both seem to work correctly having accessed cat /var/log/mpd/log from both of those Pis too. SMB seems the better option of the two.

Many thanks for your help. All seems very stable now. I had tried cat /var/log/mpd/log before originally posting but was a bit puzzled when I did not see any output. So my intuition is that the main problem was a permissions issue and the secondary problem was the fact that I renamed my external disk from 'Films and Music' to 'Files' but the SMB share of 'Films and Music' was still present.

[Tim Curtis]

Glad its working :-) and I forgot to mention that there is job that runs every 6 hours that clears a bunch of system logs including the MPD log. Thats probably why it was empty when you first looked at it.

-Tim

[Biston]

Glad its working :-) and I forgot to mention that there is job that runs every 6 hours that clears a bunch of system logs including the MPD log. Thats probably why it was empty when you first looked at it.

-Tim

Hi Tim,

Yes - it's all working superbly. Keep up the good work. I've just made a small donation for your time yesterday.

Thanks.

[RW]