Month: December 2017
Using your iTunes xml file with Linux PlexMediaServer
My home network setup consists of a Linux box (running Linux Mint), a “Hackintosh” (a hp compaq 6000 pro small form factor pc running macos sierra), a mac mini (macos sierra also hacked to install on a 2009 mac mini), and then a laptop running RHEL6. I also have a 2 disk buffalo NAS and a 2 disk lenovo NAS with a 4 bay SATA enclosure with 2x2TB disks hanging off it.
My Linux server runs several different background services for my primary source of streaming video to my roku – these consist of sabnzbd+, sonarr, and plexmediaserver. On my buffalo NAS I have almost 18000 mp3s which are mounted as /Volumes/Music and added to my itunes library on the mac mini. This same NAS share is mounted as /Music on the Linux Mint machine.
Here’s how I got them into the iTunes channel in plex.
- First you need to set the option in iTunes to share its library via an XML file.
- This will put a file called iTunes Music Library.xml in your “Music” folder.
- via cron or something, set up a process to copy this file over to the /Music share on the linux server and post process it to change the Location tag – /Volumes/Music/Music needs to become just /Music/Music :
# scp mini2:Music/iTunes*.xml /Music/itunes_temp.xml
# cat /Music/itunes_temp.xml | sed ‘s%/Volumes%%’ > /Music/iTunes\ Music\ Library.xml - In the server settings for Plex Media Server, there is option under Server -> Channels (click “Advanced”) and you can enable the iTunes channel. Enter /Music/iTunes Music Library.xml in the box “
- Restart plexmediaserver :
# sudo systemctl restart plexmediaserver.service
Enjoy your itunes music in plex. Now just to figure out how to get Alexa to play it back 🙂
Updating your firmware without Windoze
I am running a HP 6000 Pro small form factor PC – no windows (excepted virtualized). I recently updated my bios, trying to enable VT-x for virtualization.
https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/closure/hp-compaq-6000-pro-small-form-factor-pc/4024462
The BIOS softpack from HP downloaded as an file named sp73556.exe – I made sure to download the file for freedos, but epic #FAIL by HP. You need Windows to unpack that exe before you can get at the freedos files.
Enter wine 🙂 . I launched
# wine sp73556.exe
This launches the installer which unpacks the files as follows under my .wine directory :
glaw@fedora ~/.wine/drive_c/swsetup/SP73556 $ ls -lart
total 2020
-rw-rw-r– 1 glaw glaw 14894 Jun 22 2012 logo.bmp
-rw-rw-r– 1 glaw glaw 1974206 Oct 22 2015 786G2.cab
-rw-rw-r– 1 glaw glaw 13487 Nov 5 2015 license.txt
-rw-rw-r– 1 glaw glaw 2122 Nov 6 2015 How to Use.txt
-rw-rw-r– 1 glaw glaw 6324 Nov 9 2015 History.txt
-rw-rw-r– 1 glaw glaw 21719 Nov 12 2015 Bios Flash.htm
-rw-rw-r– 1 glaw glaw 2321 Nov 12 2015 SP73556.cva
-rw-rw-r– 1 glaw glaw 2538 Nov 12 2015 SP73556.txt
drwxrwxr-x 2 glaw glaw 4096 Dec 7 12:28 DOS Flash
drwxrwxr-x 2 glaw glaw 4096 Dec 7 12:28 HPQFlash
From there, it was use a matter of following this other guide :
https://feeding.cloud.geek.nz/posts/creating-freedos-bootable-usb-stick-to/
and copying the files within “DOS Flash” over to the fs-root directory.
Reboot the HP machine with the thumb drive and bam, you’re flashing