Using Firefly Media Server with Roku SoundBridge and SoundBridge Radio

For Microsoft Windows

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
What is Firefly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Latest Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Prerequisite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Bonjour. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Getting Firefly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Installing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Post Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Firefly Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Firefly Configuration Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Web Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Configuration File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Using Firefly with SoundBridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Uninstalling Firefly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
My SoundBridge Does Not See Some Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Sharing Files on Network Share. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Still Having Problems?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Introduction

What is Firefly
The Firefly Media Server is an Open Source server program capable of serving your music files to compatible clients on your home network, including your Roku SoundBridge. Firefly has many advantages compared to other media server programs:
Firefly is lightweight with low system requirements Firefly is available for multiple operating systems, including Windows,

MacOS X and Linux.

Firefly supports multiple media formats including MP3, AAC, WMA, Ogg-Vorbis,

FLAC and Apple Lossless

Firefly supports transcoding of formats to allow clients to play formats they otherwise
would not be able to play
Firefly is Open Source, allowing users to enhance and extend the server if desired. Firefly runs as a background service it does not require the user to run anything after
Firefly is initially installed.
Firefly is integrated with your iTunes Library. It understands iTunes playlists (including
SmartPlaylists) and allows your SoundBridge to access them from across the network.

Latest Information

The latest information about Firefly including the latest version of the server can always be found at http://www.rokulabs.com/firefly. Here you will also find support documentation as well as discussion forums where you can ask your questions and receive help should you need it.

Installation

Fireflys installation procedure is fairly simple and straightforward. At this time however, it requires the installation of Apples Bonjour program to function correctly.

Prerequisite

Bonjour
Firefly uses Apples Bonjour program to announce its availability over your home network. You will need to download and install Bonjour for Windows in order to successfully use Firefly. You can download Bonjour for Windows from http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/bonjourforwindows103.html. Once downloaded, run the setup program and follow the on screen instructions to install Bonjour.

Getting Firefly

The latest version of Firefly will always be available at http://www.rokulabs.com/firefly. Follow the links to download the version appropriate for Windows. Firefly is also available for MacOS X and Linux.

Installing

Locate the Firefly setup file you downloaded above. Run this program. Follow the on screen instructions to complete setup. During setup you will be prompted for your main music directory. If you are an iTunes user, make sure that the directory you specify contains your iTunes Library file. Doing so will enable Firefly to access your iTunes library and playlists.

Post Installation

Immediately following the installation, Firefly will run and scan your music folder for music. Depending on the size of your collection, this can take some time. Once the scan is complete, Firefly will announce itself on your network and should be shown on the Change Library or Configuration screen on your SoundBridge.

Firefly Configuration

Firefly has a few methods by which you can alter its configuration. From most basic to most advanced, these are the Configuration Utility, the built-in configuration webpage, and finally, direct editing of the configuration file.
Firefly Configuration Utility
Firefly comes with a Configuration Utility for performing the most common maintenance tasks. The configuration utility can be accessed via an icon in your System Tray. The color of the icon indicates the status of the Firefly server. Orange indicates that the server is up and running while red indicates that the server is stopped. If the Configuration utility is not available in your System Tray, you may need to run it by choosing Configuration Utility from the Firefly Media Server program group under your Start Menu.
Note: For most users, it will not be necessary to change these values from the defaults.
To change settings using the Configuration Utility, simply double-click on the System Tray. The Configuration Utility has multiple tabs. The most important and interesting tabs are the Library and Server tabs. The Library tab will allow you to change the name of the server, change the directory in which Firefly looks for your music as well as add an optional password to your Firefly Server. (See next page)
The Server tab allows you to start and stop the Firefly Media Server as well as set it to run automatically when Windows starts. You can also change the port on which Firefly listens. This should only be necessary in case of a conflict with an existing program. Finally, the Server tab will allow you to easily access the Web-based Administration page for your Firefly Server (see below).

Web Configuration

Firefly has a built-in web server that offers another method by which you can configure it. This web page is more advanced that the Configuration Utility and will allow you to alter more settings. To access the Configuration web page, simply click on the Open button in the Web administration section of the Server tab of the Firefly Configuration Utility.

Note: Firefly needs to be running in order to access the web-based configuration.

Configuration File

Firefly stores its settings in a text-based configuration file. This file is usually located in c:\program files\firefly media server\ and it is called firefly.conf. Should you wish, you can edit this file with your favorite text editor to change Fireflys settings. Be careful, though, as making mistakes in the file may cause Firefly to operate improperly.
Using Firefly with SoundBridge
The Firefly Media Server is among the most advanced SoundBridge-compatible servers available. It supports more music formats than other servers and also supports searching and browsing. SoundBridge uses these features to provide a very rich and powerful experience. When your SoundBridge connects to your Firefly server, you will be able to browse, search and queue your music to quickly and easily listen to whatever you desire. Please see your SoundBridge manual for more information about using Firefly and other servers with SoundBridge.

Uninstalling Firefly

Should you decide that you no longer want to use Firefly to serve your music on your home network, you can uninstall it from your computer. To do so, access Add and Remove Programs in your Control Panel and locate the Firefly Media Server item. Click on Remove and you will be able to uninstall Firefly from your computer.

Troubleshooting

My SoundBridge Does Not See Some Files
If some of your files are not accessible on SoundBridge and you think they should be, verify that they are located in the directory in which Firefly is configured to look. You can verify the current firefly Music directory using the Firefly configuration program or through the Firefly configuration web page. If the missing files are all of a specific type (eg WMA) while the rest of your properly-functioning library is of a different type (eg MP3), use the Firefly configuration web page to verify that the missing file type is indeed listed among the file types for which Firefly will search. If the file type is missing, add it and restart the server. You may also want to make sure that the meta data (artist, album and song title information is correct). There are various programs that can edit these tags, including Windows Media Player, Winamp, and MP3Tag.
Sharing Files on Network Share
If you store your music files on a network share, Firefly can still access them and serve them to your SoundBridge. To use a network share, enter the UNC path to the network share. For instance, if your music is on a computer named Sparky and in a shared folder named Musicality, you would enter \\Sparky\Musicality\ as your music folder in the Firefly Configuration. If, after setting shared folder as your music folder, Firefly still does not find your music, you may also need to modify the user under which Firefly runs. To do this go to Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services. Locate the Firefly Media Server service and right-click on it and choose Properties. On the Logon tab, set it to log in as your user, with your password, rather than the default of LocalSystem. Stop and then restart the Firefly server. It will then rescan your music.

Still Having Problems?

If you are still having problems getting your SoundBridge to work with Firefly, visit the Roku Forum at http://www.rokulabs.com/forums and let us help! For help with Firefly itself, visit http://forums.fireflymediaserver.org.

06-FF-UG-0619

Patch: Firey Media Server

Ben Kero 20080310

Figure 1: Firey MS Logo
For my patch I chose to scratch my own itch. One of my recent acquisitions was an iPhone. Like any good hacker, I decided that I want to run my own software on it, which involved a very complicated and drawn out process. At the time I did it, there was no process for cracking a phone with rmware version 1.1.3. I managed to do some tricky lowlevel hacking to downgrade, which involved extracting rmwares, decoding, patching, and re-uploading. After this, I was treated with Installer.app, which is a community-built(but not open source) package manager in the vein of Apt or Portage. I went on a spree to nd all sorts of interesting apps. I installed a Twitter app, a Terminal(of course), VNC client, Etch-A-Sketch, et al. The iPhone hacking community is a shifty sort. A lot of people fear of getting caught(?), and thus go through great eorts to decentralize. There is no ocial IRC channel for any major projects, or even a combined IRC network. The only means of nding someone to submit a patch to is a small contact link on each package. This is my rst attempt at contribution to the iPhone hacking community. One of my favorite programs that I run at home is the Firey Media Server. The project was renamed form mt-daapd to sound like a more end-user friendly project. It allows zero-conguration music sharing over a network. The aim of putting it on an iPhone is that once its connected to a wireless network, all the music thats loaded onto the iPhone can be shared to music players that support DAAP, such as Amarok and iTunes. This package however, didnt work. When installing it would fail(silently of course). This seemed like a perfect opportunity for a patch for CS419! What my patch does is xes the install process, and as an added bonus, it allows the server to scan and serve up Apple Lossless AAC les. Below is the patch. Since theres no real bug tracker I can submit this to, I had to email the packages maintainer. Below the patch is a screenshot of my email. 1
--- mt-daapd.conf 2008-03-10 01:27:56.000000000 -0700 +++ mt-daapd.conf 2008-03-10 01:38:00.000000000 -0700 @@ -73,11 +73,11 @@ # Location of the mp3 files to share. Note that because the # files are stored in the database by inode, these must be # in the same physical filesystem. # -mp3_dir = /var/root/Media/iTunes_Control/Music +mp3_dir = /private/var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/Music # # # # @@ # # # #
servername (required) This is both the name of the server as advertised -167,11 +167,11 @@ flac - for flac (.flac,.fla) mpc for musepack (.mpc,.mpp,.mp+) alac for alac (.m4a)
-#ssc_codectypes = ogg,flac,alac +ssc_codectypes = mp4a mpeg alac # # ssc_prog (optional) # # Program that is used in server side format conversion.
Figure 2: Email to the maintainer