Latest revision as of 00:26, 29 December 2013

Note:
Some of the links may no longer work.

[edit] Networked Media Tank -- Popcorn Hour (PCH) A110

More or less interesting and useful stuff I use on/with my Networked Media Tank Popcorn Hour A-110.

Questions or Feedback --> nmt (at) holyhead.de

[edit] Unmount USB drives

Inspired by Automatic Acoustic Management setting changer, I have created a html-file to manually unmount USB drives without telnet access.

Just put the files usb_unmount.html and usb_unmount.cgi (usb_unmount.zip) to your share directory.

To unmount an USB drive, just open usb_unmount.html and invoke usb_unmount.cgi using the link "USB unmount". The CGi shows a list of all mounted USB drives is shown (/dev/sda1 for USB-DRIVE A1, etc). Select the corresponding link to unmount.

[edit] My Busybox

I have compiled my own busybox. My latest build is busybox 1.13.3, the files can be found here.

[edit] To compile your own version

Install and compile the NMT (SMP8634) toolchain.
For further hints, please refer to the Cross-compilation Toolchain
Note: It's been quite a while that I compiled stuff for my PCH... the above toolchain might no longer work with newer linuxes.

Configure your cross-compile environment:
This is most easily be done by creating a file export_env which sets all environment paths and then importing the settings to your bash using

$ . /path_to/export_env

Sample export_env (adapt TOOLCHAIN path to your needs):

TOOLCHAIN=~/PCH/smp86xx_toolchain.20080505/build_mipsel_nofpu/staging_dir/

export PATH=${TOOLCHAIN}/bin:${PATH}
export CC=${TOOLCHAIN}/bin/mipsel-linux-uclibc-gcc
export LDFLAGS=-L${TOOLCHAIN}/lib
export CPPFLAGS=-I${TOOLCHAIN}/include
export CPP=${TOOLCHAIN}/bin/mipsel-linux-uclibc-cpp
export CROSS_COMPILE=mipsel-linux-uclibc- 
export ARCH=mipsel-linux

Change to your busybox-directory, and issue

make menuconfig

to configure your busybox (you may use my .config file linked above as a start). A simple

make

compiles your busybox. If everything went well, you ./busybox is your own busy-box.

Note: to avoid problems, make root the owner of your busybox binary and give everyone execution rights after installation on your PCH:

chown root: busybox
chmod a+x busybox

[edit] My autostart (and autostop) solution

My autostart solution contains the following enhancements

enable telnet login (using login shell)
set /bin/sh shell and password for user root
enhance shell usability: install enhanced busybox, set aliases, etc
add editor pico
save and restore mono settings and bookmarks
adjust power management settings of my internal hard disc

To achieve this, I have added the following code to the beginning of the start() function in /mnt/syb8634/etc/smb.sh (since I have samba always enabled, if you always run the ftpserver, user ftpserver.sh instead; however, it does not make sense to run startup.sh multiple times)

       if [ -x /opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/.bin/startup.sh ]; then
          /opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/.bin/startup.sh
       fi

Analogously, I have added the following code to the beginning of the stop() function in /mnt/syb8634/etc/smb.sh

       if [ -x /opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/.bin/stop.sh ]; then
          /opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/.bin/stop.sh
       fi

My .bin/startup.sh:

#!/bin/sh
cd /opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/.bin/

# chsh
sed -e 's#root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/true#root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/sh#' -i /etc/passwd 

mv /etc/profile /etc/profile_orig

cat > /etc/profile <<EOF
test -r \$HOME/.profile  && . \$HOME/.profile
EOF

cat > /root/.profile <<EOF
alias la="ls -la"
alias cdhd="cd /opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/"
alias pico="/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/.bin/nano"
export TERM=linux
EOF

rm /root/.bash*

cp ./busybox-1.13.3 /bin/busybox
# install all applets to /usr/bin
/bin/busybox --install -s

# acoustic management: quiet
./hdparm -M 128 /dev/hda
# Advanced Power Management setting (1: max, 254: min, 255: off)
./hdparm -B 254 /dev/hda
# Standby: 10 min
./hdparm -S 120 /dev/hda

busybox telnetd -l /bin/login &

#restore mono settings 
if [ -e mono_bookmark ]; then
  cp mono_bookmark /tmp
fi
if [ -e mono_settings ]; then
  cp mono_settings /tmp
fi

# now, enable telnet, (change dir -> //pch/share/)
#cd ..
#busybox telnetd &

The line

sed -e 's#root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/true#root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/sh#' -i /etc/passwd

can be enhanced to also set a root-password. Simply replace the second ':x:' by ':PasswordHash:'. The PasswordHash can be calcuated by the unix command mkpasswd. Exmaple: the following line sets the password '1234':

sed -e 's#root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/true#root:HX7YXGspliajE:0:0:root:/root:/bin/sh#' -i /etc/passwd

And my .bin/stop.sh:

#!/bin/sh
cd /opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/.bin/

cp -a /tmp/setting.txt /tmp/mono_bookmark /tmp/mono_settings .

[edit] Applications

[edit] Nano editor (a pico clone)

Since I am not very used to vi, I have compiled nano for the PCH. The binary can be found here.

You may need to set a valid terminal before starting nano, for example

export TERM=vt100

(TERM=linux should also work).

[edit] Lynx (text browser)

I have also successfully compiled lynx for the PCH. The files can be found here. Extract all files of one of the bin-* archives to /share/.bin/ Do not change the path, otherwise lynx will not find its files lynx.cfg and lynx.lss. (The location is hard-coded, and I did not want them to be on the tmpfs or /mnt path.)

[edit] Screen

If you need screen, here's my binary.

In case of problems, you might try setting the TERM variable to linux or xterm:

export TERM=linux

I set TERM=linux in my .profile, see my startup.sh above.

[edit] Further links

[edit] Forum

[edit] Wiki and tool-collections

Networked Media Tank Wiki
... there were more links here, but they do no longer work ...

[edit] Misc tips

Simple Save&Restore of PCH settings (German)
Persistent settings are stored in /dev/mtd1 and can be read/modified using pflash
How to access the popcorn hour from your webbrowser
Web browser access to the PCH from your PC
Gaya remote control

NetworkedMediaTank