Pandora as a portable file / media server ?

[antboygreen]

All,


I am looking for advice on the best file / media server software for the Pandora - ideally to work with Android devices but not exclusively.


I travel a lot for work, so having the capability to provide files locally via ad-hoc wireless - or even cabled USB would be a real asset..


I know that there are loads of options on how to do this out there - advice on how to do it best much appreciated.


Thanks


Anthony

 

[Fworg64]

Look into the program gigilo (i belive it ships with your pandora), it lets you set up a sftp or sshftp or something server that you can host files with, ive used it locally on my home network before and its pretty nice. But as for transfering files to a phone that way, you'd need to download an ftp or ssh client onto your phone, which isnt hard, there exists a few on the app store or marketplace or whatever you want to call it.


But ya, it would be fairly straight foreword to do it over ftp. Never played around too much with an ad hoc network though so not sure what you would have play router in this case, my guess is that youd have the pandora do it, but im not sure if that software exists for it. Worst come to worst though you could prolly use your phones hotspot powers to do it.

 

[antboygreen]

Thanks. I am thinking tablets / phones PCs etc - I reckon my best bet would be to get a small AP device and use that for the network point ? From what I've looked at I am not convinced the Pandora is yet ready to do this - but a small AP is easy enough to get and configure. Any good ideas for file transfer anyone or am I down the ancient FTP route ? Thanks Fworg.

 

[antboygreen]

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything obvious...

 

[Grench]

Skip the above suggestions. I'm pretty sure that the Pandora comes with SSHFS server on it - at least I've been using the client side of it fairly well continually since I got it. I'm traveling - someone else should test it quick.


Use:


From your other machine:


mkdir SRV


SSHFS SRV userid@192.168.pandora.IP:/media if you're on your internal network (makes assumptions about network topology).


If you need your Pandora server to be seen through the web, then you'll likely need to set up a dyndns (or similar) entry for it - and register it with an appropriate redirect service.


If the above was done right, you can use your file manager application to navigate into the directory /home/userid/SRV on the remote station and see everything in /media on the Pandora as if logged in as the userid in the connection text.


Fun fun.

 

[peelie]

i believe ad-hoc does not work currently on pandora; once it does work a port of piratebox would be a good option to share files with phones

 

[Maquis196]

Sounds to me like we could do with some DLNA software for the pandora, wouldn't want to do it over the wireless though (even next to the AP it seems quite slow). Over a USB nic it should be fine for non-hd video.


That way you could stream it rather then having to copy it off first. Let me see what works out the box.

 

[nobrandheroes]

I haven't gotten my pandora yet, but can it act as mass storage? Maybe try getting a host cable for your phone/tablet and connect them througb USB?

 

[Binky]

I haven't gotten my pandora yet, but can it act as mass storage? Maybe try getting a host cable for your phone/tablet and connect them througb USB?

It can (but seemingly only one SD card at a time)

 

[Grench]

Dangit - I tried the sshfs option. Works fine from the Pandora to my SSHFS server - so it has an SSH/SSHFS client on it, but unfortunately there isn't an SSHFS server preloaded.


I'm betting someone could build one into a PND with relatively minimal pain.


Truth is, though, the Pandora will make a better client than a server - but hey, if you need a <=256GB super low-power USB-ethernet server for something - it might fit the bill.


Bottom line though - my idea won't work until SSH server side components are set up for the Pandora. Sorry.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

All,


I am looking for advice on the best file / media server software for the Pandora - ideally to work with Android devices but not exclusively.


I travel a lot for work, so having the capability to provide files locally via ad-hoc wireless - or even cabled USB would be a real asset..


I know that there are loads of options on how to do this out there - advice on how to do it best much appreciated.


Thanks


Anthony

Using Slackware, you have all the Linux server stuff pre-installed. Samba/cifs, nfs, ftp etc...:


http://pandorawiki.org/Software_projects/OS/Slackware/Advanced_usage


Btw, there's no such thing as a "sshfs server". Only a ssh server is needed on the server side, that means you can simply use dropbear under Zaxxon.

 

[Maquis196]

Yeah I've yet to figure out why dropbear doesn't start for me on boot, but if you run;


sudo dropbear


from the terminal you'll have ssh server.

 

[thatgui]

I am looking for advice on the best file / media server software for the Pandora - ideally to work with Android devices but not exclusively.

If a network connection is available, you could setup a simple website utilizing lightpd to provide access to the files, you want to share, via http

 

[Fworg64]

You can also tell dropbear to start on startup, if you go to the start menu (prolly not what its actually called but the pandora icon on the bottom corner of your screen) and go to options or settings or something, you should see startup servics or something similar. My memory's a little fuzzy, havent had my pandora in a while...