Setting up llink on the NETGEAR ReadyNAS

I wrote this because the instructions for setting up llink on the NETGEAR ReadyNAS online were scattered all over the place and a little hard to understand. I compiled all the different instructions out there, with a little bit of tweaking and confirmed that everything is working. 

I’ve only tested it with the equipment I have: 

• ReadyNAS NV+ running Raidiator 4.0.1c1-p1
• Popcorn Hour A-100 media player.

To get this working you should have some familiarity with the linux command line and the vi editor. You’ll be poking and prodding at things as root and if you don’t know why that’s risky then maybe you shouldn’t be doing it.

Ok with that out of the way. Let’s get started! 

Step 1: Setting up SSH 

I’m going to assume that you have your ReadyNAS all set up and accessible on the network. There is minimal risk of blowing it up even if you sort of know what you are doing. The first thing you need to do is enable SSH root access to you ReadyNAS. 

I believe this can void the warranty. Just be careful and don’t stray too far from these instructions if you don’t have a firm grasp of the command line. 

1. Download the ToggleSSH add on
2. Download the EnableRootSSH add on
3. You need to install both. This is done through the System > Update > Local in the web admin interface.
4. Reboot

Once the ReadyNAS has rebooted, try to ssh into it with: ssh root@ip.of.the.readynas. The default password is the same as the admin for the web interface.

It seems that changing the admin password does not change the root password. So you can probably change the root password and it won’t affect the web admin password. You probably don’t want to do this unless you know how to do it in the first place. ;) 

Step 2: Installing llink 

This is all done through SSH. So log in. 

1. SSH into the ReadyNAS
2. Download llink compiled for the ReadyNAS: 

   wget http://www.lundman.net/wiki/images/8/88/Llink-2.0.6-readynas.tar.gz

3. untar it: 

   tar zxvf Llink-2.0.6-readynas.tar.gz

4. Move it:

   mv llink-2.0.6-readynas/ /usr/local/llink

5. Fix the permissions.

   cd /usr/local
   chown -R admin:admin llink

6. Make a backup of llink.conf.

   cp llink.conf llink.conf.bak

7. Edit llink.conf to suit your settings. Mine is available at the bottom of this article.

   NOTE: My llink.conf is tweaked in two ways. First, I use the aquarius_720 skin because it looks a lot nicer than the kamaishi_skies skin on my Popcorn Hour. Secondly I created a source/ subdirectory with symlinks to make it easier to browse on the TV.

   Using the source/ subdirectory lets me create short cuts to where I have media organized with the added benefit of hiding folders I don’t want to appear in the TV interface.

   See the end of this article for info on setting up the source/ directory.

Step 3: Set up llink to start on boot

1. Edit /etc/frontview/addons/addons.conf and add the following line:

   LLINK!!Llink media streamer!!2.0.6!!start-stop-daemon -S -q -b -d /usr/local/llink/ -x /usr/local/llink/llink!!start-stop-daemon -K -n llink

2. Edit /etc/default/services and add the follow line:

   LLINK=1

Step 4: Test that llink works

Since we’re cool ReadyNAS SSH hackers now (ha!), we don’t have time to waste rebooting to see that things are working. We can start / stop llink right from the shell prompt. To test that llink is able to start:

> start-stop-daemon -S -q -b -d /usr/local/llink/ -x /usr/local/llink/llink
> ps axfu | grep llink | grep -v grep
root       924  0.0  0.6  3168 1456 ?        S    15:42   0:00 /usr/local/llink/llink
root       926  0.0  0.6  2736 1392 ?        Ss   15:42   0:00 /usr/local/llink/llink

We can see that llink is running. Now go to http://readynas.ip:8002/ and you should see the llink web interface. You’re done. You don’t even need to reboot. Of course you should reboot just to make sure llink starts with the boot.

Unfortunately llink doesn’t show up in the web interface. So you’re forced to check it in SSH. No big deal.

Setting up the source/ directory

The source/ directory is pretty simple. It is just full of symlinks. 

1. In /usr/local/llink
2. mkdir source/ 
3. cd source/ 
4. ln -s /media/ All
5. ln -s /media/Videos/ Videos
6. … and repeat. 

When browsing through your media you will get a nice clean tree to start out with. If you want to go more nuts you can technically create real directories full of symlinks for further structure.

Perhaps a shell script that creates directories that sorts all of your media into alphabetical order? It would be pretty easy since we can run cron jobs on the ReadyNAS as well. Gee this thing rules!

My llink.conf

This is my llink.conf file.

• It should be in the same directory as your llink binary
• Copy/Paste and use it. It should just work. You may want to tweak the ROOT setting
• Works great with the Popcorn Hour A-100

SSDP|ON
USN|match=*myiBoxUPnP*SyabasSTB*|pattern=*
HTTP|port=8002|name=ReadyNAS
SKIN|path=./skin/aquarius_720/|PAGE_SIZE=10|SIZE_TYPE=human|PASSES=2
TYPE|name=Movies|ext=*.mpg/*.mpeg/*.avi/*.wmv/*.mp4/*.vob/*.ifo/*.ts/*.flv/*.mkv/*.tp/*.mov/*.m2ts/*.evo|filename=line_movie.html
TYPE|name=Iso|ext=*.iso|filename=line_iso.html
TYPE|name=Music|ext=*.mp3/*.wav/*.ogg/*.wma/*.flac|filename=line_music.html
TYPE|name=Photo|ext=*.jpg/*.png/*.jpeg|filename=line_photo.html
TYPE|name=Directory|ext=NA|filename=line_dir.html
TYPE|name=RarDirectory|ext=*.part1.rar/*.part01.rar/*.part001.rar/*.part0001.rar|filename=line_dir.html|cmd=unrar|args=./unrar
TYPE|name=RarDirectory|ext=*.rar|ignore=*.part?.rar/*.part??.rar/*.part???.rar/*.part????.rar|filename=line_dir.html|cmd=unrar|args=./unrar
TYPE|name=Playlists|ext=*.pls|filename=line_playlist.html
TYPE|name=subtitles|cmd=redirect|ext=*.srt/*.sub/*.smi/*.ssa|filename=.|args=/media/Film/SUBS/
TYPE|name=extra|cmd=redirect|ext=*.xml/*.jpg|filename=.|args=/media/Film/data/
RAND|FREQ=30|MAX=70

# Default configuration.
ROOT|path=/media/|FLAGS=-WCND

# Uncomment and use this if you're using the source subdir.
#ROOT|path=./source/|FLAGS=-WCND