Playing mp3s from your windows computer

From OESF

This howto has been contributed by Gerald J. Normandin Jr.
The Original may be found at: http://notebook.zaurii.net/zaurus/samba1.htm
NOTE: The samba share can also be used to view any file on the windows machine

On the PC

1. Create a Windows share called pc 2. In Explorer, you should be able to see the share under My Network Places. %%%In this example, the share is called pc

On the Zaurus

1. Install smbmount

2. smbmount requires the libncurses v5 library to run. Zaurus comes with v4, but you don't have to install the latest version, create a symlink to v4; works just fine!

 ln -s /lib/libncurses.so.4.2 /usr/lib/libncurses.so.5

3. Create a mount point called mypc under /home/root/Documents for mapping the PC share

 cd /home/root/Documents
 mkdir mypc

4. Run smbmount. When prompted for the password, enter the password you used to log on to Windows

Syntax: smbmount //pc-name/windows-share-name-you-want-mounted /home/mypc -o username=<the username used to log in to Windows>

 smbmount //zack/pc /home/mypc -o username=zack
 Password:

5. If you don't see any messages, you are all set! cd to mypc directory and%%% you should see the files under that share! Open Media Player. If there are any mp3/mpeg files under the pc share, it should get listed.

Plug in the head-phone and enjoy!

CAVEAT!

If you have a large number of files in your Windows share, the next time you %%%start Z or restart Qtopia, it would take a long time to startup since Qtopia creates a doc icon for each of the files in the share. To avoid this, create a mount point on your Zaurus under /home instead of /home/root/Documents.

The drawback with this approach is, Media Player will not be able to see these %%%files, since it only sees files in the Document folder. Alternatively, you could install XMMS which can play media files from any directory, not just those under /home/root/Documents.

FAQ's in relation to this howto: How do I get to see my Windows MP3 files under the Documents folder in the Zaurus?

If you've followed the instructions in this HOWTO, all files under the PC share %%%mounted on the Z would automatically get listed in the Documents folder in %%%Zaurus, once you restart Qtopia.

How do I list active Samba shares in Z?

With the mount command. All shares with type smbfs are Samba shares.

What is Samba?

Samba acts as a bridge between the Windows and the Linux/Unix filesystems. Samba lets you access Windows files/printers from Linux and vice versa.

How do I un-mount a Samba share?

Syntax: smbumount <mountpoint>

 smbumount /home/root/Documents/mypc

When I try to un-mount a share I get 'Device or resource busy' error. Why?

A running process may be using the file system you may be unaware of. You would also get this error if you are inside the mount point and you tried to un-mount it. To resolve this:

• Do a pwd on the command line and make sure you are not inside the mount point
• Run fuser -mauv <mount-point> command to see if any process is using the mount point