View USB storage attached to A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD over network
Some of us might want to view the content of that USB hard disk or flash drive that is attached to the A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD over the network (or samba).That is, viewing the contents of attached USB drives by access the network shares of A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD.
In fact, this could be easily achieved if you have installed a hard disk. In this guide, I will be sharing how I managed to access my USB drives attached to the media player over network.
This guide only require you to edit the file once and newly attached storage devices should be automatically detected and shared over network. You need not meddle with the smb.conf and samba service every time you want a storage device to be seen on network.
Disclaimer: Follow at your own risk. By continuing, you know what you are doing and you don’t hold the author responsible.
Finding out your A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD’s IP
- Press the “Setup” button on your remote controller
The setup screen should appear - Scroll to the “Network” tab
Configurations for Network should appear - Take note of the IP address you see on the Network tab
Now you have the IP address of your A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD. Mine is 192.168.1.100. Yours could be different. In the next section, replace <IP> with your A.C.Ryan’s IP address.
Gaining shell access to your A.C.Ryan
- On your computer, start Command Prompt
A black command prompt window should appear - Type in the following without the quotes “telnet <IP>“. Press <Enter>. For example, “telnet 192.168.1.100”
You should be greeted by the prompt “PlayonHD Login:” - Login using the username “root” without the quotes and press <Enter>
You should see a warning and the prompt “/ “
Great. You have gained shell access to the A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD media player. Next we will edit the configuration file for samba.
Backing up the script
- In the same command prompt, type in the following without the quotes “cp /tmp/hdd/root/script/configsamba /tmp/hdd/volumes/HDD1/configsamba.orig“
- Type the following without the quotes “ls /tmp/hdd/volumes/HDD1”
You should see configsamba.orig as one of the files
Great! The original has been backed up. Time to proceed to the next step
Editing samba configuration
- In the same command prompt, type the following without the quotes “vi /tmp/hdd/root/script/configsamba“. Press <Enter>
A chunk of text starting with “#!/bin/sh” should appear on the screen. - Type in the following without the quotes “/done“. Your text will appear the lower left corner of the screen. Press <Enter>
You should reach line 5/42 - Type in the following without the quotes “/done“. Your text will appear the lower left corner of the screen. Press <Enter>
You should reach line 39/42 - Type in the following without pressing <Enter> “i”
Symbol on lower left hand corner changes from “-” to “I” - Press <End>
The cursor should shift to the end of the line - Press <Enter>
The cursor should shift to start of the next line - Type in the following without the quotes “echo “[ALL]” >>/tmp/package/samba/lib/smb_anonymous.conf“. Press <Enter>
You should see the text appearing on the screen. Upon <Enter>, the cursor will shift to the next line - Type in the following without the quotes “echo “path=/tmp/usbmounts” >>/tmp/package/samba/lib/smb_anonymous.conf“. Press <Enter>
You should see the text appearing on the screen. Upon <Enter>, the cursor will shift to the next line - Type in the following without the quotes “echo “hide dot files=yes” >>/tmp/package/samba/lib/smb_anonymous.conf“. Press <Enter>
You should see the text appearing on the screen. Upon <Enter>, the cursor will shift to the next line - Type in the following without the quotes “echo “hide files=/.*/lost+found/”>>/tmp/package/samba/lib/smb_anonymous.conf“. Press <Enter>
You should see the text appearing on the screen. Upon <Enter>, the cursor will shift to the next line - Type in the following without the quotes “echo “guest ok=yes” >>/tmp/package/samba/lib/smb_anonymous.conf“. Press <Enter>
You should see the text appearing on the screen. Upon <Enter>, the cursor will shift to the next line - Type in the following without the quotes “echo “writable=yes ” >>/tmp/package/samba/lib/smb_anonymous.conf“. Press <Enter>
You should see the text appearing on the screen. Upon <Enter>, the cursor will shift to the next line - Type in the following without the quotes “echo “force create mode=0775 ” >>/tmp/package/samba/lib/smb_anonymous.conf“. Press <Enter>
You should see the text appearing on the screen. Upon <Enter>, the cursor will shift to the next line - Type in the following without the quotes “echo “force directory mode=0775 ” >>/tmp/package/samba/lib/smb_anonymous.conf“. Press <Enter>
You should see the text appearing on the screen. Upon <Enter>, the cursor will shift to the next line - Press the keyboard <Esc> key
Symbol on the lower left hand corner changes from “I” to “-“. Your result should be similar to the figure 1 below. - Type the following without the quotes “:wq“. Press <Enter>
You should see the prompt “/ #”
Figure 1: What has been entered
Restarting the A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD
Reboot the device as per normal. Allow it to boot up completely before accessing the next section
Checking if everything works
Access your A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD by hitting the address \\<IP>. For me I will be accessing \\192.168.1.100. Allow it to load the folders. You should see a new folder named “all”. Browse the folder “all” and you should see “sda1”. The “sda1” is in fact your internal hard disk. Try plugging in a USB storage device and it should appear as “sdb1” and if you plug another one in, it should be “sdc1”.
Have fun access your USB devices over network.
Reverting back the original configuration file
If you ever want to revert back to the original smb.conf. Use the following command “mv /tmp/hdd/volumes/HDD1/configsamba.old /tmp/hdd/root/script/configsamba”. Then reboot the device.
Warning
After writing files to the attached USB device, don’t plug it out immediately. You may encounter data lost. For those who are familiar with Windows Operating System, it is similar to why you need to safely unplug usb devices. In this case, you do not have this option so allow the PlayOn!HD to finish writing before unplugging it. You can judge it by observing the LED on your attached USB device. If it is still blinking, don’t attempt to unplug. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
You should see the text appearing on the screen. Upon <Enter>, the cursor will shift to the next line
