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how_to_use_a_usb_drive_for_storage

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How To Use a USB Drive For The VortexBox Media Library

Here are instructions for using a USB drive for your VortexBox media library:

1. Prepare your USB drive. VortexBox media are in /storage:

Audio: /storage/music LMS music library: /storage/music/flac LMS playlists: /storage/music/playlist Mirrored mp3 files: /storage/music/mp3 Images: /storage/pictures Video: /storage/movies

To use an external USB drive for your VortexBox media, you'll have to create top-level folders music, pictures, and movies on the USB drive. You should also create a music/flac folder on your USB drive, and place your music files there (even if they are not FLAC files). Also create a music/playlist folder for LMS playlists. Create a music/mp3 folder for VortexBox to use for mirroring FLAC files to mp3. Do not place any music files in music/mp3; place them in music/flac. Move your media files on the USB drive to the appropriate folders. This will allow you to mount the USB drive at /storage and have all your media show up in the proper place.

2. Remove all other USB drives (e.g. a backup drive) from your VB. Plug the desired USB drive into your VB.

3. Login to your VB; see Login.

4. Find the device name of the USB drive. Enter

cat /etc/vortexbox/CurrentUsbDrive.txt

On a VB with one internal hard drive, this usually shows /dev/sdb.

5. Mount the drive. Enter

umount /storage
mount /dev/sdb1 /storage

Use the device name from step 3 with a “1” appended in the above command if it's not /dev/sdb.

6. If this works, then automount the drive at boot time. Edit /etc/fstab. Enter

nano /etc/fstab

7. Remove any line that currently mounts /storage. This line may look like

/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_storage /storage ext4 defaults 1 2

If you installed VortexBox 2.3 using the “Small 2GB+ install” option, this line won't appear in /etc/fstab; just go on to the next step.

8. Add the line

/dev/sdb1  /storage  ntfs  defaults 0 0

Use the correct device name if it's not /dev/sdb1. This presumes the drive has a NTFS filesystem on it. If not, use the correct filesystem type in the above line.

9. Write the file (control-o) and quit (control-x).

10. Test the /etc/fstab entry by entering

umount /storage
mount -a

This should mount the USB drive at /storage.

11. If step 9 is successful, the USB drive will be automounted at /storage when the VB reboots.

12. If you want the proper drive to be automounted regardless of the device name, enter the command

blkid /dev/sdb1

Use the correct device name in the above command if it's not /dev/sdb1.

On my VortexBox, this returns

/dev/sdb1: UUID="725A66165AF23401"  TYPE="ntfs"

13. You can then change the step 7 line in /etc/fstab to

UUID="725A66165AF23401" /storage ntfs defaults 0 0

Use the UUID returned by the blkid command on your system.

14. After you have mounted the USB drive at /storage, change ownership of /storage/music/playlist so it can be written by Logitech Media Server:

chown squeezeboxserver:squeezeboxserver /storage/music/playlist
how_to_use_a_usb_drive_for_storage.1465535183.txt.gz · Last modified: 2016/06/10 01:06 by ron