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Samba share from serviio on Linux

PostPosted: Wed Nov 13, 2024 6:03 am
by hspindel
I have some video files on a NAS.

I am able to install serviio under Windows and use the NAS video directory directly using UNC syntax, once I overcame the issue of having to change the user that the serviio service runs under. (Note to others: if you upgrade serviio, it changes the Windows server user back to default and you have to change it again. Tore some hair out before I figured that out .)

I am now wanting to install serviio under Linux and use the same NAS share. Tried several variations of the UNC name, but serviio always says the folder is not available. I am reasonably sure that the problem is similar to the Windows issue and is a permission problem. I cannot find a setting that tells Linux serviio service what account to run under so it has access to the NAS, nor can I find a setting that allows me to specify login parameters to the NAS.

Linux is Rocky Linux.

Anybody get this to work?

Re: Samba share from serviio on Linux

PostPosted: Wed Nov 13, 2024 4:08 pm
by atc98092
I did play with Serviio on a Linux box (tried the Mint distro) and had the same issues about accessing UNC locations. My solution was to do what we call in Windows mapping a local drive letter to the remote location. I think in Linux it's a symbolic link, or something like that. I had to mount the external location into a local folder, and then Serviio could see the media as if it were installed on the Linux hard drive. It was the only way I could get it to work.

But I don't think it's a very efficient way to do it, because (I'm guessing here) the files had to cross the network from the NAS location to the Linux box, then out to the player. That would double the network traffic if it's accurate, but I honestly don't know if it is. Since my home network is wired Gigabit, I wasn't overly concerned with saturating the network. And it was only for testing purposes, as my primary Serviio PC runs Windows and has all the media on local hard drives.

Re: Samba share from serviio on Linux

PostPosted: Wed Nov 13, 2024 9:58 pm
by hspindel
atc98092 wrote:I did play with Serviio on a Linux box (tried the Mint distro) and had the same issues about accessing UNC locations. My solution was to do what we call in Windows mapping a local drive letter to the remote location. I


Thank you.

I'm trying to avoid mounting the remote share to the Linux machine.

Re: Samba share from serviio on Linux

PostPosted: Wed Nov 13, 2024 10:05 pm
by atc98092
hspindel wrote:Thank you.

I'm trying to avoid mounting the remote share to the Linux machine.

Yeah, I tried but was never successful. I will say that my testing was on an older version of Serviio, so perhaps something has changed (either in Serviio or the Linux distros) that makes it work now. One big issue of course is always going to be access permissions on the remote share. Perhaps I simply didn't know enough about Linux to really understands the settings necessary.

Re: Samba share from serviio on Linux

PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 12:32 am
by hspindel
atc98092 wrote:
hspindel wrote:Thank you.

I'm trying to avoid mounting the remote share to the Linux machine.

Yeah, I tried but was never successful. I will say that my testing was on an older version of Serviio, so perhaps something has changed (either in Serviio or the Linux distros) that makes it work now. One big issue of course is always going to be access permissions on the remote share. Perhaps I simply didn't know enough about Linux to really understands the settings necessary.


I am (at least partially) convinced that the issue is serviio lacking login credentials to the NAS. I can't find anywhere to tell serviio what those credentials are.

I am running the very latest version of serviio.

Re: Samba share from serviio on Linux

PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 1:10 am
by atc98092
Yes, Serviio has no means of entering login credentials for shared drives/folders. It uses uxthe credentials of whatever user account the Serviio service runs under and there's no method of using any other credentials. The user account that Serviio uses must have the connection credentials already stored under that user account. So if you're running Serviio under a system service account, that needs to be changed to an account that you can actually use to log into the computer in question (in this case the Linux PC) and make a persistent connection to the network share, meaning you don't need to enter the user credentials every time you access the network share. In Windows, that's simply saving the credentials when you make a network connection to the share. I can't remember how Linux handles that. Then when Serviio is using that user account, it uses the stored credentials from the user account and all should be well. At least, it works that way under Windows.

Re: Samba share from serviio on Linux

PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 2:42 am
by hspindel
atc98092 wrote:Yes, Serviio has no means of entering login credentials for shared drives/folders. It uses uxthe credentials of whatever user account the Serviio service runs under and there's no method of using any other credentials. The user account that Serviio uses must have the connection credentials already stored under that user account. So if you're running Serviio under a system service account, that needs to be changed to an account that you can actually use to log into the computer in question (in this case the Linux PC) and make a persistent connection to the network share, meaning you don't need to enter the user credentials every time you access the network share. In Windows, that's simply saving the credentials when you make a network connection to the share. I can't remember how Linux handles that. Then when Serviio is using that user account, it uses the stored credentials from the user account and all should be well. At least, it works that way under Windows.


Yes, I understand all of that. The question is how to store credentials under Linux. There is no option in the serviio.sh file that I can see.

Re: Samba share from serviio on Linux

PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 4:35 am
by atc98092
hspindel wrote:Yes, I understand all of that. The question is how to store credentials under Linux. There is no option in the serviio.sh file that I can see.


No, there's no way to store that in Serviio. It has to be done at the OS (Linux) level. I'm not knowledgeable enough about Linux to tell you how that's done.