Hey Guys
I have a pc that I've been semi-successfully using for a media server, but after the motherboard crapped out and Windows was being a pain with recovery disks needed (doh!) I installed Ubuntu 12.04 after replacing the mobo.
After hours of wasted time messing around with samba and still not even being able to access shared files for more than a few minutes before getting locked out, I gave up.
So I was wondering what you guys use for media servers in terms of OS and software, and in your opinion is a Linux based server even worth it anymore?
Vincent
P.S. The Windows version of the server used Plex to serve up files in case you were wondering
I use debain or Ubuntu depending on what I need (usually Debian)
EDIT: Although I do have a Windows Server 2008 r2 box. But I only ever use it if I need to run a windows based server app, that doesn't emulate well under linux.
Samba literally takes 2 minutes to setup in Ubuntu 12.04.
Follow this
Linux is definatley worth it, especially if your using a resource limited machine as it uses far less resources than Windows does.
I use a Raspberry Pi with MiniDLNA and transmission(daemon), works great for me. it can stream 1080p to a computer/tv just fine.
That was actually one of the guides that I followed yesterday, but it only works temporarily.
At first the harddrives didn't mount on start-up so the files were nowhere to be seen, but that was fixed so it shouldn't be an issue anymore. The problem is that after an hour or so I can't access the files in Windows at all. The HDDs are still mounted and files still shared, could it be samba shutting down?
The folders are shared with Guest access in samba and with all options selected in the right click context menu.
Multiple samba uninstalls, purges and re-installs still haven't fixed this problem.