Mount point connects to empty folders. Cannot get minidlna to scan media.

[avpullano]

I've been having trouble getting minidlna to work. I currently have the plugin jail installed on a 64-bit build of FreeNAS 8.3.0. Only 1 plugin is installed (miniDLNA) and only one mount point exists. The mount point is as follows:

Source = /mnt/RAID1Volume/Media
Destination = /mnt/RAID1Volume/Media/SystemFiles/jail/pluginJail/usr/pbi/minidlna-amd64/myMedia


The source is in the main volume and the destination is inside of the jail. The source has 4 things in it - three datasets called "Videos", "Music", and "Pictures" plus one directory called "Stuff". The three datasets were created through the FreeNAS web GUI by me, and the directory was created by my sister through windows explorer in an effort to ruin my neat folder arrangement. However, when I access the destination folder through Windows explorer, the "Videos", "Music", and "Pictures" datasets contain zero files while the "Stuff" directory contains all of the files that it's supposed to.

So, my three datasets that contain hundreds of GB of data appear as empty folders when accessed through the mount point. How do I fix this? Do I have to change the folder permissions? What is different about how datasets and directories are handled by mount points?

EDIT: The contents of the "Stuff" directory can be viewed via a DLNA client (or by navigating to the mount point destination folder via windows explorer). As far as I can tell, miniDLNA is working and the mount point is looking in the right place, however the mount point is ignoring the contents of the datasets made via the web GUI.

SOLUTION: The trouble was that my mount point was pointing to a ZFS dataset that contained only ZFS datasets. Something about the way they are indexed prevents MiniDLNA from seeing what's inside of nested ZFS datasets. I solved my problem by replacing the inner datasets with plain old directories. If this is unclear:

• Mount point is set to look in /volume/media. This is a ZFS dataset.
• Inside of /volume/media are three more folders, /music, /pictures, and /videos. These are all ZFS datasets as well.
• Solution: replace /music, /pictures, and /videos with directories. MiniDLNA can now see the media inside.

A word of warning, if you have a lot of data it may take a long time to move it all into the new directories since ZFS copies all data when moving it.

 

[ProtoSD]

I know this has been covered before, but your destination MUST be the path as seen INSIDE the jail, not the absolute path outside the jail.

So it should be:

/usr/pbi/minidlna-amd64/myMedia

 

[avpullano]

I know this has been covered before, but your destination MUST be the path as seen INSIDE the jail, not the absolute path outside the jail.

So it should be:

/usr/pbi/minidlna-amd64/myMedia

Ah, I should clarify. I wrote the absolute path because that's how it is listed on the "View Mount Points" tab of the FreeNAS web GUI. However, I entered it just like you said, in the form of the path seen from within the jail.

I'll add this in an edit to my original post as it may help clarify the issue. The contents of the "Stuff" directory can be viewed via a DLNA client (or by navigating to the mount point destination folder via windows explorer). As far as I can tell, miniDLNA is working and the mount point is looking in the right place, however the mount point is ignoring the contents of the datasets made via the web GUI.

 

[ProtoSD]

Do some more searching, this sounds like a permissions problem. I know I've seen a LOT of posts about MiniDLNA not working and it's usually a permission problem.

 

[avpullano]

Yeah, that's actually what makes this difficult - I can't find an solution in the vast sea of MiniDLNA posts. This really feels like a mount point problem more than a MiniDLNA problem (though the two are certainly related). I'm going to look for detailed information on how mount points work. Thanks for the input.

 

[jeronsoenmans]

I v had the same problem
http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php?12085-yet-another-minidlna-problem

 

[avpullano]

I v had the same problem
http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php?12085-yet-another-minidlna-problem

I actually solved it! I put a solution on one of my posts, I guess I forgot this one, sorry! Hopefully this solution applies to your situation.

So the answer was that my mount point was pointing to a ZFS dataset that contained only ZFS datasets. Something about the way they are indexed prevents MiniDLNA from seeing what's inside of nested ZFS datasets. I solved my problem by replacing the inner datasets with plain old directories. If this is unclear:

• Mount point is set to look in /volume/media. This is a ZFS dataset.
• Inside of /volume/media are three more folders, /music, /pictures, and /videos. These are all ZFS datasets as well.
• Solution: replace /music, /pictures, and /videos with directories. MiniDLNA can now see the media inside.

A word of warning, if you have a lot of data it may take a long time to move it all into the new directories since ZFS copies all data when moving it.