Express Install went great -- but now what?

[kjdunphy]

Kudos to those who worked on the express install CD. I've installed Amahi on an old desktop, which doesn't have a DVD drive. I tried to get the Fedora NetInstall to work, and was trying to borrow a DVD drive, when I found the Express -- y'all ought to move that to a more visible spot on the install instructions. Worked as slick as the proverbial whistle.

Now I'm having a hard time finding my way around. I'm sure I'm missing something fairly fundamental.

I've got one of those "pesky 2Wire boxes" -- since it's going to take some teeth-pulling to turn off its DHCP, I'll let it ride while I figure this HDA out, before I go tell the family how great this is.

I've downloaded "Gallery 2" and "Ampache" - both want to go to their own respective virtual server addresses. How can I access them using the IP address of my HDA, between now and the time I wrestle my way through putting Amahi in charge of the DHCP on my lan?

I've mounted the "books" and "music" shares from my RedHat workstation and have dragged some content into each. I can ssh to the hda machine and see these files on /var/hda/files/books and .../music, but when I connect to the HDA's web app, and click on "HDA", and then "Files", "Images", "Audio", "Video", I see nothing.

I read about how "amahitunes" will let us stream content to iTunes and Roku and what-not all throughout the house... but when I click on "Try the New Apps" it's not there. And, there's no "Search".

I'd like to see a bit more getting-started docs around accomplishing common household-server tasks. I know my way around computers, linux, and even app servers in general (WebSphere in particular) but I'm still missing something basic about how Amahi has packaged all this to make it easy for my family to use.

Thanks

[radioz]

but when I connect to the HDA's web app, and click on "HDA", and then "Files", "Images", "Audio", "Video", I see nothing.

The HDA web app doesn't have a file browser. Just use the file browser on your client PC.

[kjdunphy]

but when I connect to the HDA's web app, and click on "HDA", and then "Files", "Images", "Audio", "Video", I see nothing.

The HDA web app doesn't have a file browser. Just use the file browser on your client PC.

What do those links do?

[bigfoot65]

Nothing. They show you the path to use in Windows to access the shares. You can only access shares via a web app file browser like AjaXplorer or using a client file browser.

[kjdunphy]

Thanks Bigfoot

Is there a way to get to these apps I've plugged in, given the condition that my Amahi server is not yet the DHCP and DNS server for my LAN? Or do I really need to solve that problem first? Is there any way to access these apps using the IP address of my Amahi server? http://192.168.1.253/ampache and http://192.168.1.253/apps/ampache don't appear to launch that app...

If I can learn my way around Amahi before I wrestle my router out of its role as DHCP and DNS, then if I decide not to put the Amahi server into production, so to speak, I don't have to re-wrestle the router all over again... I'd like to keep the Amahi server in the corner where it doesn't disrupt the family, until I've got things set up to the point where my family can use it easily and with a feature-set that they'll appreciate.

[bigfoot65]

Not using the IP address. The best way to access the apps the way you are setup a the moment is to do http://ip_address and select them from the dashboard.

If that does not work, then change your router to use the HDA for DNS. You can still leave DHCP on the router, but having DNS coming from the HDA will make it easier.

I have run mine this way recently and had no problems with accessing apps via the dashboard.

[kjdunphy]

When I connect to http://ip_address, log in to the HDA, and click one of the apps from the dashboard, it opens a new window to http://thisApp.myLAN.net.

I'll see if I can find the switches on the router to add the HDA as a DNS server.

Thanks for your patience

[kjdunphy]

I noticed that /etc/resolv.conf contained both nameservers -- my router and my HDA. NSLookup would use one and then the other, but everything else apparently tries the first nameserver and then quits. I edited it by hand and was able to explore the HDA.

I tried the same thing on a Vista box; it seems to also know about the second nameserver (the HDA), and was able to resolve the server's names without difficulty. I did not have to tweak anything there.

Also tried an iPad; it, like the Linux, did not resolve the HDA's names.

So far I have not figured out how to get the AT&T Uverse 2Wire router to take a secondary DNS server... It looks like this thing is so idiot-proof that those of us who aren't IP idiots can't do anything with it... Still hunting.