trying to install "apps"

[mcf57]

Like others in this section, I am a newbie at this. I came across Amahi with hopes of achieving several tasks. They are as follows:

• - Use Amahi on an old DELL 2400 desktop instead of it getting tossed into some landfill
  - use Amahi as a NAS
  - use Amahi as a media server to feed content to a networked Seagate Theater Plus device
  - install several older drives I have (clean 80-250GB) into this Amahi loaded DELL so all of them can appear as ONE drive letter over my network.

Well, I am slowly getting there and have more or less achieved most of the items above as I wanted. I first installed Fedora from CDs. After it was installed, I installed Amahi from the provided desktop icons as instructed. All if good so far.

I'm now able to access my Amahi setup (via http://hda/setup) from any other networked PC's browser. I have also been able to map some of the available shares to any of these other PC (\\hda\Movies, \\hda\Docs, \\hda\Pictures, etc.) so that can sort of serve my NAS needs for now.

I have also been able to use it with my Seagate Theater playback device as well. It sees the Amahi server and plays video files from it as needed so all is good there too.

The only issue I am sort of running into right now is trying to install additional apps. Specifically "Grayhole". I have been told that this is a storage pooling app that will allow me to physically install numerous drives, but then they will essentially share all the space together and appear as one drive letter over my network.

When I go to my Amahi setup at http://hda/setup & then click the "Apps" tab, it tells me the following:

There are no Apps installed at this time.
Try installing some Apps » +

So I click the + sign, but it then tells me the following:

There are no applications available at this time.
This could be due to a lack of network connectivity.

What am I doing wrong here? I have a feeling its something simple. I have network connectivity cause other PCs and my Seagate player can see it. I can also get on the internet fine within Fedora and Mozilla so that doesn't seem to be an issue either.

Any other suggestions here on what I am doing wrong to get more Apps installed?

[radioz]

From your hda machine, can you access web sites in a browser (i.e. www.google.com)?

Tell us a little more about your setup. With little information, it sounds like you may have network configuration problems.

Do you have DNS and DHCP enabled on your hda?
Can other systems on your network access external sites?

Have you tried going through the Network Troubleshooting guide on the wiki? http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Network_troubleshooting

[mcf57]

From your hda machine, can you access web sites in a browser (i.e. http://www.google.com)?

Yes, I can access websites in a browser (Mozilla) from my hda machine.

Do you have DNS and DHCP enabled on your hda?

Not sure. How do I find out & do this if needed?

Can other systems on your network access external sites?

Yes, all other systems on my network are accessing external sites as usual and no issues there.

Now, I am now a little confused as I went to Amahi Setup (http://hda/setup) and then clicked the "Settings" tab and then the "servers" section and it lists "Greyhole" in the list of servers as running. So, I am thinking maybe I already have this program installed, no?

[nephster]

Did you install Fedora 12 or 14? If F14 you won't get any apps quite yet.

Greyhole is installed along with Amahi, but you need to enable the advanced options in Amahi and configure it as detailed here:
http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Greyhole

Greg

[mcf57]

OK, maybe this explains it a bit better. It looks like I installed Fedora 14. Therefore, I guess I won't have access to additional apps at this time (as stated). I just installed F14 two days ago. Should I maybe go back and start all over and install F12 instead? Is F14 really more of a beta product at this point?

Since I do have F14, will the suggested link allow me to fully use Greyhole with my system?

Just last night, I also actually installed another old drive to test this all on. I put in an OLD 10GB Maxtor drive I just happen to have handy. My F14 recognizes it & I can see it in the storage area. I think I formatted it to the same as the main 40GB drive (ext4). I guess its not pooled together with the 40GB as other PCs over my network are still only recognizing the free space (34GB) from the main/first drive only.

If I am able to enable Grayhole from within my F14, hopefully it will pull all this hard drive space (40 + 10 = 50GB) together and that is what I can then access from my Seagate player and other PCs. We'll see as I will try these instructions later tonight.

[mcf57]

Well, after some additional reading from the link provided, a little patience and some tinkering around with, I think I got it to work the way I want. After formatting with gparted (ext3 format) & after adjusting some of the advanced settings, my two IDE drives in the Amahi desktop seem to have been recognized & "pooled" together. From another networked PC, I am able to map a drive letter that points to one of the shares of the Amahi HDA. It then gives me a combined total available space of the two drives and they are assigned to one letter for that desktop. Perfect.

I copied some video files to one of these Amachi shares (//hda/movies) & then tested my Seagate Home Theater Plus device with it. The HDA area shows up in its "Network" area & I am then able to see the copied videos and play them back with no problems. Perfect.

I will now also be able to use the Amahi desktop (in an old DELL) as a NAS as well. Share its drive space with other PCs in my home network. Again, perfect.

Now, I have some questions concerning this pooled space. Since these two drives are essentially combined and "pooled" together, I'm assuming I need to be careful about the data that is put on this Amahi desktop server/hda. If I remove the newly installed 2nd drive (or even if one physically fails), it could affect all the data transferred to it, correct (since some of that data might also be on the first drive)?

I formatted the 2nd drive in ext3, but should I maybe format it again in fat32 and/or NTFS so it can possibly be read by a Windows based PC if I pull it? Or again, will it not matter since it has been "pooled" together with the first drive?

I have also read a little about the RAID configuration of drives. Raid 0, 1, 5, etc. Still learning about this, but it seems to be more suitable for backup purposes. Data is mirrored on each drive so if one fails, it is backed up on another. Is this the basic idea and thinking behind RAID? If so, is there maybe a way RAID can be used with this Amahi HDA application somehow? While my Amahi HDA is now serving its purpose well, I was just curious for possible future needs and if I wanted to possibly have important data backed up in some sort of way.

Finally, I have some other older desktops that are collecting dust and may want to put them to good use again and install another copy of Amahi on them. What should I be aware of when trying to have a 2nd or 3rd Amahi desktop over my network? I'm thinking the name is probably one issue, right? Call the others maybe "hda2", "hda3", etc. Is DHCP gonna be another factor as well?