Help smbmount network drives to older digital audio server

I have an older digital audio server (Lansonic DAS-750) that worked fine for years. Among other things, it reads the hard drives of network-connected Windows computers, and plays mp3 files through my stereo system. Recently it stopped working -- it can no longer access the network-connected hard drives. There was one change that might have caused this: the computer holding most of my music files died, but I was able to save the hard drive and install it on another computer. However, when I now try to connect that or any other drive to the DAS, the operation fails.

Although the DAS cannot read the files on my network computers, everything else works. I can see and control the DAS from network computers, using the DAS's built-in web server. The DAS can still play internet streams. My best guess is that the DAS is attempting to use smbmount, and failing.

I am a total linux novice, but here is what I have been able to determine. I can telnet to the DAS. Its command prompt is "adsh>" and the version command says version 2.1.7 built in 2001. The linux build seems pretty stripped down. When I try to "connect" a hard drive using the web interface, it creates a new directory under /var/network. For example, when I use the web interface to enter the path "\\Sonydesktop\H", it creates directories /var/network/Sonydesktop and /var/network/Sonydesktop/H on the DAS.

I have looked through the various startup scripts on the DAS. One script called as part of the startup sequence appears to restore the current configuration from backup. That configuration contains the following:

adsh> cat /etc/config/smbmounts.cfg
#!/bin/sh
#
#//Sonydesktop/H
mkdir /var/network/Sonydesktop
mkdir /var/network/Sonydesktop/H
smbmount //Sonydesktop/H /var/network/Sonydesktop/H -n
ln -s /var/network/Sonydesktop/H /var/home/Sonydesktop-H

#//Dougs-thinkpad/SampleMusic
mkdir /var/network/Dougs-thinkpad
mkdir /var/network/Dougs-thinkpad/SampleMusic
smbmount //Dougs-thinkpad/SampleMusic /var/network/Dougs-thinkpad/SampleMusic -n
ln -s /var/network/Dougs-thinkpad/SampleMusic /var/home/Dougs-thinkpad-SampleMus
ic

As you can see, it will make the appropriate directories (this changes depending on what I have entered through the web interface), and then attempt to smbmount the various network drives to those directories. However, when I attempt to do this directly from the command line, I get "mount error: Invalid argument Please look at smbmount's manual page for possible reasons."

One other bit of information that may be relevant. The hard drive containing my music is formated FAT32. I can't recall whether the DAS was previously able to read from my other computers, whose primary drives are all formatted NTFS. However, drive H on the Sonydesktop is still FAT32, as is a USB drive on my Thinkpad. The DAS cannot read these either.

So my guess is that the problem is one of two things. Either the firmware/software on the DAS somehow got corrupted, or smbmount is unable to mount FAT32 drives attached to computers whose primary drives are NTFS. But as I say, I know nothing about smbmount or linux, so it could be something else entirely.

Sorry for the very long post, but forum rules say the more detail the better. I would very much appreciate any help or suggestions.

Well, after days of troubleshooting, I finally figured out what was wrong. Because these computers are running XP, a password is required, even when the drive is shared. Oh well ...

Would you happen to have a soft copy manual for the DAS 750, I recently acuire one of these units.
Jeff

I probably have it somewhere. What do you need to know?

Grampa

How Do I load MP3 into the DAS 750. Do I connect to what looks like a serial plug (I'm use to USB) or do I do it accross the LAN (of which I am a little clueless on how to do. I have a free port on my wireless router, but when I go to my laptop and hit Explore/ Network Places I don't see the other segments of my LAN.

All I plan to do is to load MP3's into the DAS 750 and play them.

Jeff

You connect the DAS to your LAN using an Ethernet cable (looks like a phone plug, only bigger). If you plug the DAS into your router, it should pull a an IP address from the router. By default, the DAS is configured to get its address automatically, but of course, if you bought the unit used, someone might have configured it differently. You can access the DAS by entering its IP address in your browser's address field (for example, http://192.168.0.x). To find out what that address is, you might need to look at your router's configuration page. I can't recall whether there is a way to get the address from the DAS directly. Also, you could probably just get the IP address of your computer network, and figure it out from that.

You say you want to load MP3s into the DAS. I assume, therefore, that you have the version of the DAS with a built-in hard drive (I don't have that version). If you don't, you can still have it play the MP3s that are on the hard drive of a connected computer. Connected to your stereo, the DAS's sound quality will be much better than anything your computer can produce.

The DAS should also show up in Windows Explorer/My Network Places, but you may need to assign it to a workgroup in order to see it. I see mine under My Network Places/Entire Network/Microsoft Windows Network/[Workgroup Name]. Try first to find it using your browser. If you can't figure out how to get the IP address, I can probably help you.

Grampa
I go my unit connect to the LAN today, thanks. I still haven't loaded any songs yet but hope to do it tommorrow.

I believe this unit has 2 hard drives (disc 1 and disc 2) show up when I go to properties each drive states 188mb (size of disk). Do I just cut and paste my mp3's from my PC to one of the drives (does it matter)?

I can send you screen shots if you think I am reading this wrong.

Jeff

mail@jeffgage.com

Do you mean 188 GB? Anyway, if you can see the drives in Network Places, you can treat them just like any other drive on your network: cut & paste, drag & drop, etc. It probably makes the most sense to organize them by artist and album.