Firefly Media Server for Firmware 2.1

I was very excited when blog reader Joshua tipped me off that the Firefly Media Server for iPhone/iPod touch firmware 2.x is now available in the Cydia installer. I have been waiting for it.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out-of-the-box. I have no idea why the current Cydia release (version 0.2.4.2-1) doesn’t include the necessary configuration files nor properly set up the server for us. But I figured it out, and here’s the how-to:

Firstly, please set your firmware 2.x device (refer to this post for instructions for firmware 1.1.x) to “Never” Auto-Lock. This is necessary because on first-run, the server will index and create a database of your music files and the process takes a long time. Interrupting the process may result in strange behaviour.

PART A – INSTALLATION:

1. Launch Cydia and install BossPrefs if you don’t already have BossPrefs in your device. We need BossPrefs, with the help of a little custom Plugin I wrote, to enable and disable the Firefly Media Server.
2. Launch Cydia and look for and install “Firefly Media Server” under the “Multimedia” section (or just use the Search function; it’s quicker.)
3. Download this file (253.09KB), unzip it and upload the following files into your device, location as indicated:
   1. firefly-icon.png -> /private/var/stash/Applications/BossPrefs.app/
   2. Firefly -> /private/var/stash/Applications/BossPrefs.app/services/
   3. org.fireflymediaserver.mt-daapd -> /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/
   4. mt-daapd.conf -> /private/etc/
4. 1. Mac OS X Users: Use the Terminal.app (it’s in your /Applications/Utilities/ folder) to SSH into your device by executing the below command; do change “192.168.123.88” to your device actual IP Address first. Enter the password (default is “alpine”) when prompted:
      

      ssh -l root 192.168.123.88

   2. Windows Users: Use a sFTP Client such as WinSCP to connect to your device via SSH.
5. Copy and paste this long command (it’s *one line* long starting with “launchctl” and ending with “plist”) at the prompt. This step registers the org.fireflymediaserver.mt-daapd.plist file with launchctl.
   

   launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.fireflymediaserver.mt-daapd.plist

6. Copy and paste this command at the prompt. This starts indexing and creating a database for your music, and subsequently starting up the server.
   

   /usr/sbin/mt-daapd -c /private/etc/mt-daapd.conf -f

Be patient; Step 6 will take a while depending on the size of your music library. It took just a little over 6 minutes to index my library of 564 mp3 songs (totalling 3.34GB in size.) While it is indexing, you will notice your device is rather sluggish in response when you try to use it. Don’t be alarm; it’s perfectly normal during indexing.

Launch your iTunes. As soon as indexing is complete, you will see your iPod touch shows up under “SHARED”.

Go back to Terminal, and you should see a message “Scanned X songs in Y seconds” (sample). At this point, press and hold “Control+C” to terminate the process and turn off the server.

Your Firefly Media Server is ready to stream! To enable it, launch BossPrefs to turn it on and let the fun begins! Woohoo, it’s Hammer Time!

PART B – CONTROLLING THE SERVER

You must set the file permissions of /private/etc/mt-daapd.conf to 777 if you want to edit the settings in your browser. Please read further the on-screen instructions.

Use your desktop browser and browse to: http://192.168.123.88:3689 (change “192.168.123.88” to your device’s actual IP address.) Alternatively, you can use the Mobile Safari and surf to “http://localhost:3689/”. When prompted, enter the Name “root” and Password “alpine”, then click on the “config” tab.

• You might want to change the “Server Name”. 😛
• You might want to change the “Admin Password”.
• You might want to implement “MP3 Password” if you want iTunes to prompt for access password.

You can also make the changes directly by editing the “/private/etc/mt-daapd.conf” file.

Please leave all other settings as is unless you know what you are doing. You can find detailed explanations of the various settings in the “mt-daapd.conf” file you downloaded earlier.

Remember to go to the Status tab and click on “Start Scan” to update your database.

Checklist

• Be sure to regularly update your database by clicking on “Start Scan” button (it’s under the Status tab)
• You can reset the database by deleting this file: /private/var/cache/mt-daapd/songs.gdb, and then Update it.
• Turn off the server when not in use to reduce battery consumption.