What’s a Firefly? The long answer is here.
The short answer is it’s one of my favorite app for my iPod touch (it works in iPhone as well.) It’s a Wi-Fi media server where you can stream your device’s iTunes library to any computer (Mac, PC & Linux) running iTunes (or compatible.) With Firefly, a room-full of people can enjoy your portable iTunes music collection!
Unfortunately, the Firefly package in Cydia doesn’t set up the server for you and there’s no convenient way to turn it on and off.
So I wrote an installation script that will automatically set up the server for you, packaged it with a BossPrefs’ Toggle so you can toggle the server on and off in BossPrefs. Then I whipped up an iPhone edition of its Web Admin Interface because the standard one was desperately crying for an update! Finally I make sure I can tell that the server is running at a glance. Voila, a status bar notifier icon is included! What more can you ask for?
Like it? You can find the package, named “Firefly Setup & Toggle” in the RupertGee iCydia repository, under the “App Addons” Section. Please read the FAQs before installation. Needless to say, you must install the actual Firefly Media Server package seperately (it’s in the “Multimedia” section.)
If you have manually set up the server based on my instructions, I’m pleased to tell you that you can install this package and enjoy its added functionalities right away; no un-installation is necessary.
For first time Firefly user, please make sure you temporarily set “Auto-Lock” to “Never” or make sure (by tapping on your device’s screen regularly) your device does not go in to Sleep Mode, especially during first-run. That’s because it takes about 6 minutes for the server to scan and create a database of just 500 songs! A sleeping device means your server will not be activated for a long while and seemingly broken. Subsequently a device that has fallen asleep suddenly means everyone has to awkwardly stop dancing while you wake up the interrupted stream!
Enjoy!
RupertGee iBlog @ WordPress.com 
20 Comments
I like the ideal of a status bar icon but I can’t seem to find the source to download?
What’s going on?
Oh, am I seeing thing or did that thing slide up an down? It’s cool!
Sorry, I must have missed it. What’s your repo URL for Cydia?
>thegpc
You didn’t miss anything. The repo hasn’t show up in Cydia yet. I resist telling anyone the url as it might cause problems later on. But come to think about it, if we manually add the source now we can simply manually remove it later. So… without further ado, the url to my repo is:
http://acuemedia.com/rupertgee/cydia/
Tada!
after turning off firefly the status icon does not disappear. only after rebooting. any ideas?
>alan
I assume you turned it off via BossPrefs and not by other means.
It’s important to know how BossPrefs works — please do not quit BossPrefs right after toggling off the server. The process of turning off any service actually takes about 2-5 seconds, during which you’ll noticed a spinning wheel in the toggle button’s background, and that the button disappear momentarily. Only quit BossPrefs after these animations have completed and BossPrefs’ screen stablized. The same applies when toggling on the server.
Try it; toggle the server on and on a few times now to understand the routine.
yes thru bossprefs. and yes i do wait for the spin to stop. the icon still stays there however. only when i reboot does it go away again.
>alan
Woohoo! I’ve found the bug and is updating the package. Do upgrade once you see it in Cydia.
Thanks for reporting it!
Rupert:
Man, a repo was a GREAT idea. It was always such a hassle to manually install everything you made up for us, and, as iPhones/iPods (and iPhone/iPod jailbreaking) are all about convenience, a RupertGee repo is just what the doctor ordered.
I wonder, would you be willing to upload other peoples’ packages?
>thegpc
Thanks for the complement.
I learnt alot setting up my own repo. It really helps me understand how amazing a .deb package works, so much so I put up a web repository for all to discover .deb.
The web repo is here: http://acuemedia.com/rupertgee/iCydia/
The Cydia repo is: http://acuemedia.com/rupertgee/cydia/
It’ll be my pleasure to host others’ package. Just email me your apps and themes. I’ll package them if you don’t know how to. Oh, no porn nor copyrights stuffs of course. 🙂
thanks for looking into this for the fix and all of your hard work. i’m glad you have made this really simple. i look foward to more packages!
Rupert Dear!
I’ve just installed this and it works! Thank you so much. Those drop drawers in the admin page are so cool!
I can’t seem to find my mp4. What happen to them?
Gan Kool! It works. Finally! I tried your old instruction some weeks back but it’s complex for me. A few days ago someone else wrote a starter (or something like that). It also can’t work.
Yours best!
>VenessaC
Firefly only support music but not video. Thus your mp4s don’t show up in the list. 😦
>xiaozhu
Hee hee. I’m glad it works for you.
Did you mean the “Firefly Starter”? I tried it a bit… and didn’t get it to work too. Am too lazy to figure out why though. 🙂 But my Firefly Setup & Toggle is mt-daapd compliant.
Rupert:
I’ve got some issues here…
I did a clean install of Firefly and the Toggle. Then, when I go to hit the toggle, the notifier icon shows up, and the toggle is on, but when I try to go to the Web Interface page, it won’t load. I go back into BossPrefs, and the toggle is off, but the notifier is still there! (Yes, I waited for the plugin to load before quiting BossPrefs.) What’s going on, and how do I fix it?
well i hate to say it but after installing update i still get the icon after turning it off. any ideas? i removed firefly and firefly setup and toggle and did a clean install. same results. only respringing or rebooting gets it to go away.
hey rupert,
im gettin the same problem alan got with the icon still present in the status bar when i turn off firefly. Im pretty sure its at the latest version and i make sure that the little spinner has stopped before closing bossprefs. any ideas?
>Craig
Please check to make sure your “Installed Package” Version is 1.1. You can find this info in the package’s description page in Cydia. You just need to scroll down a little towards the end of the page for it.
You probably have Version 1.0; upgrade & reboot.
Cheers
Hi Rupert,
You probably have bigger problems to worry about with getting your repo working. But I thought I’d mention that I installed this .dab from your media fire server and it seems incomplete. I had to modify permissions on the launchd plist and mt-daapd.conf file as well as point it to a different webroot. Is your remade iphone webpage not included? Good luck with the repo.