MiniDLNA

MiniDLNA is server software with the aim of being fully compliant with
DLNA/UPnP clients. The MiniDNLA daemon serves media files (music, pictures,
and video) to clients on a network. Example clients include applications such as
totem and xbmc, and devices such as portable media players, smartphones, and
televisions.
MiniDLNA is a simple, lightweight alternative to MediaTomb, but has fewer features. It
does not have a web interface for administration and must be configured by editing a text
file.

Installation
sudo apt-get install minidlna

Configuration Globally (for all users)

The configuration file is /etc/minidlna.conf and these are the necessary descriptors:
#network_interface=eth0

# Self-discovers if commented (good with

NetworkManager)media_dir=A,/home/user/Music

# Use A, P, and V to

restrict media 'type' in

directorymedia_dir=P,/home/user/Picturesmedia_dir=V,/home/user/Videosfrien
dly_name=Laptop

# Optionaldb_dir=/var/cache/minidlna

Needs to be un-commentedlog_dir=/var/log
un-commentedinotify=yes
restart required for new media
Restart the daemon for changes to take effect:
sudo service minidlna restart

# Needs to be
# 'no' for less resources,

To rebuild the database use:

sudo service minidlna force-reload

Configuration Locally (per user)

Disable the global daemon:
sudo service minidlna stopsudo update-rc.d minidlna disable
Create the necessary local files and directories as regular user and edit the configuration:
mkdir -p ~/.minidlna/cachecd ~/.minidlnacp /etc/minidlna.conf .$EDITOR
minidlna.conf
Configure as you would globally above but these definitions need to be defined locally:
db_dir=/home/$USER/.minidlna/cachelog_dir=/home/$USER/.minidlna
To start the daemon locally:
minidlna -f /home/$USER/.minidlna/minidlna.conf -P
/home/$USER/.minidlna/minidlna.pid
In recent ubuntu versions, please replace minidlna with minidlnad.
minidlnad -f /home/$USER/.minidlna/minidlna.conf -P
/home/$USER/.minidlna/minidlna.pid
To stop the local daemon:
xargs kill </home/$USER/.minidlna/minidlna.pid
To rebuild the database:
minidlna -f /home/$USER/.minidlna/minidlna.conf -R
In recent ubuntu versions, please replace minidlna with minidlnad.

minidlnad -f /home/$USER/.minidlna/minidlna.conf -R
To have minidlna load at startup, create the file
~/.config/autostart/minidlna.desktop:
[Desktop
Entry]Encoding=UTF-8Type=ApplicationName=MiniDLNAComment=Server to
stream media over networkExec=minidlna -f
/home/$USER/.minidlna/minidlna.conf -P
/home/$USER/.minidlna/minidlna.pidStartupNotify=falseTerminal=falseHidden=
false

Troubleshooting
MiniDLNA problems that have been solved.

Flawed Official Version (Oneiric)

The official version of MiniDLNA in the Oneiric repositories (1.0.21+dfsg-1) is flawed
(possibly because it hasn't been compiled with 'libavcodec' support). With this version
you will not be able to play mp4 video files, display pngs, and possibly other things. This
version too has a problem with permission problems in /var/cache/minidlna - it kept
saving some files in the album art directory as root (possibly others) but requires user
'minidlna' to access them. I also seem to remember a write access problem to the
files.db file.

Fix with Stedy Version

A rebuilt Stedy's minidlna for Oneiric can be found here.

Firewall Rules
If using a firewall the the ssdp (1900/udp) and trivnet1 (8200/tcp) ports will need to be
opened. For example this can be done with arno's iptables firewall by editing
firewall.conf to:
OPEN_TCP="8200" OPEN_UDP="1900"