mediatomb is missing critical files in HARDY

[Jerone Young]

Binary package hint: mediatomb

So I installed mediatomb on my ubuntu hard machine all ready to start streaming things to my Playstation 3. Well when I go to
Applications->Sound and Video -> MediaTomb

This open firefox to open file:
file:///var/lib/mediatomb/mediatomb.html

Well that file is not there. Come to see it NOTHING is in /var/lib/mediatomb

I am installed packages:
mediatomb
mediatomb-common
mediatomb-daemon

Things were missed when this was packaged. This is going to be a big package as DLNA server capability is becoming more and more a big deal. I want to use it with my Playstation 3.

[Leonhard Wimmer (leo-mediatomb)]

This is no bug, this is a feature :)

/var/lib/mediatomb/mediatomb.html will only be created if MediaTomb is run as a daemon. It's not supposed to be in the package! Please read http://mediatomb.cc/pages/download#debian_ubuntu very carefully.

[Jerone Young (jerone)]

How is anyone supposed to know this. This "feature" is a huge bug, as if I apt-get install these packages and I see an Icon in the menu system. How am I supposed to get to the point where I would get to this URL?

[StefanPotyra (sistpoty)]

@Leonhard: would a configuration where mediatomb is installed but the daemon is not run make sense? If not, I guess it would be a saner default to have the server start once the package is installed.

[Leonhard Wimmer (leo-mediatomb)]

@Stefan: Yes, you can alternatively run MediaTomb as a regular user from the command line. (simply type "mediatomb")

A solution could be to add two menu icons - one for opening the browser to point to the UI of the daemon, and another one to probably start MediaTomb as a regular user and open the browser to point to the UI of that instance.

A "server is not running" message should also be implemented.

I'll talk to maintainer of this package about this issue.

[Michael Carpenter (mcarpent)]

If the daemon package is installed should it not be started automatically by the install script? In that case the /var/lib/mediatomb/mediatomb.html file should already be present.

The two icons for daemon/user modes is a good idea though for those who do not install the daemon package.

[Andres Mejia (amejia1)]

Here's a snippet of the line that needs to be changed in /etc/default/mediatomb.

# Set whether the daemon should be started. Set this value to anything
# but 'yes' to enable the daemon
NO_START="yes"

This was something done way before I worked on the package and I always wondered why it was needed. If starting mediatomb after the package is installed is not desirable, that can be arranged using debhelper, thus letting someone handle how to start mediatomb using the tools used to control system services (i.e. kcontrol, etc).

Personally, I don't see the harm of allowing the mediatomb daemon to start right after mediatomb-daemon is installed. However, I could also compensate for this by using a generic shell script and dialog boxes.

[StefanPotyra (sistpoty)]

@Leonhard: is it ok for me, if I'll make that change and have the daemon autostart?

[StefanPotyra (sistpoty)]

erm... I wanted to write: is it ok for you... ;)

[Leonhard Wimmer (leo-mediatomb)]

The NO_START="yes" default dates back to the times where there was only one MediaTomb package. Now with the three packages it makes probably more sense to automatically start MediaTomb when the daemon package is installed.

@Stefan: Yes, please change the default.

@Andres: Could you change that default in the Debain package?

[StefanPotyra (sistpoty)]

ok, upload should follow soon. Thanks for your input!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package mediatomb - 0.11.0-1ubuntu1

---------------
mediatomb (0.11.0-1ubuntu1) hardy; urgency=low

  * debian/mediatomb-daemon.mediatomb.default: Change NO_START to no,
    so that the daemon is automatically started, once the -daemon
    package is installed. LP: #205790. Thanks to Leonhard Wimmer and
    Andres Mejia.
  * debian/control: Update maintainer field as per spec.

 -- Stefan Potyra <email address hidden> Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:23:27 +0100