Unable to get network sources working

[mikeb]

I have a Solaris ZFS CIFS share that has all my media on it. Thus far, I believe I have successfully added the network source 'smb://host/storage'... And Boxee shows the source as "Connected". I have also tested mounting the share as the user I setup for Boxee on my Mac (where I'm running Boxee), and it mounts just fine. So I know the share works, the user account is valid, etc.

When I go to Files -> [network source], I get "Loading Error: failed to retrieve data".

In Library/Logs/boxee.log, I only get this once (then the source goes "not connected")
20:20:42 T:2973433856 M:790212608 INFO: ip <192.168.1.12> is considered dead. removing froms smb map.


Is there any known solution?

[NomadDNA]

I have a Solaris ZFS CIFS share that has all my media on it. Thus far, I believe I have successfully added the network source 'smb://host/storage'... And Boxee shows the source as "Connected". I have also tested mounting the share as the user I setup for Boxee on my Mac (where I'm running Boxee), and it mounts just fine. So I know the share works, the user account is valid, etc.

When I go to Files -> [network source], I get "Loading Error: failed to retrieve data".

In Library/Logs/boxee.log, I only get this once (then the source goes "not connected")
20:20:42 T:2973433856 M:790212608 INFO: ip <192.168.1.12> is considered dead. removing froms smb map.


Is there any known solution?


Hey MikeB, SMB problems are difficult since there can be any number of problems. You've provide good information though....

Does your NAS allow for a guest account that doesn't require a password? If so, is it enabled? Have you tried removing the source in Boxee and re-adding it? What happens when you browse to a file and attempt to play it directly in Boxee?

[mikeb]

Does your NAS allow for a guest account that doesn't require a password? If so, is it enabled? Have you tried removing the source in Boxee and re-adding it? What happens when you brows to a file and attempt to play it directly in Boxee?

I do not have guest access enabled, and preferably wouldn't need to.

I have tried re-adding the source, with the same results.

If I browse to a file in Finder, select Open With -> Boxee, it works. Boxee plays the file.

[judgeschambers]

Does your SMB share require a user/password to access it normally? If so, then you will need to enter that in Boxee's Settings>Network>SMB Shares.

[mikeb]

I eventually got it working. There is some bug in updating the SMB client authentication settings. I had updated password & workgroup, and boxee said it needed to restart. I did that, and expected everything to be fine. It wasn't until this problem did I go back to look at that setting, and the workgroup was still "WORKGROUP", the default.

I then updated the password, workgroup and both in 3 different attempts. Each time, Boxee said it needed to restart, and I did. And each time, it seems it didn't update any settings. I then tried changing the username, and that stuck. So I changed the username BACK to my correct user, changed the password and workgroup in one change, Boxee DIDN'T say it needed to restart, and I didn't. Magically, the settings stuck, and it all worked after that.

[NomadDNA]

I eventually got it working. There is some bug in updating the SMB client authentication settings. I had updated password & workgroup, and boxee said it needed to restart. I did that, and expected everything to be fine. It wasn't until this problem did I go back to look at that setting, and the workgroup was still "WORKGROUP", the default.

I then updated the password, workgroup and both in 3 different attempts. Each time, Boxee said it needed to restart, and I did. And each time, it seems it didn't update any settings. I then tried changing the username, and that stuck. So I changed the username BACK to my correct user, changed the password and workgroup in one change, Boxee DIDN'T say it needed to restart, and I didn't. Magically, the settings stuck, and it all worked after that.

Awesome -- excellent feedback.

Since this problem is such a pain in the butt for users, it may be worth considering submitting as a problem to Boxee's JIRA.But, if you do, be sure to give the issue a clear and concise description to best communicate the problem to the Boxee Team, such as:


"Boxee does not correctly implement username, password, and workgroup settings when connecting to SMB network"
http://jira.boxee.tv

Thanks for getting back to us, Mike.

[nyc7nyc7]

I have a similar problem on my WinXP (32bit) laptop getting to my network shares on my windows home server to work with beta 9816. They work perfectly fine in alpha. In beta, they appear as Connected but simply do not function.


When I try to browse through Files I get: Loading Error: Failed to retrieve data

I see this in the error log:

15:55:42 T:612 M:115994624 ERROR: DIRECTORY::CDirectory::GetDirectory - Error getting smb://WHS/Videos/
15:55:42 T:148 M:116006912 ERROR: CGUIWindowBoxeeBrowse::OnMessage, GUI_MSG_LOAD_FAILED (browse)


Windows Home Server also supports UPNP. When I browse to Network -> UPNP -> Windows Media Connect I can see the directory structure of my server shares but files are not listed.


I spent many hours trying to figure out the problem to no avail. I went so far as to copy the XML from the shares configuration from alpha into the beta config files but the problem persists.

Under SMB settings, in alpha they are left blank and the shares work. In beta I have both left them blank and also filled in account information, both have same (non-working) result.

I do not know if it is related to the above mentioned issue, but I hope this helps.

[triffle]

When I first installed boxee beta on to both of my boxes that I'm testing on... Boxee was not able to see the shares from my freenas box (no auth required). I both cases (did the Win 7 first), logged out of boxee and to see if I could browse to the share, which I could. Got back into boxee, and I was able to scan for network shares no problem... The exact same thing happened on the ubuntu box... Interesting... I let both boxes sit for a while so it could update all of the pretty goodness from IMB... no more issues with SMB at the moment.

[nyc7nyc7]

I have a similar problem on my WinXP (32bit) laptop getting to my network shares on my windows home server to work with beta 9816. They work perfectly fine in alpha. In beta, they appear as Connected but simply do not function.


When I try to browse through Files I get: Loading Error: Failed to retrieve data

I see this in the error log:

15:55:42 T:612 M:115994624 ERROR: DIRECTORY::CDirectory::GetDirectory - Error getting smb://WHS/Videos/
15:55:42 T:148 M:116006912 ERROR: CGUIWindowBoxeeBrowse::OnMessage, GUI_MSG_LOAD_FAILED (browse)


Windows Home Server also supports UPNP. When I browse to Network -> UPNP -> Windows Media Connect I can see the directory structure of my server shares but files are not listed.


I spent many hours trying to figure out the problem to no avail. I went so far as to copy the XML from the shares configuration from alpha into the beta config files but the problem persists.

Under SMB settings, in alpha they are left blank and the shares work. In beta I have both left them blank and also filled in account information, both have same (non-working) result.

I do not know if it is related to the above mentioned issue, but I hope this helps.



I found a workaround to this problem by mapping my network folder to a drive letter and then using it as a local source.

[marcel]

thanks for the update ..we will look into this issue ..