FreeNAS with XBMC internal NFS client

[mrreload]

I have banging my head over this for a bit. My FreeNAS 9.2.1.5 box is sharing my media files over NFS.
I had migrated the shared MySQL db and all has been working and updating well until I went to clean the database. For some reason XBMC (multiple installs, Openelec, Windows, Linux) cannot detect the source paths.
I think this comes down to the "Allow Non Root Mount" option in the FreeNAS gui which should be setting the equivalent of "insecure" on a linux NFS server. I used the insecure option previously to allow XBMCs built in NFS client to browse my shares.
This setting either is not working or is not the equivalent as I was led to believe from searches.
My linux machines NFS shares do show in XBMC browse option.

Does anyone know how I can get FreeNAS to allow browsing NFS on XBMC?
Is there something stopping FreeNAS from announcing it's NFS service to LAN clients?
I do not want to mount the NFS shares (fstab, etc.) on any of my XBMC clients.

 

[cyberjock]

Does anyone know how I can get FreeNAS to allow browsing NFS on XBMC?
Is there something stopping FreeNAS from announcing it's NFS service to LAN clients?
I do not want to mount the NFS shares (fstab, etc.) on any of my XBMC clients.

1. Ask the XBMC forum/IRC. We don't do XBMC support here.
2. Not a clue. If NFS is properly setup on FreeNAS it should work just like every other OS that uses NFS shares.

 

[mrreload]

Cyber,
Why do you even answer if you do not know the answer?

1. I am asking here because the problem is specific to FreeNAS and I know many FreeNAS users also use XBMC.

2. NFS is setup properly per FreeNAS own documentation.

Maybe someone can answer what the "Allow Non Root Mount" really means? Is it the equivalent of the NFS "insecure" flag in exports?

 

[cyberjock]

The answer is NOT specific to FreeNAS. FreeNAS shares out with NFS just like FreeBSD does. If XBMC won't work with it then either the problem is that XBMC doesn't properly handle NFS or your configuration is wrong. If your configuration is wrong nobody is likely to have the answer as very few people here do XBMC. In either case you should go to the XBMC forums.

 

[mrreload]

The question I posed is specific to FreeNAS as FreeNAS exposes the NFS exports via the FreeNAS gui, not FreeBSD's. Besides the fact that FreeBSD supports NFSv4 and FreeNAS does not, from what I have read and tried at the shell.
I assure you my XBMC configuration is correct. My FreeNAS configuration is correct.
In both my previous posts I mentioned and asked about the NFS insecure feature and yet you choose to just berate me for coming here.
I am asking here because XBMC's documentation and my own experience with NFS sharing with XBMC requires the insecure flag set on linux or on FreeNAS the "Allow Non-Root Mount Option". This option doesn't seem to function. Can you or anyone else suggest a way to test this?

Is it really necessary for me to setup a FreeBSD 9.2 system with NFS exports to prove something is wrong before I even pose a question? ( I am going to do this anyway as a I have a VM I can fire up)

I am not any sort of noob with any OS. Just rather new to FreeNAS after using it back in the .7? early days.

 

[mrreload]

I found the resolution and it is indeed partly specific to FreeNAS (FreeBSD actually) and partly with XBMC's internal NFS client.

1. In FreeNAS gui, set the maprootuser and maprootgroup options to an actual user ( I used media as my jails are using he same account to access those datasets)( do not turn on udp for NFS) Reference: http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Unix_(NFS)_Shares
2. Create or edit a sources.xml manually for xbmc like so: Reference http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Sources.xml

<video> <default>Movies</default> <source> <name>My Movies</name> <path>nfs://server_IP/share/video/</path> </source> </video>

3. Reboot xbmc box and now your FreeNAS NFS sources will be browseable within xbmc gui.

I hope this will help someone else in a similiar predicament.

 

[toadman]

Why do you even answer if you do not know the answer?

Oh man, this had me laughing hysterically. Thanks for that!

BTW, glad you found the solution.

 

[Whattteva]

Cyber,
Why do you even answer if you do not know the answer?

Not trying to add fuel to the fire here... but you do realize that this is a forum, not an instant private message right?
And as with all forums, anyone is free to post any thoughts they want (as long as it is within the rules). It's what makes forums great in the first place.... you get all sorts of viewpoints.

While, he may not have offered much in the way of help to you, it certainly didn't warrant the kind of response you spat back though. Anyways, like what the other poster said, glad you found the solution.

 

[Ericloewe]

Not trying to add fuel to the fire here... but you do realize that this is a forum, not an instant private message right?
And as with all forums, anyone is free to post any thoughts they want (as long as it is within the rules). It's what makes forums great in the first place.... you get all sorts of viewpoints.

While, he may not have offered much in the way of help to you, it certainly didn't warrant the kind of response you spat back though. Anyways, like what the other poster said, glad you found the solution.

I find his answer quite useful. "We cannot help you, but X should be able to." is a perfectly reasonable response.

 

[Whattteva]

I find his answer quite useful. "We cannot help you, but X should be able to." is a perfectly reasonable response.

I was talking more in relation to what the OP thinks, not what I/we/others think. I mean why else would he say that part in the quote? He certainly didn't think it was particularly helpful judging from his reply. Of course, I could be misunderstanding his words, also...

 

[Ericloewe]

I was talking more in relation to what the OP thinks, not what I/we/others think. I mean why else would he say that part in the quote? He certainly didn't think it was particularly helpful judging from his reply. Of course, I could be misunderstanding his words, also...

I was just adding to what you said, not disagreeing. OP's post was uncalled for and downright rude.

 

[cyberjock]

I hope my answers were helpful. I was simply trying to say that FreeNAS doesn't do anything that isn't used in a boatload of other machines(in particular FreeBSD machines). So I think it's reasonable to say that it *should* work given proper setup. Now the term "setup" could range from "user-error" to a bug by the devleopers. But, knowing that FreeBSD *should* work at least validates that we're not using some obscure OS that has it's own implementation of NFS that *may* not work with XBMC.

If I wanted to be a jerk I'd just delete the thread and tell him to go bark up another tree... get it? dog profile pict...

Bah.. I'm going home.

 

[mrreload]

I took cyberjock's answers as the equivalent to "I don't know" and "Bugger off". Which I found rude.

Cyber has been very helpful with his time in documenting issues and how to avoid them, etc. But I found his answer lacking anything useful.

FreeNAS exposes NFS, SMB, etc. to the admin via it's own interface. That was the crux of my issue. I needed to know how to do certain things that were not readily apparent in the gui. It could have been I needed to edit FreeNAS (FreeBSD) config files manually, which I would have been fine with.

I apologize if anyone was offended by my simple question.

 

[Shane_pcs]

I found the resolution and it is indeed partly specific to FreeNAS (FreeBSD actually) and partly with XBMC's internal NFS client.

1. In FreeNAS gui, set the maprootuser and maprootgroup options to an actual user ( I used media as my jails are using he same account to access those datasets)( do not turn on udp for NFS) Reference: http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Unix_(NFS)_Shares
2. Create or edit a sources.xml manually for xbmc like so: Reference http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Sources.xml

<video> <default>Movies</default> <source> <name>My Movies</name> <path>nfs://server_IP/share/video/</path> </source> </video>

3. Reboot xbmc box and now your FreeNAS NFS sources will be browseable within xbmc gui.

I hope this will help someone else in a similiar predicament.

Thank you for this. The main use for Freenas is for XBMC and I could never get the NFS to work with it. I switched to SMB shares instead, but this has me tempted to try again.

As for noone using xbmc with freenas that's going to change. When people see how smoothly everything works they are always impressed. In addition the number of people on the xbmc forums and groups that talk about freenas would lead me to believe that there are already quite a few using it.

 

[Ed Hornsey]

I found the resolution and it is indeed partly specific to FreeNAS (FreeBSD actually) and partly with XBMC's internal NFS client.

Useful post and should be sticked for the few XBMC users wanting to switch to FreeNAS storage. - Your approach worked for me too.

So NFS with XBMC works fine [by mapping via autostart.sh/sources.xml in XBMC] so long as you dont expect to be able to browse for nfs shares from XBMC.

XBMC NFS browsing works fine with my various ReadyNas units (out of the box) for the last decade, so expect the resolution is a bit of detail in the Freenas NFS config that is way beyond my ability to figure out.

Possibly libnfs related as posted here http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=165454

 

[Yatti420]

I use xbmc via Cifs all the time.. Never thought about NFS yet..

Sent from my SGH-I257M using Tapatalk 2

 

[Yatti420]

I found the resolution and it is indeed partly specific to FreeNAS (FreeBSD actually) and partly with XBMC's internal NFS client.

1. In FreeNAS gui, set the maprootuser and maprootgroup options to an actual user ( I used media as my jails are using he same account to access those datasets)( do not turn on udp for NFS) Reference: http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Unix_(NFS)_Shares
2. Create or edit a sources.xml manually for xbmc like so: Reference http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Sources.xml

<video> <default>Movies</default> <source> <name>My Movies</name> <path>nfs://server_IP/share/video/</path> </source> </video>

3. Reboot xbmc box and now your FreeNAS NFS sources will be browseable within xbmc gui.

I hope this will help someone else in a similiar predicament.

But setting your NFS shares via xbmc GUI fails correct?

Sent from my SGH-I257M using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ed Hornsey]

But setting your NFS shares via xbmc GUI fails correct?

Sent from my SGH-I257M using Tapatalk 2

Yep thats nub of the problem witnessed.

Manually mounting NFS shares is fine.

 

[jluvs2ride]

Mrreload, Thanks for this thread. It was the answer to one of my problems.