Sharing media files on *nix to Xbox360 via Samba, VMWare, and Windows Media 11
 

Hey all,

My goal is to share media files located on my Slackware computer to the Xbox360. To do so, I am running a VMWare WinXP SP2 with Windows Media 11. The WinXP machine can access the samba shares containing the media files and Windows Media Player can add the shared files and play them.

However, when viewing the shared media on another computer (the Xbox in this case), only local files are displayed. That is, the samba shares are not forwarded to the Xbox.

Microsoft's website says that modifications need to be made on the remote computer containing the shared media (my Slackware system in this case), and details it according to this website: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...ng.mspx#q20_17

I am not sure how I could make similar modifications in Samba. My question is then, how do configure Samba to permit Windows Media to share my "remote" Slackware samba shares?


Thanks in advance!

Just a quick question:

Have you bridged the virtual network card in VMWare with your real network card in slack?

Why i'm asking:
The reason you can't see the windows shares is because the virtual machine and it's network address all reside on your slackware machine. in order to see the virtual machine shares, the vm has to have it's own network address on your LAN.

I'm configured to use bridged networking and the virtual machine has an IP address in my LAN (my Netgear router also confirms this).

Should anything further be modified in this setup? I am using the default bridged-networking options and bridged-network install.

Got it. Answer was contained in the page I referenced, under "to enable remote content sharing": http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...ng.mspx#q20_17

The problem rested with Windows Media in my VMWare not wanting to share remote files. This is solved by editing the registry in Windows, which contains the library (list) of files.

So for future reference, here's a brief rundown if you want to share files to your Xbox 360:

1.) Share your directories on *nix via Samba, and make sure the directory is readable by everyone or by the "guest" account you'll specify in Samba. Make sure Samba is set to allow anonymous and guest browsing.

2.) Place Windows in a bridged-network Virtual Machine (VMWare) and install Windows Media 11. Add your Samba directories to the Windows Media library.

3.) Turn on your Xbox 360 and connect it to your LAN. Configure Windows Media Player to allow media sharing (under preferences) - you should see the Xbox listed automatically.

4.) Run "regedit" in Windows, and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/ SOFTWARE/Microsoft/MediaPlayer/Preferences

(The following steps copied from Microsoft's website, cited above):

5.)Right-click HME, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type EnableRemoteContentSharing, and then press ENTER.
Right-click EnableRemoteContentSharing, and then click Modify.
In the Value data text box, type 1, and then click OK.

6.) Restart Windows in the virtual machine, and in your media tab on the Xbox, hit music/video, and change the source to your virtual machine.


Have fun!