Hi,

I'm a relative novice but have had some success setting up a headless box (ubuntu server) to run transmission-daemon and basic network storage etc.

Works great, photos/music etc are all on the network where everyone can get them. But without going out and buying a super "smart" TV or networked media player I have to unmount a USB drive and plug it into the TV to play stuff back on the screen best suited to the purpose.

Since everything is in one cabinet anyway, is there a daemon out there that would emulate a thumb drive, so I could just run a male-to-male usb cable between the server and the TV and trick the TV into thinking e.g. a particular folder or partition was a thumb drive?

There seem to be network-based cables around, but the TV is not smart enough for that. Whilst the question has come up every few years in past posts, I've not seen any solutions...

many thanks,
Martyn

Just because there are no solutions. Both, the PC and the TV use the host-protocol for their USB connectors, this is in hardware and can not be changed. Question would be, if both is in the same cabinet, why don't you just install a media center software and connect the box to the TV?