You can connect your multiple machines for sharing multimedia files through a centralized web server. In this tutorial you will learn how to set up Firefly Media Server on Ubuntu Server.

What is Firefly Media Server?

Firefly Media Server (formerly mt-daapd) is an free and open-source media server or daemon for the Roku SoundBridge and iTunes. It serves media files using Roku Server Protocol (RSP) and Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP).

Features of Firefly Media Server

• Support for running on Unix/POSIX platforms
• Support for running on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X
• Support for running on the Apple Inc. iPhone and iPod touch
• Support for MP3, AAC, Ogg, FLAC, and WMA
• Support for Roku SoundBridge via RSP
• Support for on-the-fly transcoding of Ogg, FLAC, ALAC, and WMA
• On Windows platforms, on-the-fly transcoding of WMA Lossless, WMA Pro and WMA Voice.
• Web-based configuration
• Support for user-created smart playlists
• Integration with iTunes library including reading playlists
• Supports serving streaming radio stations

Installing Firefly Media Server

Since we are installing on a Ubuntu Server, the installation is simple:

• Open Linux terminal
• Run the command sudo apt-get install mt-daap
• Enter the user password

Configuration

Open configuration file and look for this line:

mp3_dir = /home/media/music

In this line you need to change to reflect the directory from where you will serve your media.

Here I created a new sub-directory in /opt called music.  Perform this action by this command:

sudo mkdir /opt/media

Now make that directory DAAP server readable by using this command:

sudo chmod ug+r -R /opt/media

Other than this there are many more options available in the configuration file like server name, password protection, port, extensions, codec types and many more. Few options are described below:

• Servername: Name your DAAP server will broadcast. Default is Firefly RELEASE_NUMBER HOSTNAME.
• Password Protection: Limit access of users to the DAAP server.
• Port: You may use a port other than the default (3689).
• Extensions: The file types to be served by DAAP server.
• Valid Codectypes: Configurations for the format conversion.

Starting Daemon

Complete configuration file, go ahead and move your media files into the directory and start the server using this command:

sudo /etc/init.d/mt-daap start

With this running server you can fire up a DAAP enabled client, just like iTunes or Songbird. DAAP server installation is good for small internal network where you can share multimedia files. It requires a running Linux server.