Install Samba on Pogoplug SD card and USB hub

Previously I wrote an article on Dedicated server for downloading torrents and monitor over WiFi. It provides a deeper look into centralized downloading application however it would be good to have this application download files into a central repository that can be shared over the network. Samba can help provide that functionality.

In essence what we need is a Samba server such that once the files are downloaded they can be viewed from anywhere, on any computer, connected on the network running Samba service. One of the cheapest way to do this is using Pogoplug device.

Lets look at step by step on how to install Samba on Pogoplug SD card and usb hub. The Pogoplug mobile version has one USB port and one SD card slot.

There are various ways to set this up but most efficient way turned out to be using USB port for data drive and SD card slot for installing packages. This allows you to change or format USB drives as and when needed without affecting your packages installed. It also allows moving the USB drive to another computer to read if you are not on the network with Samba service (say traveling) and then placing it back when done.

What was used for this setup:

1. Pogoplug Mobile

2. 2GB SD card

3. 500 GB external USB drive

4. 4 GB usb drive

5. Powered USB Hub

 

Setup access into Pogoplug

Go to my.pogoplug.com and then enable SSH via their website. Take a note of your username and password. Connect USB drive and SD card to your Pogoplug.

Preparing the storage (USB and SD card)

Before we can make use of storage we will need to format appropriately. Following steps help with that.

Stop the Pogoplug service :

killall hbwd

Make two directories – /opt for packages and /data for all our data files in Samba storage :

mount -o remount,rw /
mkdir /opt
mkdir /data

Verify available disks as shown below. Note that this will not show the SD card but only USB disk :

[[email protected] /root]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107860480 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1               1       60801   488384001  83 Linux

Mount the SD card:

/bin/mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /opt 

Mount the USB disk based on results of fdisk command above:

/bin/mount /dev/sda1 /data

Installing package manager on SD Card

Download and install Optware:

cd /opt
wget http://www.teqlog.com/wp-content/custom/Optware.tar.gz
tar -xzvf Optware.tar.gz
rm Optware.tar.gz
ipkg update

Configure and Install Samba on Pogoplug SD Card

Install Samba36 package
ipkg install samba36 libnsl nano
Create Samba config file:
cd /opt/etc/samba
Create a file smb.conf and paste the following:
[global]
 workgroup = WORKGROUP
 server string = POGOPLUG
 netbios name = POGOPLUG
 load printers = no
 printing = bsd
 printcap name = /dev/null
 disable spoolss = yes
 log file = /tmp/var/%m.log
 max log size = 50
 socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY TCP_NODELAY SO_KEEPALIVE
 write cache size = 2097152
 use sendfile = yes

 #unprotected share :  Login not enforsed
 security = user
 map to guest = Bad User
 guest account = root

[root$]
  path = /
  read only = no
  public = yes
  writable = yes
  #force user = root
  guest ok = yes

[usb]
  path = /data
  read only = no
  public = yes
  writable = yes
  #force user = root
  guest ok = yes

Start SAMBA Service

/opt/etc/init.d/S08samba start
The USB Hard Drive is accessible on windows as \\pogoplug\usb

Making the process repeatable on Pogoplug restarts

Create a file (called “addon”) in directory /etc/init.d with above commands as follows :

/bin/sleep 30
killall hbwd
/bin/sleep 30
/bin/mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /opt
/bin/sleep 30
/bin/mount /dev/sda1 /data
/bin/sleep 30
#Check if external drives are ready
count=`df|grep "/dev/sda1" |wc -l`
if [ $count -ne 0 ]
then
     echo "pattern match found"
     /opt/etc/init.d/S08samba start 2>&1 > /tmp/samba.log
else
     echo "no match with the pattern"
     echo "led=msg" > /dev/xce
     exit
fi
#Change the led color to red to show Pogoplug is now running Samba.
echo "led=dis" > /dev/xce
Make the file executable:
chmod 755 addon
Add the following line at the end of /etc/init.d/rcS file:
  /etc/init.d/addon
 Now everytime system restarts the Pogoplug will be automatically configured to run Samba service.

Adding the USB hub to add additional disks on Pogoplug

USB hub used in this test is Belkin 7-Port Powered Desktop Hub (F4U022tt). Being powered allows it to attach non powered external drives such as the 500 GB one that I was using.

All that needs to be done is to attach the hub to pogoplug and then add disks to it. Doing so will show second disk as below:

[[email protected] ]# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107860480 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
 
 Device Boot     Start         End     Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1               1       60801   488384001 83 Linux
 
Disk /dev/sdb: 4009 MB, 4009754624 bytes
124 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1018 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 7688 * 512 = 3936256 bytes
 
 Device Boot     Start         End     Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1               1       1018     3913161 83 Linux
[[email protected] ]#

Now all that remains is to mount /dev/sdb1 in same manner as /dev/sda1 shown above in addon script file.

Create a new directory:

mkdir /data1

Mount the new disk (add following command to addon script)

/bin/mount /dev/sdb1 /data1

Modify Samba configuration (add following to smb.conf file above)

[usb]
  path = /data1
  read only = no
  public = yes
  writable = yes
  #force user = root
  guest ok = yes
The 4 GB USB Hard Drive is accessible on windows as \\pogoplug\usb1 after a restart of the pogoplug

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