Do it yourself !

Yes, my new music server is working flawlessly.

I insist that some days ago I was (and still am to a large extent) a Linux newbie and that the setup of this nice music server is possible to almost anyone (maybe not to my grandma though).

This blog contains my own experience of setting this server up with all the details you need to configure it.

You have to read it from bottom (the oldest post first) to top (till the most recent post).

All this would not have been possible (I admit) without the great help of nyc_paramedic who helped me a lot. All his suggestions and good hints are included in this blog.

I encourage everybody to try this out ! It's really worth it, because you will be listening to bit-perfect audiophile music for almost nothing (well, this depends mostly on the price of the USB DAC you chose).

Nokia N800 as a remote control

I was able to buy a Nokia N800 second hand on Ebay very cheap, so I configured it as a remote control for the MPD server.

For general informations about this device have a look at Nokia's N800 page.

This is an Internet tablet which communicates via WiFi. So the first thing to do is to configure the N800 to access your WiFi network. This is easy and well explained on the above mentionned Nokia site.

My N800 came with the most recent operating system already installed (=OS2008). The MPD client is available also for older systems, too, but my description concerns OS2008.
Check if your N800 uses the latest operating system available (= OS2008). If not, you can install it. You can find help about that on this page.

Once your operating system is up to date (if you want to update it), you can install the MPD client.

Most software applications for the N800 can be found on the Maemo website.

The MPD client MMPC can be found here. Some installation instructions can be found on the author's homepage.

In order to install MMPC you have to access the MMPC page on Maemo's site with your N800. As explained on the author's site you need to install some other libraries which are needed for MMPC. Without them the software will not install (have a look at the error message when you try to install it as it will tell you the libraries which are needed).

As the N800 is a Debian Linux based device, installation of software is done via the application manager. To install the needed additional libraries you will need to add some more repositories to the applicaton catalog list. The ones which are now installed on my tablet are :

maemo Extras
Nokia certified
Nokai non-certified
Nokia System-update
Maemo Chinook

To install them, open this site (on your N800), check the appropriate repositories and then click on "Install Selected".

Then via the application manager you can install the needed packages.

When everything is installed, launch MMPC and configure it :
In the configuration window, choose "Connection" and enter the needed informations. In my case this is :
Host : 192.168.1.30
Port : 6601

After closing the configuration window you should be able to remote control your MPD server.

A helpful hint (it took me some time to find that) : to simulate "right-click" in MMPC, you need to remain on the screen for more than 2 seconds with the stylus.

One last thing :
I installed MMPC already some weeks ago and I wrote this little tutorial by heart trying to remember everything. As my brain's memory is not perfect at all, there could be some details missing or be some things slightly wrong. Please excuse me for that. If you find some errors, tell me, I will adapt the text accordingly.