OSX Stuff

Yesterday evening I built a Linux jukebox server that is automatically accessible via iTunes using only my Linux fileserver, using daapd and howl. First, you need to install daapd. daapd is a free implementation of the DAA protocol, some proprietary streaming protocol developed by Apple and used by them, too (e.g. for iTunes). After installing and configuring daapd (which may be a little hassle unless you have the exact version of the libid3tag library, i.e. I had to comment out a few unimportant pieces in the source code), you could actually start. But iTunes doesn't automatically detect the streaming server, so you would have to manually enter the address into iTunes.



Now, howl comes into play. What you have to do now is to announce the daapd via Rendezvous. You can simply do this by running mDNSPublish "My Jukebox" _daap._tcp. 3689. The "My Jukebox" string can be freely chosen, the _daap._tcp. 3689 indicates that a DAAP server running on TCP port 3689 is announced. As soon as you run the command, iTunes sees your daapd running on Linux, and can immediately access it. This is plug'n'play computing how it should be.