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This page shows you how to share the harddisk in your DreamBox with your Windows PC's (or other SMB capable computers, like Linux machines running Samba, etc).

Checkout some of these DreamBox related website's:

www.dream-multimedia-tv.de (German/English Manufacturer website)
wiki.tuxbox.org (German)
dreambox.sjerom.com (Dutch)
www.sat-industry.net (English user forum)
www.dreamboxfornewbies.net or www.dbfn.tv (English/USA user forum) - Highly recommended for US users!
its.no-enigma.de (German developers forum)

But there are many, many, great other websites out there dealing with the DreamBox ... checkout Google for more links.

Note: Please read the disclaimer, specially with this topic where there can be a thin line between having fun experimenting and what is legal or not legal in your country. All the links and text are provided for fun and education - not to promote or stimulate satellite piracy or other illegal use!

Note: Most the examples are based on a DreamBox running the Nitro image - other images may respond differently.

Wanna Samba?

So you have a harddisk in your DreamBox and you want to access the files on this disk from your Windows PC, say to copy recordings to your PC so you can burn them on DVD ... ?

Well that is possible, since most images include Samba ... Samba you say?

Samba is a great Linux "tool", no I should no say "tool", rather a component or service on your computer - or in this case your DreamBox - that enables sharing harddisk files and folders in a Windows (SMB) network environment. Using Samba allows your Windows PC to "see" the shared files and folders on your DreamBox (by default simply the entire harddisk).

Most images come with Samba, which is great. However, some images do not start the Samba service automatically (like some Nitro version).

How do I know that my DreamBox has Samba running?

Well there are 2 ways to figure that out.

The easy, not so professional way;

Find out what the IP address of your DreamBox is.
For the purpose of example, I will use 192.168.1.100 Here. If you do not know the IP address of your DreamBox, then please read this short article on how to find it out.

Open an explorer window on your Windows PC and type in the addressbar: \\192.168.1.100

Using Windows Explorer to find your DreamBox

It takes a bit, specially if Samba is not running. Usually it should popup fairly fast (within a few seconds).

If it doesn't popup, well, then you either have a network issue or Samba is not running ... hence the "not so professional".

The better way, more correct way - using Telnet;

Linux is a beautiful and very capable system (Mister Microsoft: Pay attention here!).
Using the shell command "ps" we can see which processes are running.

Open a telnet session to your DreamBox (use for example PuTTY - see our Downloads page for this free application), or the telnet that comes with Windows.

Let's use the telnet that comes with Windows; click the Windows "Start" button and click "Run...".

Depending on your Windows version type "cmd" (Windows 2000, NT, XP, and up) or "command" (Windows 95, 98, and ME) and press enter - a DOS window will open.

Now type "telnet 192.168.1.100" (asuming your DreamBox has the IP Address 192.168.1.100).
The login info will appear, by default a DreamBox has the login "root" and the password "dreambox", use these unless you know you changed it ... (in the example below, the red text is what YOU type)

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ 
*                                               * 
*       Welcome to Nitro Image Design           * 
*                                               * 
*       A New Beginning has Commenced           * 
*                                               * 
*                                               * 
*     Fast, efficient, beautiful images         * 
*                                               * 
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ 
dreambox login: root 
Password: dreambox



BusyBox v1.00 (2005.08.05-13:28+0000) Built-in shell (ash) 
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands. 
~ > _

Now type the command "ps" (without the quotes) and press enter. A large list will be presented to you.
Make the DOS window larger and you will see that you cna scroll up and down so you can see the full list;

~ > ps
   PID  Uid     VmSize Stat Command
     1 root        512 S   init
     2 root            SWN [ksoftirqd/0]
     3 root            SW< [events/0]
     4 root            SW< [khelper]
    13 root            SW< [kblockd/0]
    14 root            SW  [khubd]
    24 root            SW  [pdflush]
    25 root            SW  [pdflush]
    27 root            SW< [aio/0]
    26 root            SW  [kswapd0]
    28 root            SW  [cifsoplockd]
    98 root            SW  [kseriod]
   119 root            SW  [mtdblockd]
   133 root            SWN [jffs2_gcd_mtd3]
   135 root        512 S   init
   136 root        568 S   /bin/sh /etc/init.d/rcS
   152 root            SW< [fe_thread]
   155 root            DW< [ci]
   178 root        572 S   /sbin/inetd
   184 root            SW  [kjournald]
   201 root        520 S   /bin/appmanager
   204 root       1300 S   /var/bin/evocamd
   417 root       1300 S   /var/bin/evocamd
   391 root       8920 S   /bin/enigma
   392 root       8920 S N /bin/enigma
   393 root       8920 S N /bin/enigma
   398 root       8920 S N /bin/enigma
   407 root       8920 S   /bin/enigma
   414 root       8920 S N /bin/enigma
   424 root        404 S   telnetd
   425 root        660 S   -sh
   430 root        404 S   telnetd
   431 root        660 S   -sh
   434 root        596 R   ps
~ > 

In this list, look for the phrase "smbd" in the column "Command",... it does not appear so Samba is NOT running.

In the following example it is running (yellow bold line) - indicating that the SMBD (SaMBa Daemon) is running;

~ > ps
   PID  Uid     VmSize Stat Command
     1 root        512 S   init
     2 root            SWN [ksoftirqd/0]
     3 root            SW< [events/0]
     4 root            SW< [khelper]
    13 root            SW< [kblockd/0]
    14 root            SW  [khubd]
    24 root            SW  [pdflush]
    25 root            SW  [pdflush]
    27 root            SW< [aio/0]
    26 root            SW  [kswapd0]
    28 root            SW  [cifsoplockd]
    98 root            SW  [kseriod]
   119 root            SW  [mtdblockd]
   133 root            SWN [jffs2_gcd_mtd3]
   135 root        512 S   init
   136 root        568 S   /bin/sh /etc/init.d/rcS
   152 root            SW< [fe_thread]
   155 root            DW< [ci]
   178 root        572 S   /sbin/inetd
   184 root            SW  [kjournald]
   201 root        520 S   /bin/appmanager
   204 root       1300 S   /var/bin/evocamd
   417 root       1300 S   /var/bin/evocamd
   384 root        836 S   smbd
   391 root       8920 S   /bin/enigma
   392 root       8920 S N /bin/enigma
   393 root       8920 S N /bin/enigma
   398 root       8920 S N /bin/enigma
   407 root       8920 S   /bin/enigma
   414 root       8920 S N /bin/enigma
   424 root        404 S   telnetd
   425 root        660 S   -sh
   430 root        404 S   telnetd
   431 root        660 S   -sh
   434 root        596 R   ps
~ > 

Samba is not running; now what?

OK, so some images do not automatically start Samba, what can we do to make it run anyway?

Well there are 3 options: Start it manually using telnet, manually using a script, or have it automatically started.

Starting Samba manually using telnet

Not the most convenient method, but it works.

Again, open a telnet session to your DreamBox and type the command "smbd" (without the quotes) and press ENTER.
This will start the Samba Daemon.

Close the telnet session and you're done.

Starting Samba manually using a script

This is limited to images that allow scripts.
Nitro (www.dreamboxfornewbies.net) is one of those images that allows user scripts.

For Nitro I created a little script that starts the Samba Daemon.
Download the file here or from the downloads page.

Use WinRar to extract both files and upload them with DCC (more details on the DreamBox startpage on how that works) to the /var/scripts folder. Verify that the attributes of both files are set to 755. If they are not set to 755, then right click one file at a time and click "attributes" from the menu (in DCC), click the "755" button and click "OK".

Once you installed the script, you can access it with your remote control.

Click the blue button, and select the option "Nitro Script Manager".

DreamBox - Press the blue button and select "Script Manager"

In the script manager window, select "This will start the Samba Daemon" and click "OK". Once the script ran succesfully, the DreamBox will respond:

DreamBox - Nitro image - Script ran OK!

Press the green button and exit out of the menu and Samba is running.

Background: basically the script starts the samba daemon, ie. does the exact same thing you would be typing in when using telnet to start samba manually. The .cfg file is used to identify the script so it appears in the script manager menu. This is the content of the script (.sh file), the ampersand following "/bin/smbd" makes sure the script returns to the shell. More correct: it starts smbd and returns to the shell, while smbd keeps running.

#!/bin/sh
echo Starting Samba 
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/tmp:/var/lib:/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH 
export PATH=/tmp:/var/bin:$PATH                       
/bin/smbd &

Start Samba automatically

OK this is a little bit more difficult ...