RHEL7: How to install the Minidlna service.

Presentation of Minidlna

DLNA stands for Digital Living Network Alliance. It’s a set of guidelines, including Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), for media management,device discovery and control (see wikipedia).
You’ve got DLNA servers, machines able to share a content, and DLNA clients, devices displaying it like your TV for example.
Content can be photos, audio files or videos.

Minidlna is a simple but robust DLNA server. It doesn’t make any on-the-fly conversions but consumes very few resources.

Let’s assume that you’ve got a server running RHEL/CentOS 7 that you can connect through the network to your TV. Your TV is a DLNA client, your server will become a DLNA server and will sent content already available on its own disks.

DLNA Server Installation

Unfortunately, Minidlna isn’t available as a package.
However, binary files exist for x86_64.

Start by creating a temporary directory:

# mkdir minidlna

Then, download the binary files:

# wget http://netix.dl.sourceforge.net/project/minidlna/minidlna/1.1.4/minidlna-1.1.4_static.tar.gz

Extract the files:

# tar xvf minidlna-1.1.4_static.tar.gz
./etc/minidlna.conf
./usr/sbin/minidlnad
./usr/share/locale/it/LC_MESSAGES/minidlna.mo
./usr/share/locale/pl/LC_MESSAGES/minidlna.mo
./usr/share/locale/nb/LC_MESSAGES/minidlna.mo
./usr/share/locale/es/LC_MESSAGES/minidlna.mo
./usr/share/locale/nl/LC_MESSAGES/minidlna.mo
./usr/share/locale/ru/LC_MESSAGES/minidlna.mo
./usr/share/locale/sv/LC_MESSAGES/minidlna.mo
./usr/share/locale/ja/LC_MESSAGES/minidlna.mo
./usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/minidlna.mo
./usr/share/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/minidlna.mo
./usr/share/locale/sl/LC_MESSAGES/minidlna.mo
./usr/share/locale/da/LC_MESSAGES/minidlna.mo

Move the minidlna.conf file into the /etc directory:

# mv etc/minidlna.conf /etc

Move the minidlnad binary file into the /sbin directory:

# mv usr/sbin/minidlnad /sbin

If you are OK with English messages, you can remove the newly created minidlna directory:

# \rm -r minidlna

To make management easier, paste the following lines into the /etc/systemd/system/minidlnad.service file:

[Unit]
Description=Minidlna Daemon
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/sbin/minidlnad

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Configuration Procedure

The main options to edit in the /etc/minidlna.conf file are:

• network_interface=eth0 # the name of your network interface
• media_dir=/opt/videos    # the directory where contents are stored
• strict_dlna=yes               # useful for Sony TVs

Then, update your firewall configuration for 1900/udp and 8200/tcp:

# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=1900/udp
# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8200/tcp
# firewall-cmd --reload

Finally, activate at boot and start the Minidlna service:

# systemctl enable minidlnad && systemctl start minidlnad

DLNA Client Procedure

If you want your PC to become a DLNA client, displaying content coming from a DLNA server, follow these instructions.

First, you need to install vlc.

Then, you have to open your firewall:

# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=1900/udp
success
# firewall-cmd --reload
success

Under a graphical interface, launch vlc and select view -> Playlist -> Local Network -> Universal Plug’n’Play.

You should see your DLNA server name at the top of the main window.

Enjoy!

Source: Inspired from Jeff Arnold’s blog.