Mount Network Share
Kodi can natively mount SMB, NFS, SFTP, WebDAV (and more) remote filesystems (shares) to read media for playback, but many applications that write content, e.g. TVHeadend storing TV recordings, must write to "local" storage. Remote SMB and NFS shares can be "mounted" to the local filesystem using kernel mounts configured through systemd .mount files.
The following NAS configuration is used in the examples below:
- NAS IP:
192.168.1.222 - Username:
nasuser1 - Password:
123nas - Share name:
recordings - Full address to share:
\\192.168.1.222\recordings
Connect to your LibreELEC HTPC with SSH.
mkdir /storage/recordingsIMPORTANT: The filename uses hyphens to separate elements of the filesystem path to the share mount-point, e.g.
/storage/recordings will be storage-recordings.mount and sub folders, e.g. /storage/recordings/tv would be storage-recordings-tv.mountCreate the .mount file:
nano /storage/.config/system.d/storage-recordings.mountBelow is an example of the mount definition file for a Samba share:
[Unit]
Description=cifs mount script
Requires=network-online.service
After=network-online.service
Before=kodi.service
[Mount]
What=//192.168.1.222/recordings
Where=/storage/recordings
Options=username=nasuser1,password=123nas,rw,vers=2.1
Type=cifs
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Address of your share. Remember to always use / slashes:
What=//192.168.1.222/recordingsPath where the Share should be mounted:
Where=/storage/recordingsOptions:
Options=username=nasuser1,password=123nas,rw,vers=2.1username= Username of your network share
password Password of your network share
rw Read/write access
vers=2.1 Version of the Samba protocol, 2.1 is supported since Windows 7 several other versions are supported tooFinally we need to enable the mountpoint.
systemctl enable storage-recordings.mountReboot your system to check if the mount works.
Get status and error messages from the mount point:
systemctl status storage-recordings.mountRemove mount point and disable it:
systemctl disable storage-recordings.mountmkdir /storage/recordingsImportant: you need to set the filename for the definition file according to the folder where you want to mount your share . In our case:
storage-recordings.mount represents the path -> /storage/recordings. If you add a subfolder: storage-recordings-tv.mount represents the path -> /storage/recordings/tv.nano /storage/.config/system.d/storage-recordings.mountContents of the definition file for a NFS share:
[Unit]
Description=test nfs mount script
Requires=network-online.service
After=network-online.service
Before=kodi.service
[Mount]
What=192.168.1.222:/usr/data2/video
Where=/storage/recordings
Options=
Type=nfs
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Address of your share;
What=192.168.1.222:/usr/data2/videoPath where the share should be mounted:
Where=/storage/recordingsOptions: At this section you are able to define specific NFS options, such as the NFS version. In the example below we set Type for an NFSv3 share.
Type=nfsTo use an NFSv4 share:
Type=nfs4systemctl start storage-recordings.mountNote: That's only a test and the mount won't be available after a reboot. To make it available after boot you have to "enable" the service first.
If the previous test worked, enable the service via:
systemctl enable storage-recordings.mountReboot your system to see if the mount is available after boot.
Get status and error messages from the mount point:
systemctl status storage-recordings.mountRemove mount point and disable it:
systemctl disable storage-recordings.mountTimeCapsule devices share files using an Apple dialect of SMB that is not compatible with the Samba
smbclient Kodi uses to connect to SMB shares. To access media on a TimeCapsule you can follow the steps described above for connecting to Samba shares with a systemd storage mount, but with one difference: the Options configuration must force SMB v1.0 and legacy NTLM authentication or the mount will fail. See below:Options=username=MyUser,password=MyPass,sec=ntlm,vers=1.0
SMB v1.0 is widely considered to be insecure, but TimeCapsules no longer receive software updates and there is no alternative; SMB v2/v3 are not supported.
In some edge cases where the remote filesystem may be unavailable when LibreElec boots or the remote filesystem has a chance of disconnecting, an automount is an easy way to mount without the risk of failure and with the option to attempt to connect/reconnect with no extra effort.
It is basically a safe way to retry mounting the remote filesystem.
Because we enable the automount service, we can disable the mount service. Which in turn allows the system to boot without errors, even if the network share is not available (it will still show the files as missing until the share is available, but this is expected). What the automount does is try to connect to the network share when the local mount path is accessed by the filesystem. So when trying to play media from the mount path, or trying to update the library (assuming the mount path is in your media library).
Follow the relevant instructions above to create a systemd
.mount definition file for your network share.IMPORTANT: It is recommened to follow the instructions above completey and add the mounted path to your library in Kodi before proceeding with the instructions below.
If you've already enabled the mount service in systemd, disable it to prevent errors on boot when the network share is unavailable.
systemctl disable storage-recordings.mountFilename restrictions are the same as for the
.mount definition file. Meaning that if your .mount file is named storage-recordings.mount your automount file should be named storage-recordings.automount.nano /storage/.config/system.d/storage-recordings.automountContents of the automount definition file:
[Unit]
Description=test automount for recordings
[Automount]
Where=/storage/recordings
TimeoutIdleSec=0
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Path of the mount in question:
Where=/storage/recordingsIdle timeout (time before systemd should unmount the network share, 0 means disabled):
TimeoutIdleSec=0systemctl enable storage-recordings.automountsystemctl daemon-reloadIf you have already added the mount path to your library in Kodi, you can test the automount by trying to access the folder inside Kodi. If all went well, the network share will mount as soon as you attempt to access it's mount path.
If the network share is available when LibreElec is starting up, it will be mounted during the boot process.
Get status and error messages from the automount (great for seeing when a mount was attempted):
systemctl status storage-recordings.automountIMPORTANT: Running the above command will NOT show mount errors, to see mount errors you will still need to run
systemctl status on the .mount service (systemctl status storage-recordings.mount).Disable the automount:
systemctl disable storage-recordings.automountLast modified 10d ago