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Play videos on your Linux desktop on your Fire TV / Fire TV Stick
Play videos on your Linux desktop on your Fire TV / Fire TV Stick
All you need on the Fire TV is the VLC app, which is free and generally really good. Just go to 'Apps' on your Fire TV and install VLC, we'll come back to this after the Linux setup.
ReadyMedia Setup
For this we'll use a lightweight media server, running as your normal user.
ReadyMedia, formerly known as MiniDLNA, is my personal choice here as it's simple, light on system resources, in most Linux distributions' official repositories, and is fully compliant with DLNA/UPnP clients, meaning you could stream to your smart TV, PS3, XBox, smartphone, and other computers.
Installation
To install it on Arch Linux run:
sudo pacman -S minidlna
To install it on Ubuntu / Mint:
sudo apt install minidlna
Configuration
The default option is to run minidlna as it's own user, this probably isn't what you want if you want to serve your own media files in your home directory (or Videos directory for example). What we'll do then is run it as your user (eg. elliot).
Run the following to copy over the configuration file and set the appropriate permissions:
install -Dm644 /etc/minidlna.conf ~/.config/minidlna/minidlna.conf
Next we need to edit a few lines in the ~/.config/minidlna/minidlna.conf file.
Find the line beginning with media_dir=, uncomment it (remove the # symbol) if it is commented-out and add the following, changing the directory as required (here I have used my 'Videos' directory):
media_dir=/home/$USER/Videos
Tip: In nano you can use the keys [Ctrl]+[w] to find a string of text (eg. to find media_dir=).
Tip: In vim you can search using /media_dir=
Find the line beginning with db_dir=, uncomment it (remove the # symbol) if it is commented-out and add the following:
db_dir=/home/$USER/.config/minidlna/cache
Find the line beginning with log_dir=, uncomment it (remove the # symbol) if it is commented-out and add the following:
log_dir=/home/$USER/.config/minidlna
Running
To run your ReadyMedia server, run the following (note the 'd' on the end of minidlnad):
minidlnad -f /home/$USER/.config/minidlna/minidlna.conf -P /home/$USER/.config/minidlna/minidlna.pid -R
Now go to the VLC app on your Fire TV, go to 'Local Network' and you should see your PC listed there, open it up and you should see your videos there.
You will need to run the same command as before after restarting your PC, alternatively you can add the following to your .bash_profile to run it at login:
nano ~/.bash_profile
And add in the following:
minidlnad -f /home/$USER/.config/minidlna/minidlna.conf -P /home/$USER/.config/minidlna/minidlna.pid
Firewall
If you're not seeing anything show up on VLC on the Fire TV, the most likely problem is your firewall.
UFW
If you're running the Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW) then the following should work (change 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.1.0 if necessary):
sudo ufw allow from 192.168.0.0/24 to any port 8200/tcp
sudo ufw allow from 127.0.0.0/24 to any port 8200/tcp
sudo ufw allow from 192.168.0.0/24 to any port 1900/udp
sudo ufw allow from 127.0.0.0/24 to any port 1900/udp
IPTables
The following should work for IPTables depending on your other rules (change 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.1.0 if necessary):
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8200 -s 192.168.0.0/24 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8200 -s 127.0.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8200 -j DROP
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 1900 -s 192.168.0.0/24 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 1900 -s 127.0.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 1900 -j DROP
You will need to save your IPTables rules for this to be persistent on restart.
If it still doesn't work after adding the IPTables rules above, check it isn't IPTables causing the issue by temporarily disabling it and checking VLC again:
sudo systemctl stop iptables.service
To learn more about IPTables, there are several guides online. Here's a good starting point: http://www.howtogeek.com/177621/the-beginners-guide-to-iptables-the-linux-firewall/
If it's still not working after you have established it is not a firewall issue, you can check for errors by running:
minidlnad -f /home/$USER/.config/minidlna/minidlna.conf -P /home/$USER/.config/minidlna/minidlna.pid -d
You might also need to run the command as root if the above attempts don't work:
sudo minidlnad -f /home/$USER/.config/minidlna/minidlna.conf -P /home/$USER/.config/minidlna/minidlna.pid
With the -d flag meaning debug. For example, a directory might not have the necessary permissions (potentially likely if you have listed a directory outside of your home directory), or another media server may be running on the same ports (potentially likely if you have tried other servers before ReadyMedia).