I use Linux to run our own little home media server and we’re adding a Mac Mini for access to additional programs and such we (sadly) can’t get on Linux. We have a few external HDDs that I’d like to be able to share and easily access from both computers. I don’t think we’ll need access from Windows.
Our router doesn’t have a USB port.
I’m wondering what the best options are? Will I need something like Samba or is that primarily for Windows? Is there something similar or better that will work? I’ve not heard wonderful things about Samba mostly hearing it’s slow and finicky.
Would there be a way to share via Ethernet? I’ve read a little about some ways to share a USB drive via Ethernet when USB isn’t available but I’m not sure how realistic it is. Would something like a raspberry pi help somehow? I’m assuming there’s no way to do some sort of “splitter” so that they both have direct access to the drives? I’m just not sure where to start. The times I tried to get Windows HDD access from my Linux Mint install (a year ago) was awful (LM stopped supporting any samba access). I’m hoping for fairly fast access speeds.
We now run OpenSUSE on our Linux NUC and obviously, will run Big Sur macOS on the Mac Mini. FWIW, we have simultaneous gigabit fiber internet, if that matters in terms of sharing via Ethernet. Also, we do have a few older routers laying around and at least one does have a USB port. I can’t use it for our primary router (flaky WiFI) but would it still share the drives if plugged in via Ethernet (with a multipart USB hub plugged into it)? Or could it be used in a different mode? Is there some other affordable gadget that would do something similar?
Thanks so much for any help and advice. I really appreciate it.
Check whether you can install open firmware on a router with USB, such as OpenWRT or DD-WRT.
Then it will be Linux + Samba on it.
I have doubts about successful usage of router + USB hub + drive, without hub it may work.
Supposedly you will need extra power supplied to USB drive, router with USB 2.0 may give only 2.5 W.
Recommend you start with inspecting your Home Media Server software,
It’s almost certain some kind of remote access to storage is built in already.
Depending on what already exists, you may simply need to configure to point to a particular location.
If you don’t know what to look for,
Post what your Home Media Server is, if it’s a hardware appliance or software application, and version.
As for your drives…
Normally drives installed in a USB enclosure are direct connect to a system.
It’s possible to do USB over Ethernet, but is somewhat unusual.
More commonly, your drives would be installed in an enclosure and connected to a system which itself reads the USB drives like any other on the system and the system handles the network connection to the Home Media Server (or anything else, eg @Svyatko suggestion to attach to the Gateway Router).
You might try nfs. I am really fond of using it. Setup of the server is easy with YAST. I don’t have any knowledge about Mac OS but it seems to have some nfs compatibilty: