Carputer - UPnP fails when eth0 is disconnected

[blk_addr]

Hi all,

I got into XBMC a few months ago and love it - just got a Pi a week and a half ago and have been fighting one last problem trying to get my carputer media server up. I'm hoping someone here knows Linux network configs a lot better than I do!

Here's where I am:
- Netis WF-2116 wifi adapter (RTL8192CU chipset) up as standalone access point, dnsmasq serving IPs fine on wlan0; IP 192.168.2.1

- eth0 set up for home network, static IP served by router 192.168.1.132

- Pi and all peripherals powered via powered USB hub

What I plan to do:
- run the Pi headless in the car for a cross-country drive in June, serving media via UPnP to an HP Touchpad (CM9 Nightlies Android) via Android XBMC and multiple IOS devices via Airplayer and Goodplayer apps

With the eth0 cable plugged into the Pi, everything works dandy with all devices. I can disconnect the cable and all is still well.

If I boot with the cable disconnected, I can stream fine to XBMC on the Android tablet. I can browse movies fine in Airplayer but the movie never loads - eventually it will load 60-90+% but spins forever at that point. Goodplayer also allows me to browse content but crashes immediately when I try to play the movie.

With a movie hung loading (in Airplayer) I can connect the Ethernet cable and BOOM the movie immediately plays. I can then disconnect the cable and all devices continue to work flawlessly. I can drop off my xbian AP, re-join, and it still works. I can introduce a new device and it works fine too. But if I reboot, I'm back to square one.

When I connect the Ethernet cable and run dmesg, I get the following line:
"smc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0xCDE1"

After fiddling with eth0 as manual/manual bridged/static/dhcp I finally got it to work with some combo of Manual and allow-hotplug eth0, but I had no more Internet access over that interface - so I fixed that and broke my carputer streaming! Now I can't go back (because at 4am I crazily decided to mod interfaces without backing it up) but at least I know I can get it to work.

I just finished starting completely from scratch on a new SD card and am stuck with the exact same symptom. Does anyone have any ideas?

[blk_addr]

Quick update - just rebooted (no eth0 connected) and Airplayer had the same symptoms BUT Goodplayer started a movie (with audio so they must've paid The Man for a Dolby AC3 audio license). But I closed the app and it crashes every attempt again.

I'm playing with the XBMC debug log to see what I can find there. I'm doing most of my troubleshooting via the direct console or SSH on an ipad (Prompt app is awesome) but can fire up Putty on my work laptop if any logs are needed.

I know I'm one config step away but can't figure it out for the life of me.

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Update 2 - UPnP IOS app "8Player Lite" drops back to main menu after 30 seconds or so when I try to play and eth0 is disconnected (browses media lists fine). I was able to play a movie with it from my main XBMC host computer (mac mini) hooked to the TV, but I used up my max movie plays for the Lite version on a bunch of failed attempts so I can't test that app for a while.

GoodPlayer appears to just suck and is extremely picky about what I try to play. It'll play An American Tail from the Pi whether I booted with eth0 connected or not, but won't play Back to the Future either way. I also have to filter by year/actor/etc in Goodplayer when connected to the mac mini to get to the movie in the menu because it can't load the "Title" list.

At least Airplayer is consistent.

Three IOS apps, and different results with each. I'm trying to eliminate the client apps from the equation but it's a little tough to do. I can start downloading new Android/IOS/Windows/Mac UPnP clients for testing, but my primary goal is just to get Airplayer to stream to a danged ipad without having to connect the eth0 cable to my Pi. I definitely appreciate any thoughts on this

[blk_addr]

Well it looks like it's a problem with Airplayer. I connected an old router to the Pi just to serve an IP and it didn't fix the symptom. I just got a new lamp today for my TV and was able to test streaming to a PS3 and it worked fine too. This is pretty lame since no other iOS UPnP client works either.

I started a thread on the Airplayer forum so we'll see where that goes. If anyone has any thoughts here I'd appreciate that too!

[blk_addr]

Well Airplayer works again with no changes I remember making. Carputer is up and running, tested and verified! I'll post here if I can recreate the issue/fix.