Set this up late last year, and just documenting now in case I forget, or if any of my legions of readers are curious.

Galleon is a open-source java client/server app that uses Tivo’s Home Media Engine system to allow all sorts of file and application sharing between a Tivo and other networked entities. It more or less works to transfer files between the main Linux fileserver and our TiVo (we have an old Series 2 with a 40G drive - I was an early adopter in 2003 and I’m too cheap to upgrade). The main steps in setting it up and my experience are as follows.

• have the Sun JRE set up correctly and download the galeon .zip and extract it somewhere handy
• enable Home Media Networking in the TiVo menu (Tivo Central > Music, Photos & More and Enable Home Network Applications)
• give TiVo a static IP, via your DHCP config, or manual setup.
• allow tcp/7288, tcp/2190, udp/2190 and tcp/8081 in /etc/sysconfig/iptables (most of the others listed should be already open in most sytems)
• disable IPv6 (yes I actually had to do this and yes it is rather annoying)
• start the galleon server: service galleon start (auto start via chkconfig galleon on)
• use the Galleon GUI (<galeon download dir>/bin/gui.sh) to configure the Tivo MAK and other settings and have fun setting up apps. These will show up in the TiVo Music, Photos & More menu (after a server restart).
• in the GUI, use the File->ToGo menu to browse and download your Tivo’s current recordings

For apps, so far I’ve found the Jukebox, Music Organizer, Photos, Shoutcast and Movies plugins to be useful. The “Internet Images” and “Traffic” plugins are cool - they allow us to view a few local webcams and a full local traffic report with maps, so we can check traffic, weather and surf/snow conditions from the TV (if for some reason we can’t just pop open the nearest laptop). And playing net radio and the MP3 collection directly on the stereo system is pretty nice, though there may be some audio degradation.

But the best part is, to save our lame 40G drive on the Tivo, I can transfer all of our little darling’s favorite shows to the monster drive on the file server. Then we can cycle those around periodically to keep the kid entertained (because she likes to watch the same episode 73 times), while leaving room on the Tivo drive for more important things.

The video files come in as .tivo files, which is a proprietary format that is encrypted with your Tivo Media Access Key. You can convert .tivo files to .mpeg, but I haven’t had the need yet.

The Galleon GUI has a lot of rough edges, and the galleon server ate all my memory a few times. But in terms of features, Galleon actually beats the official product. Not pretty, but it gets the job done.