Please note that the mediatomb runs as a service.You can enable/disable the service by using the following steps:
A) 1. Install BootUp Manager: sudo apt-get install bum2. Execute BootUp Manager: sudo bum3. Disable/enable mediatomb service
B) Start/stop mediatomb service manually sudo service mediatomb start sudo service mediatomb stop sudo service mediatomb restart
C) Enable UI See following Ubuntu guide: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MediaTomb
D) More documentation Of course, there is also official MediaTomb site: http://mediatomb.cc/pages/documentation_overview
E) External drive- If you're using Ubuntu 12.10 and external drive, the drive is mapped in /media/$USER/- MediaTomb service runs under "mediatomb" user by default- However, external drive (when connected and mounted) has access rights to your current $USER
E.1) => mediatomb service (UI) is not allowed seeing the folders/files- there are several ways how to bypass this situation. I managed to startup the mediatomb as "Startup application" when I log in to my account. So yes, I'm not using the mediatomb service and the "mediatomb process" is running also under my account.- From my point of view, this is safer at least from the access rights point of view.
E.2) Another possible approach is running the mediatomb service under different user (you).
Maybe there are also other ways...