http://wiki.linuxmce.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Friesian 2026-07-21T18:04:58Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.44.0 http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=22543 2010-03-01T18:00:12Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Socket B/ LGA 1366]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 7.10rc 32bit DVD install- Previously ran 64bit, but I decided to switch to 32 when I botched up the install attempting to upgrade Nvidia drivers. I was careful to follow the directions and spent several hours looking for a solution and experimenting- Not sure if this is an issue with this hardware, or somehow I screwed up... Core/Hybrid Install was easy. Almost every thing works OOB. Spdiff and optical audio do not work OOB with 64bit (not tested yet with 32bit).<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe i7<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66ghzX4<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD (root drive)<br /> **3x WD 200gig hd's -xfs file system<br /> **1.5TB segate sata drive -xfs<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom) (blu-ray's do not play OOB, but will rip- dvd's rip/play fine.)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works OOB! -driver update attempt on 64bit failed)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters:<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (Works well as an orbiter with vista &quot;must install as administrator&quot;)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda? (I tried, but the old clie just couldn't handle it...)<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI (APIC?) mode. (edit- this is required as far as I can tell, and means no 'easy' dual boots w/ vista- must adjust bios) I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and installed that way- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. It may be possible to get the 280 working with a driver update, will save that for later. (edit: driver update failed to work with either card- ui1 only on 7800gtx worked @ &lt;1080p, signifigantly decreased performance.)<br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their partition tables are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode? nope) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... (edit: 64bit 7.10 does not play blue rays unless they're ripped to disk, 32bit may?, ripping does not re-encode standard dvd's or blurays- they save in ISO formate, with the extention .dvd -standard DVD file size is up to 8.4GB, bluray up to 50GB.) I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... (edit: have since played dvd's back to back vs windows- no difference, just was an older movie.)<br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern- edit: it's not, and I should have told it to use the drive...) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- (edit: that's only used for sudo terminal commands) confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... (edit: the box aperently doesn't work, lol.) At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dlink's dhcp server and changed it's subnet to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined this XP install to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking beyond internet access. I do have an additional full XP install on this machine, but working with it consistently leaves a bad taste in my mouth... So, back to the netbooting task... (yes... I do have a bit of ADD :P )<br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. (edit: not if it's set up right. ie: tell it to use the drive, use the pluto folder structure, and then move your media into the correct folders)<br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data... edit: That IS the right menu/folder), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. (edit: incorrectly... exactly how I told it too)<br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby! (edit: nope.)<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it appeared to be netbooting correctly but then hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the web pages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (multiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unplugging the MD from the modem everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet access and no more complaints from the modem. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show ((incorrectly) as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> *I'd moved the usb drives from the Core to the MD, and back again.<br /> <br /> So- at this point, this definitely seams like a network problem . I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem (edit: now I have seen it set that way, so I think it should be ok that way if the routers are set up correctly) From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to dictate to the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1) (edit: nope, it was about internal eth0). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... (edit: seams coincidental, the modum just happened to reach it's nusence level at that point and gave up badering me with the router behind the router message.)<br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD on eth0); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries?- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probably trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow? -edit: shouldn't have and actaully may have been the only reason the MD was able to boot- the marvel yukon eithernet is not well compatable with 64bit, needs a driver update or it drops out during net boot.)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network. This setup a netshare, and a MD for the same machine.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why- edit: actaully that's for the core/hybrid, was remembering wrong)<br /> (edit: told the system not to use the drives my media was on, then tried to change the setting in admin panel (not supported), then manually synced them from /mnt...)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> K.I.S.S. it should really be a motto to live by... It seams I've been fighting this the whole way, trying to push, prod, and poke the system into doing what I want, getting impatient when I don't immediately get the results I'm looking for- being a windows power user has probably made me like this, I've come to expect being able to get results by doing quick searches, critical thinking, and all else fails just plain poking around and experimenting. Of course with windows- I know how things work, I know what to be careful with, and I usually know how fix things if I muck something up. With Linuxmce, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, trying to learn not just a new language, but a seemingly radically different culture and customs- one that seams to not be very forgiving of my silly foreign ways. In short, I haven't been going with the flow- I haven't taken time to insure every things right before starting things- I didn't give the OS time to do what it needed to do, cause it wasn't telling me what it was doing and I was frustrated with the lack of feedback. I've been expecting the OS to correct and adapt to my mistakes. If I really knew the system, I bet it would have been possible, maybe even simple to fix the mess I'd made of the install- but for now, I need to walk before I run...<br /> <br /> Continuied at http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Asus_P6T_Deluxe_i7_920_prt2</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=19131 2009-05-21T16:05:37Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Socket B/ LGA 1366]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 7.10rc 32bit DVD install- Previously ran 64bit, but I decided to switch to 32 when I botched up the install attempting to upgrade Nvidia drivers. I was careful to follow the directions and spent several hours looking for a solution and experimenting- Not sure if this is an issue with this hardware, or somehow I screwed up... Core/Hybrid Install was easy. Almost every thing works OOB. Spdiff and optical audio do not work OOB with 64bit (not tested yet with 32bit).<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe i7<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66ghzX4<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD (root drive)<br /> **3x WD 200gig hd's -xfs file system<br /> **1.5TB segate sata drive -xfs<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom) (blu-ray's do not play OOB, but will rip- dvd's rip/play fine.)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works OOB! -driver update attempt on 64bit failed)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system: (this system will encounter problems with one of it's ethernet ports (marvel yukon) on 64bit when netbooting. the nvidia 10/100 port works.)<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@400mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x3 (raid0 array for swap/working xp)<br /> **180gb WD sata drive<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1TB (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IMON IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently shares KVM switch with hybrid<br /> **Case not suitable for GTX cards- and insuficient stock cooling for high watt processor and max drive capasity- add in fans may fix at expence of noise.<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> **2 HD directv boxes.<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters:<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (Works well as an orbiter with vista &quot;must install as administrator&quot;)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda? (I tried, but the old clie just couldn't handle it...)<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera. (works by following directions on wiki- but don't unplug it, or you'll have to redo everything)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup (working with analog input- digital doesn't seam to work presently.)<br /> **36in HD sony trinatron CRT (doesn't work OOB- looking for a fix)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd (haven't tried yet)<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration/dreams:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) <br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake- currently researching distributed vs centralised configurations for wiring considerations.)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers or 2-3 +zoned audio<br /> **Satalite reciver integration<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD's +raid card ~6tb redundant capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **Security/ smart home integration useing 1-wire sensors and GC100. (doors/widows/temp/light/smoke)<br /> **whole house lighting (Z-wave)<br /> **whole house multizone climate (electronic dampers/ GC100/Z-wave)<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI (APIC?) mode. (edit- this is required as far as I can tell, and means no 'easy' dual boots w/ vista- must adjust bios) I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and installed that way- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. It may be possible to get the 280 working with a driver update, will save that for later. (edit: driver update failed to work with either card- ui1 only on 7800gtx worked @ &lt;1080p, signifigantly decreased performance.)<br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their partition tables are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... (edit: 64bit 7.10 does not play blue rays unless they're ripped to disk, 32bit may?, ripping does not re-encode standard dvd's or blurays- they save in ISO formate, with the extention .dvd -standard DVD file size is up to 8.4GB, bluray up to 50GB.) I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... (edit: have since played dvd's back to back vs windows- no difference, just was an older movie.)<br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern- edit: it's not, and I should have told it to use the drive...) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- (edit: that's only used for sudo terminal commands) confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... (edit: the box aperently doesn't work, lol.) At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dlink's dhcp server and changed it's subnet to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined this XP install to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking beyond internet access. I do have an additional full XP install on this machine, but working with it consistently leaves a bad taste in my mouth... So, back to the netbooting task... (yes... I do have a bit of ADD :P )<br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. (edit: not if it's set up right. ie: tell it to use the drive, use the pluto folder structure, and then move your media into the correct folders)<br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data... edit: That IS the right menu/folder), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. (edit: incorrectly... exactly how I told it too)<br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby! (edit: nope.)<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it appeared to be netbooting correctly but then hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the web pages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (multiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unplugging the MD from the modem everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet access and no more complaints from the modem. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show ((incorrectly) as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> *I'd moved the usb drives from the Core to the MD, and back again.<br /> <br /> So- at this point, this definitely seams like a network problem . I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem (edit: now I have seen it set that way, so I think it should be ok that way if the routers are set up correctly) From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to dictate to the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1) (edit: nope, it was about internal eth0). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... (edit: seams coincidental, the modum just happened to reach it's nusence level at that point and gave up badering me with the router behind the router message.)<br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD on eth0); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries?- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probably trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow? -edit: shouldn't have and actaully may have been the only reason the MD was able to boot- the marvel yukon eithernet is not well compatable with 64bit, needs a driver update or it drops out during net boot.)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network. This setup a netshare, and a MD for the same machine.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why- edit: actaully that's for the core/hybrid, was remembering wrong)<br /> (edit: told the system not to use the drives my media was on, then tried to change the setting in admin panel (not supported), then manually synced them from /mnt...)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> K.I.S.S. it should really be a motto to live by... It seams I've been fighting this the whole way, trying to push, prod, and poke the system into doing what I want, getting impatient when I don't immediately get the results I'm looking for- being a windows power user has probably made me like this, I've come to expect being able to get results by doing quick searches, critical thinking, and all else fails just plain poking around and experimenting. Of course with windows- I know how things work, I know what to be careful with, and I usually know how fix things if I muck something up. With Linuxmce, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, trying to learn not just a new language, but a seemingly radically different culture and customs- one that seams to not be very forgiving of my silly foreign ways. In short, I haven't been going with the flow- I haven't taken time to insure every things right before starting things- I didn't give the OS time to do what it needed to do, cause it wasn't telling me what it was doing and I was frustrated with the lack of feedback. I've been expecting the OS to correct and adapt to my mistakes. If I really knew the system, I bet it would have been possible, maybe even simple to fix the mess I'd made of the install- but for now, I need to walk before I run...<br /> <br /> Continuied at http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Asus_P6T_Deluxe_i7_920_prt2</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=19130 2009-05-21T15:38:09Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Socket B/ LGA 1366]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 7.10rc 32bit DVD install- Previously ran 64bit, but I decided to switch to 32 when I botched up the install attempting to upgrade Nvidia drivers. I was careful to follow the directions and spent several hours looking for a solution and experimenting- Not sure if this is an issue with this hardware, or somehow I screwed up... Core/Hybrid Install was easy. Almost every thing works OOB. Spdiff and optical audio do not work OOB with 64bit (not tested yet with 32bit).<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe i7<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66ghzX4<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD (root drive)<br /> **3x WD 200gig hd's -xfs file system<br /> **1.5TB segate sata drive -xfs<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom) (blu-ray's do not play OOB, but will rip- dvd's rip/play fine.)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works OOB!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system: (this system may encounter problems with one of it's ethernet ports (marvel yukon) on 64bit when netbooting)<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@400mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x3 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or just faster MD boot if supported- it's not in 7.10)<br /> **180gb WD sata drive<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1TB (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IMON IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently shares KVM switch with hybrid<br /> **Case not suitable for GTX cards- and insuficient stock cooling for high watt processor and max drive capasity- add in fans may fix at expence of noise.<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> **2 HD directv boxes.<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters:<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (Works well as an orbiter with vista &quot;must install as administrator&quot;)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda? (I tried, but the old clie just couldn't handle it...)<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera. (works by following directions on wiki- but don't unplug it, or you'll have to redo everything)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup (working with analog input- digital doesn't seam to work presently.)<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (doesn't work OOB- looking for a fix)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd (haven't tried yet)<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration/dreams:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) <br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake- currently researching distributed vs centralised configurations for wiring considerations.)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers or 2-3 +zoned audio<br /> **Satalite reciver integration<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD's +raid card ~6tb redundant capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **Security/ smart home integration useing 1-wire sensors and GC100. (doors/widows/temp/light/smoke)<br /> **whole house lighting (Z-wave)<br /> **whole house multizone climate (electronic dampers/ GC100/Z-wave)<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI (APIC?) mode. (edit- this is required as far as I can tell, and means no 'easy' dual boots w/ vista- must adjust bios) I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and installed that way- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. It may be possible to get the 280 working with a driver update, will save that for later.<br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their partition tables are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... (edit: 64bit 7.10 does not play blue rays unless they're ripped to disk, 32bit may?, ripping does not re-encode standard dvd's or blurays- they save in ISO formate, with the extention .dvd -standard DVD file size is up to 8.4GB, bluray up to 50GB.) I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... (edit: have since played dvd's back to back vs windows- no difference, just was an older movie.)<br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern- edit: it's not, and I should have told it to use the drive...) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- (edit: that's only used for sudo terminal commands) confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... (edit: the box aperently doesn't work, lol.) At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dlink's dhcp server and changed it's subnet to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined this XP install to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking beyond internet access. I do have an additional full XP install on this machine, but working with it consistently leaves a bad taste in my mouth... So, back to the netbooting task... (yes... I do have a bit of ADD :P )<br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. (edit: not if it's set up right. ie: tell it to use the drive, use the pluto folder structure, and then move your media into the correct folders)<br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data... edit: That IS the right menu/folder), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. (edit: incorrectly... exactly how I told it too)<br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby! (edit: nope.)<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it appeared to be netbooting correctly but then hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the web pages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (multiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unplugging the MD from the modem everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet access and no more complaints from the modem. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show ((incorrectly) as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> *I'd moved the usb drives from the Core to the MD, and back again.<br /> <br /> So- at this point, this definitely seams like a network problem . I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem (edit: now I have seen it set that way, so I think it should be ok that way if the routers are set up correctly) From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to dictate to the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1) (edit: nope, it was about internal eth0). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... (edit: seams coincidental, the modum just happened to reach it's nusence level at that point and gave up badering me with the router behind the router message.)<br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD on eth0); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries?- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probably trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow? -edit: shouldn't have and actaully may have been the only reason the MD was able to boot- the marvel yukon eithernet is not well compatable with 64bit, needs a driver update or it drops out during net boot.)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network. This setup a netshare, and a MD for the same machine.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why- edit: actaully that's for the core/hybrid, was remembering wrong)<br /> (edit: told the system not to use the drives my media was on, then tried to change the setting in admin panel (not supported), then manually synced them from /mnt...)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> K.I.S.S. it should really be a motto to live by... It seams I've been fighting this the whole way, trying to push, prod, and poke the system into doing what I want, getting impatient when I don't immediately get the results I'm looking for- being a windows power user has probably made me like this, I've come to expect being able to get results by doing quick searches, critical thinking, and all else fails just plain poking around and experimenting. Of course with windows- I know how things work, I know what to be careful with, and I usually know how fix things if I muck something up. With Linuxmce, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, trying to learn not just a new language, but a seemingly radically different culture and customs- one that seams to not be very forgiving of my silly foreign ways. In short, I haven't been going with the flow- I haven't taken time to insure every things right before starting things- I didn't give the OS time to do what it needed to do, cause it wasn't telling me what it was doing and I was frustrated with the lack of feedback. I've been expecting the OS to correct and adapt to my mistakes. If I really knew the system, I bet it would have been possible, maybe even simple to fix the mess I'd made of the install- but for now, I need to walk before I run...<br /> <br /> Continuied at http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Asus_P6T_Deluxe_i7_920_prt2</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=EVGA_7800GTX_256mb&diff=19010 2009-05-15T01:08:34Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: Hardware]]<br /> [[Category: Graphic Cards]]<br /> [[Category: Works without caveats]]<br /> <br /> This card worked hassle free with a 7.10rc 64bit DVD install on my Asus P6T deluxe/i7 920 core/hybrid setup, and netbooting Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe/FX-57 MD (with lcd moniter). (both require drives be set APCI (apic?) mode set in bios, though I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the video card. -the screen goes black right after first install menu and doesn't come back when drives are set in sata/ide mode) In this setup the cards will handle 1080 HD (ripped and/or re-encoded h.264, mp4, .mkv and .avi's) content in UI2+ alpha with minimal tearing on core/hybrid, tearing is worse on MD but still watchable for all but a few 15Gb+ .mkv movies- those wouldn't even play correctly under windows with this machine. Core/hybrid playback is nearly flawless. Nvidia VIVO (video in video out) is not supported in linux. My setup uses DVI and DVI/vga, I've tested the svideo output and that works as well. I have not updated/changed any drivers, just useing what came with the install DVD.<br /> <br /> GTX cards are not ideal for HTPC- they are too large for many htpc cases, power hungry, and hot- but it's what I had laying around.<br /> <br /> <br /> Read about my setup/newbie experiences here: http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Asus_P6T_Deluxe_i7_920</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18995 2009-05-14T01:33:34Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Socket B/ LGA 1366]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 7.10rc 64bit DVD install- until I break it again... Core/Hybrid Install was easy. Almost every thing works OOB. Spdiff and optical audio do not work OOB- will update this if I find a fix.<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe i7<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66ghzX4<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD (root drive)<br /> **3x WD 200gig hd's -xfs file system<br /> **1.5TB segate sata drive -xfs<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom) (blu-ray's do not play OOB, but will rip- dvd's rip/play fine.)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works OOB!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@400mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x3 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or just faster MD boot if supported- it's not in 7.10)<br /> **180gb WD sata drive (will swap OS to SSD eventually and remove this)<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1TB (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IMON IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> **Hot and noisy, needs further improvement...<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> **2 HD directv boxes.<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters:<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (Works well as an orbiter with vista &quot;must install as administrator&quot;)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda? (I tried, but the old clie just couldn't handle it...)<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera. (works by following directions on wiki- but don't unplug it, or you'll have to redo everything)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup (working with analog input- digital doesn't seam to work presently.)<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (doesn't work OOB- looking for a fix)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd (haven't tried yet)<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration/dreams:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake- currently researching distributed vs centralised configurations for wiring considerations.)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers or 2-3 +zoned audio<br /> **Satalite reciver integration<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD's +raid card ~6tb redundant capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **Security/ smart home integration useing 1-wire sensors and GC100. (doors/widows/temp/light/smoke)<br /> **whole house lighting (Z-wave)<br /> **whole house multizone climate (electronic dampers/ GC100/Z-wave)<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI (APIC?) mode. (edit- this is required as far as I can tell, and means no 'easy' dual boots w/ vista- must adjust bios) I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and installed that way- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. It may be possible to get the 280 working with a driver update, will save that for later.<br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their partition tables are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... (edit: 64bit 7.10 does not play blue rays unless they're ripped to disk, 32bit may?, ripping does not re-encode standard dvd's or blurays- they save in ISO formate, with the extention .dvd -standard DVD file size is up to 8.4GB, bluray up to 50GB.) I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... (edit: have since played dvd's back to back vs windows- no difference, just was an older movie.)<br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern- edit: it's not, and I should have told it to use the drive...) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- (edit: that's only used for sudo terminal commands) confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... (edit: the box aperently doesn't work, lol.) At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dlink's dhcp server and changed it's subnet to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined this XP install to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking beyond internet access. I do have an additional full XP install on this machine, but working with it consistently leaves a bad taste in my mouth... So, back to the netbooting task... (yes... I do have a bit of ADD :P )<br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. (edit: not if it's set up right. ie: tell it to use the drive, use the pluto folder structure, and then move your media into the correct folders)<br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data... edit: That IS the right menu/folder), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. (edit: incorrectly... exactly how I told it too)<br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby! (edit: nope.)<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it appeared to be netbooting correctly but then hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the web pages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (multiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unplugging the MD from the modem everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet access and no more complaints from the modem. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show ((incorrectly) as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> *I'd moved the usb drives from the Core to the MD, and back again.<br /> <br /> So- at this point, this definitely seams like a network problem . I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem (edit: now I have seen it set that way, so I think it should be ok that way if the routers are set up correctly) From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to dictate to the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1) (edit: nope, it was about internal eth0). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... (edit: seams coincidental, the modum just happened to reach it's nusence level at that point and gave up badering me with the router behind the router message.)<br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD on eth0); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries?- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probably trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow? -edit: shouldn't have and actaully may have been the only reason the MD was able to boot- the marvel yukon eithernet is not well compatable with 64bit, needs a driver update or it drops out during net boot.)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network. This setup a netshare, and a MD for the same machine.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why- edit: actaully that's for the core/hybrid, was remembering wrong)<br /> (edit: told the system not to use the drives my media was on, then tried to change the setting in admin panel (not supported), then manually synced them from /mnt...)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> K.I.S.S. it should really be a motto to live by... It seams I've been fighting this the whole way, trying to push, prod, and poke the system into doing what I want, getting impatient when I don't immediately get the results I'm looking for- being a windows power user has probably made me like this, I've come to expect being able to get results by doing quick searches, critical thinking, and all else fails just plain poking around and experimenting. Of course with windows- I know how things work, I know what to be careful with, and I usually know how fix things if I muck something up. With Linuxmce, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, trying to learn not just a new language, but a seemingly radically different culture and customs- one that seams to not be very forgiving of my silly foreign ways. In short, I haven't been going with the flow- I haven't taken time to insure every things right before starting things- I didn't give the OS time to do what it needed to do, cause it wasn't telling me what it was doing and I was frustrated with the lack of feedback. I've been expecting the OS to correct and adapt to my mistakes. If I really knew the system, I bet it would have been possible, maybe even simple to fix the mess I'd made of the install- but for now, I need to walk before I run...<br /> <br /> Continuied at http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Asus_P6T_Deluxe_i7_920_prt2</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=Hardware&diff=18882 2009-05-08T19:17:03Z

<p>Friesian: fixed implication that all cards listed in Graphics Card catagory worked OOB.</p> <hr /> <div>[[Image:Diagram1.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Connectivity possible with LinuxMCE]]<br /> <br /> <br /> It is possible to use LinuxMCE as a standalone Home Theater PC. A basic LinuxMCE ''system'', however, can also be set up with a relatively modest PC and networking hardware. More advanced (though not necessarily expensive) systems can work with virtually any device that allows some form of [[:Category:Input|input/output control]] capability (including Ethernet, infrared, or RS232 devices) and with devices using a [[:Category:Automation|home automation]] protocol (such as X10 or Insteon).<br /> <br /> * Check out the [[:Category:Hardware|hardware category]] for an organized list of hardware<br /> * Check out the [[:Category:Newbie_Packs|newbie pack category]] for an organized list of newbie packs<br /> * Check out [[LinuxMCE_Products|LinuxMCE Products]] for a list of products made specifically for LinuxMCE<br /> <br /> &lt;br style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;/&gt;<br /> {| align=&quot;right&quot;<br /> | __TOC__<br /> |}<br /> =LinuxMCE hardware terms=<br /> <br /> Here is a list of LinuxMCE-specific hardware terms.<br /> <br /> *[[Core]] - a single PC which is the central server and processor for your LinuxMCE system.<br /> *[[Media Director]] - a PC that is locally connected to your entertainment center AV devices and to the Core through the LAN.<br /> *[[Hybrid]] - a single PC that serves the functions of both the Core and a Media Director.<br /> *[[Orbiter]] - a user interface to control the system, running on a Media Director or elsewhere, for instance on a lightweight portable device such as a web pad.<br /> <br /> =Minimum Requirements=<br /> <br /> A [[Core]] server, a [[Media Director]], and a [[hybrid]] all have significantly different hardware requirements. See the specific sections on each for more detail. The guidelines below are very generic and are meant only to suggest that many systems can potentially be used with LinuxMCE.<br /> <br /> ==CPU==<br /> A LinuxMCE Core-only machine can be run on a slower CPU (such as a P3) only if media encoding/decoding is not done on the core. However, running the database, web server, and other system services can put a reasonable load on your CPU, so for the Core (or hybrid), bigger is better. In contrast, Media Directors have much less CPU requirements, but have other requirements.<br /> <br /> * A PIII/733MHz system can encode one video stream using the MPEG-4 codec using 480x480 capture resolution. This does not allow for live TV watching, but does allow for encoding video and then watching it later.<br /> * A developer states that his AMD1800+ system can almost encode two MPEG-4 video streams and watch one program simultaneously.<br /> * A PIII/800MHz system with 512MB RAM can encode one video stream using the RTjpeg codec with 480x480 capture resolution and play it back simultaneously, thereby allowing live TV watching.<br /> * A dual Celeron/450MHz is able to view a 480x480 MPEG-4/3300kbps file created on a different system with 30% CPU usage.<br /> * A P4 2.4GHz machine can encode two 3300Kbps 480x480 MPEG-4 files and simultaneously serve content to a remote frontend.<br /> <br /> ==Motherboard==<br /> Any Linux-compatible motherboard (95% chance yours will work) will run smoothly, give or take a few features (SPDIF, etc.). See the [[:Category:Mainboards|mainboards category]] for more information and experience with these.<br /> <br /> ==RAM==<br /> For a bare minimum core, 256MB+ of RAM is needed. For machines encoding/decoding media and/or running desktop applications 512MB+ is needed for smooth function. 1GB at least is recommended. (4GB+ will require a 64-bit OS (now available in LinuxMCE 0710 and later versions)).<br /> <br /> ==Hard Drive==<br /> Each Core PC's hard drive(s) should have at least 4 GB (to install the OS). You will need additional media storage for network-boot images, PVR storage, etc. However, with NAS, external hard drives, and extra internal hard drives either on the Core or other Media Director PCs, the system's overall storage capacity can easily be increased.<br /> <br /> ==DVD/CD-ROM==<br /> A DVD drive is required on the Core PC if installing with the Quick Install DVD. However, the LinuxMCE system can also be installed on the Core from CDs (and therefore only a CD-ROM is required), as long as the Core is not going to be used as a hybrid. Each Media Director PC ought to have its own DVD drive, in order to insert and watch DVDs locally.<br /> <br /> ==Graphic card==<br /> The graphic cards that work best with LinuxMCE are the cards with a chipset NVidia. It is recommended to use one from a GeForce 6200 to a GeForce 8500. (Others may work, you may have to test them or look in [[:Category:Graphic_Cards]] to see if someone's already tested yours, or one your considering purchasing).<br /> <br /> It is not recommended to use ATI cards because the drivers have some bugs that LinuxMCE is using. It is working (with the standard UI1) but not supported.<br /> <br /> See the section [[Display_Drivers|Display Drivers]] for the installation steps of the drivers<br /> <br /> ==TV Video Capture Cards==<br /> <br /> Also see the [[:Category:TV Cards|TV Cards Category]]. <br /> <br /> *pcHDTV manufactures and supplies cards just for Linux that provide HDTV and analog capabilities. An example is the [http://www.pchdtv.com/ HD-5500]. <br /> <br /> *Plextor ConvertX PVR devices are supported through [http://www.plextor.com/english/support/LinuxSDK.htm Linux drivers]. MythTV can use the Plextor to capture hardware encoded MPEG-4, lowering CPU requirements for similar functions.<br /> <br /> *[[Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2]] ([http://www.isely.net/pvrusb2/ Linux driver available]) emulates a PVR-x50 card.<br /> <br /> *IP Recorder (RTSP, RTS, UDP)<br /> <br /> :MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and H.264 internet TS stream recording is supported using the IPTV recorder in MythTV. This recorder expects the channels to be supplied as a m3u playlist. If your DSL/Fiber provider supplies television service, but does not provide a m3u playlist for the channels, you can construct one for your own use. You do not need to download it from the same server as the streams themselves, and can also read it from a file if this is more convenient.<br /> <br /> :If your provider uses 5C encryption on a particular channel, you won't be able to get any content.<br /> *DBoxII or other devices running Neutrino<br /> <br /> :You may use the Ethernet port of an DBoxII or a similar device to capture MPEG2. Your set top box has to be running the Neutrino GUI.<br /> *USB Capture Devices.<br /> <br /> ==Sound Card==<br /> <br /> Also see the [[:Category:Audio|Audio Category]].<br /> <br /> The system needs a [[:Category:Audio|sound card]] or an on-board equivalent on the motherboard to play back and in most cases, to record sound. Any sound card that can be operated by the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Linux_Sound_Architecture ALSA] (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) kernel modules will work with MythTV. However, some cards and drivers will provide better quality or compatibility than others. In particular, many audio devices included on motherboards can be problematic.<br /> <br /> A common practice for capturing the audio associated with a video is to run a cable from the &quot;audio out&quot; of the video capture card to the &quot;line in&quot; on the sound card. Some video capture cards, however, provide on-board audio capabilities that work with the Linux kernel btaudio module. The need for a cable is eliminated for these cards. When multiple capture cards are used in a single PC, this capability becomes important, so that each capture card will not need its own sound card.<br /> <br /> A separate sound card is still required for playback when using btaudio. Often, audio recorded in this way will be mono only. See the [http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/BTTV btaudio] section for more information.<br /> <br /> ==Miscellaneous interfaces==<br /> *LinuxMCE supports the Sony VGP-XL1B CD/DVD jukebox (drive + changer), as well as the compatible PowerFile models. These jukeboxes require a FireWire connector.<br /> <br /> ===FireWire===<br /> *You may use the [[FireWire]] output of the [[Motorola DCT6200]] or the [[Motorola SA3250|SA3250]].<br /> <br /> =User Feedback=<br /> Please see the article on [[adding your own hardware]] to the [[:Category:Hardware|Hardware Category]] and help out by contributing your experience with the hardware you have tried. <br /> <br /> = See Also =<br /> *[[:Category:Hardware|Hardware Category]]<br /> <br /> =External references=<br /> * [[Useful Accessories]]<br /> * [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport Ubuntu hardware wiki]<br /> * [http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Hardware MythTV hardware wiki]<br /> * [http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+hardware Asterisk hardware]<br /> * [http://forum.linuxmce.com/index.php?topic=1711.0 Building a New Rig]<br /> * [http://forum.linuxmce.com/index.php?topic=1353.msg8341#msg8341 For those wanting to roll your own box ...]</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=Automatic_diskless_boot_of_media_directors&diff=18866 2009-05-08T00:31:24Z

<p>Friesian: MD&#039;s- amd64 vs i386 architecture field- admin panel= 64/32bit</p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: Tutorials]]<br /> [[Category: Networking]]<br /> [[Category: Programmer's Guide]]<br /> {| align=&quot;right&quot;<br /> | __TOC__<br /> |}<br /> LinuxMCE allows [[media director]]s to be booted over the network. This means that you can boot up thin clients without hard drives, or systems with other operating systems without affecting what is already on the disk.<br /> <br /> ==How to set it up==<br /> ===Enable PXE boot===<br /> This is also known as network boot and can be accessed in your computer's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS BIOS]. The exact procedure varies depending on your PC. Normally you press F2 or DEL right after turning the PC on to enter the BIOS settings. There is then usually an advanced option to enable this.<br /> <br /> ===Set the correct boot order===<br /> You are also going to want to set the boot order in the BIOS so the network boot comes first, and your hard drive second. However most BIOS's will make you first enable network boot, save your changes, restart the computer, and then enter the BIOS settings a second time to set the boot order. <br /> <br /> ===Determine your network card's MAC address===<br /> <br /> '''This step is not needed since version 7.04'''<br /> <br /> When network boot is working you should see at bootup the PC's mac address, and a messages about trying to contact a DHCP server, or trying to find a network boot image. This will be a new message you didn't see before and it means network boot is active on the PC. It will usually try for about 10 seconds to do a network boot image, and then give up and boot off the hard drive. This is what you want. When you see the message that it is trying to do the network boot, write down the mac address.<br /> <br /> You can also get the mac address in Windows by running IPCONFIG command prompt, or in Linux by typing ifconfig as root from a console or a terminal.<br /> <br /> ===Setup the media director in LinuxMCE===<br /> <br /> '''This step is not needed since version 7.04 although the May 7th release of 7.10 appears to require it'''<br /> <br /> In LinuxMCE Admin go to '''Wizard &gt; Devices &gt; Media Directors'''. Add the media director if this is a new one, and set the mac address. The mac address should be a series of six 2 character sequences separated by colons, like this: 1A:00:F2:21:23:9F<br /> <br /> Click 'update' to save your changes, and then click 'Setup Diskless Media Directors'. Wait for the popup window to finish. If this is a new media director you just added, go to Wizard, Restart and click 'Quick Reload Router' so the Router is aware of this new device.<br /> <br /> ===Boot up from the network===<br /> Now turn on the PC. You should see that it gets an IP address and boots into the media director software. The first time you boot it, it can take up to 30 minutes to boot because it will be installing a lot of the software on the diskless image on the core.<br /> <br /> After some time, you will see the avwizard screen where you can choose your UI, resolution and so forth. After finishing the avwizard, the system will setup your interface and eventually you will be prompted by the setup wizard where you should choose the media center setup and then go through your typical setup for this new MD.<br /> <br /> ==How to use it==<br /> If this media director has a hard drive in it that contains another operating system (like Windows or Linux), then from the media director's on-screen orbiter, or from any other orbiter that is currently controlling that media director, hit the 'power' button and choose 'restart as windows/linux' to boot up the computer off the hard drive and use it like a normal PC. Then choose 'restart as LinuxMCE' from the orbiter to boot it back again into LinuxMCE.<br /> <br /> ==Troubleshooting==<br /> ===PXE-Boot hangs up, looping......===<br /> <br /> I have an Asus A7N8X-deluxe board, with two NICs onboard. When I connect one of them the MD tries to boot via PXE. Everything seems to go its way until the line: filename tftpboot/pxelinux.0 comes up, for about 20 seconds and after this.<br /> After this, the last block written:<br /> <br /> IP-Config eth0 complete (from 192.168.1.23)<br /> adr: 192.168.80.255 broadcast: 192.168.80.255 netmask: 255.255.255.0<br /> gateway: 192.168.80.1 dns0: 192.168.80.1 dns1: 0.0.0.0<br /> rootserver: 192.168.80.1 rootpath: filename tftpboot/pxelinux.0<br /> <br /> is repeated about hours in a really fast way.....<br /> <br /> ====Answer====<br /> It is switching NICs during the PXE boot. Disable one of the on-board NICs via the BIOS.<br /> <br /> :''Source: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=3521.0''<br /> <br /> ===Diskless Setup Failed===<br /> <br /> I have multiple MDs which all give a Diskless Setup Failed after announcing themselves to the CORE. <br /> <br /> ====Answer====<br /> Log into the Web Interface on the CORE, change to the devices view and open up the options for the new MD. Under Device Data check to make sure that the field Architecture is correct. On mine it shows amd64 but all my MDs are actually Intel chipsets*. I manually enter i386 and hit save. Then reboot the MD and it will finish setting itself up correctly.<br /> <br /> NOTE: The field labeled Model is not user editable. If you change the Architecture field, upon reboot the CORE will automatically update the Model field appropriately so do not worry about it being wrong.<br /> <br /> *Note: For the core, core/hybrid install CD/DVD's, amd64 simply means 64bit- while i386 means 32bit; It does not mean amd64 is only for Amd processors and i386 is only for Intel. Amd came out with 64bit before Intel, so for a time all 64bit hardware was Amd- 64bit installs often retained the amd64 name even after Intel came out with 64bit hardware. My intel i7 core/hybrid for example is running amd64, and I've not found any issues . While researching my own (amd) net boot problem, I read a post mentioning changing the field to i386 in the panel for an Amd MD, and the machine correctly reporting Amd while net booting, I'm not 100% sure, but this seams to support the conclusion that the architecture field in the admin panel is like the install disks, and denotes the install type (32 or 64bit) rather then the actual physical architecture of the hardware (amd or intel). 32bit currently (7.10) has better hardware support 64bit, especially for NIC's- the marvel yukon for example- so a 32bit install is often recommended as a simple solution to net boot compatibility problems. Also of note, a 64bit (core) install can run 32bit MD's, but not the other way around. A 32bit core install will only configure 32bit MD's, thereby avoiding some potential problems.<br /> <br /> <br /> ==GRUB PXE network boot==<br /> In some situations, it may be more appropriate to use GNU GRUB bootloader:<br /> <br /> #The machine does not support PXE booting directly (no boot-ROM).<br /> #You can use a GRUB boot menu to decide wheter you want to boot LMCE or the native OS.<br /> #Booting is a lot faster when you boot the native OS by skipping the network step.<br /> #GRUB allows for easy adjustments of the boot parameters at boot-time. <br /> <br /> This is described in detail at [[GRUB PXE network boot]].<br /> <br /> == Reduce boot time ==<br /> When using diskless boot, all data have to be read over the network connection. This can cause boot up times longer than desirable. To avoid long boot up times, you can tune the NFS mount options of the NFS root. Specifically, the rsize and wsize options. You might do a Internet search for resources on this.<br /> Another option is to implement suspending of the media director. Also know as standby, suspend or hibernate. This function is not integrated into LinuxMCE (yet), and requires some Linux shell hacking. See the [[Suspend]] article for more information.<br /> <br /> ==Programmer's guide==<br /> The network boot images are contained in /usr/pluto/diskless/[deviceID]. If a network image is corrupted, just delete that directory, and re-run 'Setup Diskless Media Directors'.<br /> <br /> When the user hits the power button to change which device is booted, the command is sent to &quot;General Info Plugin&quot;, which updates /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/01-[mac address]. That file contains a line KERNEL or LOCALBOOT 0, depending on what the user wants to boot. If it's LOCALBOOT 0, then when the media director tries to do a network boot the Core will tell it to boot off the hard drive instead. General Info Plugin then sends the App Server running on that machine a command to reboot.<br /> <br /> Since there is both a Linux and Windows version of App Server, if App Server is installed and running on the Windows PC, then LinuxMCE can still reboot it remotely back into the network boot even if it's running Windows. Also the Windows App Server utility gives you a tray icon to switch back to network boot.<br /> <br /> ==Other Network Cards==<br /> If you get to the remote machine starting the boot process, but then fails with it unable to find eth0, the reason may be because the stock diskless image did not have your network card statically compiled. The linux image building process does allow for additional network modules to be loaded during the boot process. The installer that linuxmce uses builds this image from a base copy of the operating system (ubuntu) that is untar'd during the diskless setup process. It puts this into it's own directory that serves as a virtual harddrive for your diskless machine. In the /usr/pluto/diskless directory you should have a list of device numbers that correspond to your diskless machines. For example: '45' was the number for my diskless machine. Edit the file /usr/pluto/diskless/###/etc/initramfs-tools/modules and add on your nic's module. In my case I edit /usr/pluto/diskless/45/etc/initramfs-tools/modules and added sky2. Then run the /usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_InstallKernel.sh script with the device number (directory name) of your diskless machine. In my case &quot;/usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_InstallKernel.sh 45&quot;. This script builds the initrd image and puts it in the proper place (symlinks it actually).<br /> <br /> The driver used in my machine was the 'sky2' driver for Marvell Gigabit ethernet cards. Other drivers will be located in the /usr/pluto/diskless/xx/lib/modules/2.xxx/kernel/drivers/net/ directory.</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=Automatic_diskless_boot_of_media_directors&diff=18803 2009-05-06T06:12:53Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: Tutorials]]<br /> [[Category: Networking]]<br /> [[Category: Programmer's Guide]]<br /> {| align=&quot;right&quot;<br /> | __TOC__<br /> |}<br /> LinuxMCE allows [[media director]]s to be booted over the network. This means that you can boot up thin clients without hard drives, or systems with other operating systems without affecting what is already on the disk.<br /> <br /> ==How to set it up==<br /> ===Enable PXE boot===<br /> This is also known as network boot and can be accessed in your computer's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS BIOS]. The exact procedure varies depending on your PC. Normally you press F2 or DEL right after turning the PC on to enter the BIOS settings. There is then usually an advanced option to enable this.<br /> <br /> ===Set the correct boot order===<br /> You are also going to want to set the boot order in the BIOS so the network boot comes first, and your hard drive second. However most BIOS's will make you first enable network boot, save your changes, restart the computer, and then enter the BIOS settings a second time to set the boot order. <br /> <br /> ===Determine your network card's MAC address===<br /> <br /> '''This step is not needed since version 7.04'''<br /> <br /> When network boot is working you should see at bootup the PC's mac address, and a messages about trying to contact a DHCP server, or trying to find a network boot image. This will be a new message you didn't see before and it means network boot is active on the PC. It will usually try for about 10 seconds to do a network boot image, and then give up and boot off the hard drive. This is what you want. When you see the message that it is trying to do the network boot, write down the mac address.<br /> <br /> You can also get the mac address in Windows by running IPCONFIG command prompt, or in Linux by typing ifconfig as root from a console or a terminal.<br /> <br /> ===Setup the media director in LinuxMCE===<br /> <br /> '''This step is not needed since version 7.04 although the May 7th release of 7.10 appears to require it'''<br /> <br /> In LinuxMCE Admin go to '''Wizard &gt; Devices &gt; Media Directors'''. Add the media director if this is a new one, and set the mac address. The mac address should be a series of six 2 character sequences separated by colons, like this: 1A:00:F2:21:23:9F<br /> <br /> Click 'update' to save your changes, and then click 'Setup Diskless Media Directors'. Wait for the popup window to finish. If this is a new media director you just added, go to Wizard, Restart and click 'Quick Reload Router' so the Router is aware of this new device.<br /> <br /> ===Boot up from the network===<br /> Now turn on the PC. You should see that it gets an IP address and boots into the media director software. The first time you boot it, it can take up to 30 minutes to boot because it will be installing a lot of the software on the diskless image on the core.<br /> <br /> After some time, you will see the avwizard screen where you can choose your UI, resolution and so forth. After finishing the avwizard, the system will setup your interface and eventually you will be prompted by the setup wizard where you should choose the media center setup and then go through your typical setup for this new MD.<br /> <br /> ==How to use it==<br /> If this media director has a hard drive in it that contains another operating system (like Windows or Linux), then from the media director's on-screen orbiter, or from any other orbiter that is currently controlling that media director, hit the 'power' button and choose 'restart as windows/linux' to boot up the computer off the hard drive and use it like a normal PC. Then choose 'restart as LinuxMCE' from the orbiter to boot it back again into LinuxMCE.<br /> <br /> ==Troubleshooting==<br /> ===PXE-Boot hangs up, looping......===<br /> <br /> I have an Asus A7N8X-deluxe board, with two NICs onboard. When I connect one of them the MD tries to boot via PXE. Everything seems to go its way until the line: filename tftpboot/pxelinux.0 comes up, for about 20 seconds and after this.<br /> After this, the last block written:<br /> <br /> IP-Config eth0 complete (from 192.168.1.23)<br /> adr: 192.168.80.255 broadcast: 192.168.80.255 netmask: 255.255.255.0<br /> gateway: 192.168.80.1 dns0: 192.168.80.1 dns1: 0.0.0.0<br /> rootserver: 192.168.80.1 rootpath: filename tftpboot/pxelinux.0<br /> <br /> is repeated about hours in a really fast way.....<br /> <br /> ====Answer====<br /> It is switching NICs during the PXE boot. Disable one of the on-board NICs via the BIOS.<br /> <br /> :''Source: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=3521.0''<br /> <br /> ===Diskless Setup Failed===<br /> <br /> I have multiple MDs which all give a Diskless Setup Failed after announcing themselves to the CORE. <br /> <br /> ====Answer====<br /> Log into the Web Interface on the CORE, change to the devices view and open up the options for the new MD. Under Device Data check to make sure that the field Architecture is correct. On mine it shows amd64 but all my MDs are actually Intel chipsets. I manually enter i386 and hit save. Then reboot the MD and it will finish setting itself up correctly.<br /> <br /> NOTE: The field labeled Model is not user editable. If you change the Architecture field, upon reboot the CORE will automatically update the Model field appropriately so do not worry about it being wrong.<br /> <br /> ==GRUB PXE network boot==<br /> In some situations, it may be more appropriate to use GNU GRUB bootloader:<br /> <br /> #The machine does not support PXE booting directly (no boot-ROM).<br /> #You can use a GRUB boot menu to decide wheter you want to boot LMCE or the native OS.<br /> #Booting is a lot faster when you boot the native OS by skipping the network step.<br /> #GRUB allows for easy adjustments of the boot parameters at boot-time. <br /> <br /> This is described in detail at [[GRUB PXE network boot]].<br /> <br /> == Reduce boot time ==<br /> When using diskless boot, all data have to be read over the network connection. This can cause boot up times longer than desirable. To avoid long boot up times, you can tune the NFS mount options of the NFS root. Specifically, the rsize and wsize options. You might do a Internet search for resources on this.<br /> Another option is to implement suspending of the media director. Also know as standby, suspend or hibernate. This function is not integrated into LinuxMCE (yet), and requires some Linux shell hacking. See the [[Suspend]] article for more information.<br /> <br /> ==Programmer's guide==<br /> The network boot images are contained in /usr/pluto/diskless/[deviceID]. If a network image is corrupted, just delete that directory, and re-run 'Setup Diskless Media Directors'.<br /> <br /> When the user hits the power button to change which device is booted, the command is sent to &quot;General Info Plugin&quot;, which updates /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/01-[mac address]. That file contains a line KERNEL or LOCALBOOT 0, depending on what the user wants to boot. If it's LOCALBOOT 0, then when the media director tries to do a network boot the Core will tell it to boot off the hard drive instead. General Info Plugin then sends the App Server running on that machine a command to reboot.<br /> <br /> Since there is both a Linux and Windows version of App Server, if App Server is installed and running on the Windows PC, then LinuxMCE can still reboot it remotely back into the network boot even if it's running Windows. Also the Windows App Server utility gives you a tray icon to switch back to network boot.<br /> <br /> ==Other Network Cards==<br /> If you get to the remote machine starting the boot process, but then fails with it unable to find eth0, the reason may be because the stock diskless image did not have your network card statically compiled. The linux image building process does allow for additional network modules to be loaded during the boot process. The installer that linuxmce uses builds this image from a base copy of the operating system (ubuntu) that is untar'd during the diskless setup process. It puts this into it's own directory that serves as a virtual harddrive for your diskless machine. In the /usr/pluto/diskless directory you should have a list of device numbers that correspond to your diskless machines. For example: '45' was the number for my diskless machine. Edit the file /usr/pluto/diskless/###/etc/initramfs-tools/modules and add on your nic's module. In my case I edit /usr/pluto/diskless/45/etc/initramfs-tools/modules and added sky2. Then run the /usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_InstallKernel.sh script with the device number (directory name) of your diskless machine. In my case &quot;/usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_InstallKernel.sh 45&quot;. This script builds the initrd image and puts it in the proper place (symlinks it actually).<br /> <br /> The driver used in my machine was the 'sky2' driver for Marvell Gigabit ethernet cards. Other drivers will be located in the /usr/pluto/diskless/xx/lib/modules/2.xxx/kernel/drivers/net/ directory.</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=Netboot&diff=18788 2009-05-04T21:37:24Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>{| align=&quot;right&quot;<br /> | __TOC__<br /> |}<br /> [[Category:Tutorials]]<br /> [[Category:Networking]]<br /> A netboot is the process of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_booting booting an operating system over a network]. The operating system image is stored on a central server's hard drive (in this case the [[Core]]), and loaded into the RAM of the PC which is requesting the netboot.<br /> <br /> In many ways, it is similar to booting from a LiveCD or floppy, but the storage media is on the network.<br /> <br /> ==Hardware enabled netboot==<br /> Many newer PCs have [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment PXE] built into the BIOS and are able to netboot. Older PCs from the 1990s may not have this capability.<br /> <br /> Many current Ethernet NIC cards have a hardware chip ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment PXE]-ROM) that allows booting over a network. This option is selected from the BIOS configuration on the PC.<br /> <br /> Netbooting is more difficult [[Wireless_Networking#Netbooting_Wirelessly|wirelessly]] if the wireless card does not have an embedded PXE-ROM chip. Check the manufacturer's specifications. Some users have used [[Wireless_Networking#Netbooting_Wirelessly|wireless bridges]] to enable wireless netboots.<br /> <br /> If the PC has both an active wireless and a wired Ethernet card, or multiple active wired NIC cards, it can be tricky to set which card to use for PXE netboot.<br /> <br /> In general, direct netbooting from the BIOS is more successful over a single wired connection.<br /> <br /> ==Software enabled netboot==<br /> Alternatively, a netboot can be specified using a boot loader on the local PC's hard drive, such as GRUB. See [[GRUB_PXE_network_boot|this discussion]].<br /> <br /> This can be configured to use different Ethernet cards and allows for greater flexibility, but there is a certain amount of configuration and Linux knowledge required.<br /> <br /> ==Netbooting in LinuxMCE==<br /> LinuxMCE can automatically configure itself to allow the [[Media Directors]] to do a &quot;[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_booting Network Boot]&quot;. In the past, network booting has been used mostly by Apple computers, and Windows generally hasn't supported it. Nevertheless, nearly all modern computer are capable of doing a network boot, offering some significant advantages.<br /> <br /> When a computer does a network boot it means that it does not use its internal hard drive at all. Instead it boots up off the Core. This allows you to leave your current computer system on your local hard drive untouched by LinuxMCE, and you just hit a button on the remote to indicate if you want to use your computer like a normal PC (normal boot) or as a media director appliance (network boot). When it boots up as a Media Director, you don't have any computing issues to worry about. It functions just like an appliance -- no start menu, no software to install, nothing to configure, no viruses to worry about. This solves one of people's biggest complaints with media PC's (like Windows XP Media Centers) -- when they just want to watch TV, listen to music, or play a DVD they don't want to mess with a computer. They just want an appliance. With network boot you get the best of both worlds--it's a computer when you want to do computing, and an appliance the rest of the time.<br /> <br /> Best of all there's no software you need to install to make it work. When you first turn your computer on, just press the key to enter the BIOS or setup program. There is normally an option to enable network boot, sometimes called &quot;PXE&quot;. (This is an embedded Linux netboot protocol.) There will also be an option for boot order. Put the network boot option before the hard drive boot option -- that way the Core can tell the computer whether it should do a network boot or boot like normal.<br /> <br /> If you can't figure out how to set this in your computer, you should contact the manufacturer's tech support. You can also try LinuxMCE's support and forums.<br /> <br /> Normally, once you enable network boot in your BIOS, every time you turn on your computer it will show you this MAC Address for a few seconds.&amp;nbsp; There is also an Advanced / IPs and Mac's page in the LinuxMCE Admin site that will show all the Mac Addresses in use in your home.<br /> <br /> DHCP must be enabled on the Core to use netboot. You can do this by checking the box in the installation wizard, or after the fact from the LinuxMCE Admin web site.<br /> <br /> ===Disadvantages of netbooting===<br /> Netbooting can be slower than booting from the hard drive -- depending on network speeds, it can be much slower.<br /> <br /> In addition, if there is limited memory on the client, swap time is potentially slower over the network. The hard drive used by the peripheral PC remains on the central Core, so in effect, the effective &quot;bus speed&quot; becomes the data transmission speed of your network.<br /> <br /> Lastly, unique hardware drivers and configurations for the client may not be recognized by a netboot, potentially causing a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_Panic kernel panic] (i.e. the hardware can't be recognized well enough to netboot the OS).<br /> <br /> ===Alternatives to netbooting=== <br /> <br /> (Note: as of 7.10, disked MD boot is no longer supported. see: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7822.0)<br /> <br /> This may seem like a silly section, but the creators of Pluto and LinuxMCE are enamored of the concept of netbooting. Personally, I don't like it, for the reasons listed above.<br /> <br /> Very few PCs these days come with small hard drives, and it seems trivial to me to set up a second partition (using the Gparted Live CD, for example) on any PC that I intend to use as a Media Director. I simply install LinuxMCE on that second partition and [[Media Director without netbooting | configure it to automatically start as a Media Director]]. When I start the PC, the GRUB bootloader will give me the choice of using it as a Media Director or of using the native OS on the primary partition anyway. This is slightly less troublesome then using netboot (in which I have to change the BIOS settings), in fact.<br /> <br /> Booting LinuxMCE from a second partition on the hard drive is far faster than performing a netboot. Furthermore, I can even disable the Kubuntu hardware auto-detection modules in order to speed up the boot process even more (but that's not a job for a newbie!) <br /> <br /> Plug and play is great, but touch and go is better!<br /> <br /> ===See also===<br /> See also: [[Automatic diskless boot of media directors]]<br /> <br /> ===Troubleshooting===<br /> *[[MDs Do Not Network %28PXE%29 Boot]]<br /> *[[Automatic_diskless_boot_of_media_directors#Troubleshooting|Troublshooting an automatic diskless boot]]</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=Netboot&diff=18787 2009-05-04T21:36:41Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>{| align=&quot;right&quot;<br /> | __TOC__<br /> |}<br /> [[Category:Tutorials]]<br /> [[Category:Networking]]<br /> A netboot is the process of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_booting booting an operating system over a network]. The operating system image is stored on a central server's hard drive (in this case the [[Core]]), and loaded into the RAM of the PC which is requesting the netboot.<br /> <br /> In many ways, it is similar to booting from a LiveCD or floppy, but the storage media is on the network.<br /> <br /> ==Hardware enabled netboot==<br /> Many newer PCs have [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment PXE] built into the BIOS and are able to netboot. Older PCs from the 1990s may not have this capability.<br /> <br /> Many current Ethernet NIC cards have a hardware chip ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment PXE]-ROM) that allows booting over a network. This option is selected from the BIOS configuration on the PC.<br /> <br /> Netbooting is more difficult [[Wireless_Networking#Netbooting_Wirelessly|wirelessly]] if the wireless card does not have an embedded PXE-ROM chip. Check the manufacturer's specifications. Some users have used [[Wireless_Networking#Netbooting_Wirelessly|wireless bridges]] to enable wireless netboots.<br /> <br /> If the PC has both an active wireless and a wired Ethernet card, or multiple active wired NIC cards, it can be tricky to set which card to use for PXE netboot.<br /> <br /> In general, direct netbooting from the BIOS is more successful over a single wired connection.<br /> <br /> ==Software enabled netboot==<br /> Alternatively, a netboot can be specified using a boot loader on the local PC's hard drive, such as GRUB. See [[GRUB_PXE_network_boot|this discussion]].<br /> <br /> This can be configured to use different Ethernet cards and allows for greater flexibility, but there is a certain amount of configuration and Linux knowledge required.<br /> <br /> ==Netbooting in LinuxMCE==<br /> LinuxMCE can automatically configure itself to allow the [[Media Directors]] to do a &quot;[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_booting Network Boot]&quot;. In the past, network booting has been used mostly by Apple computers, and Windows generally hasn't supported it. Nevertheless, nearly all modern computer are capable of doing a network boot, offering some significant advantages.<br /> <br /> When a computer does a network boot it means that it does not use its internal hard drive at all. Instead it boots up off the Core. This allows you to leave your current computer system on your local hard drive untouched by LinuxMCE, and you just hit a button on the remote to indicate if you want to use your computer like a normal PC (normal boot) or as a media director appliance (network boot). When it boots up as a Media Director, you don't have any computing issues to worry about. It functions just like an appliance -- no start menu, no software to install, nothing to configure, no viruses to worry about. This solves one of people's biggest complaints with media PC's (like Windows XP Media Centers) -- when they just want to watch TV, listen to music, or play a DVD they don't want to mess with a computer. They just want an appliance. With network boot you get the best of both worlds--it's a computer when you want to do computing, and an appliance the rest of the time.<br /> <br /> Best of all there's no software you need to install to make it work. When you first turn your computer on, just press the key to enter the BIOS or setup program. There is normally an option to enable network boot, sometimes called &quot;PXE&quot;. (This is an embedded Linux netboot protocol.) There will also be an option for boot order. Put the network boot option before the hard drive boot option -- that way the Core can tell the computer whether it should do a network boot or boot like normal.<br /> <br /> If you can't figure out how to set this in your computer, you should contact the manufacturer's tech support. You can also try LinuxMCE's support and forums.<br /> <br /> Normally, once you enable network boot in your BIOS, every time you turn on your computer it will show you this MAC Address for a few seconds.&amp;nbsp; There is also an Advanced / IPs and Mac's page in the LinuxMCE Admin site that will show all the Mac Addresses in use in your home.<br /> <br /> DHCP must be enabled on the Core to use netboot. You can do this by checking the box in the installation wizard, or after the fact from the LinuxMCE Admin web site.<br /> <br /> ===Disadvantages of netbooting===<br /> Netbooting can be slower than booting from the hard drive -- depending on network speeds, it can be much slower.<br /> <br /> In addition, if there is limited memory on the client, swap time is potentially slower over the network. The hard drive used by the peripheral PC remains on the central Core, so in effect, the effective &quot;bus speed&quot; becomes the data transmission speed of your network.<br /> <br /> Lastly, unique hardware drivers and configurations for the client may not be recognized by a netboot, potentially causing a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_Panic kernel panic] (i.e. the hardware can't be recognized well enough to netboot the OS).<br /> <br /> ===Alternatives to netbooting=== (Note: as of 7.10, disked MD boot is no longer supported. see: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7822.0)<br /> <br /> This may seem like a silly section, but the creators of Pluto and LinuxMCE are enamored of the concept of netbooting. Personally, I don't like it, for the reasons listed above.<br /> <br /> Very few PCs these days come with small hard drives, and it seems trivial to me to set up a second partition (using the Gparted Live CD, for example) on any PC that I intend to use as a Media Director. I simply install LinuxMCE on that second partition and [[Media Director without netbooting | configure it to automatically start as a Media Director]]. When I start the PC, the GRUB bootloader will give me the choice of using it as a Media Director or of using the native OS on the primary partition anyway. This is slightly less troublesome then using netboot (in which I have to change the BIOS settings), in fact.<br /> <br /> Booting LinuxMCE from a second partition on the hard drive is far faster than performing a netboot. Furthermore, I can even disable the Kubuntu hardware auto-detection modules in order to speed up the boot process even more (but that's not a job for a newbie!) <br /> <br /> Plug and play is great, but touch and go is better!<br /> <br /> ===See also===<br /> See also: [[Automatic diskless boot of media directors]]<br /> <br /> ===Troubleshooting===<br /> *[[MDs Do Not Network %28PXE%29 Boot]]<br /> *[[Automatic_diskless_boot_of_media_directors#Troubleshooting|Troublshooting an automatic diskless boot]]</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18771 2009-05-03T18:05:16Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Socket B/ LGA 1366]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 7.10rc 64bit DVD install- until I break it again... Core/Hybrid Install was easy, everything works.<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe i7<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD (root drive)<br /> **3x WD 200gig hd's -xfs file system<br /> **1.5TB segate sata drive -xfs<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@400mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x3 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or just faster MD boot if supported- not in 7.10)<br /> **180gb WD sata drive (will swap OS to SSD eventually and remove this)<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1TB (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IMON IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> **Hot and noisy, needs further improvement...<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> **2 HD directv boxes.<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters:<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (Works well as an orbiter with vista &quot;must install as administrator&quot;)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda? (I tried, but the old clie just couldn't handle it...)<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera.<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd (haven't tried yet)<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration/dreams:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake- currently researching distributed vs centralised configurations for wiring considerations.)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers or 2-3 +zoned audio<br /> **Satalite reciver integration<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD's +raid card ~6tb redundant capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **Security/ smart home integration useing 1-wire sensors and GC100. (doors/widows/temp/light/smoke)<br /> **whole house lighting (Z-wave)<br /> **whole house multizone climate (electronic dampers/ GC100)<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI (APIC?) mode. (edit- this is required as far as I can tell, and means no 'easy' dual boots w/ vista- must adjust bios) I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and installed that way- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. It may be possible to get the 280 working with a driver update, will save that for later.<br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their partition tables are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... (edit: 64bit 7.10 does not play blue rays unless they're ripped to disk, 32bit may?, ripping does not re-encode standard dvd's or blurays- they save in ISO formate, with the extention .dvd -standard DVD file size is up to 8.4GB, bluray up to 50GB.) I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... (edit: have since played dvd's back to back vs windows- no difference, just was an older movie.)<br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern- edit: it's not, and I should have told it to use the drive...) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- (edit: that's only used for sudo terminal commands) confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... (edit: the box aperently doesn't work, lol.) At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dlink's dhcp server and changed it's subnet to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking beyond internet access. I do have an additional full XP install on this machine, but working with it consistently leaves a bad taste in my mouth... So, back to the netbooting task... (yes... I do have a bit of ADD :P )<br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. (edit: not if it's set up right. ie: tell it to use the drive, use the pluto folder structure, and then move your media into the correct folders)<br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data... edit: That IS the right menu/folder), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. (edit: incorrectly... exactly how I told it too)<br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby! (edit: nope.)<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it appeared to be netbooting correctly but then hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the web pages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (multiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unplugging the MD from the modem everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet access and no more complaints from the modem. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show ((incorrectly) as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> *I'd moved the usb drives from the Core to the MD, and back again.<br /> <br /> So- at this point, this definitely seams like a network problem . I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem (edit: now I have seen it set that way, so I think it should be ok that way if the routers are set up correctly) From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to dictate to the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1) (edit: nope, it was about internal eth0). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... (edit: seams coincidental, the modum just happened to reach it's nusence level at that point and gave up badering me.)<br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD on eth0); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probably trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow?)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why)<br /> (edit: told the system not to use the drives my media was on, then tried to change the setting in admin panel (not supported), then manually synced them from /mnt...)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> K.I.S.S. it should really be a motto to live by... It seams I've been fighting this the whole way, trying to push, prod, and poke the system into doing what I want, getting impatient when I don't immediately get the results I'm looking for- being a windows power user has probably made me like this, I've come to expect being able to get results by doing quick searches, critical thinking, and all else fails just plain poking around and experimenting. Of course with windows- I know how things work, I know what to be careful with, and I usually know how fix things if I muck something up. With Linuxmce, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, trying to learn not just a new language, but a seemingly radically different culture and customs- one that seams to not be very forgiving of my silly foreign ways. In short, I haven't been going with the flow- I haven't taken time to insure every things right before starting things- I didn't give the OS time to do what it needed to do, cause it wasn't telling me what it was doing and I was frustrated with the lack of feedback. I've been expecting the OS to correct and adapt to my mistakes. If I really knew the system, I bet it would have been possible, maybe even simple to fix the mess I'd made of the install- but for now, I need to walk before I run...<br /> <br /> Continuied at http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Asus_P6T_Deluxe_i7_920_prt2</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18769 2009-05-03T17:33:54Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Socket B/ LGA 1366]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 7.10rc 64bit DVD install- until I break it again... Core/Hybrid Install was easy, everything works.<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe i7<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD (root drive)<br /> **3x WD 200gig hd's -xfs file system<br /> **1.5TB segate sata drive -xfs<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@400mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x3 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or just faster MD boot if supported- not in 7.10)<br /> **180gb WD sata drive (will swap OS to SSD eventually and remove this)<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1TB (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IMON IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> **Hot and noisy, needs further improvement...<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> **2 HD directv boxes.<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters:<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (Works well as an orbiter with vista &quot;must install as administrator&quot;)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda? (I tried, but the old clie just couldn't handle it...)<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera.<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd (haven't tried yet)<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration/dreams:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake- currently researching distributed vs centralised configurations for wiring considerations.)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers or 2-3 +zoned audio<br /> **Satalite reciver integration<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD's +raid card ~6tb redundant capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **Security/ smart home integration useing 1-wire sensors and GC100. (doors/widows/temp/light/smoke)<br /> **whole house lighting (Z-wave)<br /> **whole house multizone climate (electronic dampers/ GC100)<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI (APIC?) mode. (edit- this is required as far as I can tell, and means no 'easy' dual boots w/ vista- must adjust bios) I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and installed that way- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. It may be possible to get the 280 working with a driver update, will save that for later.<br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their partition tables are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... (edit: have since played dvd's back to back vs windows- no difference, just was an older movie.)<br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern- edit: it's not.) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- (edit: that's only used for sudo terminal commands) confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... (edit: the box only tells you there's something wrong- but apparently it can't fix it, lol.) At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. (edit: not if it's set up right.)<br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data... edit: That IS the right menu/folder), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. (edit: incorrectly... exactly how I told it too)<br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby! (edit: nope.)<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it appeared to be netbooting correctly but then hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the web pages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (multiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unplugging the MD from the modem everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet access and no more complaints from the modem. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show ((incorrectly) as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> *I'd moved the usb drives from the Core to the MD, and back again.<br /> <br /> So- at this point, this definitely seams like a network problem . I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem (edit: now I have seen it set that way, so I think it should be ok that way if the routers are set up correctly) From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to dictate to the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1) (edit: nope, it was about internal eth0). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... (edit: seams coincidental, the modum just happened to reach it's nusence level at that point and gave up badering me.)<br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD on eth0); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probably trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow?)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> K.I.S.S. it should really be a motto to live by... It seams I've been fighting this the whole way, trying to push, prod, and poke the system into doing what I want, getting impatient when I don't immediately get the results I'm looking for- being a windows power user has probably made me like this, I've come to expect being able to get results by doing quick searches, critical thinking, and all else fails just plain poking around and experimenting. Of course with windows- I know how things work, I know what to be careful with, and I usually know how fix things if I muck something up. With Linuxmce, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, trying to learn not just a new language, but a seemingly radically different culture and customs- one that seams to not be very forgiving of my silly foreign ways. In short, I haven't been going with the flow- I haven't taken time to insure every things right before starting things- I didn't give the OS time to do what it needed to do, cause it wasn't telling me what it was doing and I was frustrated with the lack of feedback. I've been expecting the OS to correct and adapt to my mistakes. If I really knew the system, I bet it would have been possible, maybe even simple to fix the mess I'd made of the install- but for now, I need to walk before I run...<br /> <br /> Continuied at http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Asus_P6T_Deluxe_i7_920_prt2</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18768 2009-05-03T17:33:32Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Socket B/ LGA 1366))<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 7.10rc 64bit DVD install- until I break it again... Core/Hybrid Install was easy, everything works.<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe i7<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD (root drive)<br /> **3x WD 200gig hd's -xfs file system<br /> **1.5TB segate sata drive -xfs<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@400mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x3 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or just faster MD boot if supported- not in 7.10)<br /> **180gb WD sata drive (will swap OS to SSD eventually and remove this)<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1TB (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IMON IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> **Hot and noisy, needs further improvement...<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> **2 HD directv boxes.<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters:<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (Works well as an orbiter with vista &quot;must install as administrator&quot;)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda? (I tried, but the old clie just couldn't handle it...)<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera.<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd (haven't tried yet)<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration/dreams:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake- currently researching distributed vs centralised configurations for wiring considerations.)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers or 2-3 +zoned audio<br /> **Satalite reciver integration<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD's +raid card ~6tb redundant capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **Security/ smart home integration useing 1-wire sensors and GC100. (doors/widows/temp/light/smoke)<br /> **whole house lighting (Z-wave)<br /> **whole house multizone climate (electronic dampers/ GC100)<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI (APIC?) mode. (edit- this is required as far as I can tell, and means no 'easy' dual boots w/ vista- must adjust bios) I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and installed that way- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. It may be possible to get the 280 working with a driver update, will save that for later.<br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their partition tables are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... (edit: have since played dvd's back to back vs windows- no difference, just was an older movie.)<br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern- edit: it's not.) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- (edit: that's only used for sudo terminal commands) confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... (edit: the box only tells you there's something wrong- but apparently it can't fix it, lol.) At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. (edit: not if it's set up right.)<br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data... edit: That IS the right menu/folder), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. (edit: incorrectly... exactly how I told it too)<br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby! (edit: nope.)<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it appeared to be netbooting correctly but then hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the web pages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (multiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unplugging the MD from the modem everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet access and no more complaints from the modem. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show ((incorrectly) as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> *I'd moved the usb drives from the Core to the MD, and back again.<br /> <br /> So- at this point, this definitely seams like a network problem . I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem (edit: now I have seen it set that way, so I think it should be ok that way if the routers are set up correctly) From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to dictate to the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1) (edit: nope, it was about internal eth0). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... (edit: seams coincidental, the modum just happened to reach it's nusence level at that point and gave up badering me.)<br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD on eth0); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probably trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow?)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> K.I.S.S. it should really be a motto to live by... It seams I've been fighting this the whole way, trying to push, prod, and poke the system into doing what I want, getting impatient when I don't immediately get the results I'm looking for- being a windows power user has probably made me like this, I've come to expect being able to get results by doing quick searches, critical thinking, and all else fails just plain poking around and experimenting. Of course with windows- I know how things work, I know what to be careful with, and I usually know how fix things if I muck something up. With Linuxmce, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, trying to learn not just a new language, but a seemingly radically different culture and customs- one that seams to not be very forgiving of my silly foreign ways. In short, I haven't been going with the flow- I haven't taken time to insure every things right before starting things- I didn't give the OS time to do what it needed to do, cause it wasn't telling me what it was doing and I was frustrated with the lack of feedback. I've been expecting the OS to correct and adapt to my mistakes. If I really knew the system, I bet it would have been possible, maybe even simple to fix the mess I'd made of the install- but for now, I need to walk before I run...<br /> <br /> Continuied at http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Asus_P6T_Deluxe_i7_920_prt2</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=EVGA_7800GTX_256mb&diff=18711 2009-05-01T21:06:19Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: Hardware]]<br /> [[Category: Graphic Cards]]<br /> [[Category: Works without caveats]]<br /> <br /> This card works hassle free with a 7.10rc 64bit DVD install on my Asus P6T deluxe/i7 920 core/hybrid setup, and netbooting Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe/FX-57 MD. (both require drives be set APCI mode set in bios, though I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the video card. -the screen goes black right after first install menu and doesn't come back when drives are set in sata/ide mode) In this setup the cards will handle 1080 HD (ripped and/or re-encoded h.264, mp4, .mkv and .avi's) content in UI2+ alpha with minimal tearing on core/hybrid, tearing is worse on MD but still watchable for all but a few 15Gb+ .mkv movies- those wouldn't even play correctly under windows with this machine. Core/hybrid playback is nearly flawless. Nvidia VIVO is not supported in linux. My setup uses DVI and DVI/vga, I have not tryied the S-video plug. I have not updated/changed any drivers, just useing what came with the install DVD.<br /> <br /> GTX cards are not ideal for HTPC- they are too large for many htpc cases, power hungry, and hot- but it's what I had laying around.<br /> <br /> <br /> Read about my setup/newbie experiences here: http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Asus_P6T_Deluxe_i7_920</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=EVGA_7800GTX_256mb&diff=18708 2009-05-01T20:46:14Z

<p>Friesian: EVGA 7800GTX 256mb working configuation.</p> <hr /> <div>This card works hassle free with a 7.10rc 64bit DVD install on my Asus P6T deluxe/i7 920 core/hybrid setup, and netbooting Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe/FX-57 MD. (both require drives be set APCI mode set in bios, though I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the video card. -the screen goes black right after first install menu and doesn't come back when drives are set in sata/ide mode) In this setup the cards will handle 1080 HD content in UI2+ alpha with minimal tearing on core/hybrid, tearing is worse on MD but still watchable for all but a few 15Gb+ .mkv movies- those wouldn't even play correctly under windows with this machine. core/hybrid playback is nearly flawless.<br /> <br /> GTX cards are not ideal for HTPC- they are too large for many htpc cases, power hungry, and hot- but it's what I had laying around.<br /> <br /> <br /> Read about my setup/newbie experiences here: http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Asus_P6T_Deluxe_i7_920</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18629 2009-04-20T16:37:12Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Media Management]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit- until I break it again...<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe i7<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD (root drive)<br /> **3x WD 200gig hd's -xfs file system<br /> **1.5TB segate sata drive -xfs<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@800mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x3 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or just faster MD boot)<br /> **180gb WD sata drive (will swap OS to SSD eventually and remove this)<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb (NTFS and reserved for windows/backup for now)<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1TB ('''')<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> **Hot and noisy, needs further improvement...<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters:<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (Works well as an orbiter with vista &quot;must install as administrator&quot;- going to look into the possibility of using this as a wireless MD)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda? (I tried, but the old clie just couldn't handle it...)<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers or 2-3 +zoned audio<br /> **DVB? and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. (edit- this is required as far as I can tell, and means no 'easy' dual boots w/ vista- must adjust bios) I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and installed that way- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their partition tables are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... (edit: have since played dvd's back to back vs windows- no difference, just was an older movie.)<br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern- edit: it's not.) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- (edit: that's only used for sudo terminal commands) confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... (edit: the box only tells you there's something wrong- but apparently it can't fix it, lol.) At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. (edit: not if it's set up right.)<br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data... edit: That IS the right menu/folder), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. (edit: incorrectly... exactly how I told it too)<br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby! (edit: nope.)<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it appeared to be netbooting correctly but then hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the web pages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (multiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unplugging the MD from the modem everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet access and no more complaints from the modem. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show ((incorrectly) as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> *I'd moved the usb drives from the Core to the MD, and back again.<br /> <br /> So- at this point, this definitely seams like a network problem . I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem (edit: now I have seen it set that way, so I think it should be ok that way if the routers are set up correctly) From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to dictate to the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1) (edit: nope, it was about internal eth0). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... (edit: seams coincidental, the modum just happened to reach it's nusence level at that point and gave up badering me.)<br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD on eth0); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probably trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow?)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> K.I.S.S. it should really be a motto to live by... It seams I've been fighting this the whole way, trying to push, prod, and poke the system into doing what I want, getting impatient when I don't immediately get the results I'm looking for- being a windows power user has probably made me like this, I've come to expect being able to get results by doing quick searches, critical thinking, and all else fails just plain poking around and experimenting. Of course with windows- I know how things work, I know what to be careful with, and I usually know how fix things if I muck something up. With Linuxmce, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, trying to learn not just a new language, but a seemingly radically different culture and customs- one that seams to not be very forgiving of my silly foreign ways. In short, I haven't been going with the flow- I haven't taken time to insure every things right before starting things- I didn't give the OS time to do what it needed to do, cause it wasn't telling me what it was doing and I was frustrated with the lack of feedback. I've been expecting the OS to correct and adapt to my mistakes. If I really knew the system, I bet it would have been possible, maybe even simple to fix the mess I'd made of the install- but for now, I need to walk before I run...<br /> <br /> Continuied at http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Asus_P6T_Deluxe_i7_920_prt2</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18621 2009-04-18T19:02:52Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Media Management]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters:<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (Works well as an orbiter with vista &quot;must install as administrator&quot;- going to look into the possibility of using this as a wireless MD)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda? (I tried, but the old clie just couldn't handle it...)<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data... edit: That IS the right menu/folder), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby!<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it appeared to be netbooting correctly but then hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the web pages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (multiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unplugging the MD from the modem everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet access and no more complaints from the modem. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show (as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> *I'd moved the usb drives from the Core to the MD, and back again.<br /> <br /> So- this definitely seams like a network problem at this point. I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem (edit: now I have seen it set that way, so I think it should be ok that way if the routers are set up correctly) From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to dictate to the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1) (edit: nope, it was about internal eth0). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... <br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD on eth0); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probably trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow?)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> K.I.S.S. it should really be a motto to live by... It seams I've been fighting this the whole way, trying to push, prod, and poke the system into doing what I want, getting impatient when I don't immediately get the results I'm looking for- being a windows power user has probably made me like this, I've come to expect being able to get results by doing quick searches, critical thinking, and all else fails just plain poking around and experimenting. Of course with windows- I know how things work, I know what to be careful with, and I usually know how fix things if I muck something up. With Linuxmce, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, trying to learn not just a new language, but a seemingly radically different culture and customs- one that seams to not be very forgiving of my silly foreign ways. In short, I haven't been going with the flow- I haven't taken time to insure every things right before starting things- I didn't give the OS time to do what it needed to do, cause it wasn't telling me what it was doing and I was frustrated with the lack of feedback. I've been expecting the OS to correct and adapt to my mistakes. If I really knew the system, I bet it would have been possible, maybe even simple to fix the mess I'd made of the install- but for now, I need to walk before I run...<br /> <br /> Continuied at http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Asus_P6T_Deluxe_i7_920_prt2</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18619 2009-04-18T18:57:14Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Media Management]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters:<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (Works well as an orbiter with vista &quot;must install as administrator&quot;- going to look into the possibility of using this as a wireless MD)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda? (I tried, but the old clie just couldn't handle it...)<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data... edit: That IS the right menu/folder), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby!<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it appeared to be netbooting correctly but then hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the web pages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (multiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unplugging the MD from the modem everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet access and no more complaints from the modem. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show (as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> *I'd moved the usb drives from the Core to the MD, and back again.<br /> <br /> So- this definitely seams like a network problem at this point. I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem (edit: now I have seen it set that way, so I think it should be ok that way if the routers are set up correctly) From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to dictate to the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1) (edit: nope, it was about internal eth0). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... <br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD on eth0); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probably trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow?)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> K.I.S.S. it should really be a motto to live by... It seams I've been fighting this the whole way, trying to push, prod, and poke the system into doing what I want, getting impatient when I don't immediately get the results I'm looking for- being a windows power user has probably made me like this, I've come to expect being able to get results by doing quick searches, critical thinking, and all else fails just plain poking around and experimenting. Of course with windows- I know how things work, I know what to be careful with, and I usually know how fix things if I muck something up. With Linuxmce, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, trying to learn not just a new language, but a seemingly radically different culture and customs- one that seams to not be very forgiving of my silly foreign ways. In short, I haven't been going with the flow- I haven't taken time to insure every things right before starting things- I didn't give the OS time to do what it needed to do, cause it wasn't telling me what it was doing and I was frustrated with the lack of feedback. I've been expecting the OS to correct and adapt to my mistakes. If I really knew the system, I bet it would have been possible, maybe even simple to fix the mess I'd made of the install- but for now, I need to walk before I run...</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18592 2009-04-16T21:41:29Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Media Management]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters:<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (Works well as an orbiter with vista &quot;must install as administrator&quot;- going to look into the possibility of using this as a wireless MD)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda? (I tried, but the old clie just couldn't handle it...)<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data... edit: That IS the right menu/folder), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby!<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it appeared to be netbooting correctly but then hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the web pages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (multiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unplugging the MD from the modem everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet access and no more complaints from the modem. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show (as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> *I'd moved the usb drives from the Core to the MD, and back again.<br /> <br /> So- this definitely seams like a network problem at this point. I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem (edit: now I have seen it set that way, so I think it should be ok that way if the routers are set up correctly) From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to dictate to the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1) (edit: nope, it was about internal eth0). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... <br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD on eth0); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probably trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow?)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> K.I.S.S. it should really be a motto to live by... It seams I've been fighting this the whole way, trying to push, prod, and poke the system into doing what I want, getting impatient when I don't immediately get the results I'm looking for- being a windows power user has probably made me like this, I've come to expect being able to get results by doing quick searches, critical thinking, and all else fails just plain poking around and experimenting. Of course with windows- I know how things work, I know what to be careful with, and I usually know how fix things if I muck something up. With Linuxmce, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, trying to learn not just a new language, but a seemingly radically different culture and customs- one that seams to not be very forgiving of my silly foreign ways. In short, I haven't been going with the flow- I haven't taken time to insure every things right before starting things- I didn't give the OS time to do what it needed to do, cause it wasn't telling me what it was doing and I was frustrated with the lack of feedback. I've been expecting the OS to correct and adapt to my mistakes. If I really knew the system, I bet it would have been possible, maybe even simple to fix the mess I'd made of the install- but for now, I need to walk before I run... <br /> <br /> The second install went like clockwork. This time I had the routers set correctly, I set the bios to 'plug and play aware', I had the usb drives plugged in to the core from the start, and probably most importantly I '''left it alone''' to do what it's supposed to do after install. What do you know- everything works, just like it's supposed to. My mangled micro-management and inpatients where the cause of all my woes. Within 30min after install my media was starting to show up- and several hours later (far longer then the manual sync took for some reason) it all seamed to be there.<br /> <br /> Only one problem... 'Debbie does Dallas' is now right right under 'Delirious'- no no no... this really won't do, I don't need guests seeing my porn collection. This of course is not linuxmce's fault- it cataloged the media, just like it was supposed to. I just need to tag it properly and make the perverted stuff private. Hopefully there's a way to do that without individually changing the attributes on each file. For now, both machines are in my room, and only used by me, so it doesn't really matter.<br /> <br /> I'd done a quick search before, trying to figure out the media tagging problem- I'd rather just deal with that later. I felt like doing something new/different. So I went about trying to get my orbiters going. I recall many years ago, picking up my Sony clie peg-th55 from circuit city, and being enthralled with the little device- what a wonder, a 300mghz processor (more then 10x faster then my first PC- lol), a beautiful high quality touch screen, built in camera, and a flip up screen protector that made it seam like some fancy new version of a star trek tricorder. It's been a faithful friend all these years, keeping my contacts and to-do lists organized, taking written and recorded notes, grainy cellphone style photos, being my ipod- before I actually had an ipod, and endless hours of mindless entertainment playing 'bedazzled' while I was stuck waiting for one thing or another... It's for the most part as good as the day I bought it, but it struggles with the modern internet, and much to my disappointment it utterly failed as a web orbiter. I did manage to set it up correctly (I think), got it to load the interface, changed the refresh rate- but it wouldn't acknowledge when I pressed the interface buttons- when I hit a button, it just refreshed the same page. It's possible there's some setting I missed that would make it work. but honestly, after successfully getting the web interface working on my laptop- I don't think it's worth using. It works, it just seams laggy and somewhat awkward and inconsistant, not enjoyable. Unless someone makes a Palm port of the orbiter software- I don't think my pda will be part of this system. bummer.<br /> <br /> The orbiter windows software on the other hand- Nice!- this is more like it. It was a hassle free install on my vista laptop (hp tx1000 convertible tablet) once I figured out I had to be logged in as an administrator (god I hate vista/UAC) for it to update, and most everything seams to work- quick and responsive, as I'd hoped it would be. The only thing I've found that does not work, and this actually doesn't always work on the hybrid/core orbiter either, is the 'skip to letter' on the media browser.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> Media Integration:<br /> <br /> Onward and upword- I'm still in the mood for new things, time to figure out tagging and organizing video's. linuxmce admin page&gt;files and media&gt;media file sync, select dive from list, select 'show contents', select subfolder- HEY! there's an option to set atribute for all files in folder! I select it- but I'm in my 'books' folder none of my pdf's are showing up, only zips, hmm... lets try a TV show folder, that's the biggest tag problem atm. So I go up a level and select the 'TV shows' folder from the left panel- it says 'Files on disk, No files in physical directory'... pop into orbiter, search, load a show, it plays... hmm.. then I notice there's a box that says 'show files not on drive'- ahh that's probably it. I bet that's why my books didn't show. These are symlinks or something like that- home/pulic/data/other is on my root drive, the files themselves are on the usb drive... Do I modify the file attributes at the files physical location, or it's symlink on the root drive? last I tried messing with the /mnt folder on the menu I screwed up the database- so I'm not going to mess with that again unless I know what I'm doing. So I check the 'show files on drive' but again, nothing shows, unchecked the box- and my folders suddenly appear- hmm weird. Having a file on the root drive representing a folder on the usb drive makes sense I guess, but why wasn't it showing before? I check the box, everything disappears, uncheck it again, this time they don't come back. wtf? errgg. check it, uncheck it- they're back. Why do I feel like I'm screwing up my system just by trying to use it? paranoia I hope. ok, don't touch it again... Fingers crossed that I'm not about to ruin my database :/. I select 'Edit attributes for all files in directory'. it says 'No files in selected directory'. errgg.. WTF? back. The admin site is running painfully slow :(. select the usb drive symlink from the left (home/public/data/other/drive name), click 100 on the bottom (so it shows all the directories and I can select tv show directly rather then on the left- the page that comes up is different, as I somehow expected, but I don't understand why...) Now, I'm in the page I think I need to be in- It's got a pull down menu full of attributes one of them being 'TV shows'- but if I give the file that attribute, is that giving the symlink file that represents the remote folder that attribute, or telling MCE that all the symlinks in the subfolders and files contained within should have that attribute- and if the symlinks have the attribute, does that mean the files do to. will this work? will it break my DB? I'm quite confused, and I'm not going to touch anything until I'm more sure of how this works. Seams like everything I've read on the forums says you have to set attributes/tag file by file- would be kinda stupid to assume I've found a way around that that doesn't involve coding- though I'd expect there would be a way around it already built in. Read. Read. Read.... most things I'm reading are just confusing me more. http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Media_Files_Sync -Well that explains how I knew about the unintuitive left plane vs right plane pages, read it there. I wish that article was clear on whether the music files in question where simlinks to other locations, or actual files and if it makes a difference.</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18585 2009-04-16T18:17:02Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Media Management]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters:<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (Works well as an orbiter with vista &quot;must install as administrator&quot;- going to look into the possibility of using this as a wireless MD)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda? (I tried, but the old clie just couldn't handle it...)<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data... edit: That IS the right menu/folder), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby!<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it appeared to be netbooting correctly but then hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the web pages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (multiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unplugging the MD from the modem everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet access and no more complaints from the modem. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show (as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> *I'd moved the usb drives from the Core to the MD, and back again.<br /> <br /> So- this definitely seams like a network problem at this point. I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem (edit: now I have seen it set that way, so I think it should be ok that way if the routers are set up correctly) From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to dictate to the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1) (edit: nope, it was about internal eth0). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... <br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD on eth0); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probably trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow?)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> K.I.S.S. it should really be a motto to live by... It seams I've been fighting this the whole way, trying to push, prod, and poke the system into doing what I want, getting impatient when I don't immediately get the results I'm looking for- being a windows power user has probably made me like this, I've come to expect being able to get results by doing quick searches, critical thinking, and all else fails just plain poking around and experimenting. Of course with windows- I know how things work, I know what to be careful with, and I usually know how fix things if I muck something up. With Linuxmce, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, trying to learn not just a new language, but a seemingly radically different culture and customs- one that seams to not be very forgiving of my silly foreign ways. In short, I haven't been going with the flow- I haven't taken time to insure every things right before starting things- I didn't give the OS time to do what it needed to do, cause it wasn't telling me what it was doing and I was frustrated with the lack of feedback. I've been expecting the OS to correct and adapt to my mistakes. If I really knew the system, I bet it would have been possible, maybe even simple to fix the mess I'd made of the install- but for now, I need to walk before I run... <br /> <br /> The second install went like clockwork. This time I had the routers set correctly, I set the bios to 'plug and play aware', I had the usb drives plugged in to the core from the start, and probably most importantly I '''left it alone''' to do what it's supposed to do after install. What do you know- everything works, just like it's supposed to. My mangled micro-management and inpatients where the cause of all my woes. Within 30min after install my media was starting to show up- and several hours later (far longer then the manual sync took for some reason) it all seamed to be there.<br /> <br /> Only one problem... 'Debbie does Dallas' is now right right under 'Delirious'- no no no... this really won't do, I don't need guests seeing my porn collection. This of course is not linuxmce's fault- it cataloged the media, just like it was supposed to. I just need to tag it properly and make the perverted stuff private. Hopefully there's a way to do that without individually changing the attributes on each file. For now, both machines are in my room, and only used by me, so it doesn't really matter.<br /> <br /> I'd done a quick search before, trying to figure out the media tagging problem- I'd rather just deal with that later. I felt like doing something new/different. So I went about trying to get my orbiters going. I recall many years ago, picking up my Sony clie peg-th55 from circuit city, and being enthralled with the little device- what a wonder, a 300mghz processor (more then 10x faster then my first PC- lol), a beautiful high quality touch screen, built in camera, and a flip up screen protector that made it seam like some fancy new version of a star trek tricorder. It's been a faithful friend all these years, keeping my contacts and to-do lists organized, taking written and recorded notes, grainy cellphone style photos, being my ipod- before I actually had an ipod, and endless hours of mindless entertainment playing 'bedazzled' while I was stuck waiting for one thing or another... It's for the most part as good as the day I bought it, but it struggles with the modern internet, and much to my disappointment it utterly failed as a web orbiter. I did manage to set it up correctly (I think), got it to load the interface, changed the refresh rate- but it wouldn't acknowledge when I pressed the interface buttons- when I hit a button, it just refreshed the same page. It's possible there's some setting I missed that would make it work. but honestly, after successfully getting the web interface working on my laptop- I don't think it's worth using. It works, it just seams laggy and somewhat awkward and inconsistant, not enjoyable. Unless someone makes a Palm port of the orbiter software- I don't think my pda will be part of this system. bummer.<br /> <br /> The orbiter windows software on the other hand- Nice!- this is more like it. It was a hassle free install on my vista laptop (hp tx1000 convertible tablet) once I figured out I had to be logged in as an administrator (god I hate vista/UAC) for it to update, and most everything seams to work- quick and responsive, as I'd hoped it would be. The only thing I've found that does not work, and this actually doesn't always work on the hybrid/core orbiter either, is the 'skip to letter' on the media browser.<br /> <br /> To be continued...</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18527 2009-04-15T18:19:09Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Media Management]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters: (not yet set up)<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (wireless md?)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda?<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected (edit: this is not required, and probably not the right way to do it) &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. (edit: second install revealed I can pick UI2 alpha without causing problems) The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, (though I'm fairly sure it's supposed to do that) so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data...), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby!<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the webpages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (muiltiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unpluging the MD from the modum everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet acesss and no more complaints from the modum. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show (as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> <br /> <br /> So- this definitely seams like a network problem at this point. I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem... From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to tell the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... <br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that means disable the modems dchp- edit: no it doesn't, it means disable the warning and allow the other router (the core/hybrid) to handle the dhcp for the MD); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 (edit: NO) OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be (edit: YES- because the MD was connecting through the core, the modem wasn't able to assign the MD an ip, ergo the core/hybrid dhcp server on the internal network IS behind the router on the external network from the perspective of the modem). I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is -least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... <br /> <br /> So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. -another thing, there's duplicates for some files, that weren't there before. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.<br /> <br /> Starting Over...<br /> <br /> I have to give a hearty thanks to TKmedia on the IRC chat for metaphorically holding my hand and walking me through the process of reseting the database- he showed great patients with my unfamiliarity with Kubunto/linuxmce and working in a terminal. I should note, I was told this is NOT a recommended procedure- I'm not sure why though. We did successfully get the database reset- I had saved the conversation, and was going to post it here for all to see, but in frustration I reinstalled without thinking to back up the file. Doh! A quick search on what code from it I do remember reveled this thread with instructions though: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cc3a6b2359387b0544da36e5654c5703&amp;topic=6408.0<br /> Surprised I didn't come across that before.<br /> <br /> The bottom line was I'd screwed up the install too much by this point- for some reason the system was not re-cataloging my media- I was right back to where I was before I got the stuff to catalog by doing things the wrong way... after two hours there was nothing listed in the orbiter. and the media that had appeared before by searching, was now gone... wtf? enough of this- it'll be easier to start fresh, and it would help my sanity... Lets recap the mistakes I think I may have made so far, to emphasize why I decided to reinstall.<br /> <br /> *I was too impatient when first installing- biggest mistake here. I jumped right into netbooting an MD before I'd even got the core straightened out- then I didn't even let the MD finish whatever it was doing (it was probabaly trying to catalog the usb drives that where connected to it for one...) before turning it off and later moving the drives.<br /> *Installed with bios in 'non plug and play aware OS' mode. (I'm not sure exactly what effect this has, but might be important/better for the OS to have control- maybe the reason linuxmce was not adapting to me moving the drives, was because the bios was configuring them rather then letting the OS do it?)<br /> *Installed with the USB drives plugged in to the MD- and then moved them to the core before they synced, and then manually synced them.<br /> *Network was improperly configured- dhcp servers where running on both routers and the core when I started, the internal network was on a different subnet then the core, and both core/hybrid and the MD had direct access to the external network. (this may have cause a misconfiguration somehow?)<br /> *Tried to network to a VERY hacked up XP install that was lacking many services required to network.<br /> *Created and deleted MD in the admin multiple times (it says 'not recommended' by delete no idea why)<br /> <br /> more to come when I think of them?<br /> To be continued...</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18460 2009-04-15T06:10:51Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Media Management]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters: (not yet set up)<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (wireless md?)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda?<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the (eth1 external- dlink) router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, (though I'm fairly sure it's supposed to do that) so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. '''''EDIT: Please tell me your not using this as any sort of step by step instructions- if you are, you probably shouldn't be, and you should know what I did next I now suspect screwed up my database''''' So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data...), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby!<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this.) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the webpages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (muiltiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unpluging the MD from the modum everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet acesss and no more complaints from the modum. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show (as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> <br /> <br /> So- this definitely seams like a network problem at this point. I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network (the 2wire modem also acts as a router). I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem... From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to tell the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happening is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... <br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup. -looks like the core might be trying to deal with two different machines, that are really one and the same- ie trying to set up a network share, and netboot a machine at the same time.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that's disable the modems dchp); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 OR the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be. I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fun to have a look where all the action is (least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little hope of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18459 2009-04-15T03:36:07Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Media Management]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters: (not yet set up)<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (wireless md?)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda?<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, (though I'm fairly sure it's supposed to do that) so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data...), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby!<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the webpages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (muiltiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unpluging the MD from the modum everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet acesss and no more complaints from the modum. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show (as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> <br /> <br /> So- this definitely seams like a network problem at this point. I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network. I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem... From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to tell the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happing is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... <br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleting the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD successfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are having a private conversation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router appeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that's disable the modems dchp); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 or the modem is some how sensing that it's running it on eth0 as it should be. I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discussion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. running smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasible again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher application- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fund to have a look where all the action is (least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with merely a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little chance of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... So- I've done a couple experiments now. First I tried to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still plugged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawler mans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! My first network commanded media play. Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remember seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)... <br /> <br /> Ok, so back to the core- and a quick spell check ;) you'd thank me if you knew :P. anyway, lets see- is American beauty available at the core orbiter? No... no it's not. That's odd, I watched it last night on the core. hmm somethings fishy. So I open up the Dolphin file manager, and try to play movies from both HD's directly- no problems. It appears I have a database problem- for some reason the orbiter is not finding the correct location of the files. I'm at a loss as to why that would be. Unfortunately after ALLOT of searching- I'm still at a loss as to how to fix it. I could just resynchronize the media folders like I did last time- but based on what I've read, that would create duplicates of all the entries- it's already far too messy to go and do something like that; not to mention it'd probably just break again. I think I've done something wrong here, somewhere. a bit more searching- then it's time to ask for help.</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18458 2009-04-15T03:07:06Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Media Management]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters: (not yet set up)<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (wireless md?)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda?<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, (though I'm fairly sure it's supposed to do that) so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data...), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby!<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the webpages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (muiltiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unpluging the MD from the modum everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet acesss and no more complaints from the modum. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show (as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> <br /> <br /> So- this definitely seams like a network problem at this point. I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network. I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem... From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to tell the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happing is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... <br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleteing the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD sucessfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are haveing a private converstation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router apeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that's disable the modems dchp); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 or the modum is some how sencing that it's runing it on eth0 as it should be. I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...<br /> <br /> So- I've re-netbooted the MD and am typing from it again. Seams to be ok now- whatever that private discusion my MD and core/hybrid where having earlier, it must have been important. runing smooth as silk now, and booted up very quickly- running diskless seams feasable again :). course- using my ssd's would probably be faster :D . Only bad thing I notice is I still don't have a spell checker- arrgg. Earlier I was trying to read my logs from the core- I'm wondering if they're broken, or I'm doing it wrong, or what- I clicked the logs tab on the launcher aplication- selected the dcerouter log (thought it'd be fund to have a look where all the action is (least where I assume it is from what I understand.) and selected 'view log'- it opened in a tiny window, with mearly a dozen lines of text- mostly things repeated. The log file size would have made me think it should be a huge tomb of marvelous geeky code that I'd have little chance of understanding- but no- just this tiny window... So- I've done a couple experments now. First I tryed to stream some media; hmm, no sound- yea, duh, the speakers are still pluged into the core! but hay, that shouldn't stop me being able to hear the music- just tell the core to play it! so I picked the room that the core was in, and told it to play Mark Knopflers 'trawlermans song'- viola! let there be music- it worked! kewl! Next I wanted to stream video to the media director, so I picked the room that was in and selected American beauty in 1080p- '&lt;home/public/data/hd name hd number/filename&gt; File not found' hmmm...errggg.. ok- so that's a different path then I remeber seeing in the admin panel when I synced my media- there it was mnt/device/hd number/folder/filename (I think)..</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18457 2009-04-15T00:26:07Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Media Management]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters: (not yet set up)<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (wireless md?)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda?<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, (though I'm fairly sure it's supposed to do that) so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data...), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby!<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modem was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the webpages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (muiltiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unpluging the MD from the modum everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet acesss and no more complaints from the modum. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show (as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> <br /> <br /> So- this definitely seams like a network problem at this point. I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network. I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem... From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to tell the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happing is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... <br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup.<br /> <br /> To be continued...<br /> <br /> <br /> After deleteing the 'Desktop' from the core/hybrid admin panel, the MD sucessfully netbooted and reinstalled- I'm typing from it right now. but somethings not right... it's pausing frequently, loading and doing things painfully slow. and 'Gasp' I don't have a spell checker working. weird. this can't be right. the network seams to be going almost constantly- though I'm not sure what it's doing... there's no feed back. -my two computers are haveing a private converstation- they're probably making fun of me :P Oddly the message from the modem saying router behind the router apeared again- this time I selected 'disable' (I assume that's disable the modems dchp); this was the choice it said to pick if I wanted to continue to use the router behind the router. Why the router 'is' considered to be behind the modems router, I'm not sure I understand- time to look at the network settings again. seams like one of two things is happening- either the core is running a dhcp server on eth1 or the modum is some how sencing that it's runing it on eth0 as it should be. I'm lost and confused... resisting the temptation to ask for help- maybe I can figure this out yet...</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18456 2009-04-14T22:30:13Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Media Management]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters: (not yet set up)<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (wireless md?)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda?<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, (though I'm fairly sure it's supposed to do that) so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive- this file appeared in the orbiter... A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data...), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics etc). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed my organized folders and loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.<br /> <br /> ...umm... Oh noes! linuxmce ate my baby!<br /> <br /> I lol'd when I read that on the user forums- written by a dev I think, regarding peoples propensity to blame the OS for any and every problem they encounter. Honestly I don't know if linuxmce truely 'ate my baby' - it's probably a hardware failure (running a mem test as I type this) , maybe it's something else- Whatever it is, it's most likely my fault... All I really know is 'my baby' seams to be dead today. 'My baby' being the nlight XP install on my MD system (not the core/hybrid); this is the system that's got my life on it... it is, of course, backed up. Still, there few things more frustrating then seeing a bsod on boot- That sinking feeling that your about to have to reinstall your OS and all your programs, fish numerous files out and move them back where they should be, all to get back to where you where before- And of course to be reminded, that you should really have figured out a better back up system by now, with all the options out there... I am kicking myself for not unplugging the HD that had the install on it- though who knows, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. -I remember telling the MD setup NOT to use the drive that had my xp OS on it- so that couldn't be the problem, right? Oh well.. The bsod specifically said 'this system is not fully acpi compliant'; hmm, that's news to me- smells like a hardware failure. Still can't help worrying a bit that my other HD's could somehow be getting screwed up. For now, I've unplugged them (when the sys was shut down) just to be on the safe side.<br /> <br /> So... what happened is, this morning I tried to netboot the MD, too my surprise it wouldn't boot- it hung on 37.673410 eth0: linkup . just stopped there, and didn't seam to be doing anything else, I waited 10 min and then restarted. same results. I tried to think what on earth was different... hmm.. <br /> <br /> *I'd unplugged the MD (when it was running) from the back of the dsl modum (2wire dsl/wireless- previously both the MD and the core where plugged into it) because the modum was complaining (loading it's own little information page rather then opening the webpages I requested) about there being a router behind the router (muiltiple dhcp servers) that was conflicting, after unpluging the MD from the modum everything seamed to work, the MD still had internet acesss and no more complaints from the modum. <br /> *The media database had changed (it was empty when I'd last netbooted the MD)<br /> *I shutdown the MD to concentrate on getting my media to show up in the core/hybrid.<br /> *I got the media to show (as described previously)<br /> *I'd made some playlists- watched a movie- and read several pdf's. <br /> *I changed the time format for the KDE desktop to 12hr (and discovered there is no option to do that in the orbiter). <br /> *Then the system (core/hybrid) was powered down last night -everything seamed normal when I booted it back up...<br /> <br /> <br /> So- this definitely seams like a network problem at this point. I suck at network stuff- there, I admitted it; I know it's mostly simple stuff, I think I've got the basic understanding that I should be able to work with it (and usually after fumbling a bit I can get it to work) but it's just like I've got a black cloud over my head when I try to get a network going. It either works and it's simple and easy, or it doesn't, and I feel lost as too why. Somehow, having this problem didn't surprise me at all- even though I'd followed the install directions to the letter. The surprise, was yesterday, when it seamed I'd fixed the problem so easily, and things where actually working. Now- this router behind a router message confused the hell out of me... Yes- I do have TWO networks, and two network interfaces (on board both motherboards) on both systems- My internal network (eth0) links the core/hybrid to D-link router which then links to the MD; My external network (eth1) links the core/hybrid to 2wire modem/router &amp; MD to 2wire. I didn't actually intend to set it (the linuxmce network) up this way- if you recall, I first attempted to netboot on a whim, and the network was then set up to be separate from the core/hybrid- my xp OS needed a direct internet connection- I neglected to unplug the box from the modem when I did successfully netboot and install it as an MD. So now, the core/hybrid was seeing the MD on both the internal and external network. I've not seen a network schematic that shows this configuration, so I'm assuming it may be a problem... From what I understand this router behind a router the 2wire complained about is about their being two dhcp servers on the same network- both trying to tell the other devices on the network who they are (their ip's and the ip's of the other devices on the network)- so I think what was happing is that my 2wire was arguing with my core about who had the right to name the IP of my MD on the external network (eth1). The reason this is very confusing, is that as far as I know the core/hybrid isn't supposed to be running a dhcp server on the external network, rather it is supposed to listen for and accept the demands of the dhcp server it already expected to be on the network (the modem)- and since it had internet access, it must have been doing that successfully? How could it both be receiving and obeying commands, and trying to give them on the same network? I'm probably missing something here, but my thoughts at this point was that somehow, since the core is seeing the MD through both the internal AND external network, that it was getting mucked up and confused- something was looping and mixing up the networks- the simple solution seamed to be to unplug the MD from the 2wire, and instead let it access the internet through the Core/hybrid via the internal network- that's how I've always seen it in the linuxmce network schematics online. This worked- I think... <br /> <br /> At this point I'm thinking- ok, so the MD was setup, with a direct connection to both the internal and external network when it was installed- I wonder if it will boot if I plug it back into the external network. (ie, maybe the networks physical layout isn't a problem and the system can adapt- it's just the modem that can't, I could turn off dhcp in the modem more easily then reinstalling the MD.) So I plug it back in and this time rather then hanging on 'link up', it goes farther, and then restarts itself; I let it cycle once more and get the same thing, so I turn it off. Ok then... what now? I decide to remove and reinstall the MD from the core/hybrid. I go through the process- delete device- add device- wait for it to install- setup diskless MD- quick reload router- try to net boot, same results. I start to load win XP to check the settings of both routers- and then- crap, Bsod on windows boot. I'm at a loss for what to do next, other then restoring my XP system, and having a close look at the admin configuration to see if anything pops out at me.<br /> <br /> hmm- think I may have found something. -Desktop is labeled as a device in admin. 'Desktop' is the network name of my XP setup.<br /> <br /> To be continued...</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18446 2009-04-14T01:59:36Z

<p>Friesian: </p> <hr /> <div>[[Category: User Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Hardware]] <br /> [[Category: Mainboards]]<br /> [[Category: High Definition Setups]]<br /> [[Category: Media Management]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters: (not yet set up)<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (wireless md?)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda?<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, (though I think it's supposed to do that) so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive. A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data...), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics ect). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed/loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18445 2009-04-14T01:42:16Z

<p>Friesian: User: Friesian Asus p6t i7 setup.</p> <hr /> <div>[[Category:User Setups]]<br /> <br /> Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters: (not yet set up)<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (wireless md?)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda?<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress- oh- this is the first wiki I've created, so forgive if it's not standard, learning this as well.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, (though I think it's supposed to do that) so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive. A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data...), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics ect). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed/loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.</div>

Friesian http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php?title=User:Friesian&diff=18444 2009-04-14T01:35:48Z

<p>Friesian: New page: Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista: **Asus P6T deluxe **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz **Patri...</p> <hr /> <div>Currently running LinuxMCE 64bit<br /> <br /> *Main System core/hybrid, dual boot Nlite vista:<br /> **Asus P6T deluxe<br /> **6gb DDR3 (3x2gb sticks) Oz platinum @1800mghz<br /> **Intel Core i7 920 @2.66x4ghz<br /> **Patriot warp v2 32g SSD x4 (formerly in raid0, in future will be spread among md's for dual boot, or raided w/ redundancy for faster simultaneous net boots?)<br /> **Light-on Blu-ray sata drive (rom)<br /> **Generic 3.5 floppy (14years old and still works!)<br /> **Nvidia GTX280 (not working... haven't put much time into trying to get going)<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX (works!)<br /> **Zailmen ZH 1000HP power supply<br /> **Silverstone TJ-07 case<br /> **Maxtor One-Touch usb HD 300gb<br /> **Iomega usb HD 1tb<br /> **Westinghouse 22&quot; lcd monitor<br /> <br /> *MD/dual boot Nlite micro XP system:<br /> **Asus A8N32-sli-deluxe<br /> **4gigs DDR2 (4x1gb sticks) OZ platinum (@1033mghz?)<br /> **AMD FX-57 single core @2.8ghz<br /> **Generic IDE 16X multi format DVDR<br /> **Nvidia 7800GTX<br /> **4x WD 200gig hd's (will be moved to server eventually)<br /> **BFG 650w PS<br /> **SilverStone Lascala LC16M-R HTPC case (IR/display/controls not yet integrated)<br /> **Presently borrows monitor from hybrid<br /> <br /> *Other hardware: (not in use)<br /> **Foxcon km400a w/ 1.6 ghz amd single core + nvidia 5700 ultra 128meg agp<br /> **ddr2 borrowed from above MD<br /> **silverstone 600w PS<br /> **antec case<br /> **generic dvd/cd (rom) <br /> **Sony PS3<br /> <br /> *Network:<br /> **Gbit D-Link DIR-655 router/wireless<br /> **2wire 2701HG dsl/router/wireless<br /> <br /> *Orbiters: (not yet set up)<br /> **Hp tx1000 tablet (wireless md?)<br /> **Sony clie peg th-55 pda?<br /> <br /> *Current accessories:<br /> **Logitech quick cam sphere usb camera (working sorta- see below)<br /> **Bluetooth dongle (working? says it is. not sure what to do with it at this point...)<br /> **Nice 7.1 stereo setup<br /> **40in HD sony trinatron CRT (haven't tried yet)<br /> **32in poleroid lcd tv/dvd &quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;&quot;<br /> **Cannon all in one printer (haven't messed with it yet.)<br /> <br /> <br /> *Future integration:<br /> **OpenVpn + truecrypt (in case 'fair-use' ever becomes not so fair- and hey, they go well with my tinfoil hat ;) )<br /> **Wire home with Cat 6 (I replaced plumbing last year, this should be cake)<br /> **4-6 diskless MD's/slim servers<br /> **DVB and HD TV tuner cards<br /> **sony PS3 (can this be integrated somehow?)<br /> **Increased storage capacity and redundancy via extra internal HD&quot;s +raid card ~6tb capacity<br /> **Multiplexed dsl lines (fairly slow country lines here)<br /> **Video surveillance/security w/ numerous cameras (system will include either IP cameras or an analog video server, haven't figured it out)<br /> **whole house Lighting<br /> **whole house Climate<br /> **Phone Voip and analog<br /> **50+in HD LCD tv<br /> <br /> <br /> This wiki page is intended to document my install experience in hopes that it may help others trying to work with similar hardware/experience level. This is the first LinuxMCE system I've set up, and in general I have very little experience with Linux. Linux Code/terminals scare me! (working on that) lol... So if I can set up this hardware, most anyone probably can do the same if they have the time and patience- advanced linux users will likely not find much in here that's a help as it will mostly be about my own mistakes and ignorance of how the system works. Unfortunately I had already purchased this hardware when I discovered LinuxMCE- I wouldn't have bought such high end equipment had I been thinking of the system I am now, I would have done much better to spread my money around on more components, but it will come together as time and money allow. Before starting I read allot on Linuxmce, probably spent 5-6hrs reading and searching, I recommend any new users do this as well as many many questions you have are likely answered in the wiki and user forums.<br /> <br /> Right now I'm just testing things out and trying to get a feel for how everything works; I hope in the future to expand the system for house wide integration and make use of all the subsystem's functions. I'll update this wiki page as I progress.<br /> <br /> <br /> Install:<br /> Install of 64bit LinuxMCE went very smoothly overall. I first went into BIOS, turned off the raid and switched the drives to APCI mode. I also returned my over clock settings to factory settings for stability, and selected &quot;non Plug and Play aware OS&quot;. -not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I felt that would ease the installation as the mother board would then handle more of the hardware. (I've since put this back to &quot;plug and play aware OS&quot; and re-tweaked the system over clock- everything seams to be working.) The first attempt was with the GTX280 card- I really didn't expect it to work, so it was no surprise that it didn't; the first screen w/install options came up but after I picked install the screen went black and never came back. I turned off the system and put my old 7800GTX in- started installing, no problems. <br /> <br /> I considered installing on a standard HD rather then one of the Patriot SSD's for the sake of simplicity but I thought, what the hell... I did notice that 3 of my 4 SSD's where not showing- this is likely because I previously had them raided, and their boot records are still messed up. I'm sure it's not a big deal, seams like I've had to fix the same thing on standard drives before after separating an array- can't seam to remember the process though. The SSD doesn't seam to have any issues with the install. There are tweaks I need to look up for this- as I've heard Linux is less then optimal for the way it uses SSD drives in terms of long term drive life (something about too much/frequent hd activity). The system installed and I chose the most basic GUI settings to ensure it wouldn't muck up the install. The setup was easy since I didn't have much to configure, the sound worked as was immediately apparent from video of the attractive lady guiding me through the set up. it detected the one standard Hard drive in the system and I told it it could use it, it detected the dvd and said it was configured, detected the bluetooth and said it was configured- then it generates the scenarios and orbiters, and next thing I know I'm looking at the interface. I noticed my dsl lighting up as it downloads software- hey, I have internet! Wow- nice! Can't believe it was so easy! Now what? <br /> <br /> <br /> Looking at the menus was slightly discouraging, they were rather bland, and of course- I don't have anything linuxmce can control, nor did I have any media cataloged. After fumbling around the interface a bit I found the KDE desktop, and entered it- from the launch manager I changed the interface to the UI2 w/ alpha blending, after a quick reload- wow, big difference, that's more like it. I popped in a DVD to see if my blu-ray drive was really configured- it said, 'blu-ray, hd dvd detected, would you like to rip it?'. I wasn't sure where it wanted to rip it, and didn't think there'd be enough space on the SSD (does riping BR's re-encode?) so I chose no; I waited, hoping it would play, but it didn't. Will have to look into that... I popped a regular dvd in, and was pleased when it did start playing after asking me if I wanted to rip, I also noticed it knew the title of the movie. I started the movie, and was rather disappointed with the quality- it was a bit grainy and just off. Something else I need to look into... <br /> <br /> I decided I wanted to watch an HD movie off the hard drive and see how that would look, so I plugged in my 1tb iomega usb drive, a min later it was configured, and I told it NOT to use it unless specifically told too. (didn't want to risk anything being overwritten, though that's hopefully not a realistic concern) then looking in the orbiter, hmm, no media listed... I figured maybe it needed time so I went away and came back in an hour- still nothing. So I went into the admin page, to try and fix things, only it wouldn't let me log in with the user/pass I'd created during set up. A quick search revealed that the correct User AND Pass is actually the first family member name you enter, NOT the user pass you set up- confusing, but ok whatever... got in admin and found the check box for 'use this drive', checked it, saved- went away, came back, still nothing... At that point I shrugged it off and thought I'd try and get my network going- then maybe I could access it through the other com on the network. So I plugged in the router, and the two com's, and then curiosity got the better of me so I tried to netboot the second box. That didn't work... so I loaded up windows xp and logged into the router, found two problems- #1 the router had it's own dhcp server going. #2 the access logs showed something about 'dcerouter' (the core) trying to access from the wrong subnet 'ip spoofing' it said. <br /> <br /> So I turned off the dhcp server and moved the router to 192.168.80.3 (the same subnet as the core- I remember reading somewhere that this address was hard coded in certain areas of linuxmce and that changing it (on the core) would cause problems.) I restarted the router, Tried to netboot again, still nothing... oh well- back on track, back into XP, this time to see if the network was working- dcerouter showed up, but no user/pass seamed to work. hmm... I went back to the linuxmce box, XP wasn't even showing up. It was at this point I realized, I'd disabled file sharing services, and basically butchered and streamlined XP to the point where it probably wasn't going to be remotely easy to get networked- this has always been a single machine, no need for networking. So, back to the netbooting task... <br /> <br /> I Started searching the wiki and discovered that on 710 the core has to be told and prepare itself before you can netboot an MD- ahh ok- so I followed the instructions on how to do that and tried again- Viola! the MD netbooted successfully and installed; I couldn't see the video of the pretty lady- it said 'file not found'- but that's a small gripe, everything else worked... It detected and configured all the drives attached to the MD, though again I told it not to use any of them. Again I waited to see if the media would be detected- at this point it had access to about 1.2tb of media (yes, it's all legal by current 'fair use' standards- I've got racks of retail cds/dvds to prove it)- it didn't seam to be doing anything with it... So some more searching revealed you have to use 'synchronize media' in the admin panel. <br /> <br /> At this point I decided I was over complicating things by trying to make it stream through the network, (though I think it's supposed to do that) so I just moved the two usb hard drives and plugged them directly into the core. K.I.S.S. So I found the 'synchronize media' in the admin panel and found what appeared to be one of the hard drives in the menu- hit synchronize and... nothing... it seamed to synchronize a file that had the same name as the hard drive. A bit more poking around revealed that I was in the wrong menu (on the left- home/public/data...), and the menu I was looking for was a bit hidden- to get there I had to click switch to mnt/upnp and then click 'up one level' and then devices, and then click the hard drives/folders I wanted to synchronize- the hard drives where listed under numbers that I remembered seeing when they where first detected/configured during install. That worked! It started the process of cataloging. <br /> <br /> The movies which is the bulk of my media went quite quickly- the mp3's took a long time (due to tags and album art/lyrics ect). So I go back into the orbiter, and finally- I've got media! But what a disorganized mess! I've got allot of work to do on my tagging... the movies especially (none of them where tagged- I've always just browsed/loaded them through windows explorer)- the mp3's I've been much better about tagging and keeping organized, but if a file is missing a particular field (like genre for example, or far worse TV show) they don't show up with the search filters/organization; result: all my tv shows are mixed in with my movies- this won't do... need to find a solution, hopefully one that doesn't involved edited each file individually- I'm not sure I have the patience for that...<br /> <br /> To be continued:<br /> Next- streaming through the netbooted media director.</div>

Friesian