LinuxMCE - User contributions [en]

User:Ray N

2012-02-03T18:26:24Z

Ray N:

<h1>Background</h1>
I'm a Professional Engineer with a 1999 undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering. Born and raised in beautiful Puerto Rico (http://welcome.topuertorico.org/index.shtml). Started getting involved with LinuxMCE in March 2009. I have development history in hardware and software.

Our original intent was 1) to be able to watch some TV in the living room as there was no cableTV connection in that room (bizarre construction arrangement, we know), and to watch DVD (or BluRay) movies. In reality, something very extremely simple for the functionality that LinuxMCE provides. To tackle the sending the cableTV signal up to the living room without having to lay coax cables around the house, I thought, why not sending it through the network. So I started looking at options and that's how we came to LinuxMCE. LinuxMCE is used in our house primarily for media (recorded TV, videos and music).

I decided to build our own system as we wanted a nice looking "appliance-like" box that would take the place of the DVD player. We have a very simple one-machine Hybrid setup. This is my original shopping list from March 2009.

{| border="1"
|+ My shopping list
! Item !! Cost !! Description !! Website
|-
| Case
| $58.99
| hec Black 0.7mm Thickness SECC Steel 7KJ9 Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case - Retail
| http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121068

|-
| CPU
| $78.00
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition
| http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103300

|-
| Motherboard
| $89.99
| [[ASUS M3N78-EM]] AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI Micro ATX AMD
| http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131354

|-
| RAM
| $22.99
| Kingston HyperX 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
| http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104012

|-
| Hard Drive
| $34.99
| Western Digital Caviar Blue WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
| http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822135106

|-
| BluRay Player
| $99.99
| LITE-ON Black 6X Blu-ray DVD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal 6X Blu-Ray DVD ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Model iHES106-29 - OEM
| http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106270

|-
| TV Capture
| $159.99
| SiliconDust HDHomeRun Network-based Dual Digital HDTV Tuner Ethernet Interface
| http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815327005

|-
| 2nd NIC
| $19.99
| Rosewill RC-401-EX 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express Gigabit Low Profile Network Card 1 x RJ45 - Retail
| http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166015

|-
| Transceiver
| $55.00
| USB UIRT
| http://www.usbuirt.com/order.htm

|-
| Remote
| $80.83
| Gyration GYR3101US Universal Infrared / RF Remote Control
| http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16880105001&Tpk=gyration

|-
| Sound Card
| align="center" | ---
| Realtek ALC1200 - 8 Channels
| In MoBo

|-
| Graphics card
| align="center" | ---
| NVIDIA GeForce 8300
| In MoBo

|-
| Thermal Compound
| $5.99
| Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM
| http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

|-
| LinuxMCE
| FREE!!!
| Woooohooo!
| http://www.linuxmce.com/

|}
'''Total: $711.74''' Did not include shipping and handling.

<h1>Setup</h1>
<h2>Hybrid System</h2>
Currently (March, 2009) using LinuxMCE 0710.

<h2>Other stuff</h2>
* Connected to a Samsung LN-T4061F 40" TFT-LCD display through HDMI running UI2 with alpha-blending @1080p
* Had to purchase a powerline networking adapter because of the location of the system.

<h2>Installation</h2>
* Used LinuxMCE 0710 DVD
* I was following many of the Troubleshooting instructions in [[ASUS M3N78-EM]]
* Like Wiki said, had to change in BIOS, SATA mode to AHCI to get boot going
* DVD installation; selected option to keep partition as is. Installation takes a while, to the point where the display went into sleep mode. Don't panic!
* Installed latest nVidia drivers (180.29) as described in [[Display_Drivers#Latest_Drivers]]
* For HDHomeRun detection of LMCE, had to make sure the Linksys was not giving HDHomeRun its IP. So I temporarily disconnected DHCP from the Linksys.
* Allowed access to the webadmin from my home network. In the web admin page, Wizard->Security->Outside Access as indicated in [[Outside_Access]]
* To see my shared pictures; in the Admin webpage, changed shared directory to use LMCE's directory structure (in the "Device data" area of the shared drive information, PK_Users changed to: "Pluto's structure"). Added /public/data/pictures to my Pictures directory, then moved all the pictures in there. Re-synchronize.

[[Category:User Setups]]

Floorplan texts

2009-12-22T19:20:16Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Development]]
== Floorplan Texts ==
Currently, there is a bug in the display of floorplan texts for mapIcons (the small icons you can drag and drop on your floorplan to control devices)

Here is some documentation on the bug:
* The text location set up in HADesigner is not respected when the text is rendered. Text is always rendered at the Upper Left-Hand Corner (ULX) of the parent icon.
* The text bounding box set up in HADesigner is not respected either when test is rendered. Text always starts at the ULX of the parent icon, and wraps with the Icon's image width.

Floorplans icon texts can be unreadable currently, because the text is black - and sometimes the icon is black - making the text unreadable. This bug prevents us from moving the text either to the side, or above or below the icon where it would be readable (and have a cleaner layout). This bug was found because I was trying to move the icon texts BELOW the icons for a cleaner, more readable floorplan display.

In my examples, I am using the java-base QuickDesigner - but this is irrelevant, as I have verified the same behavior in HADesigner. I will be showing modifications to the Thermostat floorplan icon to illustrate the bugs.

First, this screenshot shows the actual floorplan thermostat icon. You can see that the actual image includes a blank area to the right for the text to fit (NOTE: Need to find out if a text's bounding box can be OUTSIDE of the icon image)

[[Image:preview_original_nothinghighlighted.png]]

Here is a screenshot of the stock location of the text's bounding box (highlighted in pink). Text should ONLY be displayed in this bounding box (note that the bounding box is TO THE RIGHT of the thermostat icon. This is where the text should appear!)

[[Image:preview_original.png]]

Here is a screenshot of the page in Designer used to set the size of the bounding box. You can see that originally, it has an offset of 100 (to the right) and a width of 254.

[[Image:texts_original.png]]

Here is a screenshot of how it appears on the orbiter. Notice that the text is not limited to the bounding box, and starts at the ULX of the icon. Both the location and the bounding box that was set up in Designer is being ignored!

[[Image:result_original.png]]

'''First Modification - Making the bounding box wider'''
I used Designer to make the bounding box of the text about twice as wide (so that the text would not wrap, and to see if text can extend beyond the dimensions of the parent image).

As you can see, I modified the width of the bounding box to be 512 - about twice as wide as it originally was!

[[Image:texts_modified.png]]

As would be expected, the preview shows us that we do indeed have a much wider bounding box:

[[Image:preview_modified.png]]

Now, you would expect that with such a wide bounding box there would be plenty of room for the text, and it would not have to wrap to a second line. But as you can see, how it appears in the orbiter:

[[Image:result_modified.png]]

Conclusions from this first round of modifications:
* The bounding box's offset from the parent icon is not preserved and indeed text rendering is always at the ULX of the parent icon.
* I still can't tell if it should be possible to have a text's bounding box outside of the parent image. If the text didn't wrap like expected, it would have proved that text could exist outside of the parent icon's dimensions.

'''Another modification - making the bounding box much narrower'''
In this test, i used designer to make the bounding box much narrower that it was originally. The reason for this test is to see if the bounding box is considered at all for wrapping, or if text wrapping is based on consideration of the parent icon's width.

For this test, I made the bounding box width=125 (about half of the original value)

[[Image:texts_small.png]]

You can see from the preview below, that the new bounding box area is much narrower.

[[Image:small_preview.png]]

I would have expected the text to wrap to at least 3 lines because the bounding box is so narrow. However, as you can see from the image below, the result has not changed at all, and the text still starts at the ULX of the parent icon, and wraps to the parent icon's with.

[[Image:small_result.png]]

Conclusions from this round of modifications:
* It is now apparent that the bounding box set up in Designer is not respected at all, and instead, the text is always started at the parent icon's ULX, and wraps to the width of the image
* I would imagine, that if we were to fix this bug, then text should be able to exist OUTSIDE of the parent icon's dimensions. To do this, the starting position of the text should be equal to the parent icon's ULX + the X and Y of the text (these are offsets). Also, for wrapping purposes, the texts width and height properties shoudl be added to the texts starting position. It would appear that this was never even implemented in the orbiter code.

Sound On ION based systems

2009-12-22T19:16:40Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Tutorials]]
Some people might find the following blog post helpful.
== How to enable ALSA Analog 5.1 Sound on Nvidia ION ==

I recently had the problem to enable 5.1 Sound with 3 click outputs on an Nvidia ION board. By default Linux configures it with only one plug configured as output. After some research I found a solution in the OpenSUSE Wiki you have to set during module loading to get it working.
Basically you have to add

options snd-hda-intel model=3stack-6ch enable=1 index=0

to your modeprobe.conf to tell the driver to use all its 3 plugs as output. After you loaded the modules like this, alsamixer will show you all the 6 channels, so you can unmute them.

Source: [http://pascal.nextrem.ch/2009/10/31/how-to-enable-alsa-analog-5-1-sound-on-nvidia-ion/ Pascal's Blog]

== HDMI ==
To be able to use audio over HDMI, the following requirements have to be met:
* alsa 1.0.19
* snd-hda-codec-nvhdmi has to be loaded before snd-hda-intel
* Unmute IEC958 mixer

Maybe the following has to be added to /etc/asound.conf
pcm.!default hdmi:NVidia

Source: [http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=1991314&postcount=12 nV News Forum]

Ubuntu Server and Webmin NAS File Server

2009-12-22T19:14:09Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Network Attached Storage]]
== Why a Webmin/*buntu based NAS? ==

There are a lot options to make your own fileserver for use with LinuxMCE. Many people use FreeNAS to set up great little NAS servers for use with LinuxMCE. However, there are several advantages of using Webmin to administer your own NAS fileserver:
*Installs over top of Ubuntu Server, Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu easily. This means that it can run transparently on you Ubuntu desktop computer for example. In my usage, I have installed webmin over a Kubuntu-8.10 computer, which also doubles as my development builder. This isn't possible with FreeNAS.
*FreeNAS throughput has been shown in many tests to have lower throughput than other NAS servers (this includes Ubuntu installtions running Webmin)
*Webmin has a nice, web-based interface to do pretty much anything you need on a Linux server
*Webmin also lets your run other server software easily, such as Apache, MySQL, etc.

== How to Install ==
The first thing you must do, obviously, is decide what you are going to install Webmin on. It will run well on all flavors of Ubuntu. For the lightest installation possible, install webmin on Ubuntu Server.

1)Install your base Ubuntu Server (or preferred flavor of Ubuntu)onto your PC

2) Go to the Webmin website [www.webmin.com] and download the latest .deb installer file.

3) Install the webmin .deb package. If you are using Ubuntu Server and have no GUI, you can do this from the command prompt. For example:
sudo dpkg -i webmin_1.490_all.deb

4) Congratulations, you're finished installing Webmin and its now ready to set up!

== Setting Up Your Webmin NAS ==
First, install the software we will need to have a fully functioning NAS server.
sudo apt-get install openssh-server mdadm perl openssl samba

Webmin is a web-based server management system, so you will need access to a web browser on the same network as your new Webmin machine (or a web browser on the Webmin machine its self). YOu will need to know the IP address of your Webmin box.

In your web browser, navigate to <your_ip_address>:10000.
On my installtion for example, this ended up being:
192.168.80.200:10000

You will be brought to a page explaing that SSL is enabled. Click on the link provided to go to the SSL encrypted management site. It is normal if you get some warnings about teh SSL certificate. Acknowledge the warnings and add an exemption if you would like.

Next you will be brought to a login page. Login with the credentials you used when you installed Ubuntu Server. Once you do, you should be in the Webmin web interface.

== Configuring Your NAS ==
Now its time to add drives, software raid them if you want, etc. I will cover setting up a software raid, and how to share those drives (sharing a single drive is very similar)
*First, on the left pane, navigate to Hardware->Linux RAID if you want to set up a software RAID.
Use the "Create RAID device of level" button in combination with the dropdown to create a software RAID. You will see it appear at the top of the screen. CLick on the new RAID device, and you will be at a screen where you can format the new RAID if you choose.
*Next, we have to mount the disks that you want to store files on (including any RAIDs that you set up. Navigate to System->Disk and Network filesystems.
Use the "Mount" button in combination with the "Type" drowpdown to mount each disk (or RAID) that you want. I personally prefer to mount my devices in /media (my software RAID, /dev/md0 for example, was mounted as /media/md0). But this choice is up to you. Make sure you look the options over well!
*Follow the above steps any time you want to add more drives/RAID arrays in the future.
*The last part is to share the drives/RAID arrays with Samba. Navigate to Servers->Samba Windows File Sharing.
Click on "Create a new file share". Give it a name (I name mine Media 1, Media 2, and so on - but you can name them whatever you want). For "Directory To Share", you just enter the mount point for the drive/RAID array that you set up earlier (in my case, that was /media/md0). Creat with Owner and group fields should be set to "root", and the Available and Browsable radio buttons set to yes. You can now hit the "Create" button. Do this for each drive that you want to make available as a share!
*Drill down to each share that you created. At the bottom of the screen, click on the "Security and Access Control" icon. Use the settings: Writable: Yes, Guest Access: None, Guest Unix User: root and then hit save. Next click on the "File Permissions" icon. Use the following settings and then click save:
New Unix File Mode: 755, New Unix Directory Mode: 755, FOrce Unix User: root, Can Delete Read-Only Files: yes
*Navigate back to the Samba Windows File Sharing main page. At the bottom of the page, use the "Convert Unix users to Samba users" icon to make some samba users from the users on your linux installation. Once you have done that, you can use the "Edit Samba users and passwords" icon to set up the passwords for the users (or require no password at all). These are the usernames/passwords you will need when you tell LinuxMCE about the share!
*Lastly, lets set things up so that the share is not only available to LinuxMCE, but protected from unauthorized use. From the Servers->Samba Windows File Sharing page and click on the Windows Networking icon. Change the "Security" option to "User Level" and save the settings. (this part only needs to be done once)

[http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/NAS] shows you how to add the shares to LMCE if for some reason they don't auto-detect. Remember to add the username and password!

Convergent Home Technologies

2009-11-20T18:42:30Z

Ray N: Article put as Principal Article within the Hardware category and not as a standalone within the C bullet.

[[Category: Hardware| ]]
[[Category: Media Directors]]
[[Category: Cores]]
[[Category: Supported]]

'''Convergent Home Technologies - LinuxMCE Systems & Professionally Installed Dianemo Systems'''
 

Convergent Home Technologies (CHT) is a UK based company that have been configuring, building, testing and installing Pluto & LinuxMCE based Digital Home Systems since the beginning of 2005. All of the Convergent team are also users of LinuxMCE in our own homes and so our depth and understanding of LinuxMCE is not just that of an Engineer but is also one of a passionate user of the system too! As partners to the original Pluto team and now LinuxMCE we bring a wealth knowledge and understanding of how LinuxMCE works and how to configure it so that it can become the centre of your families digital home.

CHT also contribute to the LinuxMCE project in a number of ways such as our contributions in the forums to help user get their systems up and running, through contributing code such as the vdr TV integration to the project and also through a long term hardware/software testing program.

CHT LinuxMCE based systems are built, tested and configured by our team to your needs and then shipped to you ready for you to do the last physical steps of installation in your home. We are committed to supporting our customers with strong aftersales service and through comprehensive online support.

In addition to our self-install LinuxMCE based hardware products CHT is developing a full service custom installed product thats is built on top of LinuxMCE called Dianemo that is aimed at someone who just wants a working system installed in their home as quickly and as smoothly as possible. Please visit the Dianemo web site http://www.dianemo.co.uk/ for more information.

The Convergent Team

=Core Servers=

== Model: NerveCentre 100 (NC100) ==

[[Image:MSI_MediaLive-front.jpg|thumb|right]]
[[Image:MSI_MediaLive-lid_off.jpg|thumb|right]]

The NerveCentre 100 has been designed from the outset to suit installations in apartments and homes where space is at a premium. It can be discreetly located under or near your TV in your Lounge or living room and will fit in perfectly with your other AV equipment. The NerveCentre 100 has the power and expandability to comfortably be at the centre of a LinuxMCE installation with upto 4 Media Directors.

=== Price ===
From £715 (Excluding 17.5% VAT & Shipping)

Includes standard LinuxMCE installation

=== Features ===
* Software: LinuxMCE 0704 or 0710
* User Interface: UI2 with Overlay or UI2 with Transparency
* Processor: Socket AM2 AMD® Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual-core processor
* RAM: 2Gb (expandable to 4Gb)
* RAID: SATA 1~4 support RAID 0, 1 or JBOD mode
* HD: 500Gb SATA (Ask about additional drive options for this unit)
* TV: 1 x Hauppauge Nova T500 twin DVB-T tuner (other TV card options are available)
* Internal Optical drive: Slot-load slim DVD burner
* Network: Gigabit Ethernet
* Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 6150LE integrated graphics
* Rear IO: Component video out (RGB) x 3, Audio RCA out x 8 (8-channel audio support), VGA out (D-sub) x 1, HDMI x 1, RJ-45 LAN Jack x 1, USB2.0 x 4, IEEE 1394 (6 pins) x 1, AV out (RCA jacks) x 3, S-Video out x 1, Digital audio out (Coaxial) x 1, Digital audio out (Optical) x 1
* Front IO: IEEE 1394 (4 pins) x 1, USB 2.0 x 2, Headphone-out x 1, Mic-in x 1, 7-in-1 memory card reader (4 slots)
* VFD: Vacuum fluorescent display to indicate the operation status, Integrated IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless LAN, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and Infa-red Receiver
* Low-Noise Cooling: Proprietary CPU Fan Heatsink to Optimize the Acoustic (26 Db at idle mode) and Full Thermal Control
* Dimensions: 80 (h) x 430 (w) x 320 (d) (all dimensions in mm)
* Power Supply: 300 Watts with Active PFC

=== Product Details ===
The NerveCentre 100 is compact and stylish and is designed to be located next to or under your TV and other AV equipment. With an advanced low noise cooling system and a wide range of connectivity options the NerveCentre is ideal for homes where space is at a premium or as the beginning of a system you expect to grow over time.

== Model: NerveCentre 200 (NC200)==

[[Image:NC200_3-4.jpg|thumb|right]]

The NerveCentre 200 is designed for larger homes or for customers who require a large amount integrated storage for DVD, TV, Music and pictures and want to have the ultimate in TV flexibility and capacity. The NerveCenter 200 plenty of room internally for several Terabytes of storage and room for upto 6 DVB-T Tuners. While the NerveCentre 200 is designed to be located in a cupboard, loft space or possibly garage it has a high quality Black finish.

=== Price ===
From £775 (Excluding 17.5% VAT & Shipping)

Includes standard LinuxMCE installation

=== Features ===
* Black Miditower enclosure
* Excellent expansion capability-7 slots and 4 5.25-inch and 33.5-inch drive bays.
* Software: LinuxMCE-0710
* User Interface: UI2 with Overlay or UI2 with Transparency
* Processor: Socket AM2 AMD® Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual-core processor
* RAM: 2Gb (expandable to 4Gb)
* HD1: 160Gb IDE (For Operating System & LinuxMCE)
* HD2: 500Gb SATA (Ask about additional drive options for this unit)
* TV: 3 x Hauppauge Nova T500 twin DVB-T tuner (Ask about other TV card options)
* Internal Optical drive: LG DVD-RW
* Network: Gigabit Ethernet
* Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 6100 integrated graphics
* Dimensions: 206 mm (W) x 432 mm (H) x 480 mm (D) (all dimensions in mm)
* Power Supply: 350 Watts

=== Product Details ===

=Media Directors=

== Model: MM200 ==

[[Image:Convergent-mm200-front_horiz.jpg|thumb|right]]
[[Image:Convergent-mm200-front_vert.jpg|thumb|right]]
[[Image:Convergent-mm200-rear.jpg|thumb|right]]

New Intel based compact Media Director with integrated Optical drive and IR - available now. Standard color is black. Yellow available by special order.

=== Price ===
£330.00 (Excluding 17.5% VAT & Shipping)
*Ready to connect to your LinuxMCE-0704 / LinuxMCE-0710 System

=== Features ===

* Software: LinuxMCE 0704 or 0710
* User Interface: UI2 with Overlay
* Processor: Intel 1.86Ghz Celeron M440. Low power under 45W with ultra low noise fan cooling system
* RAM: 512MB
* Internal Optical drive: Slot-in Multi UJ-85J Panasonic
* Network: Gigabit Ethernet
* Video: Embedded Intel 945GM - External via DVI-I Port ; 85Hz Refresh Rate:1600x1200 pixels, up to 32bit Colors
* IO: DVI-I port, S-Video, USBx4, DC-in jack, IEEE 1394, AV-in, Headphone/ Line out jack share w/ SPDIF out, Microphone/ Line in jack, RJ-11/ RJ-45, 3-in-1 Card Reader , CIR MCE Remote Control
* Dimensions: 42 (h) x 172 (w) x 226 (d) (all dimensions in mm)
* Weight: 1300g

=== Product Details ===

The mm200 is an incredibly compact design that uses a custom i945 laptop chipset and a very low-noise cooling system to deliver almost silent operation, low energy consumption and superb UI2 performance. The design of the mm200 has been driven by the realisation that its technical & physical design must compliment and co-exist with the other components it is connected to and the decor of the room it is located in.

The mm200's compact form factor and sleek design means that it is equally at home in your lounge, living room or bedroom.

== Model: MM300 ==

[[Image:Mm300_front-back2.jpg|right]]

New AMD64 based compact Media Director with onboard high-performance nVidia graphics & integrated Optical slot drive. Standard finish is brushed a metallic finish with chrome front trims. The 9-in-1 memory card slot, mic/headphone, FireWire and 2 x USB ports are hidden behind hinged front panel beneath the Optical Slot-drive.

The MM300 is a great looking Media Director, with a stylish design that will happily compliment your flat panel TV with excellent picture quality.

=== Price ===
£299.00 (Excluding 17.5% VAT & Shipping)
*Ready to connect to your LinuxMCE-0704 / LinuxMCE-0710 System

=== Features ===

* Software: LinuxMCE 0704 or 0710
* User Interface: UI2 with Overlay
* Processor: AMD Sempron 64 3500+ (2.0Ghz). Low power under 45W with ultra low noise fan cooling system
* RAM: 1024 MB
* Internal Optical drive: Slot-in DVD-RW
* Network: Gigabit Ethernet
* Video: Embedded nVidia GeForce 6150 Integrated Graphics, External via DVI-I Port ; 85Hz Refresh Rate:1600x1200 pixels, up to 32bit Colors
* IO: DVI-I port, VGA port, USBx6, DC-in jack, IEEE 1394, Headphone/ Line out jack, Microphone/ Line in jack, RJ-45, 9-in-1 Card Reader
* Dimensions: 250 (W) x 200 (D) x 60 (H) (all dimensions in mm)
* Weight: 1600g

=== Product Details ===

The mm300 is an very compact and stylish design that has a low noise fanned cooling system, low energy consumption and superb UI2 performance. The physical design of the mm300 has been driven by the need to compliment, and integrate with, your living environment and the decor of the room it is located in.

The mm300's compact form factor, build quality and clean design means that it is equally at home in your lounge, living room or kitchen.

== Model: MM400 ==
The MM400 is a totally fanless, silent design that is compact enough to be located almost anywhere. Its discreet black finish, range of features and affordable price make it a very popular choice for many of our customers.

=== Price ===
£225.00 (Excluding 17.5% VAT & Shipping)
*Includes Installer CD with Via Unichrome Pro Video drivers for LinuxMCE-0704 / LinuxMCE-0710

[[Image:Convergent-mm400-front.jpg|thumb|right]]

=== Features ===
* Software: LinuxMCE 0704 or 0710
* User Interface: UI1
* Processor: Via C7 1Ghz Fanless. Low power under 25W
* RAM: 512MB
* Internal Optical drive: None
* Network: 10/100 Ethernet
* Video: Embedded Via CN700 - External via VGA port ; 85Hz Refresh Rate:1600x1200 pixels, up to 32bit Colors
* IO: 1 x keyboard - generic - 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2 style), 1 x mouse - generic - 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2 style), 1 x display / video - VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15), 1 x serial - RS-232 - 9 pin D-Sub (DB-9), 1 x parallel - IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) - 25 pin D-Sub (DB-25), 6 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 PIN USB Type A ( 2 in front ), 1 x network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX - RJ-45, 2 x audio - line-out - mini-phone 3.5mm ( 1 in front ), 1 x audio - line-In - mini-phone 3.5mm, 2 x microphone - input - mini-phone 3.5mm ( 1 in front )
* Power: External 65W power supply
* Dimensions: 234 (h) x 64 (w) x 213 (d) (all dimensions in mm)
* Weight: 1300g

=== Product Details ===
The MM400's compact, low energy fanless design coupled with its affordable price make it perfect for many situations where cost or low-noise solutions are essential. While not as sleek or stylish as some other Media Directors in our range the MM400 is still compact and discreet and due to its silent operation can be located in locations like bedrooms where its silent operation is ideal.

= Peripherals & Components =

==Video==

==Audio==

==Lighting & Home Automation==

===Z-wave Options===

= Where to buy =

Convergent Home Technologies will ship its products worldwide (except the USA due to product liability issues). Please contact us to get more information or to place your order;
http://www.chtukltd.co.uk

ZWave

2009-11-20T15:59:23Z

Ray N: To clean-up the Hardware category, added the ZWave category to the Hardware category, therefore this article can be reached directly through the ZWave category

{| align="right"
| __TOC__
|}
[[Category: RF Control]]
[[Category: ZWave]]
[[Category: Programmer's Guide]]

Z-Wave™ is a wireless RF-based communications technology designed for residential and light commercial control and status reading applications such as meter reading, lighting and appliance control, HVAC, access control, intruder and fire detection.

== Overview ==
The support from LinuxMCE system is represented by an executable '''ZWave''' (it's placed in /usr/pluto/bin) which is the device implementation and a '''DeviceTemplate (1754)''' which is used to create LinuxMCE Devices for ZWave.

Look at the [[:Category:ZWave|Z-Wave Wiki Category]] to see pages for different Z-Wave devices.

The source code is available in LinuxMCE's SVN repository: http://svn.linuxmce.org/svn/branches/LinuxMCE-0810/src/ZWave.

== Implementation ==
=== Open version ===
The new open Z-Wave driver will be included in the upcoming 0810 release.

A 32bit binary of the new Z-Wave driver for 0710 can be found here: http://vt100.at/files/ZWave-0.0.2-0710-32bit.bz2
Just swap with the existing /usr/pluto/bin/ZWave and quick reload the router.

=== New Fiire driver ===
Fiire also provides a new Z-Wave driver, it is binary only: [[Fiire ZWave Patch]]

=== Old version ===
This is the version shipped with 0710. The source code for the old version is not available as it depends on proprietary files from Zensys.

== Interfaces ==
=== Supported ===
* [[ACT Homepro ZCS000]]
* [[ACT Homepro ZCS010]]
* [[ACT Homepro ZCS101]]
* [[ACT Homepro ZCS201]]
* [[ACT Homepro ZCU000]]
* [[ACT Homepro ZCU010]]
* [[Intermatic HA22]]
* [[Intermatic HA23C]]
* [[Intermatic HA20C]]
* [[MCV_Z-Wave_Dongle|Mi Casa Verde USB + Inclusion Controller in one]]
* [[Seluxit viaSENS Homecontroller]]
* [[Tricklestar 300ZW-US-W]]
* [[Tricklestar 300ZW-EU-W]]
* [[Aeon Labs Z-Wave Interface with built-In Inclusion Remote]]

=== UNSUPPORTED ===
'''those don't work'''

* [[ACT Homepro ZCU101]]
* [[ACT Homepro ZCU201]]

== How to install and use ZWave ==
=== Automatic installation - Lighting Wizard ===
The [[Lighting Wizard]] allows you to easily integrate LinuxMCE into your Z-Wave network. It is started after you plug in the Z-Wave dongle. Just follow the onscreen instructions.

=== Manual Setup using SIS Mode with the Tricklestar Remote ===
SIS mode currently needs either the Seluxit ViaSens ZWave USB controller installed or the new Tricklestar USB Controller (see here for info on installing this controller [[ZWave_DeviceTemplate_PlugAndPlay | ZWave Device Template Plug'n'Play]]). Please note that you cannot currently use the Lighting Wizard when configuring SIS mode. You will also need to update to a current version of the new Open ZWave binary.

# Firstly reset your ZWave USB controller so that you can start to add devices in SIS mode. Use Web Admin ->Wizard->Devices->Interfaces and find the device called 'ZWave' and click its 'Advanced' button. In the next screen click on 'Send command to device' and then select 'Reset' from the drop-down list, Tick 'Delivery Confirmation' and then click 'Send Message'. Now if you see 'Message received OK' your ZWave USB controller has been successfully reset.
# Next we need to include your Tricklestar remote into your ZWave network. Firstly we need to set the remote into Configuration Mode (see also the manual) this is done with the little switch on the bottom side next to the USB connector. Then do the following button presses on the Tricklestar remote which should be in close proximity to the ZWave USB interface - Press and hold the Remotes top most button down until you see a Green LED light up then release the button and press it briefly again. The Green LED should now be blinking slowly (if it isn't then repeat this step again). Now back in Web Admin use the 'Send Command to Device' screen again and select 'Download Configuration' from the drop-down. Now click 'Send Message' and watch the slowly flashing Green LED on the remote. If the LED stops flashing and glows continuously green for a few seconds then you have succeeded in including the Remote. However if you see a Red LED displayed continuously for a few secs something went wrong - in this case please repeat this whole step again. Assuming you got a Green LED at the end of this step you should (after waiting a couple of minutes for the inclusion prcess to finish) do a reload router before continuing. NOTE: If it does not work that way, try sending the 'Download Configuration' command first and then press and hold the Remotes top most button down until it goes green and the press the same button again shortly, that way around it worked better for me (was a tip from Hari).
# Next we can Include each of your ZWave devices into the ZWave network (before starting to include devices it is important that they are located and fixed in their final locations). Using the Tricklestar remote go to each ZWave device (again you should be in close proximity to each device as you Include them) and do the following;
## Press and hold the Remotes top most button down until you see a Green LED light up then release the button and press it briefly again. The Green LED should now be blinking slowly (if it isn't then repeat this step again).
## Now briefly press the Inclusion button on the device you are including. You should see the remotes Green LED stop flashing and glow continuously Green for a few seconds. If you did then you have succeeded in including the device. However if you see a Red LED displayed continuously for a few secs something went wrong - in this case please repeat this whole step again.
## Repeat the step above for each ZWave device would like to include in your ZWave network.
# After including your last ZWave device, go back to Web Admin, do a reload router (or maybe two if LinuxMCE tells you to) and select Wizards->Devices->Lights. You should now see all the devices you included have been auto-magically added to the 'Wizard: Lights' screen! This is power of SIS mode! Now you can change your device names in the 'Description' field, select which 'Room' they are actually in and use 'PK_FloorplanObjectType' drop-down to select the floor plan icon they will display when placed on the floor plan etc. When you have updated this info for each ZWave device click 'Update' at the bottom of the screen.
# If devices are not added automatically - meaning there is no popup on the Orbiters showing "added new device X" - then you can try this. If you have added logging you wil see in /var/log/pluto/*_ZWave.log" that lightswitches are detected by the USB controller because it shows up like this "Got basic report from node X, value: X". After addind the first device go to the USB Controller and do a 'Download Configuration' like above again - but this time '''without''' doing a 'reset' first. Then do a quick reload router once or twice and try adding the next device. Now it should work.

Of course at anytime when you want to add some new ZWave devices to your installation just do the inclusion steps above with the remote & the device your adding - you dont need to add all your devices in one go. Each time you include a new device just do a reload router and auto-magically it will be in your ZWave devices tree.

Note, you should never do the download config again after you have initially added the USB controller to the Tricklestar remote. To add a new node just put the Tricklestar into config mode with the switch and then add the new nodes with the "up till flash- up" procedure. Same for device removal. The Tricklestar will notify the USB controller about the change. This is automatically detected by LinuxMCE and you will see a popup on all orbiters with the new zwave node id.

=== Manual Excluding devices using SIS Mode with the Tricklestar Remote ===

Why do I have to do this ? (Quote from hari)
Z-Wave is a mesh. The routing table is updated at inclusion/exclusion. When you move stuff around without following the procedure (except portable devices like remote controllers) you can get network problems.

# Put the Configuration Switch of the Trickestar Remote in “Configuration Mode” like this. Press-and-hold “Up” Operation button for 2 seconds to enter Configuration Mode. LED Indicator will illuminate Green. Short-press the “Down” Operation Button one time to put the device into Exclusion Mode. The Green LED should now be blinking slowly (if it isn't then repeat this step again).
# Press the Exclusion Initiator of the Device to be Excluded (normally the same button as the Inclusion Initiator).
# LED Indicator on the Remote will illuminate Green when device is successfully excluded and illuminate Red if the operation is unsuccessful. Orbiters will show a message that the device is removed.
# Repeat steps 2-4 for each Device to be Excluded from the Network.
# After Excluding all the devices that you would like to remove, go back to Web Admin, do a reload router and select Wizards->Devices->Lights. The Excluded devices should now be gone.

=== Manual setup / Download configuration ===
Once you have successfully installed the ZWave USB controller and it is seen on LinuxMCE ([[media:zwave_homepro_interface.png]]), you can proceed by populating the ZWave network information to LinuxMCE.

# Add your ZWave devices to your master ZWave master remote controller (like ZTH200)
#* Once the devices are added to remote and verified they are working (you can control them with your remote controller), you need to copy the ZWave network information to LinuxMCE.
# Go to LinuxMCE admin page (<nowiki>"http://192.168.80.1/pluto-admin/"</nowiki>), then choose "Wizard -> Devices -> Interfaces -> [your ZWave controller] -> Advanced".
## On the device page select "Send command to device".
## Select command "Download Configuration" and choose "Send Message".
##* Leave the data and file fields as blank
# Now LinuxMCE is waiting for the ZWave information and you should send a copy of the ZWave network with your master remote controller to LinuxMCE.
#* If you are using HomePro remote controller this is done by selecting: "Setup -> Copy Remote Ctrl. -> Send Information -> Identical Copy". Once you have done that, the remote will show "Sending information..." and after successful sending it will return to clock screen (this shouldn't take more than couple of minutes).
#* You can monitor the process by watching the Zwave log file on LinuxMCE (usually "/var/log/pluto/*ZWave.log"). Unfortunately the admin page doesn't give much information of what is being done and is everything going smoothly. If the process is successfully, you should see the LinuxMCE communicating with the USB controller
#* Make sure the sending remote controller is near enough the USB receiver, otherwise nothing will happen.
# Go to device tree (Show devices tree) and you should see ([[Media:zwave_devices_tree.png]]) the newly added ZWave modules/devices on the tree under "CORE -> ZWave".

You should do quick reload (Wizard -> Restart -> Quick Reload Router) in order to use the newly added devices with LinuxMCE. Once you have done that you should be able to control (like switching on/off) the devices under the Light ([[Media:zwave_lights.png]]).

== PIR (Binary Sensor) support ==

[[ACT Homepro Motion Detector]]

== Z-Wave API documentation ==

[[ZWave API]]

Category:ZWave

2009-11-20T15:58:00Z

Ray N: Included this ZWave category to the Hardware category

[[Category: RF Control]]
[[Category: Automation]]
[[Category: Lighting]]
[[Category: Hardware]]

User:Ray N

2009-11-16T14:53:32Z

Ray N:

Error Running Diskless CreateTBZ.sh

2009-10-26T14:12:01Z

Ray N: Added page category

[[Category: Programmer's Guide]]
Sometimes there are problems running Diskless_CreateTBZ.sh to setup the initial environment for the media directors

== Unmet Dependencies ==
Having run /usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_CreateTBZ.sh, should you see the following error...

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
pluto-mythtv-player: PreDepends: mythtv-backend but it is not going to be installed
PreDepends: mythtv-frontend but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages
#### Package pluto-mythtv-player failed (/tmp/tmp.lFSpF13245) - We wait 10sec and try again - to stop retrying press Ctrl-C.

...press Ctrl-C, and edit your sources list. I do this by running...
sudo editor /etc/apt/sources.list

...and edit out...
deb http://www.avenard.org/files/ubuntu-repos/ intrepid testing
(i.e. put a '#' before it)

...and add in...
deb http://www.avenard.org/files/ubuntu-repos/ intrepid release testing
#Line above added by me

Of course you could just edit the existing line rather than commenting it out and making a new one.

Then try creating the MD image again by running...
/usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_CreateTBZ.sh

UI

2009-10-26T14:08:36Z

Ray N: Redirecting to Selecting the Right UI

#REDIRECT [[Selecting_the_Right_UI]]

[[Category: Tutorials]]

UI

2009-10-26T14:07:14Z

Ray N: Added redirection

[[Category: Tutorials]]

#REDIRECT [[Selecting_the_Right_UI]]

MTU

2009-10-19T21:00:08Z

Ray N: Added page category

[[Category: LinuxAdmin]]
Ever had problems with your MTU being set to 576 on eth0 because of you ISP or other reasons. You can fix that.

you can check your mtu settings with the terminal command: ifconfig eth#
where eth# is the nic you are trying to affect in my case this was eth0

Realtime you can open a terminal and use: sudo ifconfig eth0 mtu ####
The #### is the number of the mtu you want to use in my case 1500, so the realtime command would be: sudo ifconfig eth0 mtu 1500

Ofcourse if you reboot or the network gets restarted it will change to 576 again, so to make it permanent we have to edit some files, in particular the /etc/network/interfaces file.

This looks like this for a normal core on linuxmce:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
address 192.168.80.1
netmask 255.255.255.0

So eth0 is getting it's ip from your isp through dhcp and therefor also the mtu setting
Eth1 is getting a static ip that's provided.

Now the changes you want to make to make sure the mtu is 1500 for everything are the following....

For the dhcp eth0 you need to add a line telling the nic to set the mtu at 1500 which looks like this
post-up /sbin/ifconfig $IFACE mtu 1500

For the static eth1 it's easier and you can add a line telling the mtu to be 1500 (or whatever you like, you can experiment with your internal network for better package handling, i've heard up to 9000, but this is up to you)
mtu 1500

Your interfaces file should look something like this now:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
post-up /sbin/ifconfig $IFACE mtu 1500
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
address 192.168.80.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
mtu 1500

after a networking restart:
/etc/init.d/networking restart
look at your ifconfig again and it should have the correct mtu settings

Hope this helps, please add aditional information if needed/wanted.

LinuxMCE-0810 beta

2009-10-19T13:17:00Z

Ray N: Added page category

[[Category: Software]]
This page outlines some information about the Beta, as well as outline any changes and bugfixes we are applying, just like we did with the alpha2 page.

The installation instructions found on the alpha2 page still apply:

==Internet Installation==
# Install Kubuntu Intrepid desktop and update it. (download Kubuntu 8.10 '''desktop''' release from one of these: [http://mirrors.ccs.neu.edu/releases.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/8.10/ Northeastern University Mirror, USA], [http://swtsrv.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/pub/linux/distributions/ubuntu-release/kubuntu/8.10/ Mannheim University Mirror, Germany]) '''Currently, only the 32bit version of LinuxMCE is available. Only download the i386 version of 8.10 Kubuntu, even if your system can support 64bit versions.'''
# Run aptitude update and aptitude dist-upgrade to get the latest Kubuntu updates.
# Grab the latest installer script from [http://deb.linuxmce.org/ubuntu here], unpack them and change into the freshly created ''new-installer'' directory.
# Run the following scripts (as root, in order): pre-install-from-repo.sh, mce-install.sh, post-install.sh.
# Reboot, wait for the activity to stop (see progress on console 8).

'''EDIT: MAKE SURE YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION IS ON ETH0!''' (For linux Newbies ETH0 is probably the network card on your motherboard...or plug all NICs into a switch that has Internet access)

In other words, after installing Kubuntu:
sudo su - #This might ask for the password you specified earlier during the install of kubuntu.
aptitude update
aptitude dist-upgrade
wget -c http://deb.linuxmce.org/ubuntu/new-installer-alpha-latest.tar.gz
tar xvf new-installer-alpha-latest.tar.gz
cd new-installer
./pre-install-from-repo.sh
./mce-install.sh
./post-install.sh
reboot

==DVD Installation==

However, if you want to install the DVD, grab it via the torrent [http://www.linuxmce.org/index.php/download here].

Upon DVD boot, select LinuxMCE install. This will install a regular Kubuntu 810 system, with an additional button on the desktop to install LinuxMCE upon restart. Let Kubuntu's install run thru, and after restart, login, and double click on the LinuXMCE icon. This will run the fullinstall.sh in /root/new-installer

The DVD installer per default does not create the initial MD image, as that creation takes a very long time, and most people probably prefer to give 810 a test, without the MDs. If you want to setup MDs, you have to manually run
/usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_CreateTBZ.sh

=== Upcoming changes... ===
* lmce-skins-titanium - Fix for the arrow up of the media remote
* lmce-launch-manager - Reworking interaction to allow activate orbiter plasmoid again

Access Point

2009-10-06T14:32:57Z

Ray N: Added page category

[[Category: Tutorials]]
WORK IN PROGRESS

== Introduction ==

This tutorial describes how to add Access Point functionality to your LMCE core. The core will act as a WiFi access point permitting wireless devices to connect to the core, the internal network and the internet.

== Hardware setup ==

* Dell Optiplex Gx620
* WiFi card with Atheros chipset (using madwifi drivers)
* Linux MCE 810 alpha2

If you install LMCE from scratch make sure that your wifi card is NOT inserted prior to installation so that LMCE doesn't use it as the internal network interface. After LCME installation has finished, insert the wifi card.

== Overview ==

the idea is to combine or bridge eth1 and ath0 to a new virtual interface called br0.

* -> eth0 connects to my ADSL modem (192.168.1.0)
* -> eth1 connects to my internal LAN switch (192.168.80.0)
* -> ath0 connects the wireless part of my internal network (192.168.80.0)

== Needed packages ==

* hostapd
* bridge

== Config files ==

=== /etc/network/interfaces ===

We'll make a copy of /etc/network/interfaces in case something goes wrong before we edit it.

mv /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.bck

joe /etc/network/interfaces

auto lo eth0 eth1 br0
automatically initialise eth0 (external interface) eth1 (internal LAN) and br0 (our bridge interface). Keep ath0 out of this for now, we'll initialise it separately.

iface lo inet loopback

# Internet Interface
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1

Fill in your own settings here, in my case 192.168.1.1 is the ADSL modem. Alternatively you can use dhcp to get the adress details from your ADSL modem.

# LAN interface
iface eth1 inet manual
up /sbin/ifconfig eth0 up
down /sbin/ifconfig eth0 down

The internal interface, note that it doesn't get an adress assigned.

# Wireless interface
auto ath0
iface ath0 inet manual
up /sbin/ifconfig ath0 up

The wireless interface, again no adress details here.

iface br0 inet static
address 192.168.80.1
network 192.168.80.0
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.168.80.255
pre-up /usr/sbin/brctl addbr br0
pre-up /usr/sbin/brctl addif br0 eth1

The fun part. Finally we assign the adress for the internal LAN to the bridge interace br0 (I'm sticking here with the standard LMCE network 80.0). The pre-up will create a bridge and add the eth1 interface to it.

pre-up /sbin/wlanconfig ath0 destroy
pre-up /sbin/wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap
pre-up /sbin/iwconfig ath0 channel 3

This part is necessary as the atheros interface has some issues to switch ino access point mode (master mode)

pre-up /usr/sbin/brctl addif br0 ath0

After firing up the wireless interface we add it to the bridge as well.

post-down /usr/sbin/brctl delif br0 eth1
post-down /usr/sbin/brctl delif br0 ath0
post-down /usr/sbin/brctl delbr br0

Just some lines to define how to cleanly shut down the bridge: remove both interfaces and then remove the bridge interace itself

/etc/default/dhcp.conf

/etc/default/dhcpd3/dhcpd.conf

=== wireless configuration ===

We'll use hostapd to manage the wireless part as it provides WPA encryption. I suggest that you first try to setup your network without encryption, make sure it works and then enable encryption.

== Enable WPA encryption ==

* edit the /etc/hostapd

== Set static IP adresses ==

It is possible to set static ip adresses manually instead of using LMCE

PPTP

2009-09-22T12:47:28Z

Ray N: Please add pages when content is at least somewhat available.

{{delete}}
Placeholder for PPTP Client Setup.

Parental Control

2009-09-11T14:39:26Z

Ray N: Added page category

[[Category: Development]]
LinuxMCE is installed in family environments with children of different ages. Lots of parents would like to limit the stuff that is available for the kids to see.

= Idea =
Create a way to mark media attributes as allowed and not allowed to be viewed/listened to.

= Proposal =
The web admin interface is great for adding data into the system.

== Data ==
=== Structure ===
We need a new table in pluto_main:
CREATE TABLE `pluto_main`.`Users_AttributeAllowance` (
`FK_Users` Int NOT NULL,
`EK_Attribute` int NOT NULL,
`MustMeet` tinyint NOT NULL DEFAULT 0 COMMENT 'If this is set, ONLY media containing this attribute is listed',
`NotAllowed` tinyint NOT NULL DEFAULT 0 COMMENT 'If this is set. the media containing the above attribute is NOT available',
INDEX `users`(`FK_Users`)
)
ENGINE = InnoDB
DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci
COMMENT = 'Contains limits and rules describing what media a user sees';

=== Example ===
* FK_Users points to kid 16 y/o
** EK_Attribute points to R
** MustMeet = False
** NotAllowed = True

* FK_Users points to kid 6 y/o
** EK_Attribute points to PG13
** MustMeet = False
** NotAllowed = True

** EK_Attribute points to R
** MustMeet = False
** NotAllowed = True

** EK_Attribute points to Children
** MustMeet = True
** NotAllowed = False

* FK_Users points to guest
** EK_Attribute points to X-Rated
** MustMeet = False
** NotAllowed = True

(We don't want our guests to see how strange our tastes are...)

== Display in the web admin ==
As part of the user page, the web admin should have the ability to select AttributeType. This will filter the currently available attributes of that type, and the ability to mark Must Meet and/or Not Allowed buttons. These Attributes should be presented as a list, where the administrator can, after it was originally setup of a user, mark and unmark Must Meet and/or Not Allowed.

== Orbiter Display ==
The list of files currently shown at the orbiter is already filtered by lots of things. The SQL statement should be modified to take into account the filter criteria for the specific user.

=== Files needed changing ===

* src/Media_Plugin/
** Media_Plugin.cpp
** Media_Plugin_Grids.cpp

Orbiters

2009-09-09T03:46:36Z

Ray N:

{| align="right"
| __TOC__
|}
[[Category: Orbiters]]
[[Category: Admin Website]]
[[Image:Orbiters.jpg|thumb|250px|Orbiters Page Admin Website]]The '''Orbiters''' are the devices used to communicate/interface with LinuxMCE at the user level. The Orbiter devices display the standardized Orbiter User Interface (UI) from which users control all user-aspects and functionality of LinuxMCE. Media Directors have their own on-screen Orbiter UI. 

An Orbiter can be a laptop, a Blackberry, or even a Bluetooth mobile phone.

The Orbiter UI can be controlled via a touch-screen interface, a handheld remote control (such as a Windows MCE remote control), or even a universal infrared remote control (connected by [[USB UIRT|USB-UIRT]]).

For an Orbiter device to connect, it must either have a connection to a Media Director through an input port, or it must wirelessly connect to the home automation/multimedia LAN through a wireless access point (or wireless router with the DHCP turned off). The Wireless Access Point/Router must obviously be connected to the Core server.

While you can administer the LinuxMCE system through a Media Director (through its own on-screen Orbiter User Interface), you can also control the system from many other Orbiter devices as well.

==Types of Orbiters==
See [http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Category:Orbiters the orbiter hardware list] for a list of devices that have been used as Orbiters.

Many Orbiters have relatively slow processors (like PDA's and mobile phones) and may be running on slow Wi-Fi connections. Therefore, Orbiters do not retrieve the large, full-size graphics that are available directly to Media Directors. This would require scaling them, redrawing the text, and re-rendering the graphics on the fly for each Orbiter, a processor-intensive operation.

Instead, all the graphics on the Orbiters are pre-scaled and pre-rendered by a software module on the Core called "[[Orbiter Generator|OrbiterGen]]". If you add new scenarios or devices or change floorplans or skins, you won't see them immediately on the Orbiter. The [[LinuxMCE Admin Website]]-->Advanced-->[[Orbiter Generator|Regenerate this Orbiter]] option is run and a wait of about 60 seconds is required while OrbiterGen renders new graphics, following which the Orbiter will be reloaded.

===Web Orbiter===

A [[Web Orbiter]] refers to any laptop (or other PC) on the LinuxMCE system which uses a standard web browser interface to display the Orbiter User Interface. The laptop or PC becomes a virtual remote control when used in this way.

====Media Director Orbiter====
[[Image:Main-menu.jpg|200px|thumb|Web Orbiter / Main Orbiter Screen (UI1)]]
All Media Directors run an on-screen Orbiter, like the one to the right. The on-screen Orbiter is controlled by the keyboard/mouse attached to the Media Director, or by a connected infrared, USB, or Bluetooth remote control. The Orbiter software can be run runs in Linux, Windows and Windows CE, and can also be run on webpads and PDAs.

In the lower right corner of the main Orbiter screen are the [[Who Am I, Where Am I|'who']] and [[Who Am I, Where Am I|'where']] buttons. This indicates the current user of the Orbiter and which room he or she currently is in (or wishes to control).

You can manually select your desired user and location. Your "location" need not be your actual physical location. For example, even if you were using the on-screen Orbiter for the Media Director in the Living Room, you could change your "location" to the Bedroom. You could then control devices as if you were in the Bedroom. Normally you wouldn't change the location for a Media Director's on-screen Orbiter (since that device stays in a fixed location), but you might change locations frequently if you were to use a wireless web pad or PDA.
[[Image:Litscen.jpg|200px|thumb|Lighting Scenario Page LinuxMCE Admin Website]]
The icons on the left all lead to [[maps]], or floorplans, of your house. These show the lighting, media, climate, telecom and security [[scenario]] categories for each room. Next to each floorplan icon is listed the scenarios for that category and room. (You create the scenarios for each room in the scenarios section of the [[LinuxMCE Admin Website]].) For example, in the Living Room you could create a lighting scenario called 'entertaining guests' that would set the light levels, play some background music, unlock the door, etc.

===Mobile Orbiters===

The mobile orbiter works pretty much like a regular orbiter. The difference is that you don't usually need to worry about the "who" and "where" buttons. The "who" is determined when you chose to install the software. The family member who installs it is assumed to always be the user. The "where" is automatic - whenever you come within range of a Media Director that can recognize the mobile orbiter, it will automatically select itself as the correct location. (Nevertheless, you are still able to manually select a different location, if you want to control a location other than the one you are in).

Since a mobile phone's display is smaller, only selected scenarios can be shown. You must choose the scenario category from the main menu, such as "lighting", and then choose the specific scenario from the sub menu that appears. You can toggle the option for 'follow-me' mode, indicated with a red F. If you hold down the 2 button, a red F will appear for media. As you move around the house, your media will follow you. All 5 categories have follow-me.

Unless you have turned off the "Auto Detect new Bluetooth Phones" option on the Media Director, compatible Bluetooth Mobile phones will automatically be detected whenever they are within range of a Media Director. Be sure you have added the family member to whom the phone belongs on the [[LinuxMCE Admin Website]] first.

A message will appear on all Orbiters (you may need to turn on the TV to see the Media Director's on-screen Orbiter) asking if there is a new mobile phone, and if so, to whom it belongs. If you choose to install the software, the phone will beep. Just hit 'yes' to accept the software, and accept the default prompts.

=====Telephone-based Orbiter devices=====
Several mobile phones can be made to work as mobile orbiters.

*[[Cisco 7970]]
*Symbian Bluetooth phone
**On the phone go to Menu-->Tools-->Manager.
**Hit the left button, choose settings, and set "Software installation" to 'on'.
**Set the "online certificate check" to 'off'.
**On the phone: Menu-->Connect-->Bluetooth-->turn Bluetooth on-->make your phone visible (public).
**Go near a Media Director with a Bluetooth dongle. Within 30 seconds or so you will see a message on any nearby Orbiter that a new phone is detected. Select the phone's owner. The software will be sent automatically to the phone as a message in the phone's inbox. Accept the default installation options. The phone will update its own software.
** If the software gets deleted and you want the Media Director to resend it:
*** Turn the phone off.
*** Go to '''[[LinuxMCE Admin Website]]-->Advanced-->[[Devices]]'''
**** Select the Orbiter off the device list on the left hand of screen
**** Once the device information is loaded in the main section of the device information page check the checkbox for "Reconfigure Device".
*** Turn the phone back on. The software should be resent.
* [[Java Mobile Orbiter]]

===Windows Laptops or Windows CE Webpads and PDAs===
[[Image:Downloadfiles.JPG|frame|right|100px|Download Page for Admin Site]]

*A laptop or a device with a web browser can function as a [[Web Orbiter|Web Orbiter]].
*Other devices can also be set up to work as an Orbiter on a Windows system by following the setup instructions [[Control LinuxMCE using a Windows device as an Orbiter|here]].

==Orbiter Setup==

===Setting up an Orbiter from the [[LinuxMCE_Admin_Website|LinuxMCE administration screen]]===
Here you add all the Orbiters you want to use in your house, no matter what type. This includes the Mobile Orbiters (e.g. mobile phones), the regular Orbiters (e.g. wireless webpads and tablet PCs), Orbiters you want to run on a normal PC, as well as the on-screen Orbiter displays (every Media Director displays an Orbiter on screen). All Orbiters connected to the system will appear on this page.

*Room: this is the room where the orbiter is normally kept. For mobile orbiters this selection isn't important since you carry them everywhere. For regular orbiters, the room is choosen by manual selection.

*Leave Monitor on for OSD: OSD (On-screen display) refers to an Orbiter that runs on a Media Director and is controlled by the keyboard/mouse, or by an infrared, USB, or Bluetooth remote control connected to the Media Director. When this option is checked, the TV will not shut off when media is finished playing, so that the Orbiter can then be displayed. The TV turns off only when the screen saver starts, or when you select Power-->Turn off display.

:If you always control the Media Director using an Orbiter such as a web pad or mobile phone, leave this option unchecked. In this configuration, the TV will come on only when you're playing media or watching TV, and will turn off when you're done.

*This device uses a Wi-Fi connection: This option is useful for webpads and PDAs with a Wi-Fi signal. Since Wi-Fi is somewhat unreliable, the Core and Orbiter will constantly 'ping' each other to make sure the connection is strong enough. The Orbiter software will exit whenever the Orbiter goes out of range.

*No Effects: Many screens have special effects, such as animated buttons, fades, and so on. If the Orbiter has a slow processor, this may slow down response time. This option will disable any special effects on the Orbiter so it will run as fast as possible.

*Language: All the text on the screen will appear in the selected language (as much as possible).

:NOTE: You can create your own menus and translate screens into other languages using [[Designer]].

*Size: Choose the screen size you want. If this is an on-screen Orbiter on a Media Director), this will also set the Media Director's screen resolution.

*Skin: There are several skins (motifs) from which to choose: 'Wood', 'Marble', etc.
*User: This is the person who normally uses this Orbiter.
*Quick Regen: To make the orbiters respond quickly, all images are pre-rendered. The User interface is "built" by the [[Orbiter Generator]] program. This option triggers the Orbiter Generator to re-generate the user interface for this orbiter. It will only regenerate screens that appear to have changed.
*Full Regen: This will cause Orbiter Generator to re-generate every screen on the Orbiter.
*Reduce image size by %: This will cause Orbiter Generator to add some padding to the screens. This is useful if the screen margins are being displayed outside of the TV screen.
:Developer info: although it may sound intuitive that the corresponding DeviceData is also called "Reduce image size by %", it is in fact called "Spacing". The PK_DeviceData for it is 150. The text "Reduce image size by %" comes from the DeviceTemplate_DeviceData table and it's the meaning of the device data in that specific device context
Offset: This causes the Orbiter to do backflips while reciting a poem backwards. (Just kidding. If you know what it does, please edit this section.)

==Change the look and feel of the Orbiter==

On the '''[[LinuxMCE Admin Website]]-->Wizard-->Devices-->[[Orbiters]]''' page you can change the look and feel of the Orbiters in several ways.

*[[Create my own skins or GUI for LinuxMCE|Create your own skin or user interface]]

==Using the Mobile Orbiter==
===Every Orbiter has a 'Rooms' button on the main menu===
Using LinuxMCE basically consists of selecting scenarios that you have previously created in the LinuxMCE Admin Website. For example, you may select the 'Good Morning' Lighting Scenario. If you want to watch TV, you will select the 'TV' scenario for that room. Since the scenarios are grouped by room, the Orbiter needs to know what room you are in. The on-screen Orbiter that runs on a Media Director will always default to the room in which it is located. You can manually specify the default room for other Orbiters, like webpads, on the Orbiters page in the LinuxMCE Admin Website. By default, mobile phone Orbiters 'follow you': whenever you enter a room with a Media Director that has a Bluetooth dongle, your phone will detect it and will switch to that room, showing you that room's scenarios. However, no matter what type of Orbiter you use, there will always be a 'rooms' button on the main menu showing the room, which can always be changed.

===Every Orbiter has a 'User' button on the main menu, except mobile phones===
With a mobile phone Orbiter, you don't need to tell LinuxMCE who is using the Orbiter. The owner of the mobile phone is initially specified on the LinuxMCE Admin Website's Orbiter page and does not change. But with other Orbiters, which may be shared by the whole family, there will be a 'user' button that lets you select who is currently using the Orbiter. This won't affect the [[scenarios]] -- those are the same for everyone. But it does affect some other things. For example, when browsing media, only the current user's private media is shown. Also, other things like speed dials, phone books, and so on, can be affected.

===Selecting a scenario from the phone's main menu===
On the mobile phones, the screen is quite small, so rather than showing you all the scenarios for a room, the phone normally just shows the categories of scenarios: 'Lighting', 'Media', 'Climate', 'Security', 'Telecom', 'Other'. Select a category, then select the scenario underneath it. The 'c' button always takes you back to the main menu. The red 'off' button stops whatever media is playing. And the 'menu' button hides Orbiter so you can use the phone as a normal phone again. To show the Orbiter again, hold the menu button until a strip of currently running programs appears, and chose 'LinuxMCE MO'. If the Orbiter isn't running, press the menu button, and choose 'LinuxMCE MO' from the menu. When you do, the Orbiter won't appear instantly--it will only appear when a Media Director is in proximity and is able to connect to the phone and talk to the LinuxMCE MO software. This can take around 15 seconds. While using the Orbiter, all the other keys have different functions depending on what you're doing. A brief legend is usually shown on the screen, and you can hold down the 'c' button for help.

===Selecting a scenario from another Orbiter's main menu with touch or mouse===
From the '''[[LinuxMCE Admin Website]]-->Wizard-->Devices-->[[Orbiters]]''' page, you can select a 'Skin'. This is the aesthetics (or motif): Wood, Marble, Modern, Classic, etc. You can also select the 'Main Menu', which determines how the user interface behaves.

If you change the 'Main Menu' interface, your Orbiter may look different from other Orbiters, and it may not display all the scenarios on the screen at the same time. In this case you may first have to choose a category, like you do with the mobile phones.

===Selecting a scenario with a keyboard's arrow keys, or an infrared remote===
When you use an on-screen Orbiter on a Media Director, you can either use the number keys or the up/down/left/right/enter keys on the keyboard (or an infrared remote control) to select a scenario.

===Quick tip===
No matter what the user interface looks like, and no matter whether you use the phone, keyboard, or infrared remote, the categories are always numbered as follows:
*1=Lighting
*2=Media
*3=Climate
*4=Telecom
*5=Security
*6=Misc

Within each category, the scenarios are numbered the same, and in the same order, for all Orbiters. For example, the 2nd media scenario is nearly always TV. Whether from a mobile phone, or using an infrared remote or keyboard for an on-screen Orbiter, 22 turns on the TV (2 for Media, 2 for TV). Also, when creating lighting scenarios, LinuxMCE encourages you to make the first lighting scenario the 'default on' and the second the 'default off'. In any room you can normally can hit 11 on any remote to turn the lights on, and 12 to turn them off. If you are consistent in setting up all rooms like this, you will find that you remember the number shortcuts quickly.

==System concepts for Orbiter Implementation==

Here's a simplified [[UML]] for Orbiter (pocketfrog implementation).

[[Integrating custom controls in Orbiter]]

[[Orbiter refactoring - the new design]]

Devel notes:

* [[SDL's TextWrapper and TextSplitter]]
* [[OpenGL implementation]]
* [[Building Orbiter for the Nokia 770]]
* [[Building Orbiter for the Nokia 800]]
* [[Computing screen]]
* [[FileSave screen]]
* [[Child devices]]

Installing Dansguardian on LinuxMCE

2009-09-02T15:35:01Z

Ray N: added page category

[[Category: Tutorials]]
{| align="right"
| __TOC__
|}
===Draft page===
Still under draft and yet to finalize...
Thanks

==Basics==
DansGuardian is an award winning Open Source web content filter which currently runs on Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Mac OS X, HP-UX, and Solaris. It filters the actual content of pages based on many methods including phrase matching, PICS filtering and URL filtering. It does not purely filter based on a banned list of sites like lesser totally commercial filters.

DansGuardian is designed to be completely flexible and allows you to tailor the filtering to your exact needs. It can be as draconian or as unobstructive as you want. The default settings are geared towards what a primary school might want but DansGuardian puts you in control of what you want to block.

DansGuardian is a true web content filter. We will see how to configure DansGuardian on Ubuntu Linux along with LinuxMCE.

==Installing packages==
===tinyproxy===
apt-get install tinyproxy

===shorewall===
apt-get install shorewall

===dansguardian===
apt-get install dansguardian

===dhcp===
apt-get install dhcp3-server

===dns server===
apt-get install dnsmasq

Optional:

==Dansguardian Web Log Viewer==
apt-get install dglog

==Configure Packages==
===Tinyproxy===
vi /etc/tinyproxy/tinyproxy.conf
Make the following changes
# User root
# Group root
# Allow 192.168.80.0/25

===Dansguardian===
vi /etc/dansguardian/dansguardian.conf
Make the following changes:
# Delete UNCONFIGURED line
# filterport = 8081
# proxyip = 192.168.80.1
# proxyport = 8888
# usernameidmethodproxyauth = off

===Shorewall===
Make the following changes:

'''set "shorewall" auto start at boot time:'''
vi /etc/default/shorewall
# startup = 1

'''"zones" tells the firewall to zone each name for the rest configuration file e.g. loc, net:'''
vi /etc/shorewall/zones
# #ZONES TYPE OPTION IN OUT
# #OPTIONS OPTIONS
# fw firewall
# net ipv4
# loc ipv4
# #Last Line - ADD ENTRIES ABOVE THIS ONE - DO NOT REMOVE

'''"interfaces" tells the firewall which is internal and external interfaces:'''
vi /etc/shorewall/interfaces
# #ZONE INTERFACE BROADCAST OPTIONS
# #Note assuming "eth1"- is internal ip & "eth0"- is external ip
# net eth0 detect dhcp,tcpflags
# loc eth1 detect dhcp
# #LAST LINE --ADD YOUR ENTRIES ABOVE THIS ONE - DO NOT REMOVE

'''"masq" tells the firewall that internal network(eth1)is connected through external network(eth0):'''
vi /etc/shorewall/masq
# #INTERFACE SUBNET ADDRESS PROTO PORT(S) IPSEC
# eth0 eth1
# #LAST LINE --ADD YOUR ENTRIES ABOVE THIS ONE - DO NOT REMOVE

'''"policy" tells the firewall that how should handle the requests:'''
vi /etc/shorewall/policy
# loc all ACCEPT
# net all DROP
# fw all ACCEPT
# all all REJECT

'''"shorewall.conf" we will configure ip_forwarding:'''
vi /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf
# IP_FORWARDING=On

'''"rules" allows to set firewall rules:'''
vi /etc/shorewall/rules
# SECTION NEW
# ACCEPT net fw tcp 80
# REDIRECT loc 8081 tcp www
# ACCEPT loc fw tcp 22
# ACCEPT net fw icmp
# ACCEPT loc loc icmp
# #LAST LINE --ADD YOUR ENTRIES ABOVE THIS ONE - DO NOT REMOVE

''' # check shorewall working or not properly:'''
shorewall check

==Restart Applications==
/etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart
/etc/init.d/tinyproxy restart
/etc/init.d/shorewall restart
/etc/init.d/dansguardian restart

==DHCP Server==
Note: you need not to make any changes if you are working on single system or dhcp is already running on your local network interface(any changes dhcpd.conf or interfaces respective files)

vi /etc/default/dhcp3-server

# INTERFACE="eth1"

vi /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf
# #change the subnet, netmask, range, dns, router as per your settings
# default-leasetime=86400
# max-leasetime=60480
# subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0{
# range 192.168.0.2 192.168.1.99;
# option domain-name-server 192.168.80.1;
# option routers 192.168.80.2;
#}

set static ip address:
vi /etc/network/interfaces
# auto lo
# iface lo inet loopback
# auto eth1
# iface eth0 inet static
# address 192.168.80.1
# netmask 255.255.255.0

#restart dhcp
# /etc/init.d/dhcpd restart

==Troubleshooting==
# Still not working restart the system once
# Check all service started are not "ps -ef | grep <service>" service - apache2, dnsmasq, tinyproxy, shorewall, dansguardian, and dhcpd. If any of the service is not starting, start the service sh /etc/init.d.<service> start. Check especially dnsmasq and shorewall services.

==Adding BlackList==

A BlackList is a precompiled list of sites that are deemed potentially worrisome.
cd /etc/dansguardian
wget http://urlblacklist.com/downloads/OriginalUpdateBL
vi OriginalUpdateBL
#modify line 68 by switching the listed URL with the following:
#http://urlblacklist.com/cgi-bin/commercialdownload.pl?type=download&file=bigblacklist

chmod 777 /etc/dansguardian/OriginalUpdateBL
/etc/dansguardian/OriginalUpdateBL

when script is finished if you see any errors.
/etc/init.d/dansguardian restart

if the above script is not creating blacklists directory and creating blacklists file then follow the following:
cd /etc/dansguardian
wget http://urlblacklist.com/cgi-bin/commercialdownload.pl?type=download&file=bigblacklist
tar -xvf bigblacklist.tar.gz
chown -R root:root blacklists
chmod -R 755 blacklists

File:USB UIRT new remote.jpg

2009-08-28T11:24:17Z

Ray N: just a simple reformating, trying to fix the template...

{{Information
|Description = screen shot of new remote template screen
|Source = skeptic in the forums
|Date = April 07, 2008
|Author = skeptic
|Permission =
|other_versions =
}}

Template:Clr

2009-08-28T03:23:37Z

Ray N: Eliminated extraneous content which is applicable to wikipedia, not this wiki

Template:Deprecated

2009-08-28T03:06:20Z

Ray N: New page: {| style="background: beige; border: 1px solid #aaa; margin: auto; padding: .2em; width: auto;" |- | rowspan=2 style="padding: 4px;" | |'''The information in this article is now deprecate...

{| style="background: beige; border: 1px solid #aaa; margin: auto; padding: .2em; width: auto;"
|-
| rowspan=2 style="padding: 4px;" |
|'''The information in this article is now deprecated'''
|}

<noinclude>
To add this banner to a deprecated article use <nowiki>{{deprecated}}</nowiki>
</noinclude>

Template:Cleanup

2009-08-28T02:54:40Z

Ray N:

{| style="background: beige; border: 1px solid #aaa; margin: auto; padding: .2em; width: auto;"
|-
| rowspan=2 style="padding: 4px;" |
| '''This article needs a cleanup'''
|}

<noinclude>
To add this banner to an article use <nowiki>{{cleanup}}</nowiki>
</noinclude>

Creating a Media Plug-in

2009-08-27T13:55:26Z

Ray N: fixing templates and category, didn't touch page contents

[[Category: Development]]
{{Needs Peer Review}}
To create the Media Plug-In, you must

* Create the DCE Skeleton
* Implement the methods. at very least, the base plugin subclass, and a media stream subclass.

== Implementing DCE Skeleton ==

First, you must create the appropriate information in the database so that the [[DCEGen]] tool can create a C++ skeleton for you. The new templates can be created using the [[Device Templates]] menu.

=== The Necessary DCE Parameters ===

* Create a DCE device implemented in C++, make sure to use the category "Media Router Plugins < Plugins for the Router"
* Plug-ins traditionally have the name of the paired media player and the name "Plug-In" i.e. "[[MAME Plug-In]]"
* Use the following form as a template:
** This Device is Controlled by Category: DCERouter
** Is PlugIn should be selected
** Device Data should have the following added to it:
*** #85 Priority - set a default value of 70, check Allowed to Modify
** Events should have the following added to it:
*** Playback Info Changed

Once this is done, use [[DCEGen]] to create the appropriate devices.

Now that the code is created, you need to implement the following methods:

This is inside MAME_Plugin.h

<pre>

//<-dceag-d-b->
#ifndef MAME_PlugIn_h
#define MAME_PlugIn_h

// DCE Implemenation for #1906 MAME Plug-In

#include "Gen_Devices/MAME_PlugInBase.h"
//<-dceag-d-e->

#include "../Media_Plugin/Media_Plugin.h"
#include "../Media_Plugin/MediaStream.h"
#include "../Media_Plugin/MediaHandlerBase.h"

#include "MAMEMediaStream.h"

//<-dceag-decl-b->
namespace DCE
{
class MAME_PlugIn : public MAME_PlugIn_Command, public MediaHandlerBase
{
//<-dceag-decl-e->

pluto_pthread_mutex_t m_MAMEMediaMutex; //protect us from ourselves

//<-dceag-const-b->
public:
// Constructors/Destructor
MAME_PlugIn(int DeviceID, string ServerAddress,bool bConnectEventHandler=true,bool bLocalMode=false,class Router *pRouter=NULL);
virtual ~MAME_PlugIn();
virtual bool GetConfig();
virtual bool Register();
virtual void ReceivedCommandForChild(DeviceData_Impl *pDeviceData_Impl,string &sCMD_Result,Message *pMessage);
virtual void ReceivedUnknownCommand(string &sCMD_Result,Message *pMessage);
//<-dceag-const-e->

// Private member variables

protected:

class Orbiter_Plugin *m_pOrbiter_Plugin;

/** Mandatory implementations */

/**
* @brief
*/
virtual class MediaStream *CreateMediaStream( class MediaHandlerInfo *pMediaHandlerInfo, int iPK_MediaProvider, vector<class EntertainArea *> &vectEntertainArea, MediaDevice *pMediaDevice, int iPK_Users, deque<MediaFile *> *dequeFilenames, int StreamID );

/**
* @brief Start media playback
*/
virtual bool StartMedia( class MediaStream *pMediaStream,string &sError );

/**
* @brief Stop media playback
*/
virtual bool StopMedia( class MediaStream *pMediaStream );

virtual MediaDevice *FindMediaDeviceForEntertainArea(EntertainArea *pEntertainArea);
/**
* @brief We need to see all media inserted events so we can start the appropriate media devices
*/

MAMEMediaStream *ConvertToMAMEMediaStream(MediaStream *pMediaStream, string callerIdMessage = "");

//<-dceag-h-b->
/*
AUTO-GENERATED SECTION
Do not change the declarations
*/

/*
*****DATA***** accessors inherited from base class
int DATA_Get_Priority();

*****EVENT***** accessors inherited from base class
void EVENT_Playback_Info_Changed(string sMediaDescription,string sSectionDescription,string sSynposisDescription);

*****COMMANDS***** we need to implement
*/

//<-dceag-h-e->
};

//<-dceag-end-b->
}
#endif
//<-dceag-end-e->
//<-dceag-const2-b->!

</pre>

Some notes here, basically, these are the methods you need to get a working media plugin.

*continue*

Creating a Media Plug-in

2009-08-27T13:54:45Z

Ray N: Reverted edit of Ray N, changed back to last version by Tschak909

To create the Media Plug-In, you must

* Create the DCE Skeleton
* Implement the methods. at very least, the base plugin subclass, and a media stream subclass.

== Implementing DCE Skeleton ==

First, you must create the appropriate information in the database so that the [[DCEGen]] tool can create a C++ skeleton for you. The new templates can be created using the [[Device Templates]] menu.

=== The Necessary DCE Parameters ===

* Create a DCE device implemented in C++, make sure to use the category "Media Router Plugins < Plugins for the Router"
* Plug-ins traditionally have the name of the paired media player and the name "Plug-In" i.e. "[[MAME Plug-In]]"
* Use the following form as a template:
** This Device is Controlled by Category: DCERouter
** Is PlugIn should be selected
** Device Data should have the following added to it:
*** #85 Priority - set a default value of 70, check Allowed to Modify
** Events should have the following added to it:
*** Playback Info Changed

Once this is done, use [[DCEGen]] to create the appropriate devices.

Now that the code is created, you need to implement the following methods:

This is inside MAME_Plugin.h

<pre>

//<-dceag-d-b->
#ifndef MAME_PlugIn_h
#define MAME_PlugIn_h

// DCE Implemenation for #1906 MAME Plug-In

#include "Gen_Devices/MAME_PlugInBase.h"
//<-dceag-d-e->

#include "../Media_Plugin/Media_Plugin.h"
#include "../Media_Plugin/MediaStream.h"
#include "../Media_Plugin/MediaHandlerBase.h"

#include "MAMEMediaStream.h"

//<-dceag-decl-b->
namespace DCE
{
class MAME_PlugIn : public MAME_PlugIn_Command, public MediaHandlerBase
{
//<-dceag-decl-e->

pluto_pthread_mutex_t m_MAMEMediaMutex; //protect us from ourselves

//<-dceag-const-b->
public:
// Constructors/Destructor
MAME_PlugIn(int DeviceID, string ServerAddress,bool bConnectEventHandler=true,bool bLocalMode=false,class Router *pRouter=NULL);
virtual ~MAME_PlugIn();
virtual bool GetConfig();
virtual bool Register();
virtual void ReceivedCommandForChild(DeviceData_Impl *pDeviceData_Impl,string &sCMD_Result,Message *pMessage);
virtual void ReceivedUnknownCommand(string &sCMD_Result,Message *pMessage);
//<-dceag-const-e->

// Private member variables

protected:

class Orbiter_Plugin *m_pOrbiter_Plugin;

/** Mandatory implementations */

/**
* @brief
*/
virtual class MediaStream *CreateMediaStream( class MediaHandlerInfo *pMediaHandlerInfo, int iPK_MediaProvider, vector<class EntertainArea *> &vectEntertainArea, MediaDevice *pMediaDevice, int iPK_Users, deque<MediaFile *> *dequeFilenames, int StreamID );

/**
* @brief Start media playback
*/
virtual bool StartMedia( class MediaStream *pMediaStream,string &sError );

/**
* @brief Stop media playback
*/
virtual bool StopMedia( class MediaStream *pMediaStream );

virtual MediaDevice *FindMediaDeviceForEntertainArea(EntertainArea *pEntertainArea);
/**
* @brief We need to see all media inserted events so we can start the appropriate media devices
*/

MAMEMediaStream *ConvertToMAMEMediaStream(MediaStream *pMediaStream, string callerIdMessage = "");

//<-dceag-h-b->
/*
AUTO-GENERATED SECTION
Do not change the declarations
*/

/*
*****DATA***** accessors inherited from base class
int DATA_Get_Priority();

*****EVENT***** accessors inherited from base class
void EVENT_Playback_Info_Changed(string sMediaDescription,string sSectionDescription,string sSynposisDescription);

*****COMMANDS***** we need to implement
*/

//<-dceag-h-e->
};

//<-dceag-end-b->
}
#endif
//<-dceag-end-e->
//<-dceag-const2-b->!

</pre>

Some notes here, basically, these are the methods you need to get a working media plugin.

*continue*

{{Needs Programmer Review}}

Template:Needs Peer Review

2009-08-27T13:50:37Z

Ray N: New page: {| style="background: beige; border: 1px solid #f96; margin: auto; padding: .2em; width: auto;" |- | rowspan=2 style="padding: 4px;" | |'''This article needs to be reviewed by other Devel...

{| style="background: beige; border: 1px solid #f96; margin: auto; padding: .2em; width: auto;"
|-
| rowspan=2 style="padding: 4px;" |
|'''This article needs to be reviewed by other Developers'''
|}

<includeonly>[[Category: Needs Peer Review]]</includeonly>

<noinclude>
To add this to an article use <nowiki>{{Needs Peer Review}}</nowiki>
</noinclude>

Creating a Media Plug-in

2009-08-27T13:48:21Z

Ray N: fixing templates, didn't touch page contents

{{Needs Peer Review}}
To create the Media Plug-In, you must

* Create the DCE Skeleton
* Implement the methods. at very least, the base plugin subclass, and a media stream subclass.

== Implementing DCE Skeleton ==

First, you must create the appropriate information in the database so that the [[DCEGen]] tool can create a C++ skeleton for you. The new templates can be created using the [[Device Templates]] menu.

=== The Necessary DCE Parameters ===

* Create a DCE device implemented in C++, make sure to use the category "Media Router Plugins < Plugins for the Router"
* Plug-ins traditionally have the name of the paired media player and the name "Plug-In" i.e. "[[MAME Plug-In]]"
* Use the following form as a template:
** This Device is Controlled by Category: DCERouter
** Is PlugIn should be selected
** Device Data should have the following added to it:
*** #85 Priority - set a default value of 70, check Allowed to Modify
** Events should have the following added to it:
*** Playback Info Changed

Once this is done, use [[DCEGen]] to create the appropriate devices.

Now that the code is created, you need to implement the following methods:

This is inside MAME_Plugin.h

<pre>

//<-dceag-d-b->
#ifndef MAME_PlugIn_h
#define MAME_PlugIn_h

// DCE Implemenation for #1906 MAME Plug-In

#include "Gen_Devices/MAME_PlugInBase.h"
//<-dceag-d-e->

#include "../Media_Plugin/Media_Plugin.h"
#include "../Media_Plugin/MediaStream.h"
#include "../Media_Plugin/MediaHandlerBase.h"

#include "MAMEMediaStream.h"

//<-dceag-decl-b->
namespace DCE
{
class MAME_PlugIn : public MAME_PlugIn_Command, public MediaHandlerBase
{
//<-dceag-decl-e->

pluto_pthread_mutex_t m_MAMEMediaMutex; //protect us from ourselves

//<-dceag-const-b->
public:
// Constructors/Destructor
MAME_PlugIn(int DeviceID, string ServerAddress,bool bConnectEventHandler=true,bool bLocalMode=false,class Router *pRouter=NULL);
virtual ~MAME_PlugIn();
virtual bool GetConfig();
virtual bool Register();
virtual void ReceivedCommandForChild(DeviceData_Impl *pDeviceData_Impl,string &sCMD_Result,Message *pMessage);
virtual void ReceivedUnknownCommand(string &sCMD_Result,Message *pMessage);
//<-dceag-const-e->

// Private member variables

protected:

class Orbiter_Plugin *m_pOrbiter_Plugin;

/** Mandatory implementations */

/**
* @brief
*/
virtual class MediaStream *CreateMediaStream( class MediaHandlerInfo *pMediaHandlerInfo, int iPK_MediaProvider, vector<class EntertainArea *> &vectEntertainArea, MediaDevice *pMediaDevice, int iPK_Users, deque<MediaFile *> *dequeFilenames, int StreamID );

/**
* @brief Start media playback
*/
virtual bool StartMedia( class MediaStream *pMediaStream,string &sError );

/**
* @brief Stop media playback
*/
virtual bool StopMedia( class MediaStream *pMediaStream );

virtual MediaDevice *FindMediaDeviceForEntertainArea(EntertainArea *pEntertainArea);
/**
* @brief We need to see all media inserted events so we can start the appropriate media devices
*/

MAMEMediaStream *ConvertToMAMEMediaStream(MediaStream *pMediaStream, string callerIdMessage = "");

//<-dceag-h-b->
/*
AUTO-GENERATED SECTION
Do not change the declarations
*/

/*
*****DATA***** accessors inherited from base class
int DATA_Get_Priority();

*****EVENT***** accessors inherited from base class
void EVENT_Playback_Info_Changed(string sMediaDescription,string sSectionDescription,string sSynposisDescription);

*****COMMANDS***** we need to implement
*/

//<-dceag-h-e->
};

//<-dceag-end-b->
}
#endif
//<-dceag-end-e->
//<-dceag-const2-b->!

</pre>

Some notes here, basically, these are the methods you need to get a working media plugin.

*continue*

Tv grab nl py

2009-08-27T13:32:44Z

Ray N: Changed category to Video

{{stub}}
[[Category: Video]]

tv_grab_nl_py is an XMLTV-compatible grabber for Dutch television that uses TVGids.nl as it's source.

[http://code.google.com/p/tvgrabnlpy/wiki/Installatie Install] the latest version from [http://code.google.com/p/tvgrabnlpy/downloads/list here]. Basically in a nutshell:
sudo su -
wget <nowiki>http://tvgrabnlpy.googlecode.com/files/</nowiki>'''tv_grab_nl_py-''r92'''''
[ -e /usr/bin/tv_grab_nl ] && mv -iv /usr/bin/tv_grab_nl /usr/bin/tv_grab_nl.backup
cp -v tv_grab_nl_py-r92 /usr/bin/tv_grab_nl
chmod -v a+x /usr/bin/tv_grab_nl

Unsure on how to configure it properly yet...

For/as root:
tv_grab_nl --configure
nano .mythtv/tv_grab_nl.xmltv
mythfilldatabase --manual

For/as linuxmce:
su - linuxmce
tv_grab_nl --configure
ln -v .xmltv/tv_grab_nl_py.conf .mythtv/tv_grab_nl.xmltv
nano .mythtv/tv_grab_nl.xmltv
mythfilldatabase --manual

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1110

2009-08-27T01:50:19Z

Ray N:

{| align="right"
| __TOC__
|}
[[Category: Video]]
[[Category: TV Cards]]
== Installation ==
Plug the card in an available PCI slot, and connect the antenna cable.

=== Kernel Configuration ===
This only needs to be done once (but it doesn't hurt to do more times):

# create a config file to tell the kernel driver which card it actually is
# remove any existing instances of ''saa7134_dvb'' from the modules list
# add ''saa7134_dvb'' (again) to the list of modules to start at boot-time
# restart the system

In other words:

sudo echo 'options saa7134 card=104' >/etc/modprobe.d/saa7134
sudo sed -e '/^[^#]*saa7134_dvb/d' -i /etc/modules
sudo echo 'saa7134_dvb' >>/etc/modules
sudo reboot

Now the card should be properly recognized (sample from '''dmesg'''):

saa7130/34: v4l2 driver version 0.2.14 loaded
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:05.0[A] -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
saa7133[0]: found at 0000:03:05.0, rev: 209, irq: 22, latency: 64, mmio: 0xfdeff000
saa7133[0]: subsystem: 0070:6700, board: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR1110 DVB-T/Hybrid [card=104,insmod option]
saa7133[0]: board init: gpio is 400000
saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 00: 70 00 00 67 54 20 1c 00 43 43 a9 1c 55 d2 b2 92
saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 10: ff ff ff 08 ff 20 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 20: 01 40 01 32 32 01 01 33 88 ff 00 a3 ff ff ff ff
saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 30: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 40: ff 21 00 c2 96 10 03 32 15 60 ff ff ff ff ff ff
saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 50: ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 60: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 70: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tuner 0-004b: chip found @ 0x96 (saa7133[0])
tuner 0-004b: setting tuner address to 61
tuner 0-004b: type set to tda8290+75a
saa7133[0]: registered device video0 [v4l2]
saa7133[0]: registered device vbi0
saa7133[0]: registered device radio0
saa7134 ALSA driver for DMA sound loaded
saa7133[0]/alsa: saa7133[0] at 0xfdeff000 irq 22 registered as card -2
DVB: registering new adapter (saa7133[0]).
DVB: registering frontend 0 (Philips TDA10046H DVB-T)...

The devices are in place as well:

ls -l /dev/dvb/adapter0/
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 4 2007-08-06 06:52 demux0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 5 2007-08-06 06:52 dvr0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 3 2007-08-06 06:52 frontend0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 7 2007-08-06 06:52 net0

=== MythTV Configuration ===

Now it can be configured with the ''MythTV setup'' option from the ''Computing'' screen in LinuxMCE.
* Card type: DVB DTV capture card (v3.x)

== See also ==

* LinuxTV wiki: [http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-HVR-1110 Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1110], [http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Testing_your_DVB_device Testing your DVB device]
* Gentoo wiki: [http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_saa7134 HARDWARE saa7134]
* Installing and using MythTV [http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO.html]
* MythTV Ubuntu Installation Guide [http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_ubuntu.php]

----

And that's about as far as I got. Unfortunately I don't see any channels (they're all black) and having never received DVB-T before I'm not even sure if I can get a signal. Maybe I just need a better antenna but MythTV doesn't seem entirely stable either.

To be continued...
-- [[User:Zaerc|Zaerc]] 00:00, 6 August 2007 (MST)

----

Both my hunches seem right, as it turns out the instability is MythTV not agreeing with the graphics chipset drivers of my mainboard. Starting TV on another Media Director informs me that:
You should have gotten a channel lock
by now. You can continue to wait for
a signal, or you can change the
channels with Up and Down, change
input's (C), capture cards (Y), etc.
(in large and friendly letters). Up and Down do indeed change the channels and I see the program information on what should be playing. So I guess the last hurdle is to get a signal and lock onto a channel...

Stay tuned...
-- [[User:Zaerc|Zaerc]] 15:10, 6 August 2007 (MST)

----

After some extensive messing around I have improved the instructions a bit, the firmware part turned out not to be necessary, and a kernel-module needed for dvb is now added to ''/etc/modules''. Once I figure out how to configure MythTV (properly) I'll describe that too. And then to think that I don't even like watching TV, oh well it comes with the package. ;^)

-- [[User:Zaerc|Zaerc]] 05:36, 25 August 2007 (MST)

ChangeLog 0710 Beta4

2009-08-27T00:03:59Z

Ray N: Fixed category

[[Category: Versions]]
• Added subtitles support in Xine_Player

• Support for ocg files in OrbiterSDL

• Telecom, UpdateMedia improvements and fixes

• Latest fixes for MythTV

• Media playback and ripping fixes

• Added support for ELO and 3M touchscreen

• Improvements for gc100

• Webadmin Screensaver page improvements

• Fixes for dynamic providers list in phone lines.

• Fixes for sqlCVS client webpage to allow the user to commit DB changes

• Ripped DVDs with ISO extension now have DVD menu available

• Ported support of 24-bit FLAC from recent FFMPEG

• Fixed possible issue with Xine - seeking behind the end of movie

• Fixed broadcasting for bookmarked media

• Cleaning list of installed Add Software applications if M/D was reinstalled

• Launch Manager on Media Station will retry attempts to connect Core forever now - preventing timeout if Core is starting slower

• It is now possible to [[disable autoplay]] for DVDs/AudioCDs

• MS MCE Transceiver will now support IR blasting

CD Installer:

• Fix installation of nvidia drivers when installing without internet

• Fix composite manager when running UIDiag

Storage Devices:

• Fixed issues with raid status not reporting correctly on MDs

• Fixed disk free space detection

• Fixed samba/nfs shares offline detection

• Switched default from cifs to smbfs for samba shares

• Wrapper for mount to workaround a bug in umount.smbfs that left /etc/mtab unsync’d

• Improved password detection for samba shares

• Fixed internal drive detection for MDs

Other:

• Began adding support to change the internal network address after install

'''Note''': these are changes between SVN revisions 19409 (0710 beta3) and 19829 (0710 beta4)

ChangeLog 0710 Beta3

2009-08-27T00:03:37Z

Ray N: Fixed category

[[Category: Versions]]
*''' Added support for amd64'''

*''' Added support for mixed amd64/i386 md’s '''

*''' Added support for 1080p resolution. It work great with the masking UI, but it’s slow with alpha blended UI.'''

*''' Upgraded xine to latest version'''

*''' Latest mythtv packages and fixes for lmce mythtv stuff'''

*''' Integrated VDR to LMCE and added support for few dvb-s cards'''

*''' Telecom refactoring, most of the issues fixed (you can now easily create a conference, leave a conference, merge two conferences, use an assisted transfer, etc). Upgraded to asterisk 1.4.10'''

*''' Added latest nVidia drivers (169.07 Dec 20th)'''

*''' General:'''

• Basic UPNP Support, both server and client

• Upgraded the slim server packages to support the latest devices.

• Automatically use swap partitions that exist on internal drives of Diskless MDs

* '''Storage Devices:'''

• Write support for ntfs internal drives using ntfs-3g

• Ability to customizable mount type for windows shares using cifs or smbfs by changing the 'FileSystem' device data.

• Fixed bug that caused the windows share that contained spaces in the name to not be able to mount.

• Fix anoying bug that caused a message to be displayed whenever a windows shares server got detected, even if it was previously
detected and configured.

* '''Update System:'''

• Messages describing the update are displayed in orbiter whenever an update is available.

• Fixed bug that caused the update to not work when the internet connection dropped during the upgrade. Added logging.

* '''Backup/Restore Using Web Admin:'''

• Floorplans and Asterisk configs are backuped correctly now.

• Diskless MD get rebuild after the update.

* '''OrbiterGL improvements and fixes'''

• Implemented reference counting for graphic objects

• Show/hide alert popups also when xshape is applied to Orbiter's window (e.g. : DVD menu, firefox, etc.)

• Re-activate repeated keys when going to KDE desktop. Activating Orbiter will disable the repeated keys.

• Fixes for UTF-8

• Added CompositeHelper to OrbiterGL. We won't need SDL patch anymore to use alpha blended UI. Upgraded to latest SDL (unpatch) version.

* '''UpdateMedia improvements and fixes'''

• UpdateMedia to save its coverarts to picture id3 tags and also load coverarts for picture id3 tags.

• Fixed bug in UpdateMedia reseting file format and sub-media type

• Fixed bug in Orbiter saving in the screen history the visibility context for the new screen instead of the old screen.

• Fixed “cannot self in maplock” issue.

• UpdateMedia refactor : isolated FileHandler for saving and loading attributes to a different class.

• disabled adding of local files second time (via /mnt/upnp folder)

• skip UPnP service directories

* '''Xine_Player fixes:'''

• fixed crash when zoom level is too low/high

• minimize window when starting Xine, so it will be not visible on initial startup

* '''HD-DVD and Bluray playback:'''

• added basic playback/navigation/bookmarking/screenshots functionality, currently for ripped HD-DVD/Bluray disks only (install hd-bd-ripping-tools package from AddSoftware to enable this feature; reboot system)

• added MPlayer DCE device: system should auto-switch between MPlayer and Xine depending on movie type

* '''sqlCVS:'''

• fixed server-side queries to work with MySQL 5.0

* '''LMCE Launch Manager:'''

• before starting Media Station, reloading router when new skin is available

• on core startup, make LM retry 10 times before failing to connect to router

* '''Fixes and improvements in webadmin:'''

• Added VDR setup page.

• Redesigned device template picker in order to avoid quick typing js issues, and also to improve speed (the device template is not searched as you type, it's searched after the user press enter or click "go").

• Fixed the issue with special characters in files and directories names.

• Changed phonelines scripts to call to /usr/pluto/bin/create_amp_phoneline.sh [provider keyword] [username]
[password] [phone number] [host] instead of direct call to Pearl script; changed providers list to be dynamical.

• Replaced PHP code with BASH script for creating speed dial scenarios.

• Updated telecom scenarios to use MakeCall command instead of deprecated PL_Originate.

• Added screen savers page.

• Fixed phone status script.

• Replaced AMP with FreePBX.

• Added HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disk media type to cover art page.

• Added pagination and multiple checkboxes for multi-select to media browser.

• Upload pic for rooms is converted to png to be displayed both on page and on orbiter.

• Fixed logs names displayed from Web admin for consistency.

ChangeLog 0710

2009-08-27T00:02:58Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Versions]]
*''' Added support for amd64'''

*''' Added support for mixed amd64/i386 md’s '''

*''' Added support for 1080p resolution. It works great with the masking UI, but it’s slow with alpha blended UI.'''

*''' Upgraded xine to latest version'''

*''' Latest mythtv packages and fixes for lmce mythtv stuff'''

*''' Integrated VDR to LMCE and added support for few dvb-s cards'''

*''' Telecom refactoring, most of the issues fixed (you can now easily create a conference, leave a conference, merge two conferences, use an assisted transfer, etc). Upgraded to asterisk 1.4.10'''

*''' Added latest nVidia drivers (169.12 Feb 26th)'''

*''' General:'''

• Basic UPNP Support, both server and client

• Upgraded the slim server packages to support the latest devices.

• Automatically use swap partitions that exist on internal drives of Diskless MDs

* '''Storage Devices:'''

• Write support for ntfs internal drives using ntfs-3g

• Ability to customizable mount type for windows shares using cifs or smbfs by changing the 'FileSystem' device data.

• Fixed bug that caused the windows share that contained spaces in the name to not be able to mount.

• Fix anoying bug that caused a message to be displayed whenever a windows shares server got detected, even if it was previously
detected and configured.

* '''Update System:'''

• Messages describing the update are displayed in orbiter whenever an update is available.

• Fixed bug that caused the update to not work when the internet connection dropped during the upgrade. Added logging.

* '''Backup/Restore Using Web Admin:'''

• Floorplans and Asterisk configs are backuped correctly now.

• Diskless MD get rebuild after the update.

* '''OrbiterGL improvements and fixes'''

• Implemented reference counting for graphic objects

• Show/hide alert popups also when xshape is applied to Orbiter's window (e.g. : DVD menu, firefox, etc.)

• Re-activate repeated keys when going to KDE desktop. Activating Orbiter will disable the repeated keys.

• Fixes for UTF-8

• Added CompositeHelper to OrbiterGL. We won't need SDL patch anymore to use alpha blended UI. Upgraded to latest SDL (unpatch) version.

* '''UpdateMedia improvements and fixes'''

• UpdateMedia to save its coverarts to picture id3 tags and also load coverarts for picture id3 tags.

• Fixed bug in UpdateMedia reseting file format and sub-media type

• Fixed bug in Orbiter saving in the screen history the visibility context for the new screen instead of the old screen.

• Fixed “cannot self in maplock” issue.

• UpdateMedia refactor : isolated FileHandler for saving and loading attributes to a different class.

• disabled adding of local files second time (via /mnt/upnp folder)

• skip UPnP service directories

* '''Xine_Player fixes:'''

• fixed crash when zoom level is too low/high

• minimize window when starting Xine, so it will be not visible on initial startup

* '''HD-DVD and Bluray playback:'''

• added basic playback/navigation/bookmarking/screenshots functionality, currently for ripped HD-DVD/Bluray disks only (install hd-bd-ripping-tools package from AddSoftware to enable this feature; reboot system)

• added MPlayer DCE device: system should auto-switch between MPlayer and Xine depending on movie type

* '''sqlCVS:'''

• fixed server-side queries to work with MySQL 5.0

* '''LMCE Launch Manager:'''

• before starting Media Station, reloading router when new skin is available

• on core startup, make LM retry 10 times before failing to connect to router

* '''Fixes and improvements in webadmin:'''

• Added VDR setup page.

• Redesigned device template picker in order to avoid quick typing js issues, and also to improve speed (the device template is not searched as you type, it's searched after the user press enter or click "go").

• Fixed the issue with special characters in files and directories names.

• Changed phonelines scripts to call to /usr/pluto/bin/create_amp_phoneline.sh [provider keyword] [username]
[password] [phone number] [host] instead of direct call to Pearl script; changed providers list to be dynamical.

• Replaced PHP code with BASH script for creating speed dial scenarios.

• Updated telecom scenarios to use MakeCall command instead of deprecated PL_Originate.

• Added screen savers page.

• Fixed phone status script.

• Replaced AMP with FreePBX.

• Added HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disk media type to cover art page.

• Added pagination and multiple checkboxes for multi-select to media browser.

• Upload pic for rooms is converted to png to be displayed both on page and on orbiter.

• Fixed logs names displayed from Web admin for consistency.

* ''' CD Installer:'''

• Fix installation of nvidia drivers when installing without internet

• Fix composite manager when running UIDiag

* ''' Storage Devices:'''

• Fixed issues with raid status not reporting correctly on MDs

• Fixed disk free space detection

• Fixed samba/nfs shares offline detection

• Switched default from cifs to smbfs for samba shares

• Wrapper for mount to workaround a bug in umount.smbfs that left /etc/mtab unsync’d

• Improved password detection for samba shares

• Fixed internal drive detection for MDs

* ''' Others:'''

• Added subtitles support in Xine_Player

• Support for ocg files in OrbiterSDL

• Telecom, UpdateMedia improvements and fixes

• Latest fixes for MythTV

• Media playback and ripping fixes

• Added support for ELO and 3M touchscreen

• Improvements for gc100

• Webadmin Screensaver page improvements

• Fixes for dynamic providers list in phone lines.

• Fixes for sqlCVS client webpage to allow the user to commit DB changes

• Ripped DVDs with ISO extension now have DVD menu available

• Ported support of 24-bit FLAC from recent FFMPEG

• Fixed possible issue with Xine - seeking behind the end of movie

• Fixed broadcasting for bookmarked media

• Cleaning list of installed Add Software applications if M/D was reinstalled

• Launch Manager on Media Station will retry attempts to connect Core forever now - preventing timeout if Core is starting slower

• It is now possible to [[disable autoplay]] for DVDs/AudioCDs

• MS MCE Transceiver will now support IR blasting

Make things happen at sunrise/sunset

2009-08-27T00:00:20Z

Ray N:

[[Category: tutorials]]
<h1>How to set it up</h1>
 Needs to know your longitude and latitude in order to fire the sunrise and sunset events. In LinuxMCE admin, choose a wizard, basic info, installation. Our database has the longitude and latitude information for approximately 30,000 cities worldwide. Just choose your city from the list. In the unlikely event that you are not near any of those cities in the list, then you'll need to provide your longitude and latitude yourself. Note that any changes you make on that page will take effect after the next reboot or quick reload router. 

 At each sunrise and sunset LinuxMCE will fire a sunrise/sunset event. In LinuxMCE admin, choose a wizard, events, respond to events. Type or logical description for your event, such as "turn on lights at sunrise". Then choose sunrise or sunset from the list, click add, and then specify the command you want to be executed. Note that you can create as many event handlers for each type of event is you want. So you can have "turn on lights at sunrise" and "start watering lawn at sunrise" which both respond to the same event. 

<h1>How to use it</h1>

<h1>Programmer's guide</h1>
The logic is in Event_Plugin.

Hardware Selection Portal

2009-08-26T22:45:01Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Documentation | ]]
{{stub}}
The selection of appropriate and compatible hardware components for your LinuxMCE system is critical to its smooth installation, reliability, and performance. The careful selection of some hardware components is more critical than others.

There are various resources available to help you do a good job selecting hardware components. The resources fall into a handful of categories:
*'''Guides and Howto''' topics are dedicated to the selection of particular types of hardware. These guides are quite general and serve to educate you on the relevant technical issues regarding hardware selection. They usually do not recommend specific hardware models and require quite a bit of legwork and learning for you to properly select particular models of hardware. On the plus side, though, the guides and Howtos strive to provide you with enough information to vet ''any'' hardware for use with LinuxMCE.
*'''[[:Category:Hardware|Hardware categories]]''' where information about particular models of hardware components can be found. The advantage of the hardware categories is that they often contain concrete information about other users' experience with particular models of hardware. The breadth of hardware models covered, however, is limited and far from exhaustive. In other words, the information about the models that are listed can be very helpful, but if the model you are interested in isn't in the list, they will be of little help.
*'''[[:Category:User Setups|User setup pages]]''' can give you insights into what hardware other users are actually using in practice.
*'''The Forums'''

===Computer Hardware Selection===
*[[How to Select Mainboards for Your LinuxMCE System|Howto: Selecting a Mainboard]]
*[[How to Select Components for Your LinuxMCE Computers|Howto: Selecting other Computer Components]]
*[[:Category:Mainboards]]
*[[:Category:Graphic Cards]]
*[[:Category:Network Adapters]]
*[[:Category:Soundcards]]
*[[:Category:Cases]]
*[[:Category:Nettops]]

[[Category: Documentation| ]]
*[[LinuxMCE Home]]
**[[Installation]]
***[[Equipment]]
****[[PC Hardware & Peripherals]]
*****[[Why dual network cards?]]
****[[Recommended Accessories]]
***[[Software]]
****[[Building from source]]
****[[Kick-Start CD]]
****[[Installers]]
*****[[Windows]]
*****[[Installing on a new platform]]
****[[Network Boot for Media Directors]]
****[[Encrypted DVD's]]
***[[Wiring Considerations]]
***[[Choosing Locations]]
***[[Quick Start Guides]]
****[[Picking the right components]]
****[[Installing the software]]
****[[Installing the hardware]]
****[[Tell LinuxMCE about your home]]
*****[[Testing and troubleshooting devices]]
*****[[Real world example]]
*****[[Setting up MythTV]]
****[[Using LinuxMCE]]
**[[User's Manual]]
***[[Security & Privacy Issues]]
***[[What can I do with LinuxMCE?]]
****[[Control LinuxMCE using a Windows device as an Orbiter]]
****[[Control LinuxMCE using a Symbian Series 60 mobile phone with Bl]]
****[[Control LinuxMCE using other types of mobile phones]]
****[[Control LinuxMCE using an Infrared remote]]
****[[Add support for new remote controls]]
****[[Automatic diskless boot of media directors]]
****[[Change the look and feel of the Orbiter]]
****[[Create my own skins or GUI for LinuxMCE]]
****[[Translate the GUI into another language]]
****[[Use network audio players for a whole-house music solution]]
****[[Control a TV or cable/satellite box]]
****[[Watch a DVD/Listen to a CD]]
****[[Have LinuxMCE automatically control the TV and Stereo]]
****[[Rip a CD/DVD to the Core]]
****[[Watch/Listen to media stored on the Core]]
****[[Play the same media in multiple rooms simultaneously]]
****[[Search for media by attributes using the Orbiters]]
****[[Flag media stored on the core as private]]
****[[Flag whatever media I am watching now as private]]
****[[Catalog media with attributes]]
****[[Control regular A/V equipment]]
****[[Control A/V equipment with RS232/USB/Ethernet]]
****[[Make LinuxMCE do something when I start media]]
****[[Have my media follow me]]
****[[Make announcements]]
****[[Control the media director's volume using either a receiver]]
****[[Use a satellite/cable box with the PVR]]
***[[What modules are in development?]]
****[[Control lights/climate using scenarios]]
****[[Control lights or climate with a floorplan]]
****[[Make things happen at set times or intervals]]
****[[Make things happen when I enter a room]]
****[[Have my lighting or climate settings follow me]]
****[[Make things happen at sunrise/sunset]]
****[[Have external devices control LinuxMCE]]
****[[Monitor surveillance cameras]]
****[[Arm or disarm the alarm using the Orbiters]]
****[[Automatically take pictures when sensors are disturbed]]
****[[Have LinuxMCE notify me of security alerts]]
**[[Programmer's Guide]]
***[[Why should I use the LinuxMCE platform for my project?]]
***[[Overview of the software modules]]
***[[A new concept in collaborative development]]
***[[Adding support for home automation devices]]
**[[LinuxMCE Admin Website]]
***[[Wizard Pages]]
****[[Basic Info]]
*****[[Users]]
*****[[Rooms]]
****[[Devices]]
*****[[Orbiters]]
*****[[Interfaces]]
*****[[Devices Security]]
*****[[Lights]]
*****[[Media Directors]]
*****[[Climate]]
*****[[AV Devices]]
******[[Infrared Codes]]
*******[[Learning/typing my own code]]
******[[AV Properties]]
******[[TOAD vs Discrete Codes]]
*****[[Floorplans]]
*****[[Surveillance Cameras]]
*****[[Phone Lines]]
*****[[Phone Extensions]]
****[[Scenarios]]
*****[[Lighting Scenarios]]
*****[[Climate Scenarios]]
*****[[Media Scenarios]]
*****[[Scenarios Security]]
*****[[Telecom]]
****[[Events]]
*****[[Respond to Events]]
*****[[Timed Events]]
*****[[Active sensors]]
*****[[Security-Video Links]]
*****[[Notifications]]
*****[[Settings By Alert Type]]
*****[[Outside Access]]
***[[Advanced Pages]]
****[[Device Templates]]
*****[[List Page]]
*****[[Edit Page]]
******[[Design Objects]]
****[[Packages]]
****[[Advanced Pages Devices]]
****[[Advanced Pages Scenarios]]
****[[Boot Sequence]]
****[[Network Settings]]
****[[Add Software]]
****[[Privacy Settings]]
****[[Advanced Pages Events]]
****[[DCE]]
****[[Device Status]]
****[[Execute Scenarios]]
****[[Alert Logs]]
****[[Mode Change Logs]]
****[[Status]]
****[[View Cameras]]
**[[LinuxMCE Home Software]]
***[[DCE Router]]
****[[User's manual]]
****[[DCE Router Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[Command Line Options]]
*****[[Message Interceptors]]
***[[Orbiter]]
****[[Orbiter User's manual]]
*****[[Who Am I, Where Am I]]
******[[The Main Menu]]
******[[Maps]]
****[[Orbiter Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[Mobile Orbiter]]
*****[[Designer]]
******[[Designer User's manual]]
******[[Text Formatting Options]]
*****[[sqlCVS]]
******[[sqlCVS User's manual]]
*******[[Naming of Foreign Keys, Indirect Keys, External Keys]]
*******[[What do the psc_ fields do?]]
*******[[What do the psc tables do?]]
******[[sqlCVS Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[LinuxMCE Kick-Start]]
*****[[LinuxMCE Orbiter Symbian]]
******[[LinuxMCE Orbiter Symbian User's manual]]
******[[LinuxMCE Orbiter Symbian Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[BD - Bidirectional command processor]]
*****[[RA - Client/Server Request-Action]]
*****[[sql2cpp]]
*****[[LinuxMCE Libraries DCE]]
******[[Does the device Implement DCE?]]
******[[Understanding Controlled Via (aka Parent)]]
******[[Categories]]
******[[Make a DCE Device in 5 minutes]]
*******[[GSD]]
*******[[Cpp]]
******[[Why DCE complements UPNP, XAP, XPL and other standards?]]
******[[Plain Text DCE Messages]]
*****[[LinuxMCE_main database]]
*****[[Orbiter Generator]]
*****[[DCE Generator]]
*****[[DHCP Plug and Play]]
*****[[LinuxMCE Scripts]]
*****[[Do I want a dedicated Core?]]
****[[LinuxMCE DCE Devices]]
*****[[Bluetooth Dongle]]
******[[Bluetooth Dongle User's manual]]
******[[Bluetooth Dongle Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[LinuxMCE App Server]]
******[[LinuxMCE App Server User's manual]]
******[[LinuxMCE App Server Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[LinuxMCE Disk Drive]]
******[[LinuxMCE Disk Drive User's manual]]
******[[LinuxMCE Disk Drive Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[LinuxMCE GC 100]]
******[[LinuxMCE GC 100 User's manual]]
******[[LinuxMCE GC 100 Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[LinuxMCE MythTV Player]]
******[[LinuxMCE MythTV Player User's manual]]
******[[LinuxMCE MythTV Player Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[LinuxMCE Xine Player]]
******[[LinuxMCE Xine Player User's manual]]
******[[LinuxMCE Xine Player Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[LinuxMCE Asterisk]]
******[[AMP Configuration Guide]]
*******[[Broadvoice]]
*******[[Free world dialup]]
*******[[E-Fon (Switzerland)]]
*****[[LinuxMCE Mozilla Plug-in]]
******[[LinuxMCE Mozilla Plug-in User's manual]]
******[[LinuxMCE Mozilla Plug-in Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[LinuxMCE MythTV Plug-in]]
******[[LinuxMCE MythTV Plug-in User's manual]]
******[[LinuxMCE MythTV Plug-in Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[LinuxMCE Standard Plug-ins]]
******[[LinuxMCE Standard Plug-ins User's manual]]
******[[LinuxMCE Standard Plug-ins Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[LinuxMCE Xine Plug-in]]
******[[LinuxMCE Xine Plug-in User's manual]]
******[[LinuxMCE Xine Plug-in Programmer's Guide]]
*****[[Media Identifiers]]
*****[[Bang & Olufsen Systems]]
*****[[CX88 Blackbird Drivers]]
******[[CX88 Blackbird Drivers Programmer's Guide]]
**[[Versions]]
***[[Development status for all modules]]
***[[FAQ#What_do_commercial_appliance_solutions_similar_to_LinuxMCE_cost.3F|What does an appliance solution like LinuxMCE cost?]]
***[[Why buy a licensed LinuxMCE product? What's the difference?]]
***[[FAQ#I.27ve_heard_LinuxMCE_is_just_a_bunch_of_projects_merged_together._Is_that_true.3F_What_is_special_about_LinuxMCE.3F|Do I need LinuxMCE? Can I use the projects by themselves?]]
***[[What if you don't have a driver for my home automation device]]
***[[How are media files organized?]]
***[[What scenarios are created automatically?]]
***[[FAQ#Is_LinuxMCE_a_distribution_or_a_package.3F|I'm a Linux user already. Should I use LinuxMCE's distribution?]]
***[[I want my software to run on LinuxMCE but it isn't open source]]
***[[Will you host, compile and support the LinuxMCE plug-ins for my]]
**[[Open Source Info]]
**[[Troubleshooting]]
***[[Reset the password for the LinuxMCE Admin site]]
***[[I can't access my media files over the network]]
***[[How do I login to a Linux console?]]
*[[LinuxMCEVIP]]
**[[Mirrors | Download Mirrors]]
*[[Online Documentation]]

Text Formatting Options

2009-08-26T22:37:54Z

Ray N:

{{delete}}
when the start of a line has a ~ there will be the following tokens between the next ~ 
 
r right justiy 
l left justicy 
c center justify 
t top align 
m middle align 
b bottom align 
W word wrap 
B bold 
I italic 
U underline 
X or x means opposite of next char, so XW means no word wrap

Hardware

2009-08-26T22:36:00Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Main| ]]
[[Image:Diagram1.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Connectivity possible with LinuxMCE]]

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).

* Check out the [[:Category:Hardware|hardware category]] for an organized list of hardware
* Check out the [[:Category:Newbie_Packs|newbie pack category]] for an organized list of newbie packs
* Check out [[LinuxMCE_Products|LinuxMCE Products]] for a list of products made specifically for LinuxMCE

 
{| align="right"
| __TOC__
|}
=LinuxMCE hardware terms=

Here is a list of LinuxMCE-specific hardware terms.

*[[Core]] - a single PC which is the central server and processor for your LinuxMCE system.
*[[Media Director]] - a PC that is locally connected to your entertainment center AV devices and to the Core through the LAN.
*[[Hybrid]] - a single PC that serves the functions of both the Core and a Media Director.
*[[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.

=Minimum Requirements=

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.

==CPU==
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.

* 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.
* A developer states that his AMD1800+ system can almost encode two MPEG-4 video streams and watch one program simultaneously.
* 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.
* A dual Celeron/450MHz is able to view a 480x480 MPEG-4/3300kbps file created on a different system with 30% CPU usage.
* A P4 2.4GHz machine can encode two 3300Kbps 480x480 MPEG-4 files and simultaneously serve content to a remote frontend.

==Motherboard==
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.

==RAM==
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)).

==Hard Drive==
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.

==DVD/CD-ROM==
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.

==Graphic card==
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).

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.

See the section [[Display_Drivers|Display Drivers]] for the installation steps of the drivers

==TV Video Capture Cards==

Also see the [[:Category:TV Cards|TV Cards Category]].

*pcHDTV manufactures and supplies cards just for Linux that provide HDTV and analog capabilities. An example is the [http://www.pchdtv.com/ HD-5500].

*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.

*[[Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2]] ([http://www.isely.net/pvrusb2/ Linux driver available]) emulates a PVR-x50 card.

*IP Recorder (RTSP, RTS, UDP)

: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.

:If your provider uses 5C encryption on a particular channel, you won't be able to get any content.
*DBoxII or other devices running Neutrino

: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.
*USB Capture Devices.

==Sound Card==

Also see the [[:Category:Audio|Audio Category]].

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.

A common practice for capturing the audio associated with a video is to run a cable from the "audio out" of the video capture card to the "line in" 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.

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.

==Miscellaneous interfaces==
*LinuxMCE supports the Sony VGP-XL1B CD/DVD jukebox (drive + changer), as well as the compatible PowerFile models. These jukeboxes require a FireWire connector.

===FireWire===
*You may use the [[FireWire]] output of the [[Motorola DCT6200]] or the [[Motorola SA3250|SA3250]].

=User Feedback=
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.

= See Also =
*[[:Category:Hardware|Hardware Category]]

=External references=
* [[Useful Accessories]]
* [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport Ubuntu hardware wiki]
* [http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Hardware MythTV hardware wiki]
* [http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+hardware Asterisk hardware]
* [http://forum.linuxmce.com/index.php?topic=1711.0 Building a New Rig]
* [http://forum.linuxmce.com/index.php?topic=1353.msg8341#msg8341 For those wanting to roll your own box ...]

Hardware

2009-08-26T22:30:27Z

Ray N: Reverted edit of Ray N, changed back to last version by Friesian

[[Image:Diagram1.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Connectivity possible with LinuxMCE]]

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).

* Check out the [[:Category:Hardware|hardware category]] for an organized list of hardware
* Check out the [[:Category:Newbie_Packs|newbie pack category]] for an organized list of newbie packs
* Check out [[LinuxMCE_Products|LinuxMCE Products]] for a list of products made specifically for LinuxMCE

 
{| align="right"
| __TOC__
|}
=LinuxMCE hardware terms=

Here is a list of LinuxMCE-specific hardware terms.

*[[Core]] - a single PC which is the central server and processor for your LinuxMCE system.
*[[Media Director]] - a PC that is locally connected to your entertainment center AV devices and to the Core through the LAN.
*[[Hybrid]] - a single PC that serves the functions of both the Core and a Media Director.
*[[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.

=Minimum Requirements=

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.

==CPU==
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.

* 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.
* A developer states that his AMD1800+ system can almost encode two MPEG-4 video streams and watch one program simultaneously.
* 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.
* A dual Celeron/450MHz is able to view a 480x480 MPEG-4/3300kbps file created on a different system with 30% CPU usage.
* A P4 2.4GHz machine can encode two 3300Kbps 480x480 MPEG-4 files and simultaneously serve content to a remote frontend.

==Motherboard==
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.

==RAM==
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)).

==Hard Drive==
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.

==DVD/CD-ROM==
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.

==Graphic card==
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).

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.

See the section [[Display_Drivers|Display Drivers]] for the installation steps of the drivers

==TV Video Capture Cards==

Also see the [[:Category:TV Cards|TV Cards Category]].

*pcHDTV manufactures and supplies cards just for Linux that provide HDTV and analog capabilities. An example is the [http://www.pchdtv.com/ HD-5500].

*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.

*[[Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2]] ([http://www.isely.net/pvrusb2/ Linux driver available]) emulates a PVR-x50 card.

*IP Recorder (RTSP, RTS, UDP)

: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.

:If your provider uses 5C encryption on a particular channel, you won't be able to get any content.
*DBoxII or other devices running Neutrino

: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.
*USB Capture Devices.

==Sound Card==

Also see the [[:Category:Audio|Audio Category]].

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.

A common practice for capturing the audio associated with a video is to run a cable from the "audio out" of the video capture card to the "line in" 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.

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.

==Miscellaneous interfaces==
*LinuxMCE supports the Sony VGP-XL1B CD/DVD jukebox (drive + changer), as well as the compatible PowerFile models. These jukeboxes require a FireWire connector.

===FireWire===
*You may use the [[FireWire]] output of the [[Motorola DCT6200]] or the [[Motorola SA3250|SA3250]].

=User Feedback=
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.

= See Also =
*[[:Category:Hardware|Hardware Category]]

=External references=
* [[Useful Accessories]]
* [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport Ubuntu hardware wiki]
* [http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Hardware MythTV hardware wiki]
* [http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+hardware Asterisk hardware]
* [http://forum.linuxmce.com/index.php?topic=1711.0 Building a New Rig]
* [http://forum.linuxmce.com/index.php?topic=1353.msg8341#msg8341 For those wanting to roll your own box ...]

Hardware

2009-08-26T20:36:01Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Hardware]]
[[Image:Diagram1.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Connectivity possible with LinuxMCE]]

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).

* Check out the [[:Category:Hardware|hardware category]] for an organized list of hardware
* Check out the [[:Category:Newbie_Packs|newbie pack category]] for an organized list of newbie packs
* Check out [[LinuxMCE_Products|LinuxMCE Products]] for a list of products made specifically for LinuxMCE

 
{| align="right"
| __TOC__
|}
=LinuxMCE hardware terms=

Here is a list of LinuxMCE-specific hardware terms.

*[[Core]] - a single PC which is the central server and processor for your LinuxMCE system.
*[[Media Director]] - a PC that is locally connected to your entertainment center AV devices and to the Core through the LAN.
*[[Hybrid]] - a single PC that serves the functions of both the Core and a Media Director.
*[[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.

=Minimum Requirements=

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.

==CPU==
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.

* 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.
* A developer states that his AMD1800+ system can almost encode two MPEG-4 video streams and watch one program simultaneously.
* 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.
* A dual Celeron/450MHz is able to view a 480x480 MPEG-4/3300kbps file created on a different system with 30% CPU usage.
* A P4 2.4GHz machine can encode two 3300Kbps 480x480 MPEG-4 files and simultaneously serve content to a remote frontend.

==Motherboard==
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.

==RAM==
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)).

==Hard Drive==
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.

==DVD/CD-ROM==
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.

==Graphic card==
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).

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.

See the section [[Display_Drivers|Display Drivers]] for the installation steps of the drivers

==TV Video Capture Cards==

Also see the [[:Category:TV Cards|TV Cards Category]].

*pcHDTV manufactures and supplies cards just for Linux that provide HDTV and analog capabilities. An example is the [http://www.pchdtv.com/ HD-5500].

*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.

*[[Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2]] ([http://www.isely.net/pvrusb2/ Linux driver available]) emulates a PVR-x50 card.

*IP Recorder (RTSP, RTS, UDP)

: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.

:If your provider uses 5C encryption on a particular channel, you won't be able to get any content.
*DBoxII or other devices running Neutrino

: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.
*USB Capture Devices.

==Sound Card==

Also see the [[:Category:Audio|Audio Category]].

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.

A common practice for capturing the audio associated with a video is to run a cable from the "audio out" of the video capture card to the "line in" 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.

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.

==Miscellaneous interfaces==
*LinuxMCE supports the Sony VGP-XL1B CD/DVD jukebox (drive + changer), as well as the compatible PowerFile models. These jukeboxes require a FireWire connector.

===FireWire===
*You may use the [[FireWire]] output of the [[Motorola DCT6200]] or the [[Motorola SA3250|SA3250]].

=User Feedback=
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.

= See Also =
*[[:Category:Hardware|Hardware Category]]

=External references=
* [[Useful Accessories]]
* [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport Ubuntu hardware wiki]
* [http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Hardware MythTV hardware wiki]
* [http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+hardware Asterisk hardware]
* [http://forum.linuxmce.com/index.php?topic=1711.0 Building a New Rig]
* [http://forum.linuxmce.com/index.php?topic=1353.msg8341#msg8341 For those wanting to roll your own box ...]

Vista ICM Panel Development

2009-08-26T20:30:51Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Development]]
This page details the development of the Vista ICM device driver for compatible security panels from Honeywell/Ademco. It intends to show the overview of the development process for the interested developers who wish to create new device support for LinuxMCE.

== Initial Research ==

Initially, you need any specifications that you can retrieve to tell about the device you wish to implement. These can be gotten from a variety of sources, including:

* Manufacturer's website
* Various google searches on the web (try the following search words: ''protocol specification'', ''rs-232, technical reference'', and ''custom installer specification'' along with the '''name''' and '''model''' of your intended device.)
* Existing literature that you may have, check the appendices.

In our case, the following web link proved especially useful: http://bliny.net/blog/post/HoneywellAdemco-Vista-ICM-network.aspx

=== Consideration: C++ or [[Generic Serial Device]] ? ===

This link provided a reverse engineered protocol specification of a device that provides:

* 1 TCP port for sending commands using the HTTP protocol
* 1 UDP port for retrieving panel status information, that is sent to the global broadcast address of the network (INADDR_ANY)

There were two other ports exposed, but were deemed not to be useful for the implementation of this device.

This brings up two very important points:

* '''If your device communicates on more than one port. You can not use the [[Generic Serial Device]].'''
* '''If your device communicates on anything other than TCP or RS232, You can not use the [[Generic Serial Device]].'''

Because we failed both criteria, the device was written as a C++ device.

== Installation of a basic development environment ==

A basic development environment was set up on the target machine. Since we were not dependent on sql2cpp changes common in other plugins such as the [[Media Plugin]], we chose a very quick and simple method for setting up a development environment that entailed:

* Installing SVN
* Getting the SVN checkout.
* Installing enough of the builder to get the build dependencies needed.
* Installing DCEGen
* Installing Sql2cpp

'''NOTE: This method is ONLY meant for device driver development of a single device! For anything more complex, such as plugin development, or working on existing code, YOU SHOULD INSTALL A FULL BUILDER, AND HAVE IT CREATE PACKAGES FOR YOU.'''

=== Installing SVN ===

SVN can be installed using apt.

apt-get install subversion

=== Getting the SVN Checkout ===

At the time of this writing, the SVN checkout of the latest dev code can be retrieved here.

sudo -i
mkdir /home/src
cd /home/src
svn co http://svn.linuxmce.org/svn/branches/LinuxMCE-0810

Wait for the checkout to complete.

=== Installing enough of the builder to get the necessary build dependencies ===

You can then install enough of the builder so that the necessary packages to build everything is installed.

cd /home/src/LinuxMCE-0810/src/Ubuntu_Helpers_NoHardcode
./install.sh
cd /usr/local/lmce-build
prepare-scripts/install-build-pkgs.sh

Let this complete. Lots of packages need to be installed, and this will take a while.

=== Installing DCEGen ===

Install DCEGen by doing the command:

apt-get install pluto-dcegen

=== Installing Sql2cpp ===

Install SQL2cpp by doing the command:

apt-get install pluto-sql2cpp

You now have everything needed to do device driver development.

== Device Template ==

[[Device Templates]] are at the heart of LinuxMCE. They provide needed information so that the system can properly manage a device, such as:

* The Name of the device
* The Category of device (a TV, a Security Panel Interface, a Media Player, etc.)
* [[Device Data]] the device may need to function
* [[Commands]] the device may wish to respond to
* [[Events]] the device may wish to emit for other devices to respond to.
* Information for [[Plug and Play]] such as a MAC address range, or a Vendor/Model pair for PCI or USB

We used the [[Apex Destiny 6100]] as the basis for our device template, opening its window via Advanced > Configuration > [[Device Templates]] in the [[Web Admin]]

=== A quick note before making the new template: Update your DCE repository via SqlCVS! ===

Before we make a new template, we use the Advanced > sqlCVS > update menu to update all the tables in the DCE repository. This is to make sure we are up to date before we make a new template. Please do this.

=== Important notes on the device template ===

We then made a new device template, and told the system that it was to be a device implemented via C++.

Of course, we called it the VistaICM, and it is a Security Interface, so the category is set appropriately. We also specified that the Device is controlled by Category ''Computers - CORE'' So that the system understands that this device will run on the core. This was done because the device is a network device that will have its device driver run on the core, and will be an immediate child of the core in terms of where it is in the device tree.

We then specify that the device is '''IP Based'''

==== Device Data ====
Any device may need any number of parameters that you can change, or that other things can change over time. This is referred to as [[Device Data]] and in our case, we're not needing anything other than a parameter to specify Zone maps, so we select '''Zones''' from the Add Parameter list, and select '''Add'''.

==== Commands ====

Any device should have a number of commands that it can respond to. Some suggested commands may be presented if your device belongs to a certain category. For example, a Security Panel has commands for setting house modes, getting the list of sensors, and reporting child devices. This seems applicable for us, so we check that command group. Spend some time looking through the command groups using the '''Edit Commands''' button to look at the commands present to see if they apply to you.

We simply choose security panel.

==== Events ====

Here, you can specify what events that the device EMITS. This does not mean that the device recieves those events, it merely specifies what events the device can send. For a C++ device, it amounts to creating a series of convienience functions beginning with EVENT_, such as EVENT_Sensor_Tripped(true), etc. that you can call from the program code. As per the Apex 6100 template, I added events for the following:

* Alarm Panel Mode Change
* Fire Alarm
* Sensor Tripped

If I knew I could have introspected child devices, I would have added an event for reporting a child device.

==== Plug and Play ====

Because this is a network device, It can be detected via plug and play. In our case, we look for a MAC address range. The simplest way to get this MAC address range is to use a network tool such as '''nmap''' running as root to get the MAC address of the device. You can then use the returned information to get a MAC address range from this site:

http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/index.shtml

For simplicity, we used the entire MAC address range from AA:BB:CC:00:00:00 to AA:BB:CC:FF:FF:FF. However the entries for the MAC range From and To do not use the hex:colon notation, they are represented in decimal. Use the [[convert_mac]] utility to get the decimal numbers, for example:

linuxmce@dcerouter:/home/src/LinuxMCE-0710/src/Security_Plugin$ /usr/pluto/bin/convert_mac 00:19:45:00:00:00
108531810304
linuxmce@dcerouter:/home/src/LinuxMCE-0710/src/Security_Plugin$ /usr/pluto/bin/convert_mac 00:19:45:FF:FF:FF
108548587519

Using those ranges in the from and to are sufficient enough to be able to detect our device.

I put '''Vista ICM''' in the comment field and pressed Add.

We don't have any related devices, but if we needed another device template to function properly (such as a streamer device to run on the core, or a media streamer plugin, or any children devices that we know we would need), we could specify them here, along with any parameters needed in the form of '''devicedata#|paramvalue|devicedata#|paramvalue'''

We can then press Save, because the device template is finished for now. We will come back later and add the package definition once it's complete.

== Code Development ==

Now that the device template is complete, we can run DCEGen to generate the code stubs, sql2cpp to generate any needed device constants, and start implementing the code.

=== Running [[DCEGen]] ===

DCEgen needs to run from the DCEGen source directory. It should only need one parameter, the # of your new device template that you created. If you do not have it readily available, go back to the web admin and get the device template #.

cd /home/src/LinuxMCE-0810/src/DCEGen
/usr/pluto/bin/DCEGen -d xxxx

your new device template will be present in the parent directory.

=== Running [[Sql2cpp]] ===

Now, you will need to run sql2cpp to generate needed defines that DCEGen created within your new code.

cd /home/src/LinuxMCE-0810/src/sql2cpp
/usr/pluto/bin/sql2cpp

The defines will be generated.

=== prep.sh and unprep.sh ===

Before continuing, you need to create the following tools and place them in /usr/local/bin

==== prep.sh ====

#!/bin/bash
### Use this script to prepare the build for dev work.
### NOTE: Be sure to run unprep to revert the prepped
### makefiles!

## Back up the original unprepped makefiles.
for i in $(find . -name Makefile)
do
echo Backing up $i to $i.unprep
cp $i $i.unprep
done

echo Prepping sources...

find . -iname Makefile -exec sed -e 's/<-mkr_t_compile_defines->/-DKDE_LMCE -DDEBUG -DTHREAD_LOG -DLOG_ALL_QUERIES -I\/opt\/libxine1-pluto\/include -I\/opt\/libsdl1.2-1.2.7+1.2.8cvs20041007\/include -I\/opt\/libsdl1.2-1.2.7+1.2.8cvs20041007\/include\/SD/' -i '{}' \;
find . -iname Makefile -exec sed -e 's/<-mkr_t_compile_libs->/-L\/opt\/libxine1-pluto\/lib -L\/opt\/libsdl1.2-1.2.7+1.2.8cvs20041007\/lib/' -i '{}' \;

==== unprep.sh ====
#!/bin/bash
### this script undoes all of the prepping steps done by prep.sh by
### simply moving the old prep files back into place.

for i in $(find . -name Makefile.unprep)
do

echo Undoing Prep for $i

mv $i `dirname $i`/Makefile

done

=== Implementing code ===

You can then use the prep.sh script to prep the code appropriately, so that you can build it. In the future, this process will be removed once we have removed the old Pluto MakeRelease tags.

'''When you are done hacking on code and are ready to make a patch, you must run unprep.sh before making the patch!'''

cd /home/src/LinuxMCE-0810/src/VistaICM2
prep.sh

==== Basic hacking process ====

Once you have made changes to the source, you can use '''make bin''' (for a standard DCE device), or '''make so''' (for a DCE plugin) to create the necessary binary. '''make clean''' will delete the object files, etc.

In order to test the device, you'll need to go into the Web Admin, and create an instance of the device. Note its device #. Once you have this, you can start the device from its directory by typing:

./VistaICM2 -d 105

where -d xxx is the device # assigned by the system.

Any time the device needs to be reloaded, it will stop, and you will need to reload it again. This is because the device is not being managed by Spawn_Device.sh.

==== Running the device in gdb ====

To debug runtime errors, gdb can be used, I run the devices as such:

gdb --args ./VistaICM2 -d 105

and use gdb as normal.

==== Some Basic Notes on the code design ====

The code skeleton generated by DCEGen provides the bare skeleton that you will need to create the device. It provides some basic examples on calling DCE to send commands, and events, in various permutations, as well as how to access device data using the convienience accessors provided.
ndo, to make the device function.

I chose a design like the following:

* Main Thread, runs the DCE device and its runloop. This handles the commands, and sending events etc to the system
* the ccp Thread, for dealing with the CCP port, it has its own runloop. I connect to the instance of the main running class to do method calls from this outside thread, as well as setting some basic states (is the ccp thread running or not, etc.)

== Testing ==

== Sending it all In ==

=== Sending in the Patch ===

=== Creating the Package Definition ===

=== Checking in the sqlCVS changes anonymously ===

You should be done at this point. The driver will now be built as part of our release process, and will become part of the autobuilds, so that you can either do your own builder as described in [[Building LinuxMCE 0810]] or you can wait for the build process to produce packages for your new driver.

Upgrade to 0710

2009-08-26T20:16:00Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Tutorials]]
Upgrade to 0710 Linuxmce options:

==Option 1. Installation using the 0710 Linuxmce DVD==

Installation using the 0710 Linuxmce DVD, with keep settings option (also works if you want to switch to amd64 version)
Restart the pc and insert and boot the 0710 Linuxmce DVD.

You'll be asked if you want to keep the settings from previous installation (choose "y" or "n"). After the installation is finished you'll need to remove the DVD and press enter to reboot.
This type of upgrade will install 0710 packages but keeping the previous devices. This type of upgrade can be made with single layer DVD, doesn't require the Double Layer DVD. Of course, it works with Double Layer too.

==Option 2. Download the upgrade helper application==

Download the upgrade helper application and choose to install from web or from DVD, if you have the Double Layer 0710 Linuxmce DVD.

When deciding to go with the upgrade go to KDE Desktop, start a web browser and download this .deb file [http://www.linuxmce.com/upgrade/gutsy-upgrade-scripts_0.1.0-2_i386.deb gutsy-upgrade-scripts_0.1.0-2_i386.deb].

Install the .deb file on your machine

[[Image:02.jpg]]

Press enter to finish the installation

[[Image:03.jpg]]

Start "Upgrade to 0710" app

[[Image:04.jpg]]

Starting this app will open a console and will show 2 options:

[[Image:05.jpg]]

'''1. install 0710 packages from Double Layer DVD'''

Press 1 and then enter to start the upgrade

Wait a while until you get this message:

[[Image:07.jpg]]

You have to manually reboot the machine to apply the changes.

'''2. install 0710 packages from web'''

Press 2 to start the download of 0710 packages

When the process finishes you'll get a message on Orbiter to manually reboot the machine to apply the 0710 packages

Anytime you want to leave the upgrade app you can close the console. To check the status of the upgrade you can start the app again.

Update System

2009-08-26T20:11:23Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Development]]
==Short Description of the Update System==

*The update system is looking every 24 hours (via a cron job) on http://updates.linuxmce.com for a file named updates.xml
*If it finds that the updates.xml file was updated it downloads it and displays a message in all orbiters to inform the user that new updates are available
*If the user choses to use/apply the updates, all the available updates will be applied at computer's next boot

==Background Information on Updates==

The updates.xml file contains descriptions of all the updates available since that version of the product was released till present.

An updates contains at least one of the below:
*a link to a '.deb' file which is can be installed on the system (using dpkg -i)
*a link to a 'archive' file which can be unpacked on a system in a directory described in the update

An update can also contain :
*An option to reboot the computer before or after the update is applied [BUGGY ?]
*An option to reload the router before or after the update is applied [NOT IMPLEMENTED]
*An option to run an executable file after a file (deb / archive) is applied (installed / unpacked)

An update must be addressed to at lease one of the fallowing 'products':
*LMCE_CORE_1_1 - LinuxMCE 1.1 Kubuntu core or hybrid
*LMCE_MD_1_1 - LinuxMCE 1.1 Kubuntu diskless or disked md
*FIIRE_STATION_1_1 - LinuxMCE 1.1 Debian via disked md

Every update has his own number associated with it (Unique ID)

==Things To Care When Applying Updates==
Since updating the MD's before the Core is updated might cause problems: some updates that can be applied to MD's may be delayed (based on the information from xml) by the update system until the Core itself was updated to a certain version.

The user can not select what updates to use, he can only chose not to update at that time. For example if the user says no to update 'A' and after some time some a new update 'B' is available, he can update to 'B' but this means updating to 'A' then updating to 'B'.

When updates are available and he is asked about them, the user has three options:
*'Yes' - Start applying the updates at the next reboot
*'No' - Don't apply updates (will be asked again only when new updates will be available)
*'Later' - Will be asked again in 24 hours but the updates will not be applied when rebooting the computer

If the used exits the screen without selecting any of the options displayed (by pressing the top-right X, orbiter closes because of a router reload , etc) the updates will be applied or not at reboot depending on the choose that he made last time he saw that screen. If is the first time the screen was shown, it will be considered as he pressed 'Later'. The screen will be displayed again in 24 hours regardless the implied answer.

==How to Test==
Right not 'update.linuxmce.com' points to 10.0.0.83. In /var/www/Updates on 83 you have 4 xml files. This files contain the description of up to 4 different updates:
*updates-1.xml: Update 1
*updates-2.xml: Update 1 and 2
*updates-3.xml: Update 1 and 2 and 3
*updates-4.xml: Update 1 and 2 and 3 and 4

By copying them in /var/www with the name 'updates.xml' (on 83) you'll make the update system think that some updates are available.

Since waiting up to 24 hours for the update mechanist to acknowledge the changes of the update system is impossible when testing, you can force that by running '/usr/pluto/bin/LMCEUpdate_DownloadXml.sh'

Here is a description of every update:

UPDATE 1:
What computers can update: LMCE_CORE_1_1
When they can update: No restrictions for this update
What it does: Unpacks vim sources in /var/vim71 then reboots.
How to see if it worked: A directory "/var/vim71" should be created on computer of type LMCE_CORE_1_1

UPDATE 2:
What computers can update: LMCE_MD_1_1, FIIRE_STATION_1_1
When they can update: Both can update only after LMCE_CORE_1_1 had already got UPDATE 1
What it does: Unpacks vino sources in /var/vino
How to see if it worked: A directory "/var/vino" should be created

UPDATE 3:
What computers can update: LMCE_CORE_1_1, LMCE_MD_1_1
When they can update: LMCE_MD_1_1 can update only after LMCE_CORE_1_1 had already got UPDATE 3
What it does: It installs a package named 'x11vnc' then reboots
How to see if it worked: dpkg -l x11vnc | grep "^ii"

UPDATE 4:
What computer cat update: FIIRE_STATION_1_1
When they can update: Only after LMCE_CORE_1_1 had got UPDATE 3
What it does: It installs a applications called 'mytop'
Ho to see if it worked: dpkg -l mytop | grep "^ii"

Unsupported Disked MD

2009-08-26T20:04:30Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Media Directors]]
'''NOTE: Disked MDs are unsupported in 710 and 810. If you pursue these instructions, keep your questions/comments here and don't ask the devs for help. They're plenty busy working to get the other parts ready.'''

In the ideal situation, each MD should be diskless and boot over the network. This simplifies matters for configuration, upgrading, etc. Not to mention it's the supported method. There is one case in particular where this is not feasible. Namely when you want an MD in a room where you cannot run a cable and must connect wirelessly.

Bear in mind that this setup is
* slower
* error prone
* not upgraded automatically
* not supported

I created this setup using a 810 Alpha2 installation. It's likely very similar for 710, but that's not tested.

=Overview=
The way we set this up is to install a full-blown hybrid on the MD, disable the core services to trim it down to MD-only, then manually make the connections between the true core and the new MD. The final step configures wireless to connect on boot. If you're not connecting wirelessly, there's no point in doing this disked setup.

=Setup=
Follow [[LinuxMCE-0810_alpha2]] to install a hybrid on the new MD.

Edit /etc/inittab and make sure the only uncommented line (no '#' at the beginning) is id:5 We'll be using runlevel 5 for our setup.

Go to /etc/rc5.d and delete the following files (if they exist):
* S17mysql-ndb-mgm
* S18mysql-ndb
* S19autofs
* S19mysql
* S20nfs-common
* S20nfs-kernel-server
* S21asterisk
* S28NetworkManager (we'll be configuring the wireless manually)
* S99core
* S99kdm
* S99launch-manager

Edit /etc/init.d/launch-manager to contain the following:
#!/bin/bash
if [[ "$1" == start ]]; then
rm /usr/pluto/locks/pluto_spawned_local_devices.txt
/usr/pluto/bin/Start_X.sh
sleep 5
/usr/pluto/bin/lmce_launch_manager.sh &
fi
And create a link
sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/launch-manager /etc/rc5.d/S99zlaunch-manager

Now we create an MD on the core. Using the webadmin, add a new MD. Give it the MAC address of the wireless card (use ifconfig to find it). Note what device number it was assigned.

Edit the file /etc/pluto.conf on the disked MD and change the following lines:
DCERouter = <your core machine here>
MySqlHost = <your core machine here>
PK_Device = <the device number assigned to the MD you created on the web admin>
AutostartCore = 0
AutostartMedia = 1

Edit the file /etc/fstab on the disked MD and add the following lines:
<core machine>:/usr/pluto/orbiter /usr/pluto/orbiter nfs intr,udp,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,retrans=10,timeo=50 1 1
<core machine>:/home /home nfs intr,udp,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,retrans=10,timeo=50 1 1
<core machine>:/mnt/device/79 /mnt/device/79 nfs intr,udp,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,retrans=10,timeo=50 1 1

The last line is if your core machine mounts some media at /mnt/device/## in the case above it's a RAID array containing my media, so I need access to it on the MD. You can find out if you need this by running
ls -l /home/public/data/videos
on the core (or MD after you've mounted /home) and check for a link to /mnt/device/##

Now we configure the wireless.
Use ifconfig to find the interface name for your wireless card (common ones are eth1, wlan0, ra0).
Edit /etc/network/interfaces and add the following:
auto <wireless interface>
iface <wireless interface> inet dhcp
wpa-driver wext
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Finally we'll create the /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file
network={
ssid="<Your access point ssid>"
psk="<Your encryption key>"
}

Reboot and cross your fingers!

=Problems?=
It's quite possible I forgot something. Post here and we'll try to sort it out.

UPnP

2009-08-25T12:35:37Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Development]]
= UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) Server Notes =
The UPnP service provided by fuppesd is used to serve all the media on a LinuxMCE system to a UPnP client. BUT, right now, the UPnP service does not know, when things change. Whenever media is added to the system, the fuppesd database need to be rebuild.
== Rebuilding UPnP Database ==
To rebuild the UPnP database, the web admin provides the UPnP page under Advanced / UPnP Server. Under Options click on Rebuild Database, to update the upnp database with current list of files in the system.

Hopefully, this will change in the future, and there is going to be a tie between UpdateMedia and the UPnP server.

== Development changes for UPnP server in LMCE ==
We are working on a replacement that will be better integrated with LinuxMCE.
The proposed server is MediaTomb.
There are a couple of reasons why we change to another UPnP server.
* Better support for transcoding
* Fuppes maintainer is nowhere to be found. Project forked into Fuppex.
* Fuppes lack mySQL support.
* No concrete development direction.

MediaTomb feature: (lot more of them then listed here)
* It support mySQL.
* Support for transcoding.
* Will have support for streaming of ISO files in version 0.12
* Transcoding can be scripted.
* Bad support for Xbox360. Open question? I guess we cannot have good support for everything.

== Development Notes ==
Add information that are nice to know during the time we integrate MediaTomb.

=== UpdateMedia ===
UpdateMedia is probably the best place to integrate another media server in.

All logic to handle new, modified and deleted media files are already in UpdateMedia.

We can extend the basic configuration file handling in UpdateMedia to handle UPnP config too.
It´s not used at the moment.
Looks for a config /etc/UpdateMedia.conf on startup. We can extend it to have UPnP config options.
Only option that can be set so far is,

=== How media attributes a stored ===
Coverart is stored in table Picture_File.
PK_Picture is the filename
Extension is what it is.
Coverarts can only be stored in /home/mediapics (hardcoded in UpdateMedia)

All other files are stored in table File.
With metadata located in table Attribute, Attribute_File etc.

[[Image:MediaPics-database-ver3.png]]

=== Pseudocode ===

UpdateMedia startup:
UpdateMedia::UpdateMedia(string host, string user, string pass, int port, string sDirectory, bool bSyncFilesOnly)
{
PlutoMediaFilE::SetDefaultSyncMode(bSyncFilesOnly ? modeDbToFile : modeBoth)
ReadConfigFile();
// Set variables. Like which database to use.
// Connect to database().
LoadExtensions(); // What does this do? Pugins?
SetupInstallation(); // Get installation ID? Old pluto reliec?
// Load info about modificationData, AttrCount, AttrDate, attributes, timestamp for all files.
MediaState::Instance().loadDbInfo(m_pDatabase_pluto_media, FileUtils::ExcludeTrailingSlsh(m_sDirectory)); // Seem to load the media attr into RAM.
}

Method that scan subfolders.
bool UpdateMedia::ScanSubFolders(string sDirectory, FolderType& folder_type)
{
list<string> listSubDirectories;
// Check if there are some dirs to scan through?
// Is this a special folder?
// Is this a ripped DVD?
// Checks for AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders.
// Is it a HDDVD?
// Check for HDDVD_TS
// Check if a ripped blueray?
// Look for directory BDMV
// Check if normal directory. if it is then return true.
for (list of subdirs)
{
// Handle mounted uPnP shares. Skip metadata folders.
// Named .debug & _search & .metadata
// Skip "MythTV AV Media Server".
// Skip LMCE uPnP mounted shares

}
}

Pseudo code for ScanFiles method.
UpdateMedia::ScanFiles(string sDirectory)
{
// Build a list of files on disk, and a map of those in the database
list<string> listFilesOndisk;
FileUtils::FindFiles(listFilesOnDisk, sDirectory, m_sExtensions, false,false, 0, "");
// Now start matching them up.
for(list<string>::iterator it=listFilesOndisk.begin(); it=!listFilesOnDisk.end(); ++it)
{
// Compare with data in DB.
if (modeNone)
continue;
if (modeFileToDb)
sync_mode = modeFileToDb;
if(modeDBtoFile)
sync_mode = modeDbToFile;
SetSyncMode(sync_mode);

// Is in database?
if(!AlreadyInDatabase(sDirectory, sFile)
{
PK_File = PlutoMediaFile_.HandleFilenotFoundIndatabase();
}
else
{
// Its in the db already.
PK_File = GetFileID(sDirectory, sFile);
}
int PK_Picture = 0;
if (PK_File !=0)
{
PlutoMediaFile_.GetPicAttribute(PK_File);
}
else
{}
if (PK_Picture && PK_File)
{
// Handle picture attributes.
}

}
}
return true;
}

Method checks if file should scanned or not.
bool UpdateMedia::AnyReasonToSkip(string sDirectory, string sFile)
{
// Check for files to ignore.
// Like a directory.
// ignore "id3" and "lock" files.
// ignore "info.vdr" and "index.vdr"
// Check if there is a ".folderlock" file
// Automatically delete a lock if >2h old. Check modifiedTimeStamp.
// Skip UPnP stuff.
}

Method check if file is in database already.
bool updateMedia::AlreadyInDatabase(string sDirectory, string sFile)
{
Check Directory and File name if they exist in database.
Seem to always return !vectRow_File.emtpy();
}

=== Development TODO list ===
* Map sql statements that MediaTomb use.
** Add media file.
** Remove media file.
** Modify existing media file.
** Handle metadata for media files. MediaTomb scan for it itself. We need to override that functionality to be sure metadata prestend in lmce correspond to metadata presented to UPnP clients.
* Disable webUI in MediaTomb. We only need one way to add media files.
* Document main loop in UpdateMedia. Partially done. Need to add it here or in UpdateMedia wiki page.
* Document where in UpdateMedia we can hook in new functionality.
* Add information about how UpdateMedia handle new, modified and deleted files.

UI3

2009-08-25T12:33:16Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Development]]
=Proposal=
'''Join the UI3 brainstorming meeting via live web conferencing'''

All are invited to attend the meeting in person or via web cam on Saturday, January 19, 2008, which will start at 9:00am at the Sheraton Hotel, 1108 N. Mathilda Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089 in the Daffodil Room.

You can view, hear, chat and participate in the discussion live by visiting "http://go.megameeting.com/", select "guest", "plutohome" as meeting name, provide your name, and choose "default(host)".

Optionally call (408) 556-9826 or skype call/chat to id: linuxmce

'''Minutes of the meeting'''

9:30am -- We're very close to getting the conference up. There's been some networking problems at the hotel.

As the meeting progresses we will add notes here. Issues we want to resolve:

1. Will it be a general purpose design suite, like Flash, with predefined effects, or a suite for creating UI's, which is easier, but means the user can't do anything he wants unless it's implemented in code. Can the former be as efficient as the latter? If we do the former it almost certainly has to be based on gnash/flash if we want it to run on lots of platforms and processors.

2. If it's not flash based, is it based on Plasma, Qt, or something else? If on Qt we have cross platform tools. But it sounds like Plasma adds a ton of useful stuff, like the animator, however could Plasma run on Windows or a mobile phone?

3. Will flash be used? Possibilities are: 1) Design everything in Flash so designers can use Adobe's tools. Challenge: We need extensions to flash, and can't extend Adobe's CS anyway. So we'd still need a separate design tool to add the extra data in a way that Adobe's CS wouldn't delete them. 2) Use flash to create the object 'containers' and handle animating them, but what the objects do handled by custom flash extensions.

4. If there are complex tasks needed, like custom sorting and filtering of 1,000 song titles, is action script efficient enough to do this?

5. Do we use VG or bitmaps or both?

6. Off the wall idea... What if we wrote our own design tool and the 'file format' was actually C++; ie it was a code generator. And all the code it generated linked to plasma. That means the binary executable actually is the UI (rather than playing the UI from a data file). The design tool could include a compiler under windows/linux for the designer to preview, and when it comes to deploying, we could supply an online compilation system that built all the other platforms (symbian, etc.)

'''Meeting'''

There is a big KDE event at Google in Mountain View on January 18. It is expected that some people who would be interested in the new LinuxMCE UI which is intended to become an add-on to KDE will be in the area for this event already. Therefore, a local meeting room has been booked for all day on Saturday, January 19, 2008 to have a mini dev conference to brainstorm and plan the new LinuxMCE UI at the Sheraton Hotel, 1108 N. Mathilda Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089 in the Daffodil Room. All are invited to attend. Pluto has agreed to sponsor the event and will also provide food for everyone. Pluto will also cover the air fare and accommodations for Daniel K, as well as up to 2 members of the LinuxMCE community who would be able to attend and could be valuable contributors. Post comments and recommendations on the developers mailing list.

If there is interest from people in attending virtually via web cam or call in, post comments on the developers mailing list so we can set that up.

'''Background'''

Macromedia Flash has become the defacto standard for creating user interface's for the web, with a rich development environment to create an appealing UI, and an efficient player to do the rendering with lot's of eye candy and visual effects. Media centric applications with 10' user interfaces ("MCE apps") have the same needs, but there really does not exist any software that can do this for desktop applications, like Flash does for web applications.

A few MCE apps try to use Flash for their user interfaces. But this does not work very well since this isn't Flash's intended purpose. For example, the UI in a MCE app cannot be stand alone and isolated, rather it must be a UI that floats on top of whatever media the MCE app is delivering. The Flash player is not able to blend it's rendered output on top of the media application, like Xine or MythTV. So although you could create a really attractive EPG program guide in Flash, you cannot blend that guide on top of the live TV in MythTV.

Therefore, nearly all the MCE applications, like Xine, Myth, Windows MCE, etc., typically code their own UI's. This is inefficient; it is like re-inventing the wheel each time. And, most of the time, the developers are more focused on their core application, not the UI, and cannot create a rich UI engine. For example, Xine, MythTV, Mplayer, Freevo, etc., all have their own UI's, but none are rich with eye candy and visual effects. In general, only Microsoft has been able to develop a really eye-candy rich UI with lots of visual effects, and most other media center applications have fairly boring, static UI's, even if the core media application itself is rich. For example, while MythTV developers began implementing a rich OpenGL UI engine over two years ago, this is still only used for some of the menu system and had not been extended to the video overlay or plug-ins, and because there is no UI editor the capabilities of it's graphics engine go largely unused.

The goal, therefore, is to create (1) a UI player, like the Flash player, which is efficient and can render high-res, 3d, user interfaces with lots of eye candy on a variety of platforms (x86 Linux/Windows, PDA's, cell phones, etc.), and (2) a comprehensive development environment, like the one Macromedia developed for Flash, that is well documented and not overly technical so creative designers can use it to build innovate UI's.

The intention is that this can be used to create UI's for a variety of MCE apps, like MythTV, MPlayer, etc., and that unlike Flash which is designed to run as an isolated application, this UI will be designed from the ground up to bolt on top of the core MCE app. In other words, you can create a beautiful EPG, like you could with Flash, but it can be blended on top of MythTV's live tv feed and used to control MythTV. The UI tool should be modular and flexible so graphics designers can create interesting UI's without needing the help of the coders of the core MCE app. For example, a designer could create, say, an innovate 3d TV program guide on a rotating sphere and add it to MythTV without needing the MythTV developers to write new code. Having a unified UI will also allow us to address some of the vexing issues, like text entry using remote controls of various types, with new UI widgets which only need to be learned once for the entire class of 10' applications.

It is understood that this is a big, complicated task which hasn't really been done before. However, we feel it is an important gap that needs to be filled. The first thing most end users notice is the eye candy in the UI and how pretty it is, and only Apple and Windows Vista have had the resources to create such UI's. This will allow other MCE apps to have UI's that are just as catchy and the developers can focus on the core functionality.

'''Use case'''

Here's an example of how the design suite could work, and how it's different than a normal design program:

1. Someone is creating a new screen in the design tool. In the tool, there exists style sheets with all the font styles. The style "Mid-size button" is defined as Times Roman 10 point. I create a button called 'play'. It has a blue background that pulsates with an animated effect 3 times per second, and has the text "PLAY" on top of it in that "Mid-size button" style. I cluster this together with a "pause" and "stop" button in a container called "Media Controls".

2. A different designer doesn't like the blue background, and instead wants something with wood grain. He doesn't want to recreate the screen, or change the layout or have to duplicate the commands associated with the buttons. Just change the background. So, he creates a new skin called 'wood' in the design tool, and creates a wood grain bitmap, and in the design tool associates this new bitmap with the skin. Now, when the user selects the 'wood' skin he sees the same button with 'play' in Times Roman 10 point, but the background is wood grain. The only thing is the pulsating animated effect doesn't look good on top of the wood, so he chooses another effect called "scroll" which makes the background wood grain image scroll a bit. There may be 100 buttons the original designer created with the blue background and the pulsating effect. This designer shouldn't have to open the properties for each button one at a time, he should be able to make a global change that says for this new skin, use this wood grain bitmap and scroll effect instead.

3. Now there's a user running the UI on a PDA. He finds that with the original blue skin it looks ok except that the pulsating effect is using all the cpu, and with the wood skin, the scrolling is just too much for the pda. So he opens the 'play' button in the design tool, clicks on the 'effects' tab, chooses the 'blue' skin and sees the 'pulsate' effect, he clicks 'criteria' and under "target device" selects "PDA", and then moves to the property field "times per second" and changes it from 3 to 1 so it goes slower on the pda. Then he chooses the 'wood' skin, again sets the criteria to 'target device=pda', and this time sets 'effect' to 'none'. This doesn't effect either user #1 or #2 since they don't use a pda.

4. Now there's another guy using a Cisco VOIP phone. He sees that on his phone all the effects are too much for the phone and need to be disabled. And although the 'Times Roman 10 point' text is legible with the 'blue' skin, when he choose the 'wood' skin which has more contrast, the text is unreadable because the Cisco phone's lcd display isn't that sharp. So, he opens the design tool, selects 'platform = cisco voip phone' and checks off "turn off all effects". Then he opens the style sheet tool and selects the "mid-size button" style, and clicks on "criteria" and sets "skin" = "wood", and changes the font size from 10 point to 12 point. Except, he notices, when the language is German. Then the words are just too big for 12 point font so the user has to live with 10 point, so he edits his criteria and adds to "skin=wood" a "and language<>german".

5. Another user decides he wants to create a new variation called "sideways" that aligns the clusters vertically rather than horizontally. He doesn't want to change any of the other stuff. He just wants to open "Media Controls" cluster, which contains the play/pause/stop buttons in a horizontal group, and he re-arranges them so they are vertical. They retain all their current properties; the play button still pulsates when it's the blue skin, except on the Cisco phone, and the font size is still 12 point instead of 10 with the wood skin on a cisco phone. It's just arranged differently.

'''Target user / financial model'''

Naturally this tool would be an asset to the FOSS MCE apps, like MythTV. However, there are many commercial applications as well. For example, only TiVo and Moxi have created rich UI's for their PVR's. There are tens of millions of PVR's out there from Motorola and Scientific Atlantic distributed by the cable operators, but they cannot justify the huge expense of creating a rich UI, so in general they have ugly, plain, static UI's. If there were an inexpensive, easy way to add a beautiful UI to these PVR's it would be worth it. Also, most TV's have a user interface for on screen menu's that is static and boring even though the TV's themselves have graphics processing chips in them that have the power to render a rich UI. There are numerous DMA's and set top boxes as well that could benefit from a rich UI as well. Mobile phones and PDA's also have media players and mini MCE apps.

In general these UI's are powered by a few single chip solutions, such as Sigma Designs, Broadcom and Marvell, and specialty chips for TV's, like AMD's Xillion. Macromedia Flash's player has been ported to many of these platforms so you can, for example, navigate a flash UI on a mobile phone. But, again, since Flash doesn't work well with MCE apps, in general these MCE apps all have crude, basic UI's, or they look to specialized middle-ware providers like Syabase, Mediabolic, Digion, etc., to create a UI for them.

The UI player will first be developed for X86, probably Linux and Windows in parallel. The software would be developed in such a way that the UI itself was subject to the GPL license, so there is an immediate potential to license the UI player for some commercial MCE apps. There's concern, for example, that SageTV will have a hard time remaining viable since it just doesn't have the pretty UI that Windows MCE does. They would be a potential customer to license the UI player outside the GPL since they would not want to release their UI under the terms of the GPL.

Over time the UI player could be ported to other platforms, like the Sigma, Broadcom, etc. Then the makers of set top boxes could use the UI generator to build rich UI's which could be played back on those set top boxes. By being cross-platform, we would have a strong advantage because the UI developer could target any platform for which the player existed, like Flash developers do now. Also, by being open source, the barrier of entry would be quite low. Anybody could start using the tool set, build it upon it if needed to add new visual effects, and only need to license it when they wanted to deploy a commercial application. And there would not be a concern of being locked into a closed, proprietary solution like the existing middle ware providers.

This relates to Pluto's core business of licensing an interoperability platform. Once a company adopted the use of the UI, Pluto would be able to offer a variety of modules, like lighting control, telephony, etc., that could easily 'bolt on' to the UI delivering a lot of extra functionality without writing any specialized code. If SageTV, for example, used the UI as their front end, Pluto could then offer lighting control modules, some to view security cameras, make phone calls, etc. which could be added to the SageTV package without them writing any new code. Pluto will be willing to sponsor the development of this new UI in exchange for receiving a license allowing Pluto to commercially license the UI software outside the GPL.

If QT is providing the underlying graphics library and hardware abstraction, then this benefits Trolltech as well because every commercial user who didn't want to release the UI under the GPL would also need to obtain a license to QT. The hope is that QT would also have an interest in furthering the development of this software.

'''How this relates to LinuxMCE'''

The UI in LinuxMCE, Orbiter, was developed to accomplish this same task. It has succeeded in some ways. For example, LinuxMCE's UI can be played on both Linux and Windows pc's, web pads, pda's, mobile phones, desktop phones, and web browsers. All those platforms are rendering the same UI and same set of screens created with a single design tool, called Designer. The problem is that Orbiter and Designer were created nearly 5 years ago, and were not very well designed. They are still quite crude. Designer is nearly impossible to use and does not appeal to graphic designers. The limited eye candy and visual effects in LinuxMCE, like the 3d cube media browser, are hardcoded into the player, Orbiter, rather than being part of the design as they should be. So, Orbiter and Designer are not general purpose enough to be useful to other MCE apps.

'''Skill sets needed'''

Here are 4 groups we need:

# First we need people who really understand how to design a great UI. These could be Flash designers who have created rich UI's before. They need to outline what the new UI software must do to appeal to the designers that will be building the UI's. That is the most essential thing since, if designers are creating, say beautiful, rich TV program guides with this software, it will be easy to approach the commercial PVR makers and show them why they need to use this UI in their product. So this team is more composed of graphic designers, not C++ coders.
# Next we need to know how to develop the UI design tool. There will be a lot of overlap with #1 since the people in #1 will be the users of the code written by this group. The UI design tool will not need to be cross platform. Windows/Linux x86 is acceptable. But it will have to be logical and similar to other design tools, like Macromedia's flash development tools, so designers can start using it without a steep learning curve.
# Next we need people who create MCE apps and know what the player must do to integrate well with those apps. For example, what are the low level C-language hooks the player must have to handle alpha blending the UI on top of MythTV. What is the socket-based control needed to allow the player and MythTV to seamlessly communicate as though the player were developed as part of MythTV, so the user is not aware that the UI is in fact a separate piece of software.
# The player needs to be highly efficient using a lot of the tricks that the video game industry uses to create high res 3d effects with smooth animation. For this we need some people who understand the Windows Direct X architecture, as well as the OpenGL fragment programs used by Linux and OS X, and some of the single chip solutions, so the player can be designed in such a way that as much code as possible is shared across all platforms, yet the player takes advantage of the unique hardware acceleration tricks each platform offers to be lean and efficient.

'''Proposed next steps'''

Some of the people needed will be in the Bay Area anyway for the KDE/Google event on Jan 18. We propose having a mini developers conference on Jan 19th. Pluto has agreed to sponsor this and provide airfare and accomodations to some key people, as well as pay change fees for some already at the KDE/Google event who want to stay an extra day.

The goal is to get representative people from the four skill sets to brainstorm some of the general concepts and come up with an organizational structure and delegate responsibilities. Also, key developers could be chosen to be sponsored full time.

We would also like to finalize an agreement with Trolltech so that if a committment is made to use QT as the underlying library for this new UI, it can be determined how Trolltech and Pluto will work together on the commercial licensing, and what resources Trolltech is willing to commit to the project.

=Community Discussion=
There is a discussion of this UI3 proposal in the developers forum, topic [http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=3820 UI3 Discussion].

Torrents 0710 beta 3

2009-08-25T12:32:15Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Software]]
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3980064 - LinuxMCE Install CDs for AMD64 - 0710 Beta 3

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3980066 - LinuxMCE Install CDs for I386 - 0710 Beta 3

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3980070 - LinuxMCE Install DVD for AMD64 - 0710 Beta 3

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3980072 - LinuxMCE Install DVD for I386 - 0710 Beta 3

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3980074 - LinuxMCE Install/Upgrade DVD for I386 - 0710 Beta 3

Text To Speech

2009-08-25T12:31:05Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Documentation]]
{{stub}}
{Stub needs to be expanded on how to add more voices to get around licensing issues}

As of LMCE 0810, Text To Speech will now use the festival speech engine. This will allow the use of more human sounding voices in the future. Also as of LMCE 0810, you can now specify the voice to use for your announcements.

Here is an example of how to use Text To Speech:
1) Create a scenario. In this example, I'm just going to create a climate scenario called "Test"
2) From the edit scenario page of your new "Test" scenario, use the dropdown to edit using the Advanced wizard
3) Add a new command by using the Device drop-down to select "Text To Speech"
4) You will now get a box where you can select a command to use. Select the "Send Audio To Device" command.
5) You will now get a list of command parameters to fill out:
#103 List PK Device - enter a comma delimited list of devices to send the audio to. For our test, just look up the device number of your On Screen Orbiter, and enter it here.
#9 Text - Enter your text here, such as 'Hello. This is a test. A B C 1 2 3'. Notice the single-quotes - they must be used!
#278 Voice - Here is where you can select any one of the installed voices. The default installed voices are:
voice_lp_diphone
voice_pc_diphone
voice_el_diphone
voice_suo_fi_lj_diphone
voice_hy_fi_mv_diphone
voice_marathi_NSK_diphone
voice_don_diphone
voice_ked_diphone
voice_rab_diphone
voice_kal_diphone (this is the default voice)
voice_telugu_NSK_diphone
voice_czech_ph
voice_hindi_NSK_diphone
just type in the voice you want to use. If you enter the voice incorrectly, you will get no sound.

== Setting a default voice ==
Browse to the Text_To_Speech device by switching to the devices tree view on the left pane in the web admin. As of 0810, you can now specify a default voice to be used with the "default voice" device data. Enter the desired voice in the same format listed above for the Send Audio To Device command.

== Some better sounding voices for testing ==
These voices are made by the HTS working group hosted at the Nagoya Institute of Technology. Some of these are very good for free voices!
1) Download the voices:
cd ~/
mkdir hts_tmp
cd hts_tmp/
wget -c http://hts.sp.nitech.ac.jp/archives/2.1/festvox_nitech_us_awb_arctic_hts-2.1.tar.bz2
wget -c http://hts.sp.nitech.ac.jp/archives/2.1/festvox_nitech_us_bdl_arctic_hts-2.1.tar.bz2
wget -c http://hts.sp.nitech.ac.jp/archives/2.1/festvox_nitech_us_clb_arctic_hts-2.1.tar.bz2
wget -c http://hts.sp.nitech.ac.jp/archives/2.1/festvox_nitech_us_rms_arctic_hts-2.1.tar.bz2
wget -c http://hts.sp.nitech.ac.jp/archives/2.1/festvox_nitech_us_slt_arctic_hts-2.1.tar.bz2
wget -c http://hts.sp.nitech.ac.jp/archives/2.1/festvox_nitech_us_jmk_arctic_hts-2.1.tar.bz2
wget -c http://hts.sp.nitech.ac.jp/archives/1.1.1/cmu_us_kal_com_hts.tar.gz
wget -c http://hts.sp.nitech.ac.jp/archives/1.1.1/cstr_us_ked_timit_hts.tar.gz

2) Unpack the voices:
for t in `ls` ; do tar xvf $t ; done

3) Install the voices:
sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/festival/voices/us
sudo mv lib/voices/us/* /usr/share/festival/voices/us/
sudo mv lib/hts.scm /usr/share/festival/hts.scm

4) Clean up
cd ~/
rm -rf hts_tmp/

you can now go to a prompt, and enter festival interactive mode:
festival

then get the new list of voices:
(voice.list)

you can use any of these voices by prepending with "voice_". My favoirite and the most human sounding is: voice_nitech_us_slt_arctic_hts

Testing and troubleshooting devices

2009-08-25T12:26:09Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Documentation]]
Next to each device is an "Advanced", or "Adv" button. This takes you to the advanced properties for that device, also accessible from the "Advanced", "Devices". Normally you don't need to go there, and if you do, be careful about making changes. Whereas the Wizard pages try to prevent you from making mistakes, the Advanced page gives you total control and you can change settings that cause devices not to work. However, there a couple useful links on the advanced page, primarely: Send Command To Device, and Follow Log. IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't forget concept #5. If you just added a new device or changed the settings for a device be sure to choose Wizard, Restart and "Quick Reload Router" before you try to send it commands or follow its log.

For simple devices you turn on and off, like lights, the "Send Command" link can be a quick way to confirm the device is working without using the Orbiter. Note that in such cases you send the commands to the child device, not the interface device. For example, if you have a lamp controlled by a Lutron master controller, and want to see if the light is working, go to the Advanced page for the lamp (the lighting device)--not the Lutron controller (the interface device). If you send it a command and it doesn't work, go back to the Wizard page and double-check the controlled via device and the parameters. If you make a change do a Quick Reload Router before testing it again.

If the device still isn't working the "Follow log" link can help troubleshoot. The log is usually fairly technical. Note that the log you want to follow is normally the interface device--not the child device. It's the reverse of the Send Command. Send the command to the lamp, not the Lutron controller, but follow the log of the Lutron controller. Technical Explanation: If you click "View" next to the Device Template on the device's advanced page, you will see which devices "Implement DCE". Devices with that box check, and with "Is Embedded" and "Is Plugin" not checked, are separate software modules. For example, the interface devices are normally always separate software modules. However, the child devices, like lamps, sensors, a/v equipment, etc., are not software modules--they don't implement DCE. Their commands are handled by the parent, the interface device. However you still have to send the command to the child device so the interface device knows which of it's children you want to control. The programmer's guide explains DCE in detail. But for now, the rule of thumb when troubleshooting is to send commands to the lowest device in the chain, and if it's log is empty, try the log for its "Controlled Via" device.

Telecom Doc

2009-08-25T12:24:06Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Documentation]]
This wizard lets you add a button to make phone calls as well as voicemail/status indicators for each of the users in the house and speed dial shortcuts to dial a particular number for a certain extension. You can create an "office" speed dial in the bedroom that dials the office and puts the call through to the phone by the bed, while another speed dial in the family room may put a call through on the television using the media director.
<nowiki>Insert non-formatted text here</nowiki>

Tech Support

2009-08-25T12:23:24Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Troubleshooting]]
It has been reported that there are many installation problems, and that most users do not get the smooth '20 minutes plug and play to setup a whole house media + pvr + automation solution' which is what LinuxMCE promises and should be delivering. So Yahoo and Skype accounts have been setup to provide live and instant tech support via chat and voice.

For both Yahoo and Skype the id's are:

'''linuxmce'''

'''linuxmce4'''

'''linuxmce5'''

If one is not online, try the others. It will be manned as much as possible until any common installation issues are identified. '''This is to address installation/setup issues only''', not answer general usage questions or how-to's, which should be directed to the forums.

Thanks in advance to the users who take the time to try LinuxMCE and have the patience to let us diagnose the cause of any failures so the 1.1 release can deliver the 'works the first time' experience to a higher percentage of users, making free, Linux-based home media pc's more accessible. The goal now is to create a database of hardware setups that are known to work, work arounds for issues when possible, and bug reports for any unresolvable issues so users can track when the issues are resolved. Also the installation instructions will be improved to prevent any common causes of user error.

If you've got a really good knowledge of Linux and can analyze syslogs and do general troubleshooting and wish to volunteer, please [[Contacts|Contact Paul]].

== Please, before contacting the Yahoo/Skype account ==

have available the model of your pc and preferably the model of your motherboard, and any graphics, sound and network cards you are using, as well as the chipsets they use, if you have that information. Also let us know which of the following steps worked:

1. Ubuntu 6.10 installed ok 
2. Linux MCE installed ok 
3. You got to the AV Wizard and were able to set your video and audio resolutions 
4. The GUI appeared and you were able to complete the Setup Wizard 
5. Your known-compatible PNP devices, like NAS, etc., were detected.

TOAD vs Discrete Codes

2009-08-25T12:22:15Z

Ray N:

[[Category: Documentation]]
The goal of LinuxMCE media is to let the homeowner press 1 button, such as 'watch tv', and have LinuxMCE automatically turn on all the necessary a/v equipment and adjust all the settings automatically. Sometimes the manufacturers of a/v equipment had the foresight to build into their products a mechanism for a smart home system, like LinuxMCE, to control their devices automatically. These devices have a computer connection like RS232 or Ethernet. They will always work exceptionally well in a LinuxMCE home. LinuxMCE can command the a/v to do anything.
Very few a/v manufacturers put this type of control in their devices, and therefore LinuxMCE must control the equipment by sending infrared codes just like you do when you hit the button on your remote control. The problem is that some a/v devices were designed in such a way that only a human operator can control them. For example, to select an input on many TV's the operator must press an 'input select' button on the remote control and watch the display on the TV until they see the input they want. If LinuxMCE needs to set your TV to 'INPUT #3', it's impossible for LinuxMCE to 'watch' the screen and know when the TV is at the right input. Fortunately, some manufacturers added what are called 'discrete codes' to their TV. This means that there is an infrared command that will cause the TV to go directly to Input #3, for example, no matter what input it is currently on. There may not be a button for Input #3 on the remote--you may still have to use the toggle 'input select' button--but the TV has a special code that will cause it to go directly to that input. Sony brand TV's are an example. Even though there is only a toggle 'input select' button on the remote, there are infrared commands that LinuxMCE can send to make the TV go directly to the desired input. These are called 'discrete codes'.
The same thing is true with turning the device on and off. Some remote controls have dedicated 'on' and 'off' buttons. But others have only a 'power' button that toggles the state, and the manufacturer expects you, the user, to watch what's on the TV and decide if it's on or off.
If you are going to buy new a/v equipment we recommend that you only buy devices that have computer-type controls, like RS232, or, at least, recognize discrete codes. There are several web sites like http://www.remotecentral.com that have a lot of information on this subject and recommendations for equipment that have discrete codes.
If your device does not recognize discrete codes, it is referred to in the industry as a TOAD (Toggle Only Analog Device). It just recognizes commands that toggle it's state, such as the input or power. LinuxMCE will still control these devices but due to their nature, it is impossible to control them perfectly. For example, you will need to go to the A/V Properties page and list all the inputs that your device has in the right order. LinuxMCE will then 'remember' what input it last left the device on, and send the appropriate number of toggle commands. If LinuxMCE last turned the device to Input #1, and you now want to watch something on Input #4, LinuxMCE will send the input select command 3 times. This is not a perfect system. If someone manually changed the input, or if the device ever didn't recognize a code, it could get out of sync. LinuxMCE may think it's on one input when it's really on another.
The same thing is true for the power. If your device has only a toggle power button, LinuxMCE will remember if you left the device on or off so it knows when to send the toggle power command. But if LinuxMCE gets out of sync, it could be turning the TV off when it really thinks it's turning it on. For the power setting, at least, your LinuxMCE Pro dealer has lots of tricks they can use to work around this problem. There are sensors that LinuxMCE can read to determine if the TV is on or off, for example.