Revision as of 22:29, 9 January 2010

Core/MD Hybrid

• (This is a one network card installation)
• (There is no capture card/MythTV in this setup)

Hardware

• Asus T3-P5945GCX Barebones with 3.00GHz Pentium 4
• Nvidia GeForce 6600 256 MB PCI-E 16x Video Card (DVI Output)
• 2 GB Generic RAM
• 80 GB Seagate ST380215A Hard Drive (for the OS and temporary media storage)
• 1 TB Western Digital 10EAVS External Hard drive (for media storage)
• DVDRAM GSA-4167B

Peripherals and Accessories

• 24 inch Sceptre LCD Monitor (DVI)
• 5.1 Channel Creative Sound System
• Gigaware microphone
• Generic USB 5 Button Wireless Optical Mouse with Scroll Wheel
• Generic Wireless PS/2 keyboard
• Ezonics EZCam USB Webcam
• Microsoft NX-6000 Webcam
• Generic 7-port USB Hub
• USB Bluetooth Dongle with CSR chipset
• HP Deskjet 2545 USB Printer

Software

• LinuxMCE 0810 beta2
• lmce-activate-orbiter-plasmoid
• kubuntu-restricted-extras
• libdvdread3
• xbindkeys
• xautomation
• alsamixer
• VNC/Remote Desktop Viewer

X10 Devices

Controlling

• Controller: CM11A
• Remote: KR22A

Controlled

• LM465 is dimmable
• AM466 is not dimmable
• RR501 is not dimmable and is a remote control receiver (Can only be unit code 1 or 9)

 Device Code | Module | Description
      B1     | RR501  | Sound System Power
      B2     | LM465  | Floor Light
      B3     | LM465  | Light Tree
      B4     | LM465  | Desk Light
      B5     | AM466  | Monitor Power
      B6     | AM466  | Rope Lights & Strobe Light
      B7     | AM466  | Fan
      B8 ------------------------------------------
      B9     | RR501  | Black Lights

The Installation

• (This is a one network card installation)
• (There is no capture card/MythTV in this setup)
• Single quotes (i.e. 'sudo apt-get install foo') represent commands to be typed into the terminal
• Web Admin can be accessed by going to http://localhost on the core or by going to http://<core-network-IP-address> from a computer on the network.

LMCE 0810 beta2 Installation

1. Followed the internet installation instructions located here
2. Upon reboot, I temporarily hooked the monitor to VGA to go through AVWizard
3. Chose DVI output, 1080p, 60 Hz, OpenGL with Alpha Blending, stereo sound, 100% volume, and hit I Agree
4. Upon finishing the AVWizard, there was a grey screen with large text displaying each package that was installed
5. This continued until it got to the Orbiter Regeneration
6. After the orbiter regeneration, I had the infamous grey screen with a cursor
7. I used Ctrl+Alt+F2 to get to get to tty2, and logged in
8. I edited the /etc/network/interfaces file as seen in the configuration files section
9. After rebooting, I was greeted with the Setup Wizard which stepped me through the rest of the install process
10. That's it, after some more big text, MCE started up fine and I was greeted with some Flikr pictures

Activate Orbiter Plasmoid

• Once you go to KDE from the on screen orbiter, there's no good way to go back besides reloading the router or clicking on OrbiterGL on the taskbar which rarely works
• The plasmoid lets you return to the orbiter easily
• If the plasmoid causes problems, use this method instead

1. 'sudo apt-get install lmce-activate-orbiter-plasmoid
2. While in the KDE desktop, right click on the desktop and click "Add Widgets"
3. Double click on "Activate Orbiter"
4. Place the plasmoid where you want it by hovering over it and then clicking and dragging the black bar that appears.
5. Now you can click on the plasmoid to properly return to the on-screen orbiter

External Hard Drive

1. After plugging in the external hard drive, I was asked if I wanted to use it.
2. After selecting "use without modifying" the drive was set up by MCE
3. I then went into the Web Admin > Files & Media > Media Files Sync
4. Navigated to the hard drive and resynchronized my Movies folder and Music Folder

Configure 5.1 Channel Sound

• selecting stereo in the AVWizard does not enable multi-channel analog audio...this is how to fix it

1. Web Admin > Wizard > Devices> Media Directors
2. At the bottom of the media director device settings, change the "Audio Settings" Drop-Down menu to "Multi-channel analog"
3. Open terminal and run 'sudo alsamixer'
4. In alsamixer, use the arrow keys and 'M' to unmute and adjust the volume of surround, center, and LFE (side if you have 7.1)

Auto-start KDE desktop behind MCE on boot

• By default, the KDE desktop environment only starts if you click "KDE desktop" on the on-screen orbiter
• To get certain programs and services to run, it was easiest to have KDE startup behind MCE on boot

1. Edit /etc/init.d/linuxmce to contain

StartService "KDE Desktop" "/usr/pluto/bin/Start_KDE.sh" as seen in the configuration files section

X10 interface and lighting setup

1. Plugged in all of my X10 modules and gave them the unit codes described above
2. Plugged in the CM11A controller and hooked it to the only serial port
3. Followed the directions here.
4. Reloaded the router and regenerated orbiter if it asked to
5. Tested each module with the Lights > Floorplan button in MCE

Get DVDs to play

Instructions grabbed here

1. Open Terminal
2. 'sudo apt-get install -y kubuntu-restricted-extras libdvdread3'
3. 'sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh'

Disable the Firewall

Since this is a single-nic installation, I don't find the firewall very necessary, and it makes other features easier to get working if it is disabled

1. Web Admin > Advanced > Network > Firewall Rules
2. Check the "Firewall Disabled" box
3. Click OK on on the warning dialog

Access Features outside of the Network

1. Create an account at DynDNS.org
2. Register a host name for your Media Center using the free DNS service
3. Web Admin > Advanced > Network > Dynamic DNS Settings
4. Enter the information you just registered with DynDNS.org
5. Check the "obtain IP address from the web" box
6. Click Save
7. Web Admin > Wizard > Security > Outside Access
8. Check "Allow outside access on port: " and specify port 8080
9. Click "Update"
10. If the Media Center is behind a router, port 8080 will need to be forwarded to the Media Center's IP or name

(This process is slightly different for each router but in my case, the router configuration was located at http://192.168.200.1, Most home routers will have the IP 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1)

1. On a computer with internet access, you should be able to go to http://<your-dyndns-hostname>:8080 and bring up the Web Admin

• Sometimes attempting to use http://<your-dyndns-hostname>:8080 while on the same local network won't work, so have a friend test it out or try it on a web-enabled cell phone
• If that isn't working, maybe MCE needs a router reload or a computer restart

Enable the Web Orbiter

With a laptop, wifi, and a cell phone with web browsing, why not? Instructions grabbed here

1. Web admin > Show Devices Tree > Core
2. Create Child Device at the top
3. Pick Device Template
4. Device Category: Peripherals
5. Template ID: 1748 (Generic Web Device)
6. Pick device template
7. Wait until orbiter generation is finished (progress can be seen at Wizard > Devices > Orbiters)
8. Quick Reload Router
9. My proxy orbiter had problems starting up, so I rebooted the whole machine to get it all working nicely
10. Access the web orbiter by going to http://<core_ip>/lmce-admin/weborbiter.php or clicking the link on the login page of the web admin on any computer on the network
11. Orbiter settings and preferences can be set at Wizard > Devices> Orbiters and then regenerated accordingly
12. Assuming previous steps to "Access Features outside of the Network" were followed, web orbiter can be accessed by any computer on the internet by going to http://<your-dyndns-hostname>:8080 and clicking on the link on the login page or by going to http://<your-dyndns-hostname>:8080/lmce-admin/weborbiter.php directly

Enable remote desktop

1. Go to the KDE desktop on the Media Center
2. K Menu > Applications > Internet > Desktop Sharing
3. Click "Configure"
4. Click "Security"
5. Check the "Allow uninvited connections" box
6. Check the "Allow remote connections to control..." box
7. Uncheck the "Ask before..." box
8. Enter a password
9. Click Apply and OK
10. Use VNC or Remote Desktop Viewer from another computer to control it

Enable Network File Sharing

• This seems to be enabled by default in LMCE 0810 beta2 so just get on a network computer and connect to \\dcerouter and login
• External hard drive should be accessible directly or through /public/other/

Assign Functions to mouse buttons

Instructions grabbed here

1. BACKUP xorg.conf: 'sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup'
2. edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf mouse settings to look something like that in the configuration files section
3. run 'xev' in terminal and single click each mouse button in the box that appears, paying attention to the output in the terminal to make sure each button number is correct (if it doesn't you have some trouble shooting to do here)
4. 'sudo apt-get install -y xbindkeys xautomation
5. Create the file ~/.xbinkeysrc ('sudo kate ~/.xbindkeysrc')
6. Modify as seen in the configuration files section
7. Run 'xbindkeys -n -v' (not as daemon, verbose) to test the configuration
8. Once the configuration is how you want it, add xbindkeys to the startup of KDE by running 'sudo cp /usr/bin/xbindkeys /home/matt/.kde/Autostart/' in terminal
9. Upon restart, the configuration should automatically take effect

Set lighting scenarios

• By default, lmce gives you Sleep, Wakeup, and House to sleep mode as the Lighting Scenarios
• These can be modified, deleted, and added to
• My scenario settings are described in detail in the configuration files section

1. Web Admin > Wizard > Scenarios > Lighting Scenarios
2. Click on the "Sleep" scenario
3. Choose the items you wish to turn on/off/leave unchanged/set level
4. Click Update

Configuration Files

/etc/init.d/linuxmce

• I don't know if the specific placement of this line really matters, but this worked for me

StartService "Setting SSH Keys" "/usr/pluto/bin/SSH_Keys.sh" "&"
StartService "Setting Coredump Location" "/usr/pluto/bin/corefile.sh"
StartService "Creating Firewire 2 Video4Linux Pipes" "/usr/pluto/bin/Firewire2Video4Linux.sh"
StartService "Configuring Pluto Storage Devices" "/usr/pluto/bin/StorageDevices_Setup.sh"
/etc/init.d/samba start
StartService "Detecting Timezone" "/usr/pluto/bin/Timezone_Detect.sh" "&"
StartService "Status Radar" "/usr/pluto/bin/StorageDevices_StatusRadar.sh"
StartService "Samba Radar" "/usr/pluto/bin/StorageDevices_SambaRadar.sh"
StartService "PVR-250 tuner restore" "/usr/pluto/bin/CaptureCards_BootConfig_PVR-250.sh"
StartService "KDE Desktop" "/usr/pluto/bin/Start_KDE.sh"
## Setup ALSA mixers
#amixer sset Capture 90%
#amixer sset 'Mic Boost (+20dB)' unmute
#alsactl store

/etc/network/interfaces

• (the eth0 configuration should be set according to the network the media center is connected to)

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
   address 192.168.200.42
   netmask 255.255.255.0
   gateway 192.168.200.1
auto eth0:1
iface eth0:1 inet static
   address 192.168.80.1
   netmask 255.255.255.0

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

• Options may very depending on your setup and mouse, this is the config for my setup
• The protocol ExplorerPS/2 seems to have the best luck, but auto may work as well

...
Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
    Option         "Buttons" "7"
    Option         "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 6 7"
EndSection
   ...

~/.xbindkeysrc

• b:# is the mouse button, modify according to the functions you want
• use 'xev' to determine the mouse button numbers
• use 'xbindkeys -k' to determine keyboard button codes (they are case-sensitive)

"xte 'keydown F7' &"
  b:2
"xte 'keyup F7' &"
  b:2+release
"xte 'keydown Prior' &"
  b:4
"xte 'keyup Prior' &"
  b:4+release
"xte 'keydown Next' &"
  b:5
"xte 'keyup Next' &"
  b:5+release
"xte 'keydown F6' &"
  b:6
"xte 'keyup F6' &"
  b:6+release
"xte 'keydown F8' &"
  b:7
"xte 'keyup F8' &"
  b:7+release